Code Search
When navigating large or unfamiliar code bases, it can often be useful to search over the entire code base to find some patterns. This could be finding any places where a specific crate is used, or finding some code patterns.
Ripgrep
ripgrep is a command-line tool for searching code bases using regular expressions. It is very fast, making use of Rust’s powerful regex crate.
If you use Visual Studio Code, then you are already using ripgrep. VS Code uses ripgrep internally to implement its search functionality.
It understands git repositories and will respect .gitignore files, making it
particularly suitable for search software projects. Visual Studio Code’s search
functionality uses it behind the
scenes.
You can install it with Cargo:
cargo install ripgrep
Running this will install the rg binary, which you can use to search code
projects. You can then use it to search for patterns.
$ rg uuid::
database/src/main.rs
8:use uuid::Uuid;
protocol/src/types.rs
10:use uuid::Uuid;
common/src/entities.rs
12:use uuid::Uuid;
Reading
ripgrep is faster than {grep, ag, git grep, ucg, pt, sift} (archived) by Andrew Gallant
Andrew, the author of ripgrep, introduces the tool in this article, explains how it works and compares it to some common similar tools used by developers, showing how it performs better and how it excels at dealing with Unicode, something other tools struggle with.