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ggreer/the_silver_searcher

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A code-searching tool similar to ack, but faster.

128 mentions on Hacker News by 103 people: 10 stories, 118 comments · first 2012-04-02 · latest 2025-03-11

Mentions per year 128 mentions · busiest year 2016 (25)
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  1. …as `ag` [1] is not mentioned in benchmarks, which is also implemented in C. I wonder why... [1] https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by stefanos82 · 2025-03-11 · in Show HN: Krep a High-Performance String Search Utility Written in C
  2. Why guess when there are installation instructions for various platforms on the README at https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher#installing ? Also, although it may not be easy to remember, is this really a problem in practice given…
    comment by joe-user · 2023-09-05 · in Rust crate rg typosquatting/redirect to ripgrep
  3. …over entirely within about five minutes. Modern sed: https://github.com/chmln/sd Modern grep: https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep
    comment by petepete · 2022-11-07 · in Being Ridiculed for My Open Source Project (2013)
  4. What about the Silver Searcher? It's even faster than ack https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by outworlder · 2022-04-15 · in Moreutils: A collection of Unix tools that nobody thought to write long ago
  5. I almost always fall back on ag ( https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher ). Honourable mentions to cscope and ctags. They work for me since most of my $dayjob involves me mucking around with C++. All tools get invoked from within…
    comment by mangamadaiyan · 2022-03-27 · in Ask HN: How do you search large codebases before adding a feature or fixing bug?
  6. For source code specifically: ggreer's silver searcher: https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by sdrinf · 2022-02-05 · in Fast File Finder for Windows is a tool for quickly finding files by name
  7. …multi repo setups for code, it should be great for multiple text documents: AG: The Silver Searcher https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by rightisleft · 2022-01-29 · in Ask HN: Grep like tools for full text search?
  8. I'm not who you replied to but I use ag and it's pretty fast (faster than grep I think) https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by yellow_lead · 2021-12-16 · in A brief history of code search at GitHub
  9. …speed. Add the -l flag to list only filenames and you’ve got an amazing code location tool. [1] https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by incanus77 · 2021-11-23 · in An intro to finding things in Linux
  10. When I looked ag https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher was more featureful than ripgrep yet it's always ripgrep that is mentioned. :/
    comment by chx · 2021-11-10 · in Hop: Faster than unzip and tar at reading individual files
  11. Probably The Silver Surfer. The CLI is `ag`. Often used as a replacement for `grep`. https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher https://geoff.greer.fm/ag/
    comment by datashaman · 2021-06-09 · in Ppl: The command line address book
  12. …like these: https://archive.codeplex.com/?p=codeidx https://github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by kevin_thibedeau · 2020-12-17 · in Changes to Code Search Indexing
  13. > rg Never going to happen because it's written in rust. ag ( https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher ) on the other hand is written in C.
    comment by beojan · 2020-08-22 · in Moreutils – Unix tools that nobody thought to write (2012)
  14. …tldr, a better "man" My dotfiles and new box setup: https://github.com/pavopax/dotfiles CLI tools: https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher https://github.com/sharkdp/fd/ https://github.com/tldr-pages/tldr EDIT: formatting
    comment by antipaul · 2020-06-09 · in Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?
  15. …simple, but also very effective tools. Search: in the form of things like "the silver searcher" ( https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher ) or "fd" ( https://github.com/sharkdp/fd ). And, Replace: with tools like sed (…
    comment by catears · 2020-06-09 · in Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?
  16. `ag -g 'some-piece-of-the-name-that-seems-kind-of-likely'` [0] [0] https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by sixhobbits · 2020-06-03 · in Ask HN: How do you organise your files and folders?
  17. …options are burned in my brain and it saves me 30 seconds by not looking up the equivalent for ag. https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by dorfsmay · 2020-05-03 · in Re: Integrating "safe" languages into OpenBSD? (2017)
  18. …the other user, I use Fd now instead: https://github.com/sharkdp/fd As well as Silver Searcher: https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher while Grep performance is pretty good, its also gotten pretty stale with regard to its defaults…
    comment by svnpenn · 2020-02-08 · in A common mistake involving wildcards and the find command
  19. …can be designed from the ground up to be really performant. Something like the silver searcher ( https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher ) or ripgrep ( https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep ) have the advantage that they have…
    comment by jaimebuelta · 2020-01-27 · in Performance First
  20. …Baz It's in brew/apt/yum etc as `the_silver_searcher` (although brew install ag works fine too). 0: https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by fredley · 2019-08-07 · in Don’t underestimate grep-based code scanning
  21. …here already commented before your comment. The first commit to ag - README.md - was in Nov. 2011; https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher/commit/0121e6b... . The earliest versioned commit tag was 0.3 in March 2012 -…
    comment by eesmith · 2019-06-27 · in CUDA Grep
  22. …of which claim to be faster alternatives to grep. [0] https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep [1] https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by michaelmior · 2019-06-27 · in CUDA Grep
  23. Did you try The Silver Searcher https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher ? :)
    comment by mihaitodor · 2019-06-18 · in Show HN: I wrote a book on GNU grep and ripgrep
  24. …or `ripgrep`[2]. Are shell scripts the best instrument for every job? No, but no tool is. [1]: https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher [2]: https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep
    comment by latexr · 2019-05-15 · in Ask HN: What overlooked class of tools should a self-taught programmer look into
  25. …idioms for searching for a string: find /path -type f |xargs grep blah Has been replaced by `ag` https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher , ag is instant in a big repo compared to find|grep
    comment by lazyant · 2019-03-29 · in Why GNU grep is fast (2010)
  26. …is specific enough. A bit longer, but not too bad if I need to search by content instead. [0] https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by sixhobbits · 2019-03-07 · in Ask HN: How do you keep your files organized on macOS?
  27. …got past all of your reason, your compiler, and your tests, but don't let that fear drive you. [0] https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher There are other tools too. Regardless of language, writing "grepable" code promotes a lot of…
    comment by Jach · 2019-02-28 · in Ask HN: How to be productive with big existing code base
  28. …good comments here, but I didn't see a code search tool recommended while skimming. I use this one: https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher But the important thing is to be comfortable popping open the console and using it. Makes it…
    comment by ioddly · 2019-02-28 · in Ask HN: How to be productive with big existing code base
  29. …at worst bailing on files with this syntax (and perhaps other syntax that is not supported) ag bug: https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher/issues/1233
    comment by lathiat · 2019-02-27 · in Find Files (Ff) – File Search Utility in Rust
  30. …also have empathy for the prospective contributors who spent a chunk of their free time working on https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher/pulls I've done my bit here to stop wasting people's time globally, I don't consider a…
    comment by RayDonnelly · 2018-11-23 · in Slow Software
  31. …ranger: https://github.com/ranger/ranger/ tig: https://github.com/jonas/tig/ ag or rg: https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep And all my configurations, especially for fish-shell:…
    comment by codychan · 2018-11-19 · in Ask HN: Best Command-Line Applications?
  32. …t.com/fzf-fuzzy-file-search-from-linux-ter... ---- I use the Silver Searcher all the time. Very fast. https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher ---- tig, a text mode interface for git. https://github.com/jonas/tig
    comment by geowwy · 2018-11-19 · in Ask HN: Best Command-Line Applications?
  33. …faster. I've now installed a static binary of ripgrep in every machine I have SSH access to. [1] https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by adtac · 2018-11-19 · in Ask HN: Best Command-Line Applications?
  34. These are pretty good tools for 'grepping' on file systems: https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by TheGrassyKnoll · 2018-11-13 · in Improving DuckDuckGo
  35. ag = The Silver Searcher https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by twic · 2018-10-28 · in What I Learned from porting my projects to FreeBSD
  36. …it, so feel free to close the PR I have open there rather than leave it hanging without any reply. https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher/pull/1207
    comment by abstractbeliefs · 2018-06-06 · in Show HN: Grep with colours written in Go
  37. …by everyone but doesn't seem to respect ignores or understand modern ignore syntax. give it a pass. https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher/issues/385 its been over 4 years... its had its chance.
    comment by nothrows · 2018-01-08 · in Feature comparison of ack, ag, git-grep, GNU grep and ripgrep
  38. …una. https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/tree/master/plugin... I use "ag" instead of ripgrep. https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher I use "fpp" instead of vgrep. https://github.com/facebook/PathPicker Anybody has tried them…
    comment by baby · 2017-10-08 · in Show HN: A simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to find, written in Rust
  39. I can recommend tools called Silver Searcher and/or RipGrep for text searching. https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep
    comment by TheGrassyKnoll · 2017-06-26 · in Ask HN: How can I get better at bash?
  40. …not interoperable with anything else, or which is no longer maintained a few years from now. [1] https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by clra · 2017-05-21 · in Ask HN: How do you manage your notes?
  41. …DFAs which can run in linear time. Those are things that you can do just as well in C. To witness, https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher (aka "ag") is about as fast as ripgrep, but written in C. This is not to say that Rust does…
    comment by majewsky · 2017-04-27 · in Rust 1.17
  42. If you mention ack, you gotta mention silver search (ag): https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by curuinor · 2017-03-17 · in Programs that have saved me 100+ hours
  43. Nope. https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by pmiller2 · 2016-12-22 · in Ask HN: Experiences with cloud-based dev platforms?
  44. …ag, an ack-grep replacement. Both are in my distro's repositories. https://github.com/stedolan/jq https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher "The command name is 33% shorter than ack!"
    comment by a3n · 2016-12-02 · in Jq – Work with JSON on the command line
  45. …It most certainly is: https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=silversearcher-a... Upstream: https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by e12e · 2016-10-15 · in Ask HN: What's the best 'non-frustrating' search/directory UI/UX you've seen?
  46. …calls fstat on stdout and records the inode. It then ignores files based on inode rather than path: https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher/blob/b995d3b82...
    comment by charliesome · 2016-09-24 · in Ripgrep – A new command line search tool
  47. You just said that to the author of The Silver Searcher (ag). [0] https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
    comment by therein · 2016-09-24 · in Ripgrep – A new command line search tool
  48. …and merged: https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher/pull/974 I'll tag a new release in a day or two. Also, it looks like the sift author is getting on the .ignore train: https://github.com/svent/sift/issues/78#issuecomment-2493352...…
    comment by ggreer · 2016-09-24 · in Ripgrep – A new command line search tool
  49. …all those little details are ironed-out. That said, may the best code searching tool win. :) 1. https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher/commit/bd65e26...
    comment by ggreer · 2016-09-23 · in Ripgrep – A new command line search tool
  50. …note. If you want to see implementations I suggest looking at https://github.com/OpenGrok/OpenGrok https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher https://github.com/google/codesearch and my own https://github.com/boyter/searchcode-server
    comment by boyter · 2016-08-30 · in Ask HN: Good source code search engines?