ripgrep

Modern CLI•

•Rust

Ultra-fast recursive grep alternative.

Official Website

Features

Ultra FastGitignore AwareUnicode SupportCompressed Files

Replaces

grep

Installation

Homebrew

brew install ripgrep

APT (Debian/Ubuntu)

apt install ripgrep

Pacman (Arch)

pacman -S ripgrep

Cargo (Rust)

cargo install ripgrep

Why Use ripgrep?

ripgrep (command name: rg) offers overwhelmingly faster speed than the traditional grep command and features optimized for modern development environments.

Overwhelming Speed

Optimized Rust code is 2-10x faster than GNU grep. Instant search even in large codebases.

.gitignore Auto-Recognition

Automatically recognizes .gitignore, .ignore, and .rgignore. Excludes node_modules and build artifacts, searching only needed files.

Full Unicode Support

Auto-detects character encodings like UTF-8 and UTF-16. Supports multilingual search including Japanese.

Compressed File Search

Search directly in compressed files (gz, bz2, xz, lz4) without extraction. Convenient for log analysis.

Basic Usage

Simple Search

Basic Commands

# Recursively search current directory and below
rg "search pattern"

# Search specific directory
rg "TODO" src/

# Display filenames only
rg -l "function"

# Case-insensitive search
rg -i "error"

Output Example

src/components/Button.tsx

15: const handleClick = () => {

23: onClick={handleClick}

src/hooks/useAuth.ts

8: export const handleClickEvent = () => {

42: handleClick is deprecated

File paths are purple, line numbers are green, and matched portions are highlighted.

Common Options

Option	Description	Example
`-i`	Case insensitive search	`rg -i "error"`
`-w`	Match whole words only	`rg -w "log"`
`-l`	Show only matching file names	`rg -l "TODO"`
`-c`	Count matches	`rg -c "console"`
`-n`	Show line numbers (default)	`rg -n "func"`
`-A / -B / -C`	Show context lines (After/Before/Context)	`rg -C 3 "error"`
`-t`	Specify file type	`rg -t py "import"`
`-g`	Specify files with glob pattern	`rg -g "*.ts" "type"`
`-v`	Show non-matching lines (invert)	`rg -v "debug"`
`--hidden`	Search hidden files	`rg --hidden "secret"`
`-z`	Search compressed files	`rg -z "error" logs/`
`-U`	Enable multiline matching	`rg -U "start.*end"`

Regex Patterns

Using Regular Expressions

Regular Expressions

# Number patterns
rg "\d{3}-\d{4}"  # Phone number format

# Email address pattern
rg "[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}"

# Start and end of line matching
rg "^import"       # Lines starting with import
rg ";$"           # Lines ending with semicolon

# OR conditions
rg "error|warning|fatal"

# Any character
rg "log.+message"  # One or more characters between log and message

Literal Search (Disable Regex)

Literal Search

# -F option disables regex
rg -F "array[0]"   # Search special characters literally
rg -F "**/*.ts"    # Search glob pattern literally
rg -F "$HOME"      # String containing variable symbol

Multiline Search

# -U option enables multiline matching
rg -U "function.*\{[\s\S]*?return" --multiline

# Search inside HTML tags
rg -U "<div class="error">[\s\S]*?</div>"

# Search multiline comment blocks
rg -U "/\*[\s\S]*?\*/"

Practical Examples

Code Search

# Search function definitions in TypeScript files
rg -t ts "function\s+\w+"

# Search Python class definitions
rg -t py "^class\s+\w+"

# Find files containing specific imports
rg -l "from react" --type ts

# Find console.log for removal candidates
rg "console\.log" src/

# Search TODO/FIXME comments
rg "(TODO|FIXME|HACK|XXX):" --type-add 'code:*.{js,ts,py,go,rs}'

Context Lines Display

Context Display

# Show 3 lines before and after match
rg -C 3 "error"

# Show 5 lines after match
rg -A 5 "function main"

# Show 2 lines before match
rg -B 2 "return"

# Show separator between files
rg --heading "pattern"

File Type Specification

File Types

# Check available file types
rg --type-list

# Search specific types only
rg -t js "async"        # JavaScript files
rg -t rust "fn main"    # Rust files
rg -t py "def "         # Python files
rg -t html "<script"    # HTML files

# Exclude specific types
rg -T js "config"       # Search non-JavaScript files

# Specify multiple types
rg -t ts -t js "import"

# Add custom type
rg --type-add 'web:*.{html,css,js}' -t web "class"

Replacement Feature

Replacement

# Replacement preview (no actual changes)
rg "oldFunction" -r "newFunction"

# Replacement with capture groups
rg "(\w+)_controller" -r "$1Controller"

# Actual replacement combined with sed
rg -l "oldName" | xargs sed -i 's/oldName/newName/g'

# Display file contents while confirming
rg "pattern" -r "replacement" --passthru

fzf Integration

Interactive Search

fzf Integration

# Filter ripgrep results with fzf
rg --line-number --no-heading . | fzf

# Select files with preview
rg -l "pattern" | fzf --preview 'bat --color=always {}'

# Open file from search results
rg -l "TODO" | fzf --preview 'rg --color=always "TODO" {}' | xargs -o vim

# Real-time search (no initial query)
: | fzf --bind 'change:reload:rg --line-number {q} || true' --ansi --disabled

Useful Function Definitions

~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc

# Interactive grep using fzf
rgf() {
  rg --color=always --line-number --no-heading "$@" |
    fzf --ansi \
        --delimiter : \
        --preview 'bat --color=always {1} --highlight-line {2}' \
        --preview-window 'up,60%,border-bottom,+{2}+3/3,~3' \
        --bind 'enter:become(vim {1} +{2})'
}

# Interactive search in current directory
rgi() {
  rg --color=always --line-number "" |
    fzf --ansi --query="$1" \
        --delimiter : \
        --preview 'bat --color=always {1} --highlight-line {2}'
}

Configuration and Customization

Configuration File

Specify a configuration file using ~/.ripgreprc or the environment variable RIPGREP_CONFIG_PATH.

~/.ripgreprc

# Smart case (case insensitive when pattern is all lowercase)
--smart-case

# Search hidden files
--hidden

# Always exclude certain directories
--glob=!.git/
--glob=!node_modules/
--glob=!vendor/
--glob=!dist/
--glob=!build/
--glob=!*.min.js

# Maximum column width setting
--max-columns=150

# Always enable color output
--color=auto

# Show line numbers
--line-number

# Display filename as header
--heading

# Set match highlight colors
--colors=line:fg:yellow
--colors=match:bg:yellow
--colors=match:fg:black

Environment Variable Setup

~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc

# Specify config file path
export RIPGREP_CONFIG_PATH="$HOME/.ripgreprc"

# Color customization
export RIPGREP_CONFIG_PATH="$HOME/.config/ripgrep/config"

Project-Specific Settings (.rgignore)

.rgignore

# Place in project root
# Same format as .gitignore

# Build artifacts
dist/
build/
out/

# Dependencies
node_modules/
vendor/

# Log files
*.log
logs/

# Temporary files
*.tmp
*.temp
.cache/

# Test coverage
coverage/

Shell Aliases

Alias Configuration

# ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc

# Replace grep with rg
alias grep='rg'

# Common option combinations
alias rgg='rg --hidden --glob "!.git"'  # Search hidden files (exclude .git)
alias rgf='rg --files-with-matches'      # File names only
alias rgc='rg --count'                   # Count only
alias rgi='rg --ignore-case'             # Case insensitive

# Search with context
alias rg3='rg -C 3'                      # Show 3 lines before/after
alias rg5='rg -C 5'                      # Show 5 lines before/after

Comparison with grep

Feature	grep	ripgrep
Search Speed	Standard	2-10x faster
Recursive Search	Requires `grep -r`	Recursive by default
.gitignore Support	-	Auto-detection
Unicode Support	Limited	Full support
Compressed File Search	Use `zgrep`	`-z` option
Color Output	Requires `--color`	Enabled by default
File Type Specification	`--include` pattern	Easy with `-t`
Multiline Match	Requires `-P` (PCRE)	Supported with `-U`
Replacement Preview	-	`-r` option
Portability	Standard on most systems	Requires separate installation

Benchmark Example (Linux Kernel Source Search)

GNU grep: ~5.2s

ripgrep: ~0.5s

* Results vary depending on environment and pattern

Tips

•Use rg --type-list to see all supported file types. Over 200 types are supported.
•Setting --smart-case enables smart mode: lowercase-only patterns are case insensitive, while patterns with uppercase characters are case sensitive.
•Use --no-ignore to ignore .gitignore, or --no-ignore-vcs to ignore only VCS-related ignore files.
•Vim users can replace the :grep command with rg for a better experience. Add set grepprg=rg\ --vimgrep to your .vimrc.
•The --json option outputs in JSON format, useful for integration with other tools.
•When searching large files, you can limit file size with --max-filesize 1M.
•Binary files are automatically skipped. Use the --binary option if you want to search them.

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Features

Installation

Why Use ripgrep?

Overwhelming Speed

.gitignore Auto-Recognition

Full Unicode Support

Compressed File Search

Basic Usage

Simple Search

Output Example

Common Options

Regex Patterns

Using Regular Expressions

Literal Search (Disable Regex)

Multiline Search

Practical Examples

Code Search

Context Lines Display

File Type Specification

Replacement Feature

fzf Integration

Interactive Search

Useful Function Definitions

Configuration and Customization

Configuration File

Environment Variable Setup

Project-Specific Settings (.rgignore)

Shell Aliases

Comparison with grep

Benchmark Example (Linux Kernel Source Search)

Tips

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