# Feature catalog — BurntSushi/ripgrep

> Canonical page: https://codevetter.com/unpack/ripgrep/feature-catalog

# Feature catalog — BurntSushi/ripgrep

Scanned commit 3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7 (2026-08-04). Generated by codevetter codevetter 1.12.0 on 2026-09-22.

ripgrep's user surface is a single command with a very large flag set: `FLAGS` in `crates/core/flags/defs.rs` is a static slice of `&dyn Flag` trait objects, each carrying short/long/negated/alias names, a documentation category, short and long (mdoc) help text, a completion type, and an `update` method that mutates `LowArgs`. Beyond plain search, the binary has distinct top-level modes — `--files`, `--type-list`, `--generate`, `-h/--help`/`-V/--version` special modes, and the experimental index modes. Output modes (`--count`, `--count-matches`, `-l/--files-with-matches`, `--files-without-match`, `--json`) select among three printers. Filtering features include gitignore semantics, `-t/--type` file types, `-g/--glob` overrides, hidden-file handling and `--max-filesize`. Provider-style integrations are the pluggable regex engine (`--engine auto|default|pcre2`), decompression (`-z`), arbitrary preprocessors (`--pre`), and terminal hyperlinks.
- `Mode` enumerates the five top-level behaviors — `Search(SearchMode)`, `Index(IndexMode)`, `Files`, `Types`, `Generate(GenerateMode)` — with `Mode::Search(SearchMode::Standard)` as the default. — [crates/core/flags/lowargs.rs#L156-L175](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/core/flags/lowargs.rs#L156-L175)
- `SearchMode` has six variants (`Standard`, `FilesWithMatches`, `FilesWithoutMatch`, `Count`, `CountMatches`, `JSON`) and `HiArgs::printer` maps them onto `Printer::Standard`, `Printer::JSON` or `Printer::Summary` with a `SummaryKind`. — [crates/core/flags/lowargs.rs#L204-L226](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/core/flags/lowargs.rs#L204-L226) [crates/core/flags/hiargs.rs#L572-L602](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/core/flags/hiargs.rs#L572-L602)
- `--generate` emits ancillary artifacts: `GenerateMode::Man` produces roff, and `CompleteBash`/`CompleteZsh`/`CompleteFish`/`CompletePowerShell` produce shell completions, all rendered from the same `FLAGS` table. — [crates/core/main.rs#L327-L348](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/core/main.rs#L327-L348) [crates/core/flags/complete/mod.rs](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/core/flags/complete/mod.rs) [crates/core/flags/doc/man.rs#L26-L49](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/core/flags/doc/man.rs#L26-L49)
- `-h` and `--help` render different documents (`generate_short` vs `generate_long`) from `template.short.help` / `template.long.help`, interpolating per-category placeholders like `!!filter!!` and `!!output-modes!!`. — [crates/core/flags/doc/help.rs#L1-L50](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/core/flags/doc/help.rs#L1-L50) [crates/core/flags/mod.rs#L226-L240](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/core/flags/mod.rs#L226-L240)
- `--type-list` is implemented by `types()` in main, which iterates `args.types().definitions()` and prints `name: glob, glob` lines, exiting 1 if there are no definitions. — [crates/core/main.rs#L305-L325](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/core/main.rs#L305-L325) [crates/ignore/src/types.rs#L253-L262](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/ignore/src/types.rs#L253-L262)
- ripgrep ships a large built-in file-type table, `DEFAULT_TYPES`, mapping type names to glob lists (e.g. `ada` → `*.adb`,`*.ads`), extensible per-invocation via `--type-add`. — [crates/ignore/src/default_types.rs#L1-L20](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/ignore/src/default_types.rs#L1-L20) [crates/ignore/src/types.rs#L421-L490](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/ignore/src/types.rs#L421-L490)
- Three regex engine choices are supported: `EngineChoice::Default` (Rust regex), `PCRE2`, and `Auto`, where `Auto` tries Rust first and falls back to PCRE2, reporting both errors side by side if both fail. — [crates/core/flags/hiargs.rs#L379-L412](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/core/flags/hiargs.rs#L379-L412)
- `-z/--search-zip` transparently decompresses by file extension using external binaries: gzip, bzip2, xz (also for `.lzma`), lz4, brotli, zstd and `uncompress`, keyed by globs like `*.gz`, `*.tgz`, `*.zst`, `*.Z`. — [crates/cli/src/decompress.rs#L490-L532](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/cli/src/decompress.rs#L490-L532)
- `--pre` runs an arbitrary user program per file with the path as argv[1] and the file on stdin, optionally restricted by `--pre-glob` via `preprocessor_globs`. — [crates/core/search.rs#L285-L315](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/core/search.rs#L285-L315) [crates/core/flags/hiargs.rs#L705-L718](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/core/flags/hiargs.rs#L705-L718)
- Hyperlink support is a first-class feature with named aliases (e.g. `"vscode".parse::<HyperlinkFormat>()`) and interpolation variables including `{host}` and a `{wslprefix}` derived from `WSL_DISTRO_NAME`. — [crates/printer/src/hyperlink/mod.rs#L55-L110](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/printer/src/hyperlink/mod.rs#L55-L110) [crates/printer/src/hyperlink/mod.rs#L243-L280](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/printer/src/hyperlink/mod.rs#L243-L280) [crates/core/flags/hiargs.rs#L1438-L1458](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/core/flags/hiargs.rs#L1438-L1458)
- Sorting is user-selectable across four criteria — `path`, `modified`, `accessed`, `created` — with reverse variants; `HiArgs::sort` special-cases ascending path sort to be done during traversal instead of by buffering. — [crates/core/flags/hiargs.rs#L773-L832](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/core/flags/hiargs.rs#L773-L832) [crates/core/flags/lowargs.rs#L664-L672](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/core/flags/lowargs.rs#L664-L672)
- The experimental indexing surface consists of `--x-crud` (create/update/remove index entries), `--x-index-force` and `--x-index-path`, all in the `Category::Indexing` group, which renders as "Indexing is not supported in this build of ripgrep." when the feature is off. — [crates/core/flags/defs.rs#L3552-L3620](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/core/flags/defs.rs#L3552-L3620) [crates/core/flags/defs.rs#L3660-L3725](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/core/flags/defs.rs#L3660-L3725) [crates/core/flags/mod.rs#L49-L51](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/core/flags/mod.rs#L49-L51)
- `--stats` produces either a human block (matches / matched lines / files searched / bytes printed / seconds) or, in JSON mode, an extra `{"type":"summary"}` record with `elapsed_total`. — [crates/core/main.rs#L395-L455](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/core/main.rs#L395-L455)
- `ignore` exposes a second public feature beyond traversal: `IncrementalIgnore`, built via `WalkBuilder::build_matchers()`, which checks individual paths against hierarchical ignore files without re-walking the tree. — [crates/ignore/src/incremental.rs#L10-L56](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/ignore/src/incremental.rs#L10-L56) [crates/ignore/src/walk.rs#L675-L700](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/ignore/src/walk.rs#L675-L700) [crates/ignore/src/lib.rs#L51-L56](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/blob/3fce3b5bb0236da2df6d99672afb8a719642eca7/crates/ignore/src/lib.rs#L51-L56)

Every claim links to its cited files at the pinned commit. Citations identify source evidence; they do not establish runtime correctness. Independent CodeVetter scan — not reviewed by upstream maintainers.

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