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What are the best open source tools for searching source code?
11
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Considered
95
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Recs.
Mar 16, 2023
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11
Options
Considered
Best open source tools for searching source code
Price
License
Supported platforms
42
The Silver Searcher (Ag)
-
-
-
34
ripgrep (rg)
FREE
MIT/Unlicense
Windows, MacOS, Linux
--
Grep
-
-
-
--
IntelliJ IDEA
$499-649/YEAR
-
-
--
vimgrep
-
-
-
See Full List
42
The Silver Searcher (Ag)
My Rec
ommendation
for
The Silver Searcher (Ag)
My Recommendation for
The Silver Searcher (Ag)
All
7
Pros
5
Cons
2
Top
Pro
•••
Really fast
It is written in C. It is up to 10 times faster than ack.
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Top
Con
•••
You have to remember commonly used options and add them as flags everytime
You are not able to define options in a config file as there is none. (You have to use a shell alias or wrapper script to get your default options.)
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Top
Pro
•••
Simple syntax
Ack-compatible.
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Top
Con
•••
Cannot add custom file types
All file types ag is able to search for are baked into the executable. There is no way to add new ones neither via command line nor via (the not existing) config file. The only way is a pull request on github and waiting for a new release.
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Top
Pro
•••
Ignores files in .gitignore by default
It ignores file patterns from your .gitignore, .hgignore and .ignore. This can be a bit buggy though.
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Top
Pro
•••
Supports PCRE RegExp
Supports RegEx like look-ahead/behind (only fixed length lookbehind however).
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Top
Pro
•••
No need to manage another config file or learn a new config syntax
Everything is managed with command line args, meaning you can store commonly used options through .bashrc aliases, bash scripts, and/or autocompletion. There is no config file format to learn or extra dotfiles to manage.
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Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
25
1
34
ripgrep (rg)
My Rec
ommendation
for
ripgrep (rg)
My Recommendation for
ripgrep (rg)
All
11
Pros
8
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Fast
Written using Rust's regex library, using a DFA for regex evaluation, and SIMD for further speedup.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Doesn't handle extended regular expressions (backrefs, etc.)
Because it's not possible to evaluate those with a DFA. However, it's supported since ripgrep v0.10.0 (2018-09-07) https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#0100-2018-09-07
See More
Specs
License:
MIT/Unlicense
Supported platforms:
Windows, MacOS, Linux
Written in:
Rust
Threaded:
Yes
See All Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Fully supports `.gitignore` syntax
This is not a case in The Silver Searcher as there are some bugs related to this functionality.
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Top
Con
•••
No multiline search
However, it's supported since ripgrep v0.10.0 (2018-09-07) https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#0100-2018-09-07
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Top
Pro
•••
Lock-free parallel recursive directory search
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Top
Pro
•••
Memory safe binary (written in Rust)
Rust guarantees memory safety (no seg-fault bugs) and no data races-related bugs.
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Top
Pro
•••
Allow searching based on file type with possibility to add new filetypes
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Speedy even with Unicode (UTF-8) searches
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Top
Pro
•••
ripgrep lets you only search certain types of files via file type whitelist
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Top
Pro
•••
Supports VCS ignore files
ripgrep can speed up by ignoring files matched by pattern in ".rgignore" (deprecated), ".ignore" (since rg-v0.2.0), and VCS ignore files (e.g., currently only ".gitignore").
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Hide
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FREE
Recommend
25
--
Grep
My Rec
ommendation
for
Grep
My Recommendation for
Grep
All
9
Pros
6
Cons
3
Top
Pro
•••
Preinstalled on every Unix like system
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Top
Con
•••
Hard to filter by file type
Want to search for my_function in PHP files only? find . -name '*.php' -exec grep my_function '{}' ;
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Top
Pro
•••
Searches any text file
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Top
Con
•••
Multiple, not fully compatible, implementations
The most known 2 are: BSD and GNU implementations which slightly differ in their capabilities and performance.
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Top
Pro
•••
Reads from STDIN
You can search the output of any command just by piping into grep.
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Top
Con
•••
Uneven performance between implementations
GNU grep is 10x faster than Mac grep link.
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Top
Pro
•••
Searches multiple files
It is possible to instruct grep to search through multiple files specified on the command line or entire directory trees.
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Top
Pro
•••
Full PCRE regex support
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Fast
Searches through large collections of files well before the expected time.
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Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
11
3
--
IntelliJ IDEA
My Rec
ommendation
for
IntelliJ IDEA
My Recommendation for
IntelliJ IDEA
All
11
Pros
10
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Incredible searching capabilities
Find classes, find methods, find usages, find implementations, call hierarchies, etc.
See More
Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac
Top
Pro
•••
Available for Windows, Mac, Linux
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Top
Pro
•••
Free version available
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Top
Pro
•••
Built-in Git support
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Top
Pro
•••
Many convenient features
These simplify the daily work, e.g. copy/cut a whole line without the need to select it.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Stable and robust
IntelliJ IDEA hardly ever crashes or has any issues that plague other Java IDEs like file corruption or slowness.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Lots of plugins
Many plugins are available for almost any task a developer may need to cover. Plugins are developed by Jetbrains themselves or by 3rd parties through the SDK available for writing them.
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Top
Pro
•••
Intuitive and slick UI
IDEA has a clean, intuitive interface with some customization available (such as the Darcula theme).
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Support for many languages
IntelliJ supports many languages besides Java, some of these are: golang, Scala, Clojure, Groovy, Bash, etc.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Fast and smart contextual assistance
Uses a fast indexing technique to provide contextual hints (auto-completion, available object members, import suggestions). On-the-fly code analysis to detect errors and propose refactorization.
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Hide
See All
$499-649/YEAR
Recommend
3
1
--
vimgrep
My Rec
ommendation
for
vimgrep
My Recommendation for
vimgrep
All
3
Pros
2
Cons
1
Top
Pro
•••
Supports extented regular expressions
Using the \v string at the start of the pattern enables magic (extended regular expressions)
See More
Top
Con
•••
Slower than external grep solutions
External grep programs can be much faster
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Built in to Vim
You don't need to install any plugins to use vimgrep, it comes built in to vim.
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Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
3
--
sift
My Rec
ommendation
for
sift
My Recommendation for
sift
Hide
Get it
here
Recommend
3
--
Ack
My Rec
ommendation
for
Ack
My Recommendation for
Ack
All
3
Experiences
1
Pros
2
Top
Pro
•••
Easy to filter by file type
You can use --cc to search C files only, or --nohtml to exclude HTML, for example.
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CredibleWaygl's Experience
Actually quite slow for searching
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Top
Pro
•••
Ignores source control directories when searching
grep will search .svn or .git directories, which results in a cluttered search. Ignoring these directories on search by default makes for concise search commands.
See More
Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
5
1
--
Blink code search
My Rec
ommendation
for
Blink code search
My Recommendation for
Blink code search
All
5
Pros
4
Cons
1
Top
Pro
•••
Fuzzy suggestion
See More
Top
Con
•••
Need to build index in advance
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Free and open source
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Live grep
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Fast search
Search is fast after index is built
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Hide
See All
FREE
Recommend
5
--
fzf
My Rec
ommendation
for
fzf
My Recommendation for
fzf
All
1
Pros
1
Top
Pro
•••
Fast search, everywhere you need it
Adds fast search capability as a key-binding to your shell (e.g. ctrl-t) so you can add context-sensitive filenames as you type.
See More
Hide
Get it
here
Recommend
3
--
The Platinum Searcher (pt)
My Rec
ommendation
for
The Platinum Searcher (pt)
My Recommendation for
The Platinum Searcher (pt)
All
6
Pros
4
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
•••
Works with Atom
See More
Top
Con
•••
No package for standard Linux distribution
See More
Specs
License:
MIT
Supported platforms:
Linux, macOS, Windows
Top
Pro
•••
Fully configurable
Can define specific configuration in each directory using .ptconfig.toml.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Golang
Writing fully in Go.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Very fast
3–5× faster than ack. Slightly faster than ag.
See More
Hide
See All
FREE
Recommend
2
--
Nirw Search
My Rec
ommendation
for
Nirw Search
My Recommendation for
Nirw Search
All
8
Pros
6
Cons
2
Top
Pro
•••
Progress Output
By default, display the file being searched.
See More
Top
Con
•••
Single threaded
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Optional multi-line support
See More
Top
Con
•••
Unable to update search result as you type
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Color highlight matches
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Tab completion
The command-line for refining a search supports auto-completing based on the current output.
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Can refine the initial search
Initial search can be refined by typing in other terms (optionally exclude from results too).
See More
Top
Pro
•••
Optional regex or literal text searches
While regex is default, sometimes escaping is inconvenient, in these cases you can perform literal searches.
See More
Hide
See All
Get it
here
Recommend
3
1
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