common ripgrep search commands

gistfile1.txt

● Here are the most useful rg patterns:                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                         
  Basic text search                                                                                                                                      
  rg "search term"                    # search current dir recursively
  rg -i "search term"                 # case insensitive                                                                                                 
  rg -w "word"                        # whole word match only                                                                                            
  rg "exact phrase here"              # phrase search        
                                                                                                                                                         
  File filtering                                                                                                                                         
  rg "term" -t py                     # only Python files                                                                                                
  rg "term" -t js -t ts              # multiple file types                                                                                               
  rg "term" -T html                   # exclude HTML files                                                                                               
  rg "term" -g "*.yml"               # custom glob filter                                                                                                
  rg "term" -g "!*.log"             # exclude glob pattern                                                                                               
                                                                                                                                                         
  Find files by name (like find)                                                                                                                         
  rg --files | rg "config"           # find files with "config" in name                                                                                  
  rg --files -g "*.toml"            # find all TOML files                                                                                                
  rg --files -g "Makefile"          # find specific filename                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                                         
  Context around matches                                                                                                                                 
  rg -C 3 "term"                     # 3 lines before & after                                                                                            
  rg -B 2 "term"                     # 2 lines before        
  rg -A 5 "term"                     # 5 lines after                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                                                         
  Useful flags
  rg -l "term"                        # list filenames only (no content)                                                                                 
  rg -c "term"                        # count matches per file          
  rg -n "term"                        # show line numbers (default)                                                                                      
  rg --hidden "term"                  # include dotfiles                                                                                                 
  rg -z "term"                        # search compressed files                                                                                          
  rg -m 1 "term"                     # first match per file only                                                                                         
                                                                
  Regex                                                                                                                                                  
  rg "func\w+\("                     # functions starting with "func"                                                                                    
  rg "TODO|FIXME|HACK"              # multiple patterns                                                                                                  
  rg "^\s*import"                    # lines starting with import                                                                                        
  rg "\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}"  # IP addresses        
                                                                                                                                                         
  Specific directories                                                                                                                                   
  rg "term" ~/ferrite/               # search specific path                                                                                              
  rg "term" src/ tests/              # multiple directories                                                                                              
  rg -g "!node_modules" "term"      # exclude a directory                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                         
  Pro tip: rg --type-list shows all built-in file types it recognizes.