search.manpage

search(1)                                                            search(1)



SEARCH
       search - search files (a'la grep) in a whole directory tree.

SYNOPSIS
       search [ grep-like and find-like options] [regex ....]

DESCRIPTION
       Search is more or less a combo of 'find' and 'grep' (although the regu-
       lar  expression  flavor is that of the perl being used, which is closer
       to egrep's than grep's).

       Search does generally the same kind of thing that
          find <blah blah> | xargs egrep <blah blah>
       does, but is much more powerful and efficient (and intuitive, I think).

       This  manual describes search as of version "960325.7".  You can always
       find the latest version at
          http://www.wg.omron.co.jp/~jfriedl/perl/index.html


QUICK EXAMPLE
       Basic use is simple:
           % search jeff
       will search files in the current directory, and  all  sub  directories,
       for  files  that have "jeff" in them. The lines will be listed with the
       containing file's name prepended.

       If you list more than one regex, such as with
           % search jeff Larry Randal+ 'Stoc?k' 'C.*son'
       then a line containing any of the regexes will be listed.   This  makes
       it effectively the same as
           % search 'jeff|Larry|Randal+|Stoc?k|C.*son'
       However,  listing them separately is much more efficient (and is easier
       to type).

       Note that in the case of these examples, the -w (list whole-words only)
       option  would  be  useful.   And  if your terminal supports ANSI escape
       sequences, you can use -bold to higlight the items found.  Furthermore,
       if your display supports color as well, you can use -red, -green, -yel-
       low, etc. instead to have the searched  items  marked  with  the  given
       color.

       Normally, various kinds of files are automatically removed from consid-
       eration.  If it has has a certain ending (such as ".tar",  ".Z",  ".o",
       .etc),  or  if  the beginning of the file looks like a binary, it'll be
       excluded.  You can control exactly how this works  --  see  below.  One
       quick  way  to  override this is to use the -all option, which means to
       consider all the files that would normally be  automatically  excluded.
       Or,  if you're curious, you can use -why to have notes about what files
       are skipped (and why) printed to stderr.


BASIC OVERVIEW
       Normally, the search starts in the current directory, considering files
       in all subdirectories.

       You can use the ~/.search file to control ways to automatically exclude
       files.  If you don't have this file, a default one will kick in,  which
       automatically add
           -skip .o .Z .gif
       (among others) to exclude those kinds of files (which you probably want
       to skip when searching for text, as is normal).  Files that look to  be
       be binary will also be excluded.

       Files  ending  with  "#"  and  "~" will also be excluded unless the -x~
       option is given.

       You can use -showrc to show  what  kinds  of  files  will  normally  be
       skipped.  See the section on the startup file for more info.

       You  can use the -all option to indicate you want to consider all files
       that would otherwise be skipped by the startup file.

       Based upon various other flags (see "WHICH FILES TO  CONSIDER"  below),
       more files might be removed from consideration. For example
           -mtime 3
       will exclude files that aren't at least three days old (change the 3 to
       -3 to exclude files that are more than three days old), while
           -skip .*
       would exclude any file beginning with a dot (of course,  '.'  and  '..'
       are special and always excluded).

       If  you'd  like  to see what files are being excluded, and why, you can
       get the list via the -why option.

       If a file makes it past all the checks, it is then "considered".   This
       usually  means it is greped for the regular expressions you gave on the
       command line.

       If any of the regexes match a line, the line is printed.   However,  if
       -list  is given, just the filename is printed. Or, if -nice is given, a
       somewhat more (human-)readable output is generated.

       If you're searching a huge tree and want to keep informed about how the
       search  is progressing, -v will print (to stderr) the current directory
       being searched.  Using -vv will also print the current file  "every  so
       often",  which  could be useful if a directory is huge. Using -vvv will
       print the update with every file.

       Below is the full listing of options.


OPTIONS TELLING *WHERE* TO SEARCH
       -dir DIR
              Start searching at the named directory instead  of  the  current
              directory.  If multiple -dir arguments are given, multiple trees
              will be searched.

       -ddir DIR
              Like -dir except it flushes any previous -dir directories  (i.e.
              "-dir  A  -dir  B -dir C" will search A, B, and C, while "-dir A
              -ddir B -dir C" will search only B and C. This might be  of  use
              in the startup file (see that section below).

       -xdev  Stay  on  the same filesystem as the starting directory/directo-
              ries.

       -sort  Sort the items in a directory before processing them.   Normally
              they are processed in whatever order they happen to be read from
              the directory.

       -nolinks
              Don't follow symbolic links. Normally they're followed.

       -depth=0
              Don't descend into subdirectories. Only a depth of  0  currently
              supported.

OPTIONS CONTROLLING WHICH FILES TO CONSIDER AND EXCLUDE
       -mtime NUM
              Only  consider  files  that were last changed more than NUM days
              ago (less than NUM days if NUM has '-' prepended,  i.e.  "-mtime
              -2.5" means to consider files that have been changed in the last
              two and a half days).

       -older FILE
              Only consider files that have not changed since  FILE  was  last
              changed.  If there is any upper case in the "-older", "or equal"
              is added to the sense of the test.   Therefore,  "search  -older
              ./file regex" will never consider "./file", while "search -Older
              ./file regex" will.

              If a file is a symbolic link, the time used is that of the  file
              and not the link.

       -newer FILE
              Opposite of -older.

       -name GLOB
              Only  consider files that match the shell filename pattern GLOB.
              The check is only done on a file's name (use -path to check  the
              whole path, and use -dname to check directory names).

              Multiple  specifications  can  be  given by separating them with
              spaces, a'la
                  -name '*.c *.h'
              to consider C source and header files.  If GLOB doesn't  contain
              any  special  pattern characters, a '*' is prepended.  This last
              example could have been given as
                 -name '.c .h'
              It could also be given as
                  -name .c -name .h
              or
                  -name '*.c' -name '*.h'
              or
                  -name '*.[ch]'
              (among others) but in this last case, you have  to  be  sure  to
              supply the leading '*'.

       -path GLOB
              Like  -name  except  the entire path is checked against the pat-
              tern.

       -regex  REGEX
              Considers files whose names (not paths)  match  the  given  perl
              regex exactly.

       -iname GLOB
              Case-insensitive version of -name.

       -ipath GLOB
              Case-insensitive version of -path.

       -iregex REGEX
              Case-insensitive version of -regex.


       -dpath GLOB
              Only  search  down directories whose path matches the given pat-
              tern (this doesn't apply to the initial directory given by -dir,
              of course).  Something like
                  -dir /usr/man -dpath /usr/man/man*
              would completely skip "/usr/man/cat1", "/usr/man/cat2", etc.

       -dskip GLOB
              Skips  directories  whose name (not path) matches the given pat-
              tern.  Something like
                  -dir /usr/man -dskip cat*
              would completely skip any  directory  in  the  tree  whose  name
              begins  with  "cat" (including "/usr/man/cat1", "/usr/man/cat2",
              etc.).

       -dregex REGEX
              Like -dpath, but the pattern is a full  perl  regex.  Note  that
              this quite different from -regex which considers only file names
              (not paths). This option considers  full  directory  paths  (not
              just names). It's much more useful this way.  Sorry if it's con-
              fusing.

       -dpath GLOB
              This option exists, but is probably not very useful. It probably
              wants  to  be  like  the  '-below' or something I mention in the
              "TODO" section.

       -idpath GLOB
              Case-insensitive version of -dpath.

       -idskip GLOB
              Case-insensitive version of -dskip.

       -idregex REGEX
              Case-insensitive version of -dregex.

       -all   Ignore any 'magic' or 'option' lines in the startup  file.   The
              effect  is  that all files that would otherwise be automatically
              excluded are considered.

       -xSPECIAL
              Arguments starting with -x (except -xdev,  explained  elsewhere)
              do  special  interaction  with the ~/.search startup file. Some-
              thing like
                   -xflag1 -xflag2
              will turn on "flag1" and "flag2" in the startup file (and is the
              same  as  "-xflag1,flag2").  You  can use this to write your own
              rules for what kinds of files are to be considered.

              For example, the internal-default startup file contains the line
                   <!~> option: -skip '~ #'
              This means that if the -x~ flag is not seen, the option
                  -skip '~ #'
              should  be done.  The effect is that emacs temp and backup files
              are not normally considered, but you can included them with  the
              -x~ flag.

              You  can  write  your  own rules to customize search in powerful
              ways. See the STARTUP FILE section below.

       -why   Print a message (to stderr) when and why a file is  not  consid-
              ered.


OPTIONS TELLING WHAT TO DO WITH FILES THAT WILL BE CONSIDERED
       -find or -b
              This option changes the basic action of search.

              Normally,  if a file is considered, it is searched for the regu-
              lar expressions as described earlier. However, if this option is
              given,  the  filename  is  printed and no searching takes place.
              This turns search into a 'find' of some sorts.

              In this case, no regular expressions are needed on  the  command
              line (any that are there are silently ignored).

              This is not intended to be a replacement for the 'find' program,
              but to aid you in understanding just what files are getting past
              the exclusion checks.  If you really want to use it as a sort of
              replacement for the 'find' program, you might want to  use  -all
              so  that  it  doesn't  waste time checking to see if the file is
              binary, etc (unless you really want that, of course).

              If you use -find, none of the "GREP-LIKE OPTIONS"  (below)  mat-
              ter.

              As a replacement for 'find', search is probably a bit slower (or
              in the case of GNU find, a lot slower -- GNU find  is  unbeliev-
              ably  fast).  However, "search -ffind" might be more useful than
              'find' when options such as  -skip  are  used  (at  least  until
              'find' gets such functionality).

       -ffind or -ff
              A faster more 'find'-like find. Does
                  -find  -all -dorep

GREP-LIKE OPTIONS
       These  options  control how a searched file is accessed, and how things
       are printed.

       -F or -lit
              Causes arguments to be taken as literal text rather than as perl
              regular expressions.

       -R or -regex
              Undoes  -T.   Regex  arguments  are indeed taken as perl regular
              expressions.

       -i     Ignore letter case when matching.

       -noi   Don't ignore letter case when matching (useful for overriding  a
              -i in the startup file)

       -w     Consider  only  whole-word  matches  ("whole word" as defined by
              perl's "\b" regex).

       -u     If the regex(es) is/are simple,  try  to  modify  them  so  that
              they'll   work   in  manpage-like  underlined  text  (i.e.  like
              _^Ht_^Hh_^Hi_^Hs).  This is very rudimentary at the moment.

       -list or -l
              -list Don't print matching lines, but the names  of  files  that
              contain  matching  lines.  This will likely be *much* faster, as
              special optimizations are made -- particularly with large files.

       -n     Pepfix each line by its line number.

       -nice  Not  a grep-like option, but similar to -list, so included here.
              -nice will have the output be a bit  more  human-readable,  with
              matching  lines  printed  slightly  indented after the filename,
              a'la

                 % search foo
                 somedir/somefile: line with foo in it
                 somedir/somefile: some food for thought
                 anotherdir/x: don't be a buffoon!
                 %

              will become

                 % search -nice foo
                 somedir/somefile:
                   line with foo in it
                   some food for thought
                 anotherdir/x:
                   don't be a buffoon!
                 %

              This option due to Lionel Cons.

       -nnice Be a bit nicer than -nice.  Prefix each file's output by a  rule
              line, and follow with an extra blank line.

       -h     Don't  prepend each output line with the name of the file (mean-
              ingless when -find or -l are given).


OPTIONS WHICH INDICATE HOW TO DISPLAY
       In addition to the -nice and -nnice from just above, you  can  use  the
       following  if your display supports ANSI escape sequences (most systems
       seem to).

       -bold  Show the found items in reverse video.

       -red   Show the found items in red.

       -green Show the found items in green.

       -yellow
              Show the found items in yellow.

       -blue  Show the found items in blue.

       -cyan  Show the found items in cyan.

       -white Show the found items in white.

       -black Show the found items in black.


OTHER OPTIONS
       -help  Print the usage information.

       -version
              Print the version information and quit.

       -v     Set the level of message verbosity.  -v will print a note  when-
              ever  a  new  directory  is entered.  -vv will also print a note
              "every so often". This can be useful  to  see  what's  happening
              when  searching  huge  directories.   -vvv will print a new with
              every file.  -vvvv is -vvv plus -why.

       -e     This ends the options, and can be useful  if  the  regex  begins
              with '-'.

       -showrc
              Shows  what is being considered in the startup file, then exits.

       -dorep Normally, an identical file won't be checked  twice  (even  with
              multiple  hard or symbolic links). If you're just trying to do a
              fast -find, the bookkeeping to remember which  files  have  been
              seen is not desirable, so you can eliminate the bookkeeping with
              this flag.


STARTUP FILE
       When search starts up, it processes the directives in ~/.search.  If no
       such file exists, a default internal version is used.

       The internal version looks like:

          magic: 32 : $H =~ m/[\x00-\x06\x10-\x1a\x1c-\x1f\x80\xff]{2}/
          filter: $N =~ m/.(gz|Z)$/ : "zcat %"
          option: -skip '.a .COM .elc .EXE .o .pbm .xbm .dvi'
          option: -iskip '.tarz .zip .lzh .jpg .jpeg .gif .uu'
          <!~> option: -skip '~ #'

       If  you wish to create your own "~/.search", you might consider copying
       the above, and then working from there.

       There are three kinds  of  directives  in  a  startup  file:  "filter",
       "magic" and "option".


       OPTION Option  lines  will  automatically  do  the command-line options
              given.  For example, the line
                  option: -v
              in you startup file will turn on -v every time, without  needing
              to type it on the command line.

              The  text on the line after the "option:" directive is processed
              like the Bourne shell, so make sure to pay attention to quoting.
                  option: -skip .exe .com
              will  give  an  error  (".com"  by itself isn't a valid option),
              while
                  option: -skip ".exe .com"
              will properly include it as part of -skip's argument.


       MAGIC  Magic lines are used to determine if a file should be considered
              a  binary  or  not (the term "magic" refers to checking a file's
              magic number).  These are described in more detail below.


       FILTER Filter lines are used to apply a command to a file  to  get  the
              text to search.  The format of a FILTER line is:
                  filter : EXPRESSION: "command...."
              where  EXPRESSION  is a perl expression used to determine if the
              filter should be applied to a given file (the file's  name  will
              be  in  the  variable  $N,  but remember that files excluded via
              -skip, etc., won't even be considered for a  filter).  If  true,
              the  COMMAND  will  be  executed and its standard-output will be
              checked. ``%'' in the command string  will  be  replace  by  the
              filename.

              The  most  common  example  would be to uncompress a file on the
              fly, i.e.
                 filter: $N =~ m/.(gz|Z)$/ : "zcat %"
              Note that had the ``zcat'' been ``gunzip'' instead, you'd uncom-
              press  your  files  in  place instead of searching them, so take
              care when specifying a filter! If you're worried about mixing up
              GNU'z zcat with an old one, you might use seperate ones as with:
                 filter: $N =~ m/.gz$/ : "/my/GNU/binaries/zcat %"
                 filter: $N =~ m/.Z$/ : "/the/non-GNU/binaries/zcat %"

              Also note that when a filter is applied, the  MAGIC  section  is
              ignored  for the file (this can be considered a bug, so it might
              change in the future).


       Blank lines and comments (lines beginning with '#') are allowed.

       If a line begins with  <...>, then it's a check to see if the directive
       on  the line should be done or not. The stuff inside the <...> can con-
       tain perl's && (and), || (or), ! (not), and parens for grouping,  along
       with "flags" that might be indicated by the user with -xflag options.

       For example, using "-xfoo" will cause "foo" to be true inside the <...>
       blocks. Therefore, a line beginning with "<foo>"  would  be  done  only
       when  "-xfoo"  had been specified, while a line beginning with "<!foo>"
       would be done only when "-xfoo" is not specified  (of  course,  a  line
       without any <...> is done in either case).

       A realistic example might be
            <!v> -vv
       This  will  cause  -vv  messages  to be the default, but allow "-xv" to
       override.

       There are a few flags that are set automatically:

              TTY    true if the output is to the screen (as opposed to  being
                     redirected  to  a file).  You can force this (as with all
                     the other automatic flags) with -xTTY.

              -v     True if -v was specified. If -vv was specified,  both  -v
                     and -vv flags are true (and so on).

              -nice  True  if  -nice was specified. Same thing about -nnice as
                     for -vv.


              -list  true if -list (or -l) was given.

              -dir   true if -dir was given.

       Using this info, you might change the last example to

           <!v && !-v> option: -vv

       The added "&& !-v" means "and if the '-v' option not given".  This will
       allow  you  to  use  "-v"  alone on the command line, and not have this
       directive add the more verbose "-vv" automatically.

       Some other examples:

       <!-dir && !here> option: -dir ~/
              Effectively make  the  default  directory  your  home  directory
              (instead  of  the  current directory). Using -dir or -xhere will
              undo this.

       <tex> option: -name .tex -dir ~/pub
              Create '-xtex' to search only "*.tex" files in your ~/pub direc-
              tory  tree.   Actually,  this could be made a bit better. If you
              combine '-xtex' and '-dir' on the command line,  this  directive
              will  add  ~/pub  to the list, when you probably want to use the
              -dir directory only. You could do

                 <tex> option: -name .tex
                 <tex && !-dir> option: -dir ~/pub

              to will allow '-xtex' to work as before, but  allow  a  command-
              line "-dir" to take precedence with respect to ~/pub.

       <fluff> option: -nnice -sort -i -vvv
              Combine a few user-friendly options into one '-xfluff' option.

       <man> option: -ddir /usr/man -v -w
              When  the  '-xman' option is given, search "/usr/man" for whole-
              words (of whatever regex or regexes are  given  on  the  command
              line), with -v.

       The lines in the startup file are executed from top to bottom, so some-
       thing like

          <both> option: -xflag1 -xflag2
          <flag1> option: ...whatever...
          <flag2> option: ...whatever...

       will  allow  '-xboth'  to  be  the  same  as  '-xflag1   -xflag2'   (or
       '-xflag1,flag2' for that matter). However, if you put the "<both>" line
       below the others, they will not be true when encountered, so the result
       would be different (and probably undesired).

       The  "magic"  directives  are  used  to determine if a file looks to be
       binary or not. The form of a magic line is
           magic: SIZE : PERLCODE
       where SIZE is the number of bytes of the file you need  to  check,  and
       PERLCODE  is the code to do the check. Within PERLCODE, the variable $H
       will hold at least the first SIZE bytes of the file (unless the file is
       shorter  than  that,  of  course).   It might hold more bytes. The perl
       should evaluate to true if the file should be considered a binary.

       An example might be
           magic: 6 : substr($H, 0, 6) eq 'GIF87a'
       to test for a GIF ("-iskip .gif" is better, but this might be useful if
       you have images in files without the ".gif" extension).

       Since  the startup file is checked from top to bottom, you can be a bit
       efficient:
           magic: 6 : ($x6 = substr($H, 0, 6)) eq 'GIF87a'
           magic: 6 :  $x6                     eq 'GIF89a'
       You could also write the same thing as
         magic: 6 : (($x6 = substr($H, 0, 6)) eq 'GIF87a') || ## an old gif, or.. \
                   $x6                     eq 'GIF89a'     ## .. a new one.
       since newlines may be escaped.

       The default internal startup file includes
          magic: 32 : $H =~ m/[\x00-\x06\x10-\x1a\x1c-\x1f\x80\xff]{2}/
       which checks for certain non-printable characters, and catches a  large
       number  of  binary files, including most system's executables, linkable
       objects, compressed, tarred, and otherwise folded, spindled, and  muti-
       lated files.

       Another example might be
           ## an archive library
           magic: 17 : substr($H, 0, 17) eq "!<arch>\n__.SYMDEF"


RETURN VALUE
       Search  returns zero if lines (or files, if appropriate) were found, or
       if no work was requested (such as with -help).  Returns 1 if  no  lines
       (or files) were found.  Returns 2 on error.


TODO
       Things I'd like to add some day:
         + show surrounding lines (context).
         + highlight matched portions of lines.
         + add '-and', which can go between regexes to override
           the default logical or of the regexes.
         + add something like
             -below GLOB
           which will examine a tree and only consider files that
           lie in a directory deeper than one named by the pattern.
         + add 'warning' and 'error' directives.
         + add 'help' directive.

BUGS
       If  -xdev and multiple -dir arguments are given, any file in any of the
       target filesystems are allowed.  It  would  be  better  to  allow  each
       filesystem for each separate tree.

       Multiple -dir args might also cause some confusing effects. Doing
          -dir some/dir -dir other
       will search "some/dir" completely, then search "other" completely. This
       is good. However, something like
          -dir some/dir -dir some/dir/more/specific
       will search  "some/dir"  completely  *except  for*  "some/dir/more/spe-
       cific",  after  which it will return and be searched. Not really a bug,
       but just sort of odd.

       File times (for -newer, etc.) of symbolic links are for the  file,  not
       the link. This could cause some misunderstandings.

       Probably more. Please let me know.

AUTHOR
       Jeffrey Friedl, Omron Corp (jfriedl@omron.co.jp)
       http://www.wg.omron.co.jp/cgi-bin/j-e/jfriedl.html


LATEST SOURCE
       See http://www.wg.omron.co.jp/~jfriedl/perl/index.html



                                 Dec 17, 1994                        search(1)