[Question] how to search by filenames only?

[hh9527]

--files will list all files which respect ignore files. Is there a flag to list filenames which match the given filename pattern?

[BurntSushi]

From rg --help:

    -g, --glob GLOB ...        Include or exclude files for searching that
                               match the given glob. This always overrides any
                               other ignore logic. Multiple glob flags may be
                               used. Globbing rules match .gitignore globs.
                               Precede a glob with a '!' to exclude it.

[YPCrumble]

@BurntSushi this is related to the issue I just raised, #284. The I believe the question here is "How can I search for a pattern in the filename, and return the filenames that include that pattern in the path/filename?"

It appears that the -g flag limits my search for text within the file to the filenames matching the -g pattern. Does that explain the nuance?

Example:

If there is a file relative to my directory, ./stories/story.txt that contains the text "Once upon a time", I want to be able to run rg -g story and return ./stories/story.txt. It appears that the -g flag would return nothing in this query, but it would return "Once upon a time" if I try rg Once -g story.*.

[hraban]

I have the following alias to shim this in my ~/.bashrc:

alias rgf='rg --files | rg'

This allows you to do:

$ rgf 2018
lib/lib.es2018.full.d.ts
lib/lib.es2018.promise.d.ts
lib/lib.es2018.intl.d.ts
lib/lib.es2018.regexp.d.ts
lib/lib.es2018.asynciterable.d.ts
lib/lib.es2018.d.ts

[johnyradio]

--files

how would you do that without the alias?

[hraban]

@johnyradio just type the command directly:

rg --files | rg 2018

A Bash alias just substitutes the command for whatever the contents of the alias is, then continues evaluating as usual. That's all an alias is:

alias rgf="rg --files | rg"
rgf 2018

=

rg --files | rg 2018

[johnyradio]

Many thanks! Super helpful.

[dzhang-b]

rg --files | rg <pattern> <directory> or rgf <pattern> <directory>won't work. It will search all contents in the directory, not the filename in that directory.

It is best if we can add an actual flag to do this.

[hraban]

rg --files | rg <pattern> <directory> or rgf <pattern> <directory>won't work. It will search all contents in the directory, not the filename in that directory.

It is best if we can add an actual flag to do this.

$ rg --files [directory] | rg <pattern>

if you want to do this as a "rgf" style alias, use a function instead:

function rgf {
    rg --files $2 | rg $1
}

[Piping]

@hraban Thanks for the tip, I updated the logic a bit for future newcomer.

rf() {
  if [ -z "$2" ]
  then
      rg --files | rg "$1"
  else
      rg --files "$2" | rg "$1"
  fi
}

[lamyergeier]

rg --files | rg <pattern> <directory> or rgf <pattern> <directory>won't work. It will search all contents in the directory, not the filename in that directory.
It is best if we can add an actual flag to do this.

$ rg --files [directory] | rg <pattern>

if you want to do this as a "rgf" style alias, use a function instead:

function rgf {
    rg --files $2 | rg $1
}

What you suggested searches in the entire path and not just in the filename (what the OP had asked)!

[lamyergeier]

To search Python in filenames:

Search=Python
rg --files "${PWD}" | rg --regexp "${Search}[^/]*$" | sort | nl

Note: Use above in Linux and Mac (for windows replace [^/] with [^]):

[ssbarnea]

I still hope to see native support for it. There is a huge UX benefit on having it as a default feature and the number of user upthumbs explains it.

[BurntSushi]

Use fd instead.

[AtomicNess123]

rg --files | rg 2018

Thanks, very useful. What does the | mean? Also, this finds filenames that do not match the query because the files contents contain the query. I am only interested in the filename.

[BurntSushi]

@AtomicNess123 rg --files | rg 2018 will only print file names that contain 2018.

The | is a shell pipeline. It redirects the output of rg --files into the input of rg 2018.

[AtomicNess123]

Mmm... I have to digest that. Could you give a more illustrative example? No rush, though...

[BurntSushi]

$ touch foo2018 foo bar2018 bar
$ rg --files
foo
foo2018
bar2018
bar
$ rg --files | rg 2018
foo2018
bar2018

At no point are the contents of any files searched in the above example.

[AtomicNess123]

Thanks. What is the difference then between rg --files | rg 2018 and rg --files -g '*2018*' ?
Thanks for your time!

[BurntSushi]

The former will print all paths in the current tree that contain 2018. The latter will only print paths containing 2018 where all of its parent directories also contain 2018. The -g flag influences which directories ripgrep descends into.

[AtomicNess123]

Thanks, very insightful!

[AtomicNess123]

Actually, it won't work like that in my case:

rg --files -g '*helm*'                                                                                                       
xxx-helm-xxx.el
helm/xxx-helm-xxx.el
helm/sub2/xxx-helm-xxx.el
helm/sub2/xxxhelmxxx.el
helm/xxxhelmxxx.el
a/xxx-helm-xxx.el
a/sub2/xxx-helm-xxx.el
a/sub2/xxxhelmxxx.el
a/xxxhelmxxx.el
xxxhelmxxx.el

rg --files | rg helm               
xxx-helm-xxx.el
helm/xxx-helm-xxx.el
helm/sub2/xxx-helm-xxx.el
helm/sub2/xxxhelmxxx.el
helm/xxxhelmxxx.el
a/xxx-helm-xxx.el
a/sub2/xxx-helm-xxx.el
a/sub2/xxxhelmxxx.el
a/xxxhelmxxx.el
xxxhelmxxx.el

As you can see, the -g flag makes no difference.

[theicfire]

Use fd instead.

Probably referencing https://github.com/sharkdp/fd. TIL.

[JosephTLyons]

Any way to search for all file nams with a given pattern without having to specify a search pattern?

〉rg -g *.json                                                                                                             
ripgrep requires at least one pattern to execute a search

[BurntSushi]

Yes. Use the --files flag.