NAME

       ag - The Silver Searcher. Like ack, but faster.

SYNOPSIS

       ag [file-type] [options] PATTERN [PATH]

DESCRIPTION

       Recursively search for PATTERN in PATH. Like grep or ack, but faster.

OPTIONS

       --ackmate
              Output results in a format parseable by AckMate https://github.com/protocool/AckMate.

       -a --all-types
              Search all files. This doesn´t include hidden files, and doesn´t respect any ignore files.

       -A --after [LINES]
              Print lines after match. Defaults to 2.

       -B --before [LINES]
              Print lines before match. Defaults to 2.

       --[no]break
              Print a newline between matches in different files. Enabled by default.

       -c --count
              Only print the number of matches in each file. Note: This is the number of matches, not the number
              of matching lines. Pipe output to wc -l if you want the number of matching lines.

       --[no]color
              Print color codes in results. Enabled by default.

       --color-line-number
              Color codes for line numbers. Defaults to 1;33.

       --color-match
              Color codes for result match numbers. Defaults to 30;43.

       --color-path
              Color codes for path names. Defaults to 1;32.

       --column
              Print column numbers in results.

       -C --context [LINES]
              Print lines before and after matches. Defaults to 2.

       -D --debug
              Output ridiculous amounts of debugging info. Probably not useful.

       --depth NUM
              Search up to NUM directories deep, -1 for unlimited. Default is 25.

       --[no]filename
              Print file names. Enabled by default, except when searching a single file.

       -f --follow
              Follow symlinks.

       -F --fixed-strings
              Alias for --literal for compatibility with grep.

       --[no]group
              The  default, --group, lumps multiple matches in the same file together, and presents them under a
              single occurrence of the filename. --nogroup refrains from this, and instead places  the  filename
              at the start of each match line.

       -g PATTERN
              Print filenames matching PATTERN.

       -G --file-search-regex PATTERN
              Only search files whose names match PATTERN.

       -H --[no]heading
              Print filenames above matching contents.

       --hidden
              Search hidden files. This option obeys ignored files.

       --ignore PATTERN
              Ignore files/directories whose names match this pattern. Literal file and directory names are also
              allowed.

       --ignore-dir NAME
              Alias for --ignore for compatibility with ack.

       -i --ignore-case
              Match case-insensitively.

       -l --files-with-matches
              Only  print  the  names  of  files containing matches, not the matching lines. An empty query will
              print all files that would be searched.

       -L --files-without-matches
              Only print the names of files that don´t contain matches.

       --list-file-types
              See FILE TYPES below.

       -m --max-count NUM
              Skip the rest of a file after NUM matches. Default is 0, which never skips.

       --[no]numbers
              Print line numbers. Default is to omit line numbers when searching streams.

       -o --only-matching
              Print only the matching part of the lines.

       -p --path-to-agignore STRING
              Provide a path to a specific .agignore file.

       --pager COMMAND
              Use a pager such as less. Use --nopager to override. This option is  also  ignored  if  output  is
              piped to another program.

       --print-long-lines
              Print matches on very long lines (> 2k characters by default).

       --passthrough
              When searching a stream, print all lines even if they don´t match.

       -Q --literal
              Do not parse PATTERN as a regular expression. Try to match it literally.

       -s --case-sensitive
              Match case-sensitively.

       -S --smart-case
              Match  case-sensitively  if  there  are  any  uppercase  letters  in  PATTERN,  case-insensitively
              otherwise. Enabled by default.

       --search-binary
              Search binary files for matches.

       --silent
              Suppress all log messages, including errors.

       --stats
              Print stats (files scanned, time taken, etc).

       -t --all-text
              Search all text files. This doesn´t include hidden files.

       -u --unrestricted
              Search all files. This ignores .agignore, .gitignore, etc. It searches binary and hidden files  as
              well.

       -U --skip-vcs-ignores
              Ignore VCS ignore files (.gitignore, .hgignore, svn:ignore), but still use .agignore.

       -v --invert-match
              Match every line not containing the specified pattern.

       --vimgrep
              Output results like vim´s :vimgrep /pattern/g would (it reports every match on the line).
              Here´s a ~/.vimrc configuration example:

              set grepprg=ag\ --vimgrep\ $*
              set grepformat=%f:%l:%c:%m

              Then use :grep to grep for something.
              Then use :copen, :cn, :cp, etc. to navigate through the matches.

       -w --word-regexp
              Only match whole words.

       -z --search-zip
              Search contents of compressed files.

       -0 --null --print0
              Separate  the  filenames  with  \0,  rather  than  \n: this allows xargs -0 <command> to correctly
              process filenames containing spaces or newlines.

FILE TYPES

       It is possible to restrict the types of files searched. For example, passing  --html  as  the  file-types
       parameter  will  search only files with the extensions htm, html, shtml or xhtml. For a list of supported
       file-types run ag --list-file-types.

IGNORING FILES

       By default, ag will ignore files whose names match patterns in .gitignore, .hgignore, or .agignore. These
       files can be anywhere in the directories being searched. Ag also ignores files matched by the  svn:ignore
       property  if  svn  --version  is  1.6 or older. Finally, ag looks in $HOME/.agignore for ignore patterns.
       Binary files are ignored by default as well.

       If you want to ignore .gitignore, .hgignore, and svn:ignore, but still take .agignore into  account,  use
       -U.

       Use  the  -t  option  to  search  all text files; -a to search all files; and -u to search all, including
       hidden files.

EXAMPLES

       ag printf: Find matches for "printf" in the current directory.

       ag foo /bar/: Find matches for "foo" in path /bar/.

SEE ALSO

       grep(1)

                                                  February 2015                                            AG(1)