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GIT-GREP(1)                                  Git Manual                                  GIT-GREP(1)



NAME
       git-grep - Print lines matching a pattern

SYNOPSIS
       git grep [-a | --text] [-I] [--textconv] [-i | --ignore-case] [-w | --word-regexp]
                  [-v | --invert-match] [-h|-H] [--full-name]
                  [-E | --extended-regexp] [-G | --basic-regexp]
                  [-P | --perl-regexp]
                  [-F | --fixed-strings] [-n | --line-number] [--column]
                  [-l | --files-with-matches] [-L | --files-without-match]
                  [(-O | --open-files-in-pager) [<pager>]]
                  [-z | --null]
                  [ -o | --only-matching ] [-c | --count] [--all-match] [-q | --quiet]
                  [--max-depth <depth>] [--[no-]recursive]
                  [--color[=<when>] | --no-color]
                  [--break] [--heading] [-p | --show-function]
                  [-A <post-context>] [-B <pre-context>] [-C <context>]
                  [-W | --function-context]
                  [--threads <num>]
                  [-f <file>] [-e] <pattern>
                  [--and|--or|--not|(|)|-e <pattern>...]
                  [--recurse-submodules] [--parent-basename <basename>]
                  [ [--[no-]exclude-standard] [--cached | --no-index | --untracked] | <tree>...]
                  [--] [<pathspec>...]


DESCRIPTION
       Look for specified patterns in the tracked files in the work tree, blobs registered in the
       index file, or blobs in given tree objects. Patterns are lists of one or more search
       expressions separated by newline characters. An empty string as search expression matches all
       lines.

OPTIONS
       --cached
           Instead of searching tracked files in the working tree, search blobs registered in the
           index file.

       --no-index
           Search files in the current directory that is not managed by Git.

       --untracked
           In addition to searching in the tracked files in the working tree, search also in
           untracked files.

       --no-exclude-standard
           Also search in ignored files by not honoring the .gitignore mechanism. Only useful with
           --untracked.

       --exclude-standard
           Do not pay attention to ignored files specified via the .gitignore mechanism. Only useful
           when searching files in the current directory with --no-index.

       --recurse-submodules
           Recursively search in each submodule that is active and checked out in the repository.
           When used in combination with the <tree> option the prefix of all submodule output will
           be the name of the parent project’s <tree> object. This option has no effect if
           --no-index is given.

       -a, --text
           Process binary files as if they were text.

       --textconv
           Honor textconv filter settings.

       --no-textconv
           Do not honor textconv filter settings. This is the default.

       -i, --ignore-case
           Ignore case differences between the patterns and the files.

       -I
           Don’t match the pattern in binary files.

       --max-depth <depth>
           For each <pathspec> given on command line, descend at most <depth> levels of directories.
           A value of -1 means no limit. This option is ignored if <pathspec> contains active
           wildcards. In other words if "a*" matches a directory named "a*", "*" is matched
           literally so --max-depth is still effective.

       -r, --recursive
           Same as --max-depth=-1; this is the default.

       --no-recursive
           Same as --max-depth=0.

       -w, --word-regexp
           Match the pattern only at word boundary (either begin at the beginning of a line, or
           preceded by a non-word character; end at the end of a line or followed by a non-word
           character).

       -v, --invert-match
           Select non-matching lines.

       -h, -H
           By default, the command shows the filename for each match.  -h option is used to suppress
           this output.  -H is there for completeness and does not do anything except it overrides
           -h given earlier on the command line.

       --full-name
           When run from a subdirectory, the command usually outputs paths relative to the current
           directory. This option forces paths to be output relative to the project top directory.

       -E, --extended-regexp, -G, --basic-regexp
           Use POSIX extended/basic regexp for patterns. Default is to use basic regexp.

       -P, --perl-regexp
           Use Perl-compatible regular expressions for patterns.

           Support for these types of regular expressions is an optional compile-time dependency. If
           Git wasn’t compiled with support for them providing this option will cause it to die.

       -F, --fixed-strings
           Use fixed strings for patterns (don’t interpret pattern as a regex).

       -n, --line-number
           Prefix the line number to matching lines.

       --column
           Prefix the 1-indexed byte-offset of the first match from the start of the matching line.

       -l, --files-with-matches, --name-only, -L, --files-without-match
           Instead of showing every matched line, show only the names of files that contain (or do
           not contain) matches. For better compatibility with git diff, --name-only is a synonym
           for --files-with-matches.

       -O[<pager>], --open-files-in-pager[=<pager>]
           Open the matching files in the pager (not the output of grep). If the pager happens to be
           "less" or "vi", and the user specified only one pattern, the first file is positioned at
           the first match automatically. The pager argument is optional; if specified, it must be
           stuck to the option without a space. If pager is unspecified, the default pager will be
           used (see core.pager in git-config(1)).

       -z, --null
           Use \0 as the delimiter for pathnames in the output, and print them verbatim. Without
           this option, pathnames with "unusual" characters are quoted as explained for the
           configuration variable core.quotePath (see git-config(1)).

       -o, --only-matching
           Print only the matched (non-empty) parts of a matching line, with each such part on a
           separate output line.

       -c, --count
           Instead of showing every matched line, show the number of lines that match.

       --color[=<when>]
           Show colored matches. The value must be always (the default), never, or auto.

       --no-color
           Turn off match highlighting, even when the configuration file gives the default to color
           output. Same as --color=never.

       --break
           Print an empty line between matches from different files.

       --heading
           Show the filename above the matches in that file instead of at the start of each shown
           line.

       -p, --show-function
           Show the preceding line that contains the function name of the match, unless the matching
           line is a function name itself. The name is determined in the same way as git diff works
           out patch hunk headers (see Defining a custom hunk-header in gitattributes(5)).

       -<num>, -C <num>, --context <num>
           Show <num> leading and trailing lines, and place a line containing -- between contiguous
           groups of matches.

       -A <num>, --after-context <num>
           Show <num> trailing lines, and place a line containing -- between contiguous groups of
           matches.

       -B <num>, --before-context <num>
           Show <num> leading lines, and place a line containing -- between contiguous groups of
           matches.

       -W, --function-context
           Show the surrounding text from the previous line containing a function name up to the one
           before the next function name, effectively showing the whole function in which the match
           was found. The function names are determined in the same way as git diff works out patch
           hunk headers (see Defining a custom hunk-header in gitattributes(5)).

       --threads <num>
           Number of grep worker threads to use. See grep.threads in CONFIGURATION for more
           information.

       -f <file>
           Read patterns from <file>, one per line.

           Passing the pattern via <file> allows for providing a search pattern containing a \0.

           Not all pattern types support patterns containing \0. Git will error out if a given
           pattern type can’t support such a pattern. The --perl-regexp pattern type when compiled
           against the PCRE v2 backend has the widest support for these types of patterns.

           In versions of Git before 2.23.0 patterns containing \0 would be silently considered
           fixed. This was never documented, there were also odd and undocumented interactions
           between e.g. non-ASCII patterns containing \0 and --ignore-case.

           In future versions we may learn to support patterns containing \0 for more search
           backends, until then we’ll die when the pattern type in question doesn’t support them.

       -e
           The next parameter is the pattern. This option has to be used for patterns starting with
           - and should be used in scripts passing user input to grep. Multiple patterns are
           combined by or.

       --and, --or, --not, ( ... )
           Specify how multiple patterns are combined using Boolean expressions.  --or is the
           default operator.  --and has higher precedence than --or.  -e has to be used for all
           patterns.

       --all-match
           When giving multiple pattern expressions combined with --or, this flag is specified to
           limit the match to files that have lines to match all of them.

       -q, --quiet
           Do not output matched lines; instead, exit with status 0 when there is a match and with
           non-zero status when there isn’t.

       <tree>...
           Instead of searching tracked files in the working tree, search blobs in the given trees.

       --
           Signals the end of options; the rest of the parameters are <pathspec> limiters.

       <pathspec>...
           If given, limit the search to paths matching at least one pattern. Both leading paths
           match and glob(7) patterns are supported.

           For more details about the <pathspec> syntax, see the pathspec entry in gitglossary(7).

EXAMPLES
       git grep 'time_t' -- '*.[ch]'
           Looks for time_t in all tracked .c and .h files in the working directory and its
           subdirectories.

       git grep -e '#define' --and \( -e MAX_PATH -e PATH_MAX \)
           Looks for a line that has #define and either MAX_PATH or PATH_MAX.

       git grep --all-match -e NODE -e Unexpected
           Looks for a line that has NODE or Unexpected in files that have lines that match both.

       git grep solution -- :^Documentation
           Looks for solution, excluding files in Documentation.

NOTES ON THREADS
       The --threads option (and the grep.threads configuration) will be ignored when
       --open-files-in-pager is used, forcing a single-threaded execution.

       When grepping the object store (with --cached or giving tree objects), running with multiple
       threads might perform slower than single threaded if --textconv is given and there’re too
       many text conversions. So if you experience low performance in this case, it might be
       desirable to use --threads=1.

CONFIGURATION
       grep.lineNumber
           If set to true, enable -n option by default.

       grep.column
           If set to true, enable the --column option by default.

       grep.patternType
           Set the default matching behavior. Using a value of basic, extended, fixed, or perl will
           enable the --basic-regexp, --extended-regexp, --fixed-strings, or --perl-regexp option
           accordingly, while the value default will return to the default matching behavior.

       grep.extendedRegexp
           If set to true, enable --extended-regexp option by default. This option is ignored when
           the grep.patternType option is set to a value other than default.

       grep.threads
           Number of grep worker threads to use. If unset (or set to 0), Git will use as many
           threads as the number of logical cores available.

       grep.fullName
           If set to true, enable --full-name option by default.

       grep.fallbackToNoIndex
           If set to true, fall back to git grep --no-index if git grep is executed outside of a git
           repository. Defaults to false.

GIT
       Part of the git(1) suite



Git 2.34.1                                   02/26/2026                                  GIT-GREP(1)