ugrep

User friendly grep.

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Console’s review

· Reviewed by David Mytton

What we like

True drop-in replacement for grep - it focuses on the UX to make it easier to search. This means an interactive TUI by default. Lots of small UX tweaks vs GNU grep e.g. matching unicode by default, can search archives like .zip, can search PDFs, docs, and other file formats. Different outputs e.g. JSON, XML.

Tradeoffs

Not much to dislike! It’s written in C++ rather than Rust, which some might consider vs something like ripgrep, but is that really an issue?

Is ugrep a fit?

Based on Console’s review published on 2024-01-11. Summary updated .

Who it’s for

Users looking for a user-friendly alternative to grep

Why consider it

It provides an interactive TUI by default and supports searching various file formats

Keep in mind

It is written in C++ rather than Rust

Console is a free weekly newsletter with short reviews of developer tools, covering strengths and tradeoffs. This review reflects Console’s assessment at publication on 2024-01-11. Features and limitations may have changed since the review date. Read our selection criteria and learn about Console.

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