user guide should anticipate common failure mode (* in $HOME/.gitignore)

[ApolloTang]

What version of ripgrep are you using?

ripgrep 0.8.0 (rev )
-SIMD -AVX

What operating system are you using ripgrep on?

macOS High Sierra
10.13.3

Bug report

First time on ripgrep, following User Guide

but recursive search does not work !

$ rg 'fn write\(' --debug
DEBUG/grep::search/grep/src/search.rs:195: regex ast:
Literal {
    chars: [
        'f',
        'n',
        ' ',
        'w',
        'r',
        'i',
        't',
        'e',
        '('
    ],
    casei: false
}
DEBUG/grep::literals/grep/src/literals.rs:38: literal prefixes detected: Literals { lits: [Complete(fn write()], limit_size: 250, limit_class: 10 }
DEBUG/globset/globset/src/lib.rs:401: built glob set; 0 literals, 1 basenames, 0 extensions, 0 prefixes, 0 suffixes, 0 required extensions, 0 regexes
DEBUG/globset/globset/src/lib.rs:396: glob converted to regex: Glob { glob: "**/*", re: "(?-u)^(?:/?|.*/).*$", opts: GlobOptions { case_insensitive: false, literal_separator: false }, tokens: Tokens([RecursivePrefix, ZeroOrMore]) }
DEBUG/globset/globset/src/lib.rs:396: glob converted to regex: Glob { glob: "**/*", re: "(?-u)^(?:/?|.*/).*$", opts: GlobOptions { case_insensitive: false, literal_separator: false }, tokens: Tokens([RecursivePrefix, ZeroOrMore]) }
DEBUG/globset/globset/src/lib.rs:396: glob converted to regex: Glob { glob: "**/._*", re: "(?-u)^(?:/?|.*/)\\._.*$", opts: GlobOptions { case_insensitive: false, literal_separator: false }, tokens: Tokens([RecursivePrefix, Literal('.'), Literal('_'), ZeroOrMore]) }
DEBUG/globset/globset/src/lib.rs:401: built glob set; 0 literals, 28 basenames, 1 extensions, 0 prefixes, 0 suffixes, 0 required extensions, 3 regexes
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./.gitignore__: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: false })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./Cargo.toml: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: false })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./CHANGELOG.md: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: false })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./complete: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*/", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: true })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./globset: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*/", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: true })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./ignore: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*/", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: true })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./ci: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*/", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: true })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./benchsuite: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*/", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: true })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./tests: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*/", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: true })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./Cargo.lock: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: false })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./build.rs: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: false })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./HomebrewFormula: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: false })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./grep: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*/", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: true })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./README.md: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: false })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./termcolor: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*/", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: true })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./appveyor.yml: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: false })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./COPYING: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: false })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./UNLICENSE: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: false })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./compile: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: false })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./doc: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*/", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: true })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./wincolor: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*/", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: true })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./.travis.yml: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: false })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./snapcraft.yaml: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: false })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./LICENSE-MIT: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: false })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./pkg: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*/", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: true })))
DEBUG/ignore::walk/ignore/src/walk.rs:1392: ignoring ./src: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("/Users/apollotang/.gitignore"), original: "*/", actual: "**/*", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: true })))
No files were searched, which means ripgrep probably applied a filter you didn't expect. Try running again with --debug.
~/Desktop/ripgrep-0.7.1
$

[okdana]

The debug output explains it: rg has traversed up the file tree, where it found ~/.gitignore, which contains the rule *, which makes it ignore all files.

You can control which ignore files rg respects with -u, --no-ignore, --no-ignore-vcs, --no-ignore-parent, and so on. --no-ignore-parent might be the easiest thing here.

I wonder if it would make sense for there to be an option to make rg stop looking for parent .gitignore files once it encounters a parent containing a .git directory? That way it'd only respect the VCS ignores for the current repo. Might not be reliable or a common enough problem, idk

[ApolloTang]

Thanks for quick response @okdana, Yes I do have a legacy .gitignore in my ~/ and I completely forgot all about it.

[BurntSushi]

I wonder if it would make sense for there to be an option to make rg stop looking for parent .gitignore files once it encounters a parent containing a .git directory? That way it'd only respect the VCS ignores for the current repo. Might not be reliable or a common enough problem, idk

This should actually be the current behavior:

ripgrep/tests/tests.rs

Lines 615 to 644 in 9b7f420

	sherlock!(ignore_git_parent_stop, "Sherlock", ".",
	|wd: WorkDir, mut cmd: Command| {
	// This tests that searching parent directories for .gitignore files stops
	// after it sees a .git directory. To test this, we create this directory
	// hierarchy:
	//
	// .gitignore (contains `sherlock`)
	// foo/
	// .git
	// bar/
	// sherlock
	//
	// And we perform the search inside `foo/bar/`. ripgrep will stop looking
	// for .gitignore files after it sees `foo/.git/`, and therefore not
	// respect the top-level `.gitignore` containing `sherlock`.
	wd.remove("sherlock");
	wd.create(".gitignore", "sherlock\n");
	wd.create_dir("foo");
	wd.create_dir("foo/.git");
	wd.create_dir("foo/bar");
	wd.create("foo/bar/sherlock", hay::SHERLOCK);
	cmd.current_dir(wd.path().join("foo").join("bar"));
	let lines: String = wd.stdout(&mut cmd);
	let expected = "\
	sherlock:For the Doctor Watsons of this world, as opposed to the Sherlock
	sherlock:be, to a very large extent, the result of luck. Sherlock Holmes
	";
	assert_eq!(lines, expected);
	});

The problem here is that the guide instructs folks to download a zip containing the source, which, when unpacked, isn't actually a git directory.

[okdana]

Oh, lol. Well then.

[BurntSushi]

I'm going to re-open this. I think the * in $HOME/.gitignore is a common enough pattern that it would probably be wise to explicitly call this out in the user guide somewhere.