Text search in mass files – comparison
- grep: Traditional command-line text search utility, widely available.
- sift: Modern, fast, supports complex searches with an intuitive interface.
- ack: Optimized for programmers, great for searching through codebases.
- ag (The Silver Searcher): Focused on speed and efficiency, especially in large codebases.
- ripgrep (rg): Extremely fast, respects
.gitignore, offers powerful regex support.
- git grep: Tightly integrated with Git, excels in searching within repositories.
- ugrep: Extremely versatile and feature-rich, offers advanced regex and Unicode support.
- The Platinum Searcher (pt): Fast and efficient, particularly for large codebases, simple to use.
| No |
Criteria |
grep Score |
sift Score |
ack Score |
ag Score |
ripgrep Score |
git grep Score |
ugrep Score |
pt Score |
| 1 |
Speed |
75 |
85 |
70 |
90 |
95 |
85 |
90 |
80 |
| 2 |
Ease of Use |
80 |
90 |
85 |
85 |
90 |
80 |
85 |
85 |
| 3 |
Regular Expression Support |
70 |
90 |
80 |
80 |
90 |
75 |
95 |
80 |
| 4 |
Recursive Search |
60 |
90 |
85 |
90 |
95 |
80 |
90 |
85 |
| 5 |
Binary File Handling |
50 |
80 |
60 |
70 |
85 |
70 |
80 |
70 |
| 6 |
Customizability |
80 |
85 |
75 |
75 |
80 |
70 |
85 |
75 |
| 7 |
File Type Filtering |
40 |
90 |
80 |
85 |
90 |
80 |
85 |
80 |
| 8 |
Parallel Processing |
30 |
90 |
50 |
85 |
95 |
75 |
90 |
80 |
| 9 |
Availability/Compatibility |
100 |
70 |
65 |
70 |
80 |
85 |
70 |
65 |
| 10 |
Community Support |
90 |
75 |
70 |
75 |
85 |
80 |
75 |
70 |
|
|
Average Score |
67.5 |
84.5 |
72.0 |
80.5 |
88.5 |
78.0 |
84.5 |
77.0 |