App::Rak - a CLI for searching strings in files

$ rak foo      # look for "foo" in current directory recursively

$ rak foo bar  # look for "foo" in directory "bar" recursively

$ rak '/ << foo >> /'    # look for "foo" as word in current directory

$ raku foo --files-only  # look for "foo", only produce filenames

$ raku foo --before=2 --after=2  # also produce 2 lines before and after

App::Rak provides a CLI called rak that allows you to look for a needle in (a selection of files) from a given directory recursively.

To a large extent, the arguments are the same as with the grep utility provided on most Unixes.

Note: this is still very much in alpha development phase. Comments and suggestions are more than welcome!

The pattern to search for. This can either be a string, or a regular expression (indicated by a string starting and ending with /), or a Callable (indicated by a string starting with { and ending with }.

Can also be specified with the --pattern named argument, in which case all the positional arguments are considered to be a path specification.

Optional. Either indicates the path of the directory (and its sub-directories), or the file that will be searched. By default, all directories that do not start with a period, will be recursed into (but this can be changed with the --dir named argument).

By default, all files will be searched in the directories. This can be changed with the --file named argument.

All named arguments are optional. Any unexpected named arguments, will cause an exception with the unexpected named arguments listed.

Indicate the number of lines that should be shown after any line that matches. Defaults to 0. Will be overridden by a -C or --context argument.

Indicate the number of lines that should be shown before any line that matches. Defaults to 0. Will be overridden by a -C or --context argument.

Indicate the number of lines that should be shown around any line that matches. Defaults to 0. Overrides any a -A, --after, --after-context, -B, --before or --before-context argument. argument.

Indicate whether the patterns found should be fed into an editor for inspection and/or changes. Defaults to False.

Indicate whether filenames should not be shown. Defaults to False if --human is (implicitely) set to True, else defaults to True.

Indicate whether the pattern should be highlighted in the line in which it was found. Defaults to True if --human is (implicitely) set to True, else defaults to False.

Indicate the string that should be used at the end of the pattern found in a line. Only makes sense if --highlight is (implicitely) set to True. Defaults to the empty string if -o or --only-matching is specified with a True value, or to the terminal code to end bold otherwise.

Indicate the string that should be used at the end of the pattern found in a line. Only makes sense if --highlight is (implicitely) set to True. Defaults to a space if -o or --only-matching is specified with a True value, or to the terminal code to start bold otherwise.

Indicate that search results should be presented in a human readable manner. This means: filenames shown on a separate line, line numbers shown, and highlighting performed. Defaults to True if STDOUT is a TTY (aka, someone is actually watching the search results), otherwise defaults to False.

If specified with a true value, will only produce the filenames of the files in which the pattern was found. Defaults to False.

$ rak --list-tags
fs: --'follow-symlinks'
im: --ignorecase --ignoremark

If specified with a true value and as the only named argument, will list all saved tags.

Indicate whether line numbers should be shown. Defaults to True if --human is (implicitely) set to True and <-h> is not set to True, else defaults to False.

Indicate whether only the matched pattern should be produced, rather than the line in which the pattern was found. Defaults to False.

Indicate the path of the file in which the result of the search should be placed. Defaults to STDOUT.

Alternative way to specify the pattern to search for. If (implicitely) specified, will assume the first positional parameter specified is actually a path specification, rather than a pattern. This allows the pattern to be searched for to be saved with --save.

Only makes sense if the specified pattern is a Callable. Indicates whether the output of the pattern should be applied to the file in which it was found. Defaults to False.

Save all named arguments with the given tag in the configuration file (~/.rak-config.json), and exit with a message that the named arguments have been saved with the given tag.

This feature can used to both create shortcuts for specific (long) named arguments, or just as a convenient way to combine often used named arguments.

$ rak --ignorecase --ignoremark --save=im
Saved configuration for 'im'

$ rak --follow-symlinks --save=fs
Saved configuration for 'fs'

$ rak --save=foo
Removed configuration for 'foo'

See --with to add saved named arguments to a query. Please note that no validity checking on the named arguments is being performed at the moment of saving, as validity may depend on other arguments having been specified.

To remove a saved set of named arguments, use --save as the only argument.

Indicate the maximum size a line may have before it will be summarized. Defaults to 160 if STDOUT is a TTY (aka, someone is actually watching the search results), otherwise defaults to Inf effectively (indicating no summarization will ever occur).

Indicate whether symbolic links to directories should be followed. Defaults to False.

Indicate whether lines that have the pattern, should have any whitespace at the start and/or end of the line removed. Defaults to True if no context for lines was specified, else defaults to False.

If the only argument, shows the name and version of the script, and the system it is running on.

# run search with --ignorecase --ignoremark --follow-symlinks
$ rak foo --with=im,fs

Add all named arguments previously saved with --save with the given tag(s) from the configuration file (~/.rak-config.json). Multiple tags can be specified, separated by commas. See --save to saved named arguments with a tag.

Elizabeth Mattijsen liz@raku.rocks

Source can be located at: https://github.com/lizmat/App-Rak . Comments and Pull Requests are welcome.

If you like this module, or what I’m doing more generally, committing to a small sponsorship would mean a great deal to me!

Copyright 2022 Elizabeth Mattijsen

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the Artistic License 2.0.