helm-ag.el

Introduction

helm-ag.el provides interfaces of The Silver Searcher with helm.

Features

• Support multiple search tools(ag, the platinum searcher, ack etc)
• Edit search result like wgrep

Screenshot

Requirements

• Emacs 27 or higher
• helm 1.7.7 or higher
• The Silver Searcher 0.29.0 or higher.

Installation

helm-ag is available on MELPA and MELPA stable

You can install helm-ag with the following command.

M-x package-install [RET] helm-ag [RET]

Basic Usage

helm-ag

Input search word with ag command. You can change search directory with C-u prefix.

helm-ag-this-file

Same as helm-ag except to search only current file

helm-do-ag

Search with ag like helm-do-grep-ag , helm-grep-do-git-grep. You can specify extra command line option of ag with minus prefix(M-- or C--).

helm-do-ag-this-file

Same as helm-do-ag except to search only current file

helm-do-ag-this-file-or-occur

Smartly switch between helm-do-ag-this-file and helm-occur based on helm-ag-large-file-threshold.

helm-ag-project-root

Call helm-ag at project root. helm-ag seems directory as project root where there is .git or .hg or .svn.

helm-do-ag-project-root

Call helm-do-ag at project root.

helm-ag-buffers

Search buffers by helm-ag

helm-do-ag-buffers

Search buffers by helm-do-ag

helm-ag-pop-stack

Move to point before jump

helm-ag-clear-stack

Clear context stack

Enable helm-follow-mode by default

Please set helm-follow-mode-persistent to non-nil if you want to use helm-follow-mode by default. You must set it before loading helm-ag.el.

(custom-set-variables
 '(helm-follow-mode-persistent t))

Persistent action

You can see file content temporarily by persistent action(C-j).

Search Tips of helm-ag

Passing command line options and pattern

Pattern: -Gmd$ search_pattern

Command line options is -Gmd$ and search pattern is search_pattern. helm-ag treats words which starts with - as command line option.

Pattern contains space(helm-do-ag)

Pattern: foo\ bar\ baz

Search pattern is foo\ bar\ baz. You need to escape spaces with backslash.

In helm-ag, you need not to escape spaces.

Pattern starts with -

Pattern: -- --count

Search pattern is --count. helm-ag treats words after -- as search pattern.

Search meta characters as literal

ag(ack, pt) takes Perl compatible PCRE so that you need to escape meta characters likes brackets, braces, asterisk, when you search them as literals.

Use short option

Don't use space between option and its value. For example -tcpp is ok, -t cpp is not ok.

Use long option

Please always use = separator for using long option. Don't use space as separator. For example --ignore=pattern is ok, --ignore pattern is not ok.

Customize

helm-ag-base-command(Default: ag --nocolor --nogroup)

Base command of ag. Windows users should set --vimgrep option for using helm-do-ag. See #293

helm-ag-command-option(Default: nil)

Command line option of base command.

helm-ag-insert-at-point(Default: nil)

Insert thing at point as default search pattern, if this value is non nil. You can set the parameter same as thing-at-point(Such as 'word, symbol etc).

helm-ag-fuzzy-match(Default: nil)

Enable fuzzy matching.

helm-ag-use-grep-ignore-list(Default: nil)

Use grep-find-ignored-files and grep-find-ignored-directories as ignore pattern. They are specified to `--ignore' options."

helm-ag-always-set-extra-option(Default: nil)

Always set extra command line option of ag in helm-do-ag if this value is non-nil.

helm-ag-edit-save(Default: t)

Save buffers you edit at editing completed.

helm-ag-use-emacs-lisp-regexp(Default: nil)

Use Emacs Lisp regexp instead of PCRE as pattern. NOTE: this is very simple conversion.

helm-ag-use-agignore(Default: nil)

Use .agignore file at project root if this variable is non nil.

helm-ag-use-temp-buffer(Default: nil)

Use temporary buffer and not open file for persistent action.

helm-ag-ignore-buffer-patterns(Default: nil)

Ignore buffer patterns of buffer search commands.

NOTE

helm removes file-line type feature from 1.6.9. So helm-ag-source-type is no longer available.

Keymap

helm-ag-map and helm-do-ag-map are inherited by helm-map.

Key	Action
C-c o	Open other window
C-l	Search in parent directory
C-c C-e	Switch to edit mode
C-x C-s	Save ag results to buffer(Ask save buffer name if prefix key is specified)
C-c C-f	Enable helm-follow-mode
C-c >, right	Move to next file
C-c <, left	Move to previous file
C-c ?	Show help message

Edit mode keymap

Key	Action
C-c C-c	Commit changes
C-c C-k	Abort
C-c C-d	Mark delete line
C-c C-u	Unmark

You can use next-error and previous-error for seeing file content which current line indicates.

Saved buffer keymap

Key	Action
RET	Jump to current line position
C-o	Jump to current line position in other window
g	Update result

Sample Configuration

(custom-set-variables
 '(helm-ag-base-command "ag --nocolor --nogroup --ignore-case")
 '(helm-ag-command-option "--all-text")
 '(helm-ag-insert-at-point 'symbol)
 '(helm-ag-ignore-buffer-patterns '("\\.txt\\'" "\\.mkd\\'")))

helm-ag.el with other searching tools

helm-ag.el can work other searching tools like platinum searcher or ack instead of the silver searcher. I think the searching tool which supports grep like output, helm-ag can work with it.

the platinum searcher

(custom-set-variables
 '(helm-ag-base-command "pt -e --nocolor --nogroup"))

ack

(custom-set-variables
 '(helm-ag-base-command "ack --nocolor --nogroup"))

sift

(custom-set-variables
 '(helm-ag-base-command "sift --no-color -n"))

ripgrep

Ripgrep uses exit-status 2 to indicate a partial success:

(custom-set-variables
 '(helm-ag-base-command "rg --no-heading --line-number --color never")
 `(helm-ag-success-exit-status '(0 2)))

NOTE: For pt and rg users

When using ag or ack, helm-do-ag convert pattern from foo bar to "(?=.*" foo ".*)(?=.*" bar ".*)" which pattern matches line which contains both foo and bar. But when using pt or rg, helm-do-ag does not convert the pattern because Golang regexp(pt is written in Golang) and rust's regex (rg is written in rust) does not support look-a-head pattern. So using pt or rg behaves differently from ag when you use such pattern.

Alternatives

ag.el provides M-x grep interface. Also it can work without helm.