* Mode of operation:

--find, -f

find the PATTERN (default)

--replace, -!

replace the PATTERN to REPLACEMENT, rewriting the files

--confirm

confirm each occurrence/replacement; there is a chance to abort any time without touching the file

--filenames

just list filenames. Provide a PATTERN to find it in the filenames (not in the contents of a file) or run with empty pattern to just list all files:

nimgrep --filenames

# In current dir

nimgrep --filenames "" DIRECTORY

# Note empty pattern "", lists all files in DIRECTORY

* Interprete patterns:

--peg

PATTERN and PAT are Peg

--re

PATTERN and PAT are regular expressions (default)

--rex, -x

use the "extended" syntax for the regular expression so that whitespace is not significant

--word, -w

matches should have word boundaries (buggy for pegs!)

--ignoreCase, -i

be case-insensitive in PATTERN and PAT

--ignoreStyle, -y

be style insensitive in PATTERN and PAT

.. Note:: PATTERN and patterns PAT (see below in other options) are all either

Regex or Peg simultaneously and options `--rex`, `--word`, `--ignoreCase`, and `--ignoreStyle` are applied to all of them.

* File system walk:

--recursive, -r

process directories recursively

--follow

follow all symlinks when processing recursively

--sortTime, -s[:asc|desc]

order files by the last modification time (default: off): ascending (recent files go last) or descending

* Filter files (based on filesystem paths):

.. Hint:: Instead of `not` you can type just `n` for negative options below.

--ex[tensions]:EX1|EX2|...

only search the files with the given extension(s), empty one (`--ex`) means files with missing extension

--notex[tensions]:EX1|EX2|...

exclude files having given extension(s), use empty one to skip files with no extension (like some binary files are)

--fi[lename]:PAT

search only files whose name matches pattern PAT

--notfi[lename]:PAT

skip files whose name matches pattern PAT

--di[rname]:PAT

select files that in their path have a directory name that matches pattern PAT

--notdi[rname]:PAT

do not descend into directories whose name (not path) matches pattern PAT

--dirp[ath]:PAT

select only files whose whole relative directory path matches pattern PAT

--notdirp[ath]:PAT

skip files whose whole relative directory path matches pattern PAT

* Filter files (based on file contents):

--inF[ile]:PAT

select files containing a (not displayed) match of PAT

--notinF[ile]:PAT

skip files containing a match of PAT

--bin:on|off|only

process binary files? (detected by \0 in first 1K bytes) (default: on - binary and text files treated the same way)

--text, -t

process only text files, the same as `--bin:off`

* Filter matches:

--inC[ontext]:PAT

select only matches containing a match of PAT in their surrounding context (multiline with `-c`, `-a`, `-b`)

--notinC[ontext]:PAT

skip matches not containing a match of PAT in their surrounding context

* Represent results:

--nocolor

output will be given without any colors

--color[:on]

force color even if output is redirected (default: auto)

--colorTheme:THEME

select color THEME from `simple` (default), `bnw` (black and white), `ack`, or `gnu` (GNU grep)

--count

only print counts of matches for files that matched

--context:N, -c:N

print N lines of leading context before every match and N lines of trailing context after it (default N: 0)

--afterContext:N, -a:N

print N lines of trailing context after every match

--beforeContext:N, -b:N

print N lines of leading context before every match

--group, -g

group matches by file

--newLine, -l

display every matching line starting from a new line

--cols[:N]

limit max displayed columns/width of output lines from files by N characters, cropping overflows (default: off)

--cols:auto, -%

calculate columns from terminal width for every line

--onlyAscii, -@

display only printable ASCII Latin characters 0x20-0x7E substitutions: 0 -> ^@, 1 -> ^A, ... 0x1F -> ^_,

0x7F -> '7F, ..., 0xFF -> 'FF

* Miscellaneous:

--threads:N, -j:N

speed up search by N additional workers (default: 0, off)

--stdin

read PATTERN from stdin (to avoid the shell's confusing quoting rules) and, if `--replace` given, REPLACEMENT

--verbose

be verbose: list every processed file

--help, -h

shows this help

--version, -v

shows the version