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vimgrep VS The Silver Searcher

Compare vimgrep VS The Silver Searcher and see what are their differences

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vimgrep logo vimgrep

Productivity

The Silver Searcher logo The Silver Searcher

A code searching tool similar to ack, with a focus on speed.
  • vimgrep Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-07-25
  • The Silver Searcher Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-02

vimgrep features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

The Silver Searcher features and specs

  • Speed
    The Silver Searcher is designed to be very fast and efficient. It can search through large codebases significantly faster than alternatives like grep.
  • Ease of Use
    It has a simple and intuitive interface, making it easy for users to get started and quickly generate results without a steep learning curve.
  • Recursive Search
    Automatically searches directories recursively, which is useful for searching through nested project files without additional configuration.
  • File Type Ignoring
    It respects .gitignore, .hgignore, and other ignore files, making it easy to skip irrelevant files and speed up searches.
  • Multithreading
    Utilizes multiple CPU cores to perform searches faster, leveraging modern hardware capabilities.
  • Syntax Highlighting
    Supports color-coded output to easily distinguish matching terms, filenames, and line numbers.
  • Compatibility
    Works on various platforms including Linux, macOS, and Windows, ensuring a wide range of usability.

Possible disadvantages of The Silver Searcher

  • Memory Usage
    Ag (The Silver Searcher) can be more memory-intensive compared to grep, which might be a concern for environments with limited resources.
  • Installation
    Requires installation and is not pre-installed on most systems, unlike grep which is commonly included in Unix-based systems.
  • Features Limitation
    Does not have as many features or flexibility as some other search tools, such as advanced regular expression capabilities found in grep.
  • Binary Files Handling
    By default, it skips binary files. Users may need to configure it differently if they need to search within binary files.
  • Configurable Options
    While streamlined, it may offer fewer configurable options compared to more complex search tools, limiting granular control over search behavior.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    Although basic usage is straightforward, leveraging advanced features might require additional learning and familiarity with its options and flags.

Analysis of The Silver Searcher

Overall verdict

  • The Silver Searcher is generally considered a very good tool within its niche. It is highly recommended for its speed, ease of use, and ability to handle large datasets effectively.

Why this product is good

  • The Silver Searcher, often abbreviated as ag, is a powerful text searching tool designed to be a faster alternative to grep. It is particularly well-suited for searching through large codebases due to its speed and ability to ignore files specified in version control systems, such as those listed in .gitignore. Its efficiency and practicality make it a popular choice among developers who require quick and precise search capabilities during software development.

Recommended for

  • software developers working with large codebases
  • users who need faster alternatives to grep
  • those looking for a tool that respects files ignored by version control systems
  • developers who frequently perform text searches across multiple files

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to vimgrep and The Silver Searcher)

vimgrep

The Silver Searcher

File Manager
21 21%
File Manager
79% 79
Note Taking
15 15%
Note Taking
85% 85
Text Editors
100 100%
Text Editors
0% 0
Productivity
20 20%
Productivity
80% 80

User comments

Share your experience with using vimgrep and The Silver Searcher. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, The Silver Searcher seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 36 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

vimgrep mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of vimgrep yet. Tracking of vimgrep recommendations started around Mar 2021.

The Silver Searcher mentions (36)

  • Show HN: Krep a High-Performance String Search Utility Written in C
    It's weird that the_silver_searcher, also known as `ag` [1] is not mentioned in benchmarks, which is also implemented in C. I wonder why... [1] https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • 9 tools, libraries and extensions our developer can't live without (and why)
    There are other CLI search tools for code: grep, ripgrep, etc. Or actual search tools (Sourcegraph, Github, IDEs), but I always reach for Silver Searcher/Ag. Ag is a code-searching tool similar to ack, but faster. The syntax is pretty good and it’s very helpful when I just want something basic such as when I’m just looking for the string Config (I don’t use complex regex).By the way fzf.zsh, combines ag with fzf... - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Debugging Silent Create Action Failures in Rails
    If you have trouble finding it among the other stuff happening in the server log, well, so do I! I recommend learning how to programmatically search through your terminal output. Providing a universal method for this is challenging because various tools and terminal emulators implement this functionality differently. Another option would be to use tools like grep or the_silver_searcher (a favorite of mine) to... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • ✨7 Github Repositories to Master React
    Some of the examples below use ag, but could just as well use grep or equivalent. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Rust crate rg typosquatting/redirect to ripgrep
    Why guess when [there are installation instructions for various platforms on the README](https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher#installing)? Also, although it may not be easy to remember, is this really a problem in practice given the installation count in most contexts is one? If there's a context where it's installed regularly, that's... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing vimgrep and The Silver Searcher, you can also consider the following products

ripgrep - ripgrep combines the usability of The Silver Searcher with the raw speed of grep.

The Platinium Searcher (pt) - A code search tool similar to ack and the_silver_searcher(ag). It supports multi platforms and multi encodings.

grep - grep is a command-line utility for searching plain-text data sets for lines matching a regular...

SMF – Search my Files - SMF - Search my Files v13 is the fastest duplicate files finder and a multi-dimensional - file searcher, - file copier / mover, - file deleter / eraser, - and

IntelliJ IDEA - Capable and Ergonomic IDE for JVM

DocFetcher - DocFetcher is a portable German/English open source desktop search application.

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