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https://github.com/drmohundro/find-string

A PowerShell script to provide functionality similar to grep or ack with highlighting.
https://github.com/drmohundro/find-string

ack grep powershell

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A PowerShell script to provide functionality similar to grep or ack with highlighting.

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README 

        
# Find-String



[![Join the chat at https://gitter.im/drmohundro/Find-String](https://badges.gitter.im/Join%20Chat.svg)](https://gitter.im/drmohundro/Find-String?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge&utm_content=badge)



Find-String is a PowerShell script whose purpose is to emulate [grep](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grep) and/or [ack](http://beyondgrep.com/).

PowerShell already has the built-in `Select-String` cmdlet, but this script wraps

`Select-String` and provides match highlighting on top of the searching capabilities.



It currently highlights matches in a similar style to [ack](http://beyondgrep.com/).



![screenshot](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/43072/60065075-2051e200-96f2-11e9-90fe-97f2278942ff.png)



## Examples



Find all usages of `form` in all .cs files:



```ps1

find-string form *.cs

```



Find the unique file extensions from all of the files that have the string

'jquery' in them:



```ps1

find-string jquery -passThru |

    Select-Object -ExpandProperty Path |

    Select-String '.\.(\w+)$' |

    Select-Object -ExpandProperty Matches |

    ForEach-Object { $_.Groups[1].Value } |

    Select-Object -Unique

```



Or the same example using built-in aliases (more succinct, likely reflects more

typical usage):



```ps1

find-string jquery -pass |

    select -expand path |

    select-string '.\.(\w+)$' |

    select -expand matches |

    %{ $_.groups[1].value } |

    select -uniq

```



## Installation



### PowerShell Gallery Install



This method of installation requires PowerShell v5 or higher.



* Run `Install-Module Find-String`



See [Find-String on PowerShell Gallery](https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/Find-String/).



### PsGet Install



* Install [PsGet](http://psget.net/)

* Run `Install-Module Find-String`



See [Find-String on PsGet](http://psget.net/directory/Find-String/) for more details.



### Manual Install



Clone (or download) the repository to:



* If PowerShell 5

    * `~/Documents/WindowsPowerShell/Modules/Find-String`

* If PowerShell Core on Windows

    * `~/Documents/PowerShell/Modules/Find-String`

* If Mac/Linux

    * `~/.local/share/powershell/Modules/Find-String`



## Alternative Tools



I like options, so I want to ensure everyone is aware of the other tools out there. My current preferred tool is RipGrep.



* [Grep](https://www.gnu.org/software/grep/) - "Grep searches one or more input files for lines containing a match to a specified pattern."

* [Ack](https://github.com/beyondgrep/ack2) - "ack is a code-searching tool, similar to grep but optimized for programmers searching large trees of source code."

* [The Silver Searcher (aka AG)](https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher) - "A code-searching tool similar to ack, but faster."

* [The Platinum Searcher (aka PT)](https://github.com/monochromegane/the_platinum_searcher) - "A code search tool similar to ack and the_silver_searcher(ag). It supports multi platforms and multi encodings."

* [RipGrep (aka RG)](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep) - "ripgrep recursively searches directories for a regex pattern"



## Editor Integration



### Vim



See [find-string.vim](https://github.com/drmohundro/find-string.vim). Installation should be a simple `Plug 'drmohundro/find-string.vim'` if you use [vim-plug](https://github.com/junegunn/vim-plug).



## Options



* `-pattern`

    * Specifies the text to find. Type a string or regular expression.

    * Required

* `-filter`

    * Specifies the file types to search in. The default is all file types (\*.\*).

* `-include`

    * Specifies the file types to search in. This allows you to search across multiple file types (i.e. \*.ps1,\*.psm1).

* `-excludeFiles`

    * Specifies the file types to exclude from searches. If set, this overrides any global defaults or configuration.

    * Comma-separated list of files to exclude from the search

* `-excludeDirectories`

    * Specifies the directories to exclude from searches. It really only makes sense for recursive searches. If set, this overrides any global defaults or configuration.

    * Comma-separated list of directories to exclude from the search

* `-path`

    * Specifies the path to the files to be searched. Wildcards are permitted. The default location is the local directory.

* `-recurse`

    * Gets the items in the specified path and in all child directies. This is the default.

* `-caseSensitive`

    * Makes matches case-sensitive. By default, matches are not case-sensitive.

* `-context`

    * Captures the specified number of lines before and after the line with the match. This allows you to view the match in context.

    * Example:

        * `find-string foo *.cs -context 2,3`

        * Would return a context of 2 lines before the match and 3 lines after the match

* `-passThru`

    * Passes the literal `MatchInfo` object representing the found match to the pipeline. By default, this cmdlet does not send anything through the object pipeline.

    * This is useful if you wish to do additional processing on the results, such as collect any matches in a regular expression that you searched for or to gather unique results.

* `-pipeOutput`

    * Sends all output along the object pipeline. By default, this command uses color to help with readability; however, this prevents the output from being piped to another command. If you wish to pipe the output of this command to something else, be sure to use this parameter.

    * This is useful if you wish to pipe the output to the clipboard.

    * Example:

        * `find-string foo *.cs -pipeOutput | clip`

* `-listMatchesOnly`

    * Returns all files that have matches existing in them, but doesn't display any of the matches themselves.



## Changelog



See [CHANGELOG](CHANGELOG.md) for a list of all changes and their corresponding versions.



## License



Find-String is released under the MIT license. See [LICENSE](LICENSE) for details.