ack 1.88

ack is a tool like grep, only that it is aimed at programmers with large trees of heterogeneous source code.

ack is written purely in Perl, and takes advantage of the power of Perl's regular expressions.

Usage: ack [OPTION]... PATTERN [FILES]

Search for PATTERN in each source file in the tree from cwd on down.
If [FILES] is specified, then only those files/directories are checked.
ack may also search STDIN, but only if no FILES are specified, or if
one of FILES is "-".

Default switches may be specified in ACK_OPTIONS environment variable or
an .ackrc file. If you want no dependency on the environment, turn it
off with --noenv.

Example: ack -i select

Searching:
-i, --ignore-case Ignore case distinctions in PATTERN
--[no]smart-case Ignore case distinctions in PATTERN,
only if PATTERN contains no upper case
Ignored if -i is specified
-v, --invert-match Invert match: select non-matching lines
-w, --word-regexp Force PATTERN to match only whole words
-Q, --literal Quote all metacharacters; PATTERN is literal

Search output:
--line=NUM Only print line(s) NUM of each file
-l, --files-with-matches
Only print filenames containing matches
-L, --files-without-match
Only print filenames with no match
-o Show only the part of a line matching PATTERN
(turns off text highlighting)
--passthru Print all lines, whether matching or not
--output=expr Output the evaluation of expr for each line
(turns off text highlighting)
--match PATTERN Specify PATTERN explicitly.
-m, --max-count=NUM Stop searching in each file after NUM matches
-1 Stop searching after one match of any kind
-H, --with-filename Print the filename for each match
-h, --no-filename Suppress the prefixing filename on output
-c, --count Show number of lines matching per file

-A NUM, --after-context=NUM
Print NUM lines of trailing context after matching
lines.
-B NUM, --before-context=NUM
Print NUM lines of leading context before matching
lines.
-C [NUM], --context[=NUM]
Print NUM lines (default 2) of output context.

--print0 Print null byte as separator between filenames,
only works with -f, -g, -l, -L or -c.

File presentation:
--pager=COMMAND Pipes all ack output through COMMAND.
Ignored if output is redirected.
--nopager Do not send output through a pager. Cancels any
setting in ~/.ackrc, ACK_PAGER or ACK_PAGER_COLOR.
--[no]heading Print a filename heading above each file's results.
(default: on when used interactively)
--[no]break Print a break between results from different files.
(default: on when used interactively)
--group Same as --heading --break
--nogroup Same as --noheading --nobreak
--[no]color Highlight the matching text (default: on unless
output is redirected, or on Windows)
--[no]colour Same as --[no]color
--flush Flush output immediately, even when ack is used
non-interactively (when output goes to a pipe or
file).

File finding:
-f Only print the files found, without searching.
The PATTERN must not be specified.
-g REGEX Same as -f, but only print files matching REGEX.
--sort-files Sort the found files lexically.

File inclusion/exclusion:
-a, --all-types All file types searched;
Ignores CVS, .svn and other ignored directories
-u, --unrestricted All files and directories searched
--[no]ignore-dir=name Add/Remove directory from the list of ignored dirs
-n No descending into subdirectories
-G REGEX Only search files that match REGEX

--perl Include only Perl files.
--type=perl Include only Perl files.
--noperl Exclude Perl files.
--type=noperl Exclude Perl files.
See "ack --help type" for supported filetypes.

--type-set TYPE=.EXTENSION[,.EXT2[,...]]
Files with the given EXTENSION(s) are recognized as
being of type TYPE. This replaces an existing
definition for type TYPE.
--type-add TYPE=.EXTENSION[,.EXT2[,...]]
Files with the given EXTENSION(s) are recognized as
being of (the existing) type TYPE

--[no]follow Follow symlinks. Default is off.

Directories ignored by default:
autom4te.cache, blib, _build, .bzr, .cdv, cover_db, CVS, _darcs, ~.dep,
~.dot, .git, .hg, ~.nib, .pc, ~.plst, RCS, SCCS, _sgbak and .svn

Files not checked for type:
/~$/ - Unix backup files
/#.+#$/ - Emacs swap files
/[._].*.swp$/ - Vi(m) swap files
/core.d+$/ - core dumps

Miscellaneous:
--noenv Ignore environment variables and ~/.ackrc
--help This help
--man Man page
--version Display version & copyright
--thpppt Bill the Cat


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