yet another grep implementation

what's this

just your friendly neighborhood grep implementation in python. it's like regular grep, but with a fresh coat of paint and maybe a few quirks. perfect for when you want to search through files and pretend you're a developer from the 70s.

try the demo

To see all features in action:

chmod +x try-it
./try-it.sh

before you dive in

you'll need:

• Python 3.8+

getting started

1. get the code:

git clone [your-repo-url]
cd grep

2. make it executable (yes, chmod +x):

chmod +x grep.sh

3. that's it! no fancy build process, no 500MB of node_modules, just pure python simplicity

the stuff it can do

• finds text patterns
• understands regex character classes (\d for digits, \w for words, etc)
• handles quantifiers (+, ?)
• does start/end matching (^ and $ - the anchors of regex)
• groups things together with () and can do alternation with groups. (pattern) + , (pattern1!pattern2)
• remembers what it captured (back-references)
• digs through directories recursively too!

how to use it

search a file:

./grep.sh -E "whatever" file.txt

search multiple files (because one is never enough):

./grep.sh -E "pattern" file1.txt file2.txt

pipe some text through it:

cat pascal.txt | ./grep.sh -E "triangle"
echo "does this work?" | ./grep.sh -E "work"

recursive search an entire directory:

./grep.sh -r -E "whoops" ./my_entire_project/

examples

find numbers:

./grep.sh -E "\d+" numbers.txt

find all your TODO comments:

./grep.sh -r -E "TODO" ./src/

match repeated words (like "the the"):

./grep.sh -E "(the)\1" essay.txt

find email-like patterns

./grep.sh -E "\w+@\w+" contacts.txt

when things go wrong (or ...right)

• exit code 0: "found it!" 🎉
• exit code 1: "nope" 🤷🏻‍♀️ (sorry!)

contributing

found a bug? want to add a feature? know how to make it faster or better? pull requests welcome.