ack = a better grep "ignores most of the crap you don't want to search"
If you've ever use grep to search a svn directory you'll know the issues re .svn folders, easiest solution is to use ack from http://betterthangrep.com/
Why:
- refer point 5 below "ack ignores most of the crap you don't want to search"
How to install:
- "curl http://betterthangrep.com/ack-standalone > ~/bin/ack && chmod 0755 !#:3"
Top reasons to use ack instead of grep.
- It's blazingly fast because it only searches the stuff you want searched.
- ack is pure Perl, so it runs on Windows just fine.
- The standalone version uses no non-standard modules, so you can put it in your ~/bin without fear.
- Searches recursively through directories by default, while ignoring .svn, CVS and other VCS directories.
- Which would you rather type?
- $ grep pattern $(find . -type f | grep -v '\.svn')
- $ ack pattern
- ack ignores most of the crap you don't want to search
- VCS directories
- blib, the Perl build directory
- backup files like foo~ and #foo#
- binary files, core dumps, etc
- Ignoring .svn directories means that ack is faster than grep for searching through trees
- Lets you specify file types to search, as in --perl or --nohtml
- Which would you rather type?
- $ grep pattern $(find . -name '*.pl' -or -name '*.pm' -or -name '*.pod' | grep -v .svn)
- $ ack --perl pattern
- Note that ack's --perl also checks the shebang lines of files without suffixes, which the find command will not
- File-filtering capabilities usable without searching with ack -f. This lets you create lists of files of a given type
- $ ack -f --perl > all-perl-files
- Color highlighting of search results
enjoy
