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1 '\" t
2 .\" Title: git-grep
3 .\" Author: [FIXME: author] [see http://www.docbook.org/tdg5/en/html/author]
4 .\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.79.2 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
5 .\" Date: 2025-01-10
6 .\" Manual: Git Manual
7 .\" Source: Git 2.48.0
8 .\" Language: English
9 .\"
10 .TH "GIT\-GREP" "1" "2025-01-10" "Git 2\&.48\&.0" "Git Manual"
11 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
12 .\" * Define some portability stuff
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14 .\" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
15 .\" http://bugs.debian.org/507673
16 .\" http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/2009-02/msg00013.html
17 .\" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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19 .el .ds Aq '
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21 .\" * set default formatting
22 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
23 .\" disable hyphenation
24 .nh
25 .\" disable justification (adjust text to left margin only)
26 .ad l
27 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
28 .\" * MAIN CONTENT STARTS HERE *
29 .\" -----------------------------------------------------------------
30 .SH "NAME"
31 git-grep \- Print lines matching a pattern
32 .SH "SYNOPSIS"
33 .sp
34 .nf
35 \fIgit grep\fR [\-a | \-\-text] [\-I] [\-\-textconv] [\-i | \-\-ignore\-case] [\-w | \-\-word\-regexp]
36 [\-v | \-\-invert\-match] [\-h|\-H] [\-\-full\-name]
37 [\-E | \-\-extended\-regexp] [\-G | \-\-basic\-regexp]
38 [\-P | \-\-perl\-regexp]
39 [\-F | \-\-fixed\-strings] [\-n | \-\-line\-number] [\-\-column]
40 [\-l | \-\-files\-with\-matches] [\-L | \-\-files\-without\-match]
41 [(\-O | \-\-open\-files\-in\-pager) [<pager>]]
42 [\-z | \-\-null]
43 [ \-o | \-\-only\-matching ] [\-c | \-\-count] [\-\-all\-match] [\-q | \-\-quiet]
44 [\-\-max\-depth <depth>] [\-\-[no\-]recursive]
45 [\-\-color[=<when>] | \-\-no\-color]
46 [\-\-break] [\-\-heading] [\-p | \-\-show\-function]
47 [\-A <post\-context>] [\-B <pre\-context>] [\-C <context>]
48 [\-W | \-\-function\-context]
49 [(\-m | \-\-max\-count) <num>]
50 [\-\-threads <num>]
51 [\-f <file>] [\-e] <pattern>
52 [\-\-and|\-\-or|\-\-not|(|)|\-e <pattern>\&...\:]
53 [\-\-recurse\-submodules] [\-\-parent\-basename <basename>]
54 [ [\-\-[no\-]exclude\-standard] [\-\-cached | \-\-untracked | \-\-no\-index] | <tree>\&...\:]
55 [\-\-] [<pathspec>\&...\:]
56 .fi
57 .SH "DESCRIPTION"
58 .sp
59 Look for specified patterns in the tracked files in the work tree, blobs registered in the index file, or blobs in given tree objects\&. Patterns are lists of one or more search expressions separated by newline characters\&. An empty string as search expression matches all lines\&.
60 .SH "OPTIONS"
61 .PP
62 \-\-cached
63 .RS 4
64 Instead of searching tracked files in the working tree, search blobs registered in the index file\&.
65 .RE
66 .PP
67 \-\-untracked
68 .RS 4
69 In addition to searching in the tracked files in the working tree, search also in untracked files\&.
70 .RE
71 .PP
72 \-\-no\-index
73 .RS 4
74 Search files in the current directory that is not managed by Git, or by ignoring that the current directory is managed by Git\&. This is rather similar to running the regular
75 \fBgrep\fR(\fB1\fR) utility with its
76 \fB\-r\fR
77 option specified, but with some additional benefits, such as using pathspec patterns to limit paths; see the
78 \fIpathspec\fR
79 entry in
80 \fBgitglossary\fR(7)
81 for more information\&.
82 .sp
83 This option cannot be used together with
84 \fB\-\-cached\fR
85 or
86 \fB\-\-untracked\fR\&. See also
87 \fBgrep\&.fallbackToNoIndex\fR
88 in
89 \fICONFIGURATION\fR
90 below\&.
91 .RE
92 .PP
93 \-\-no\-exclude\-standard
94 .RS 4
95 Also search in ignored files by not honoring the \&.\fBgitignore\fR
96 mechanism\&. Only useful with
97 \fB\-\-untracked\fR\&.
98 .RE
99 .PP
100 \-\-exclude\-standard
101 .RS 4
102 Do not pay attention to ignored files specified via the \&.\fBgitignore\fR
103 mechanism\&. Only useful when searching files in the current directory with
104 \fB\-\-no\-index\fR\&.
105 .RE
106 .PP
107 \-\-recurse\-submodules
108 .RS 4
109 Recursively search in each submodule that is active and checked out in the repository\&. When used in combination with the
110 \fI<tree>\fR
111 option the prefix of all submodule output will be the name of the parent project\(cqs
112 \fI<tree>\fR
113 object\&. This option cannot be used together with
114 \fB\-\-untracked\fR, and it has no effect if
115 \fB\-\-no\-index\fR
116 is specified\&.
117 .RE
118 .PP
119 \-a, \-\-text
120 .RS 4
121 Process binary files as if they were text\&.
122 .RE
123 .PP
124 \-\-textconv
125 .RS 4
126 Honor textconv filter settings\&.
127 .RE
128 .PP
129 \-\-no\-textconv
130 .RS 4
131 Do not honor textconv filter settings\&. This is the default\&.
132 .RE
133 .PP
134 \-i, \-\-ignore\-case
135 .RS 4
136 Ignore case differences between the patterns and the files\&.
137 .RE
138 .PP
139 \-I
140 .RS 4
141 Don\(cqt match the pattern in binary files\&.
142 .RE
143 .PP
144 \-\-max\-depth <depth>
145 .RS 4
146 For each <pathspec> given on command line, descend at most <depth> levels of directories\&. A value of \-1 means no limit\&. This option is ignored if <pathspec> contains active wildcards\&. In other words if "a*" matches a directory named "a*", "*" is matched literally so \-\-max\-depth is still effective\&.
147 .RE
148 .PP
149 \-r, \-\-recursive
150 .RS 4
151 Same as
152 \fB\-\-max\-depth=\-1\fR; this is the default\&.
153 .RE
154 .PP
155 \-\-no\-recursive
156 .RS 4
157 Same as
158 \fB\-\-max\-depth=0\fR\&.
159 .RE
160 .PP
161 \-w, \-\-word\-regexp
162 .RS 4
163 Match the pattern only at word boundary (either begin at the beginning of a line, or preceded by a non\-word character; end at the end of a line or followed by a non\-word character)\&.
164 .RE
165 .PP
166 \-v, \-\-invert\-match
167 .RS 4
168 Select non\-matching lines\&.
169 .RE
170 .PP
171 \-h, \-H
172 .RS 4
173 By default, the command shows the filename for each match\&.
174 \fB\-h\fR
175 option is used to suppress this output\&.
176 \fB\-H\fR
177 is there for completeness and does not do anything except it overrides
178 \fB\-h\fR
179 given earlier on the command line\&.
180 .RE
181 .PP
182 \-\-full\-name
183 .RS 4
184 When run from a subdirectory, the command usually outputs paths relative to the current directory\&. This option forces paths to be output relative to the project top directory\&.
185 .RE
186 .PP
187 \-E, \-\-extended\-regexp, \-G, \-\-basic\-regexp
188 .RS 4
189 Use POSIX extended/basic regexp for patterns\&. Default is to use basic regexp\&.
190 .RE
191 .PP
192 \-P, \-\-perl\-regexp
193 .RS 4
194 Use Perl\-compatible regular expressions for patterns\&.
195 .sp
196 Support for these types of regular expressions is an optional compile\-time dependency\&. If Git wasn\(cqt compiled with support for them providing this option will cause it to die\&.
197 .RE
198 .PP
199 \-F, \-\-fixed\-strings
200 .RS 4
201 Use fixed strings for patterns (don\(cqt interpret pattern as a regex)\&.
202 .RE
203 .PP
204 \-n, \-\-line\-number
205 .RS 4
206 Prefix the line number to matching lines\&.
207 .RE
208 .PP
209 \-\-column
210 .RS 4
211 Prefix the 1\-indexed byte\-offset of the first match from the start of the matching line\&.
212 .RE
213 .PP
214 \-l, \-\-files\-with\-matches, \-\-name\-only, \-L, \-\-files\-without\-match
215 .RS 4
216 Instead of showing every matched line, show only the names of files that contain (or do not contain) matches\&. For better compatibility with
217 \fIgit diff\fR,
218 \fB\-\-name\-only\fR
219 is a synonym for
220 \fB\-\-files\-with\-matches\fR\&.
221 .RE
222 .PP
223 \-O[<pager>], \-\-open\-files\-in\-pager[=<pager>]
224 .RS 4
225 Open the matching files in the pager (not the output of
226 \fIgrep\fR)\&. If the pager happens to be "less" or "vi", and the user specified only one pattern, the first file is positioned at the first match automatically\&. The
227 \fBpager\fR
228 argument is optional; if specified, it must be stuck to the option without a space\&. If
229 \fBpager\fR
230 is unspecified, the default pager will be used (see
231 \fBcore\&.pager\fR
232 in
233 \fBgit-config\fR(1))\&.
234 .RE
235 .PP
236 \-z, \-\-null
237 .RS 4
238 Use \e0 as the delimiter for pathnames in the output, and print them verbatim\&. Without this option, pathnames with "unusual" characters are quoted as explained for the configuration variable
239 \fBcore\&.quotePath\fR
240 (see
241 \fBgit-config\fR(1))\&.
242 .RE
243 .PP
244 \-o, \-\-only\-matching
245 .RS 4
246 Print only the matched (non\-empty) parts of a matching line, with each such part on a separate output line\&.
247 .RE
248 .PP
249 \-c, \-\-count
250 .RS 4
251 Instead of showing every matched line, show the number of lines that match\&.
252 .RE
253 .PP
254 \-\-color[=<when>]
255 .RS 4
256 Show colored matches\&. The value must be always (the default), never, or auto\&.
257 .RE
258 .PP
259 \-\-no\-color
260 .RS 4
261 Turn off match highlighting, even when the configuration file gives the default to color output\&. Same as
262 \fB\-\-color=never\fR\&.
263 .RE
264 .PP
265 \-\-break
266 .RS 4
267 Print an empty line between matches from different files\&.
268 .RE
269 .PP
270 \-\-heading
271 .RS 4
272 Show the filename above the matches in that file instead of at the start of each shown line\&.
273 .RE
274 .PP
275 \-p, \-\-show\-function
276 .RS 4
277 Show the preceding line that contains the function name of the match, unless the matching line is a function name itself\&. The name is determined in the same way as
278 \fBgit\fR
279 \fBdiff\fR
280 works out patch hunk headers (see
281 \fIDefining a custom hunk\-header\fR
282 in
283 \fBgitattributes\fR(5))\&.
284 .RE
285 .PP
286 \-<num>, \-C <num>, \-\-context <num>
287 .RS 4
288 Show <num> leading and trailing lines, and place a line containing
289 \fB\-\-\fR
290 between contiguous groups of matches\&.
291 .RE
292 .PP
293 \-A <num>, \-\-after\-context <num>
294 .RS 4
295 Show <num> trailing lines, and place a line containing
296 \fB\-\-\fR
297 between contiguous groups of matches\&.
298 .RE
299 .PP
300 \-B <num>, \-\-before\-context <num>
301 .RS 4
302 Show <num> leading lines, and place a line containing
303 \fB\-\-\fR
304 between contiguous groups of matches\&.
305 .RE
306 .PP
307 \-W, \-\-function\-context
308 .RS 4
309 Show the surrounding text from the previous line containing a function name up to the one before the next function name, effectively showing the whole function in which the match was found\&. The function names are determined in the same way as
310 \fBgit\fR
311 \fBdiff\fR
312 works out patch hunk headers (see
313 \fIDefining a custom hunk\-header\fR
314 in
315 \fBgitattributes\fR(5))\&.
316 .RE
317 .PP
318 \-m <num>, \-\-max\-count <num>
319 .RS 4
320 Limit the amount of matches per file\&. When using the
321 \fB\-v\fR
322 or
323 \fB\-\-invert\-match\fR
324 option, the search stops after the specified number of non\-matches\&. A value of \-1 will return unlimited results (the default)\&. A value of 0 will exit immediately with a non\-zero status\&.
325 .RE
326 .PP
327 \-\-threads <num>
328 .RS 4
329 Number of
330 \fBgrep\fR
331 worker threads to use\&. See
332 \fINOTES ON THREADS\fR
333 and
334 \fBgrep\&.threads\fR
335 in
336 \fICONFIGURATION\fR
337 for more information\&.
338 .RE
339 .PP
340 \-f <file>
341 .RS 4
342 Read patterns from <file>, one per line\&.
343 .sp
344 Passing the pattern via <file> allows for providing a search pattern containing a \e0\&.
345 .sp
346 Not all pattern types support patterns containing \e0\&. Git will error out if a given pattern type can\(cqt support such a pattern\&. The
347 \fB\-\-perl\-regexp\fR
348 pattern type when compiled against the PCRE v2 backend has the widest support for these types of patterns\&.
349 .sp
350 In versions of Git before 2\&.23\&.0 patterns containing \e0 would be silently considered fixed\&. This was never documented, there were also odd and undocumented interactions between e\&.g\&. non\-ASCII patterns containing \e0 and
351 \fB\-\-ignore\-case\fR\&.
352 .sp
353 In future versions we may learn to support patterns containing \e0 for more search backends, until then we\(cqll die when the pattern type in question doesn\(cqt support them\&.
354 .RE
355 .PP
356 \-e
357 .RS 4
358 The next parameter is the pattern\&. This option has to be used for patterns starting with
359 \fB\-\fR
360 and should be used in scripts passing user input to grep\&. Multiple patterns are combined by
361 \fIor\fR\&.
362 .RE
363 .PP
364 \-\-and, \-\-or, \-\-not, ( \&...\: )
365 .RS 4
366 Specify how multiple patterns are combined using Boolean expressions\&.
367 \fB\-\-or\fR
368 is the default operator\&.
369 \fB\-\-and\fR
370 has higher precedence than
371 \fB\-\-or\fR\&.
372 \fB\-e\fR
373 has to be used for all patterns\&.
374 .RE
375 .PP
376 \-\-all\-match
377 .RS 4
378 When giving multiple pattern expressions combined with
379 \fB\-\-or\fR, this flag is specified to limit the match to files that have lines to match all of them\&.
380 .RE
381 .PP
382 \-q, \-\-quiet
383 .RS 4
384 Do not output matched lines; instead, exit with status 0 when there is a match and with non\-zero status when there isn\(cqt\&.
385 .RE
386 .PP
387 <tree>\&...\:
388 .RS 4
389 Instead of searching tracked files in the working tree, search blobs in the given trees\&.
390 .RE
391 .PP
392 \-\-
393 .RS 4
394 Signals the end of options; the rest of the parameters are <pathspec> limiters\&.
395 .RE
396 .PP
397 <pathspec>\&...\:
398 .RS 4
399 If given, limit the search to paths matching at least one pattern\&. Both leading paths match and glob(7) patterns are supported\&.
400 .sp
401 For more details about the <pathspec> syntax, see the
402 \fIpathspec\fR
403 entry in
404 \fBgitglossary\fR(7)\&.
405 .RE
406 .SH "EXAMPLES"
407 .PP
408 \fBgit\fR \fBgrep\fR \*(Aqtime_t\*(Aq \fB\-\-\fR \*(Aq*\&.[\fBch\fR]\*(Aq
409 .RS 4
410 Looks for
411 \fBtime_t\fR
412 in all tracked \&.c and \&.h files in the working directory and its subdirectories\&.
413 .RE
414 .PP
415 \fBgit\fR \fBgrep\fR \fB\-e\fR \*(Aq#define\*(Aq \fB\-\-and\fR \e( \fB\-e\fR \fBMAX_PATH\fR \fB\-e\fR \fBPATH_MAX\fR \e)
416 .RS 4
417 Looks for a line that has #define and either
418 \fBMAX_PATH\fR
419 or
420 \fBPATH_MAX\fR\&.
421 .RE
422 .PP
423 \fBgit\fR \fBgrep\fR \fB\-\-all\-match\fR \fB\-e\fR \fBNODE\fR \fB\-e\fR \fBUnexpected\fR
424 .RS 4
425 Looks for a line that has
426 \fBNODE\fR
427 or
428 \fBUnexpected\fR
429 in files that have lines that match both\&.
430 .RE
431 .PP
432 \fBgit\fR \fBgrep\fR \fBsolution\fR \fB\-\-\fR \fB:^Documentation\fR
433 .RS 4
434 Looks for
435 \fBsolution\fR, excluding files in
436 \fBDocumentation\fR\&.
437 .RE
438 .SH "NOTES ON THREADS"
439 .sp
440 The \fB\-\-threads\fR option (and the \fBgrep\&.threads\fR configuration) will be ignored when \fB\-\-open\-files\-in\-pager\fR is used, forcing a single\-threaded execution\&.
441 .sp
442 When grepping the object store (with \fB\-\-cached\fR or giving tree objects), running with multiple threads might perform slower than single\-threaded if \fB\-\-textconv\fR is given and there are too many text conversions\&. Thus, if low performance is experienced in this case, it might be desirable to use \fB\-\-threads=1\fR\&.
443 .SH "CONFIGURATION"
444 .sp
445 Everything below this line in this section is selectively included from the \fBgit-config\fR(1) documentation\&. The content is the same as what\(cqs found there:
446 .PP
447 grep\&.lineNumber
448 .RS 4
449 If set to true, enable
450 \fB\-n\fR
451 option by default\&.
452 .RE
453 .PP
454 grep\&.column
455 .RS 4
456 If set to true, enable the
457 \fB\-\-column\fR
458 option by default\&.
459 .RE
460 .PP
461 grep\&.patternType
462 .RS 4
463 Set the default matching behavior\&. Using a value of
464 \fIbasic\fR,
465 \fIextended\fR,
466 \fIfixed\fR, or
467 \fIperl\fR
468 will enable the
469 \fB\-\-basic\-regexp\fR,
470 \fB\-\-extended\-regexp\fR,
471 \fB\-\-fixed\-strings\fR, or
472 \fB\-\-perl\-regexp\fR
473 option accordingly, while the value
474 \fIdefault\fR
475 will use the
476 \fBgrep\&.extendedRegexp\fR
477 option to choose between
478 \fIbasic\fR
479 and
480 \fIextended\fR\&.
481 .RE
482 .PP
483 grep\&.extendedRegexp
484 .RS 4
485 If set to true, enable
486 \fB\-\-extended\-regexp\fR
487 option by default\&. This option is ignored when the
488 \fBgrep\&.patternType\fR
489 option is set to a value other than
490 \fIdefault\fR\&.
491 .RE
492 .PP
493 grep\&.threads
494 .RS 4
495 Number of grep worker threads to use\&. If unset (or set to 0), Git will use as many threads as the number of logical cores available\&.
496 .RE
497 .PP
498 grep\&.fullName
499 .RS 4
500 If set to true, enable
501 \fB\-\-full\-name\fR
502 option by default\&.
503 .RE
504 .PP
505 grep\&.fallbackToNoIndex
506 .RS 4
507 If set to true, fall back to
508 \fBgit\fR
509 \fBgrep\fR
510 \fB\-\-no\-index\fR
511 if
512 \fBgit\fR
513 \fBgrep\fR
514 is executed outside of a git repository\&. Defaults to false\&.
515 .RE
516 .SH "GIT"
517 .sp
518 Part of the \fBgit\fR(1) suite