ag

Search code fast like ack but faster

TLDR

Search for a pattern recursively

$ ag [pattern]

Search in specific file types

$ ag --python [pattern]

Search with case insensitivity

$ ag -i [pattern]

Show only file names containing matches

$ ag -l [pattern]

Search for literal string (no regex)

$ ag -Q "[literal string]"

Search with context lines

$ ag -C [3] [pattern]

ag (The Silver Searcher) is a code-searching tool similar to ack but faster. It searches through source code recursively, automatically ignoring files listed in .gitignore and .hgignore, and skipping hidden files and binary files.The tool is optimized for speed, using multiple threads and memory-mapped I/O. It supports Perl-compatible regular expressions and provides colored output with context lines.

PARAMETERS

-i, --ignore-case

Case insensitive search

-s, --case-sensitive

Case sensitive search

-v, --invert-match

Invert the match

-w, --word-regexp

Match whole words only

-l, --files-with-matches

Print only file names with matches

-L, --files-without-matches

Print file names without matches

-c, --count

Print count of matches per file

-C n, --context=n

Print n lines of context

-A n, --after=n

Print n lines after match

-B n, --before=n

Print n lines before match

-Q, --literal

Treat pattern as literal string

--python, --js, --html, etc.

Search only specific file types

-g pattern

Search file names matching pattern

--hidden

Search hidden files

-u, --unrestricted

Search all files (ignore .gitignore)

-z, --search-zip

Search inside compressed files

CONFIGURATION

~/.agignore

Global file patterns to ignore during searches.

.agignore

Per-project file patterns to ignore, similar to .gitignore syntax.

INSTALL

sudo apt install silversearcher-ag

sudo dnf install the_silver_searcher

sudo pacman -S the_silver_searcher

sudo apk add the_silver_searcher

brew install the_silver_searcher

CAVEATS

Not as fast as ripgrep on very large codebases. Some regex features may differ from grep. File type detection is based on extensions, not content.

HISTORY

ag was created by Geoff Greer and first released in 2011. It was designed as a faster alternative to ack, achieving significant speed improvements through parallelization and smarter file filtering. It inspired later tools like ripgrep.

ag