NAME

git-grep - Print lines matching a pattern

SYNOPSIS

git grep [-a | --text] [-I] [--textconv] [-i | --ignore-case] [-w | --word-regexp]
       [-v | --invert-match] [-h|-H] [--full-name]
       [-E | --extended-regexp] [-G | --basic-regexp]
       [-P | --perl-regexp]
       [-F | --fixed-strings] [-n | --line-number] [--column]
       [-l | --files-with-matches] [-L | --files-without-match]
       [(-O | --open-files-in-pager) [<pager>]]
       [-z | --null]
       [ -o | --only-matching ] [-c | --count] [--all-match] [-q | --quiet]
       [--max-depth <depth>] [--[no-]recursive]
       [--color[=<when>] | --no-color]
       [--break] [--heading] [-p | --show-function]
       [-A <post-context>] [-B <pre-context>] [-C <context>]
       [-W | --function-context]
       [--threads <num>]
       [-f <file>] [-e] <pattern>
       [--and|--or|--not|(|)|-e <pattern>…​]
       [--recurse-submodules] [--parent-basename <basename>]
       [ [--[no-]exclude-standard] [--cached | --no-index | --untracked] | <tree>…​]
       [--] [<pathspec>…​]

DESCRIPTION

Look for specified patterns in the tracked files in the work tree, blobsregistered in the index file, or blobs in given tree objects. Patternsare lists of one or more search expressions separated by newlinecharacters. An empty string as search expression matches all lines.

CONFIGURATION

• grep.lineNumber

• If set to true, enable -n option by default.

• grep.column

• If set to true, enable the —column option by default.

• grep.patternType

• Set the default matching behavior. Using a value of basic, extended,fixed, or perl will enable the —basic-regexp, —extended-regexp,—fixed-strings, or —perl-regexp option accordingly, while thevalue default will return to the default matching behavior.

• grep.extendedRegexp

• If set to true, enable —extended-regexp option by default. Thisoption is ignored when the grep.patternType option is set to a valueother than default.

• grep.threads

• Number of grep worker threads to use. If unset (or set to 0),8 threads are used by default (for now).

• grep.fullName

• If set to true, enable —full-name option by default.

• grep.fallbackToNoIndex

• If set to true, fall back to git grep —no-index if git grepis executed outside of a git repository. Defaults to false.

OPTIONS

• —cached

• Instead of searching tracked files in the working tree, searchblobs registered in the index file.

• —no-index

• Search files in the current directory that is not managed by Git.

• —untracked

• In addition to searching in the tracked files in the workingtree, search also in untracked files.

• —no-exclude-standard

• Also search in ignored files by not honoring the .gitignoremechanism. Only useful with —untracked.

• —exclude-standard

• Do not pay attention to ignored files specified via the .gitignoremechanism. Only useful when searching files in the current directorywith —no-index.

• —recurse-submodules

• Recursively search in each submodule that has been initialized andchecked out in the repository. When used in combination with the option the prefix of all submodule output will be the name ofthe parent project’s object.

• -a

• —text

• Process binary files as if they were text.

• —textconv

• Honor textconv filter settings.

• —no-textconv

• Do not honor textconv filter settings.This is the default.

• -i

• —ignore-case

• Ignore case differences between the patterns and thefiles.

• -I

• Don’t match the pattern in binary files.

• —max-depth

• For each given on command line, descend at most levels of directories. A value of -1 means no limit.This option is ignored if contains active wildcards.In other words if "a" matches a directory named "a","*" is matched literally so —max-depth is still effective.

• -r

• —recursive

• Same as —max-depth=-1; this is the default.

• —no-recursive

• Same as —max-depth=0.

• -w

• —word-regexp

• Match the pattern only at word boundary (either begin at thebeginning of a line, or preceded by a non-word character; end atthe end of a line or followed by a non-word character).

• -v

• —invert-match

• Select non-matching lines.

• -h

• -H

• By default, the command shows the filename for eachmatch. -h option is used to suppress this output.-H is there for completeness and does not do anythingexcept it overrides -h given earlier on the commandline.

• —full-name

• When run from a subdirectory, the command usuallyoutputs paths relative to the current directory. Thisoption forces paths to be output relative to the projecttop directory.

• -E

• —extended-regexp
• -G
• —basic-regexp

• Use POSIX extended/basic regexp for patterns. Defaultis to use basic regexp.

• -P

• —perl-regexp
• Use Perl-compatible regular expressions for patterns.

Support for these types of regular expressions is an optionalcompile-time dependency. If Git wasn’t compiled with support for themproviding this option will cause it to die.

• -F
• —fixed-strings

• Use fixed strings for patterns (don’t interpret patternas a regex).

• -n

• —line-number

• Prefix the line number to matching lines.

• —column

• Prefix the 1-indexed byte-offset of the first match from the start of thematching line.

• -l

• —files-with-matches
• —name-only
• -L
• —files-without-match

• Instead of showing every matched line, show only thenames of files that contain (or do not contain) matches.For better compatibility with git diff, —name-only is asynonym for —files-with-matches.

• -O[]

• —open-files-in-pager[=]

• Open the matching files in the pager (not the output of grep).If the pager happens to be "less" or "vi", and the userspecified only one pattern, the first file is positioned atthe first match automatically. The pager argument isoptional; if specified, it must be stuck to the optionwithout a space. If pager is unspecified, the default pagerwill be used (see core.pager in git-config[1]).

• -z

• —null

• Output \0 instead of the character that normally follows afile name.

• -o

• —only-matching

• Print only the matched (non-empty) parts of a matching line, with each suchpart on a separate output line.

• -c

• —count

• Instead of showing every matched line, show the number oflines that match.

• —color[=]

• Show colored matches.The value must be always (the default), never, or auto.

• —no-color

• Turn off match highlighting, even when the configuration filegives the default to color output.Same as —color=never.

• —break

• Print an empty line between matches from different files.

• —heading

• Show the filename above the matches in that file instead ofat the start of each shown line.

• -p

• —show-function

• Show the preceding line that contains the function name ofthe match, unless the matching line is a function name itself.The name is determined in the same way as git diff works outpatch hunk headers (see Defining a custom hunk-header ingitattributes[5]).

• -

• -C
• —context

• Show leading and trailing lines, and place a linecontaining — between contiguous groups of matches.

• -A

• —after-context

• Show trailing lines, and place a line containing— between contiguous groups of matches.

• -B

• —before-context

• Show leading lines, and place a line containing— between contiguous groups of matches.

• -W

• —function-context

• Show the surrounding text from the previous line containing afunction name up to the one before the next function name,effectively showing the whole function in which the match wasfound.

• —threads

• Number of grep worker threads to use.See grep.threads in CONFIGURATION for more information.

• -f

• Read patterns from , one per line.

• -e

• The next parameter is the pattern. This option has to beused for patterns starting with - and should be used inscripts passing user input to grep. Multiple patterns arecombined by or.

• —and

• —or
• —not
• ( …​ )

• Specify how multiple patterns are combined using Booleanexpressions. —or is the default operator. —and hashigher precedence than —or. -e has to be used for allpatterns.

• —all-match

• When giving multiple pattern expressions combined with —or,this flag is specified to limit the match to files thathave lines to match all of them.

• -q

• —quiet

• Do not output matched lines; instead, exit with status 0 whenthere is a match and with non-zero status when there isn’t.

• …​

• Instead of searching tracked files in the working tree, searchblobs in the given trees.

• —

• Signals the end of options; the rest of the parametersare limiters.

• …​

• If given, limit the search to paths matching at least one pattern.Both leading paths match and glob(7) patterns are supported.

For more details about the syntax, see the pathspec entryin gitglossary[7].

EXAMPLES

• git grep 'time_t' — '*.[ch]'

• Looks for time_t in all tracked .c and .h files in the workingdirectory and its subdirectories.

• git grep -e '#define' —and ( -e MAX_PATH -e PATH_MAX )

• Looks for a line that has #define and either MAX_PATH orPATH_MAX.

• git grep —all-match -e NODE -e Unexpected

• Looks for a line that has NODE or Unexpected infiles that have lines that match both.

• git grep solution — :^Documentation

• Looks for solution, excluding files in Documentation.

GIT

Part of the git[1] suite