OPTIONS¶
--cached
Instead of searching tracked files in the working tree,
search blobs registered in the index file.
--no-index
Search files in the current directory that is not managed
by Git.
--untracked
In addition to searching in the tracked files in the
working tree, search also in untracked files.
--no-exclude-standard
Also search in ignored files by not honoring the
.gitignore mechanism. Only useful with --untracked.
--exclude-standard
Do not pay attention to ignored files specified via the
.gitignore mechanism. Only useful when searching files in the current
directory with --no-index.
-a, --text
Process binary files as if they were text.
-i, --ignore-case
Ignore case differences between the patterns and the
files.
-I
Don’t match the pattern in binary files.
--max-depth <depth>
For each <pathspec> given on command line, descend
at most <depth> levels of directories. A negative value means no limit.
This option is ignored if <pathspec> contains active wildcards. In other
words if "a*" matches a directory named "a*",
"*" is matched literally so --max-depth is still effective.
-w, --word-regexp
Match the pattern only at word boundary (either begin at
the beginning of a line, or preceded by a non-word character; end at the end
of a line or followed by a non-word character).
-v, --invert-match
Select non-matching lines.
-h, -H
By default, the command shows the filename for each
match. -h option is used to suppress this output. -H is there for completeness
and does not do anything except it overrides -h given earlier on the command
line.
--full-name
When run from a subdirectory, the command usually outputs
paths relative to the current directory. This option forces paths to be output
relative to the project top directory.
-E, --extended-regexp, -G, --basic-regexp
Use POSIX extended/basic regexp for patterns. Default is
to use basic regexp.
-P, --perl-regexp
Use Perl-compatible regexp for patterns. Requires libpcre
to be compiled in.
-F, --fixed-strings
Use fixed strings for patterns (don’t interpret
pattern as a regex).
-n, --line-number
Prefix the line number to matching lines.
-l, --files-with-matches, --name-only, -L,
--files-without-match
Instead of showing every matched line, show only the
names of files that contain (or do not contain) matches. For better
compatibility with git diff, --name-only is a synonym for
--files-with-matches.
-O [<pager>], --open-files-in-pager [<pager>]
Open the matching files in the pager (not the output of
grep). If the pager happens to be "less" or "vi",
and the user specified only one pattern, the first file is positioned at the
first match automatically.
-z, --null
Output \0 instead of the character that normally follows
a file name.
-c, --count
Instead of showing every matched line, show the number of
lines that match.
--color[=<when>]
Show colored matches. The value must be always (the
default), never, or auto.
--no-color
Turn off match highlighting, even when the configuration
file gives the default to color output. Same as --color=never.
--break
Print an empty line between matches from different
files.
--heading
Show the filename above the matches in that file instead
of at the start of each shown line.
-p, --show-function
Show the preceding line that contains the function name
of the match, unless the matching line is a function name itself. The name is
determined in the same way as
git diff works out patch hunk headers
(see
Defining a custom hunk-header in
gitattributes(5)).
-<num>, -C <num>, --context <num>
Show <num> leading and trailing lines, and place a
line containing -- between contiguous groups of matches.
-A <num>, --after-context <num>
Show <num> trailing lines, and place a line
containing -- between contiguous groups of matches.
-B <num>, --before-context <num>
Show <num> leading lines, and place a line
containing -- between contiguous groups of matches.
-W, --function-context
Show the surrounding text from the previous line
containing a function name up to the one before the next function name,
effectively showing the whole function in which the match was found.
-f <file>
Read patterns from <file>, one per line.
-e
The next parameter is the pattern. This option has to be
used for patterns starting with - and should be used in scripts passing user
input to grep. Multiple patterns are combined by or.
--and, --or, --not, ( ... )
Specify how multiple patterns are combined using Boolean
expressions. --or is the default operator. --and has higher precedence than
--or. -e has to be used for all patterns.
--all-match
When giving multiple pattern expressions combined with
--or, this flag is specified to limit the match to files that have lines to
match all of them.
-q, --quiet
Do not output matched lines; instead, exit with status 0
when there is a match and with non-zero status when there isn’t.
<tree>...
Instead of searching tracked files in the working tree,
search blobs in the given trees.
--
Signals the end of options; the rest of the parameters
are <pathspec> limiters.
<pathspec>...
If given, limit the search to paths matching at least one
pattern. Both leading paths match and
glob(7) patterns are supported.