
Ack is designed as a replacement for 99% of the uses of grep - thefox
http://linux.die.net/man/1/ack
======
_yy
The Silver Searcher, or ag:
[https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher](https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher)

Designed as a replacement for all of the use cases of Ack. Is even faster.

~~~
ggreer
I'll engage in some expectation management: ag doesn't cover _all_ uses of
Ack. I made ag because I loved Ack, but it wasn't fast enough for my needs.
For the features of Ack that I use, ag is interchangeable. For features I
don't use... not so much. Also, since the release of Ack 2.0, some behaviors
and command line options have differed slightly.

If you want to know why ag is so fast, there's a summary in the GitHub
README.[1] I've also written a few blog posts on the subject.[2]

1\. [https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher#how-is-it-
so-f...](https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher#how-is-it-so-fast)

2\. [http://geoff.greer.fm/ag/#related-
posts](http://geoff.greer.fm/ag/#related-posts)

~~~
jzzskijj
I'll take this opportunity to thank you for this productivity enhancing great
piece of software!

------
makecheck
While "would you rather type" examples are OK, I wish more people would learn
how to use their shell's short-cuts and trivial scripting.

Whenever you find yourself repeatedly running long and awkward commands that
you wish were shorter, you ought to think about converting them into an alias
or a script.

------
datalist
"Ack is designed as a replacement for 99% of the uses of grep."

Alright, but where is the advantage of it?

~~~
mbel
The name is one letter shorter. Here are some other advantages listed:
[http://beyondgrep.com/why-ack/](http://beyondgrep.com/why-ack/)

~~~
datalist
Thanks, though I hope that statement came with a pinch of sarcasm ;)

The list reads more like a list of features though than "advantages over
grep".

~~~
Kurtz79
About the command name length, probably a running joke ?

This is from the feature list of the Silver Searcher, listed above:

"The command name is 33% shorter than ack, and all keys are on the home row!"

