ripgrep (rg)

ripgrep is a line-oriented search tool that recursively searches the current directory for a regex pattern. By default, it respects gitignore rules, skips hidden files/directories, and skips binary files, making it extremely fast compared to standard grep.

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1. Quick Comparison with grep

Feature	grep	ripgrep (rg)
Speed	Moderate	✅ Extremely fast (written in Rust)
Recursive by Default	❌ No (requires -r or -R)	✅ Yes (searches current directory recursively)
Respects .gitignore	❌ No	✅ Yes (automatically skips ignored files)
Skips Hidden/Binary	❌ No (searches everything)	✅ Yes (by default, skips hidden and binary files)
Color Output	Option-dependent	✅ Yes (rich colored output by default)

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2. Basic Search Commands

Search patterns in files, directories, or stdin.

# Search for a pattern in all text files recursively (default)
rg "pattern"

# Search for a pattern in a specific file
rg "pattern" path/to/file.txt

# Search in a specific directory
rg "pattern" path/to/directory/

# Pipe content into ripgrep
cat logs.txt | rg "ERROR"

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3. Matching and RegEx Options

Fine-tune how patterns are matched.

Option	Long Option	Description
-i	--ignore-case	Perform case-insensitive search.
-S	--smart-case	Case-insensitive if pattern is all lowercase, case-sensitive otherwise.
-w	--word-regexp	Match whole words only.
-v	--invert-match	Invert match (show lines that do not match).
-F	--fixed-strings	Treat the pattern as a literal string (disable regex).
-x	--line-regexp	Match pattern only if it matches the entire line.
-U	--multiline	Permit matches spanning across multiple lines.

# Smart case match (matches "Error" or "error", but "Error" matches only "Error")
rg -S "error"

# Match exactly "foo" as a whole word (e.g. will not match "foobar")
rg -w "foo"

# Literal search for strings containing special regex characters (like dots or brackets)
rg -F "user.info[0]"

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4. File and Directory Filtering

Control which files are included or excluded in the search scope.

Action	Option	Description
Search Hidden Files	--hidden	Search hidden files and directories (like .env).
Ignore Gitignore	--no-ignore	Do not respect .gitignore rules.
Search Everything	-u / -uu / -uuu	-u (no gitignore), -uu (hidden + no gitignore), -uuu (binary + hidden + no gitignore).
Glob Include/Exclude	-g "<glob>"	Include/exclude files matching glob pattern (prefix with ! to exclude).
Filter by File Type	-t <type>	Limit search to specific file types (e.g. rust, js, py).
Exclude File Type	-T <type>	Exclude specific file types from the search.

# Search inside hidden files (excluding .git)
rg --hidden "api_key"

# Search only inside JavaScript and TypeScript files
rg -t js -t ts "const config"

# Search everything except python files
rg -T py "import"

# Search files while excluding any node_modules directory
rg "react" -g "!**/node_modules/*"

NOTE

Run rg --type-list to see a full list of supported file type aliases (e.g., web, py, cpp).

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5. Output Customization

Modify how matching lines are formatted and displayed.

Option	Long Option	Description
-l	--files-with-matches	Print only the filenames of matching files (not the lines).
-o	--only-matching	Print only the matched text, not the whole line.
-c	--count	Show a count of matching lines for each file.
-n	--line-number	Show line numbers (enabled by default when outputting to terminal).
-N	--no-line-number	Suppress line numbers in output.
-A <N>	--after-context=<N>	Show <N> lines of context after the match.
-B <N>	--before-context=<N>	Show <N> lines of context before the match.
-C <N>	--context=<N>	Show <N> lines of context before and after the match.
	--replace="<str>"	Replace matched text with <str> in the output.

# Find only filenames containing a pattern
rg -l "todo"

# Print match with 2 lines of before-and-after context
rg -C 2 "database connection failed"

# List files that ripgrep would search, without actually searching them
rg --files

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6. Configuration File

You can set default flags for ripgrep by pointing to a configuration file using the RIPGREP_CONFIG_PATH environment variable.

1. Create a config file (~/.ripgreprc)

# Search hidden files/directories by default
--hidden

# Use smart-case by default
--smart-case

# Exclude .git directories from search
--glob=!.git/*

# Limit long line prints and show previews
--max-columns=150
--max-columns-preview

2. Export the environment variable

Add this line to your .bashrc or .zshrc:

export RIPGREP_CONFIG_PATH="$HOME/.ripgreprc"

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7. Useful Command Combinations

1. Count occurrences of a word globally

rg --stats "TODO"

2. Find and Replace (via sed)

Combine rg -l with xargs and sed to search and replace text across files:

rg -l "old_endpoint" | xargs sed -i 's/old_endpoint/new_endpoint/g'

3. Search and format output as JSON

Useful for parsing matches in scripts:

rg "pattern" --json