6 git-grep - Print lines matching a pattern
12 'git grep' [-a | --text] [-I] [--textconv] [-i | --ignore-case] [-w | --word-regexp]
13 [-v | --invert-match] [-h|-H] [--full-name]
14 [-E | --extended-regexp] [-G | --basic-regexp]
16 [-F | --fixed-strings] [-n | --line-number] [--column]
17 [-l | --files-with-matches] [-L | --files-without-match]
18 [(-O | --open-files-in-pager) [<pager>]]
20 [ -o | --only-matching ] [-c | --count] [--all-match] [-q | --quiet]
21 [--max-depth <depth>] [--[no-]recursive]
22 [--color[=<when>] | --no-color]
23 [--break] [--heading] [-p | --show-function]
24 [-A <post-context>] [-B <pre-context>] [-C <context>]
25 [-W | --function-context]
27 [-f <file>] [-e] <pattern>
28 [--and|--or|--not|(|)|-e <pattern>...]
29 [--recurse-submodules] [--parent-basename <basename>]
30 [ [--[no-]exclude-standard] [--cached | --no-index | --untracked] | <tree>...]
35 Look for specified patterns in the tracked files in the work tree, blobs
36 registered in the index file, or blobs in given tree objects. Patterns
37 are lists of one or more search expressions separated by newline
38 characters. An empty string as search expression matches all lines.
45 If set to true, enable `-n` option by default.
48 If set to true, enable the `--column` option by default.
51 Set the default matching behavior. Using a value of 'basic', 'extended',
52 'fixed', or 'perl' will enable the `--basic-regexp`, `--extended-regexp`,
53 `--fixed-strings`, or `--perl-regexp` option accordingly, while the
54 value 'default' will return to the default matching behavior.
57 If set to true, enable `--extended-regexp` option by default. This
58 option is ignored when the `grep.patternType` option is set to a value
62 Number of grep worker threads to use. If unset (or set to 0), Git will
63 use as many threads as the number of logical cores available.
66 If set to true, enable `--full-name` option by default.
68 grep.fallbackToNoIndex::
69 If set to true, fall back to git grep --no-index if git grep
70 is executed outside of a git repository. Defaults to false.
76 Instead of searching tracked files in the working tree, search
77 blobs registered in the index file.
80 Search files in the current directory that is not managed by Git.
83 In addition to searching in the tracked files in the working
84 tree, search also in untracked files.
86 --no-exclude-standard::
87 Also search in ignored files by not honoring the `.gitignore`
88 mechanism. Only useful with `--untracked`.
91 Do not pay attention to ignored files specified via the `.gitignore`
92 mechanism. Only useful when searching files in the current directory
95 --recurse-submodules::
96 Recursively search in each submodule that is active and
97 checked out in the repository. When used in combination with the
98 <tree> option the prefix of all submodule output will be the name of
99 the parent project's <tree> object. This option has no effect
100 if `--no-index` is given.
104 Process binary files as if they were text.
107 Honor textconv filter settings.
110 Do not honor textconv filter settings.
115 Ignore case differences between the patterns and the
119 Don't match the pattern in binary files.
121 --max-depth <depth>::
122 For each <pathspec> given on command line, descend at most <depth>
123 levels of directories. A value of -1 means no limit.
124 This option is ignored if <pathspec> contains active wildcards.
125 In other words if "a*" matches a directory named "a*",
126 "*" is matched literally so --max-depth is still effective.
130 Same as `--max-depth=-1`; this is the default.
133 Same as `--max-depth=0`.
137 Match the pattern only at word boundary (either begin at the
138 beginning of a line, or preceded by a non-word character; end at
139 the end of a line or followed by a non-word character).
143 Select non-matching lines.
147 By default, the command shows the filename for each
148 match. `-h` option is used to suppress this output.
149 `-H` is there for completeness and does not do anything
150 except it overrides `-h` given earlier on the command
154 When run from a subdirectory, the command usually
155 outputs paths relative to the current directory. This
156 option forces paths to be output relative to the project
163 Use POSIX extended/basic regexp for patterns. Default
164 is to use basic regexp.
168 Use Perl-compatible regular expressions for patterns.
170 Support for these types of regular expressions is an optional
171 compile-time dependency. If Git wasn't compiled with support for them
172 providing this option will cause it to die.
176 Use fixed strings for patterns (don't interpret pattern
181 Prefix the line number to matching lines.
184 Prefix the 1-indexed byte-offset of the first match from the start of the
188 --files-with-matches::
191 --files-without-match::
192 Instead of showing every matched line, show only the
193 names of files that contain (or do not contain) matches.
194 For better compatibility with 'git diff', `--name-only` is a
195 synonym for `--files-with-matches`.
198 --open-files-in-pager[=<pager>]::
199 Open the matching files in the pager (not the output of 'grep').
200 If the pager happens to be "less" or "vi", and the user
201 specified only one pattern, the first file is positioned at
202 the first match automatically. The `pager` argument is
203 optional; if specified, it must be stuck to the option
204 without a space. If `pager` is unspecified, the default pager
205 will be used (see `core.pager` in linkgit:git-config[1]).
209 Use \0 as the delimiter for pathnames in the output, and print
210 them verbatim. Without this option, pathnames with "unusual"
211 characters are quoted as explained for the configuration
212 variable core.quotePath (see linkgit:git-config[1]).
216 Print only the matched (non-empty) parts of a matching line, with each such
217 part on a separate output line.
221 Instead of showing every matched line, show the number of
225 Show colored matches.
226 The value must be always (the default), never, or auto.
229 Turn off match highlighting, even when the configuration file
230 gives the default to color output.
231 Same as `--color=never`.
234 Print an empty line between matches from different files.
237 Show the filename above the matches in that file instead of
238 at the start of each shown line.
242 Show the preceding line that contains the function name of
243 the match, unless the matching line is a function name itself.
244 The name is determined in the same way as `git diff` works out
245 patch hunk headers (see 'Defining a custom hunk-header' in
246 linkgit:gitattributes[5]).
251 Show <num> leading and trailing lines, and place a line
252 containing `--` between contiguous groups of matches.
255 --after-context <num>::
256 Show <num> trailing lines, and place a line containing
257 `--` between contiguous groups of matches.
260 --before-context <num>::
261 Show <num> leading lines, and place a line containing
262 `--` between contiguous groups of matches.
266 Show the surrounding text from the previous line containing a
267 function name up to the one before the next function name,
268 effectively showing the whole function in which the match was
269 found. The function names are determined in the same way as
270 `git diff` works out patch hunk headers (see 'Defining a
271 custom hunk-header' in linkgit:gitattributes[5]).
274 Number of grep worker threads to use.
275 See `grep.threads` in 'CONFIGURATION' for more information.
278 Read patterns from <file>, one per line.
280 Passing the pattern via <file> allows for providing a search pattern
283 Not all pattern types support patterns containing \0. Git will error
284 out if a given pattern type can't support such a pattern. The
285 `--perl-regexp` pattern type when compiled against the PCRE v2 backend
286 has the widest support for these types of patterns.
288 In versions of Git before 2.23.0 patterns containing \0 would be
289 silently considered fixed. This was never documented, there were also
290 odd and undocumented interactions between e.g. non-ASCII patterns
291 containing \0 and `--ignore-case`.
293 In future versions we may learn to support patterns containing \0 for
294 more search backends, until then we'll die when the pattern type in
295 question doesn't support them.
298 The next parameter is the pattern. This option has to be
299 used for patterns starting with `-` and should be used in
300 scripts passing user input to grep. Multiple patterns are
307 Specify how multiple patterns are combined using Boolean
308 expressions. `--or` is the default operator. `--and` has
309 higher precedence than `--or`. `-e` has to be used for all
313 When giving multiple pattern expressions combined with `--or`,
314 this flag is specified to limit the match to files that
315 have lines to match all of them.
319 Do not output matched lines; instead, exit with status 0 when
320 there is a match and with non-zero status when there isn't.
323 Instead of searching tracked files in the working tree, search
324 blobs in the given trees.
327 Signals the end of options; the rest of the parameters
328 are <pathspec> limiters.
331 If given, limit the search to paths matching at least one pattern.
332 Both leading paths match and glob(7) patterns are supported.
334 For more details about the <pathspec> syntax, see the 'pathspec' entry
335 in linkgit:gitglossary[7].
340 `git grep 'time_t' -- '*.[ch]'`::
341 Looks for `time_t` in all tracked .c and .h files in the working
342 directory and its subdirectories.
344 `git grep -e '#define' --and \( -e MAX_PATH -e PATH_MAX \)`::
345 Looks for a line that has `#define` and either `MAX_PATH` or
348 `git grep --all-match -e NODE -e Unexpected`::
349 Looks for a line that has `NODE` or `Unexpected` in
350 files that have lines that match both.
352 `git grep solution -- :^Documentation`::
353 Looks for `solution`, excluding files in `Documentation`.
358 The `--threads` option (and the grep.threads configuration) will be ignored when
359 `--open-files-in-pager` is used, forcing a single-threaded execution.
361 When grepping the object store (with `--cached` or giving tree objects), running
362 with multiple threads might perform slower than single threaded if `--textconv`
363 is given and there're too many text conversions. So if you experience low
364 performance in this case, it might be desirable to use `--threads=1`.
368 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite