A simple version of grep (globally search a regular expression and print). In the simplest use case, grep searches a specified file for a specified string (it allows regex patterns). Minigrep accepts two arguments: a string and a file path. It reads the file and searches for lines that contain the specified string, then prints those matching lines.

• Build
• Usage
• Potential Features
• License

minigrep is written in Rust, so you'll need to install Rust to compile it. It will compile with the latest version of Rust.

To build minigrep:

git clone https://github.com/umairziyan/minigrep
cd minigrep
cargo build --release

Change directory to the location of the mingrep binary, normally stored in:

/target/release/minigrep

To run minigrep, execute the binary with the search string and the file to search:

Search for a pattern in a file

Usage: minigrep [OPTIONS] <query> <file>...

Arguments:
  <query>    The pattern to search for
  <file>...  The file/s to search, multiple files can be added by separating them with a space, e.g. file1.txt, file2.txt

Options:
  -i, --ignore-case   Case insensitive search
  -l, --line-numbers  Display line numbers
  -m, --highlight     Highlight matches
  -a, --all-text      Print all document, if this is enabled, matches will automatically be highlighted.
  -h, --help          Print help
  -V, --version       Print version

Examples:

  minigrep "error" file1.txt                        The pattern "error" in `file1.txt`
  minigrep "warning" file1.txt file2.txt            Search for "warning" in `file1.txt` and `file2.txt`
  minigrep -i "network" file1.txt                   Search for "network" in `file1.txt` ignoring case
  minigrep -a "response" file1.txt file2.txt        Print full content with "response" highlighted
  minigrep -i -m "status" file1.txt                 Case insensitive search for "status" with highlighting
  minigrep -a -l -m "server" file1.txt file2.txt    Print entire file, highlight "server", and show line numbers

Case Insensitivity: Add an option to perform case-insensitive searches. You could use a command-line argument to toggle this feature.

Regex Support: Integrate regular expressions to allow for more complex search patterns.

Line Number Display: Modify the output to show line numbers along with the matching lines.

Search in Multiple Files: Expand the functionality to search across multiple files or directories, rather than just a single file.

Highlight Matches: Implement a way to highlight or emphasize matching text in the output to make it easier to spot.

Performance Improvements: Optimize the search algorithm or implement parallel processing to handle large files or directories more efficiently.

Interactive Mode: Create an interactive mode where users can input search queries and navigate through results more dynamically.

Customizable Output Formatting: Allow users to customize the format of the output, such as showing matches in a specific color or format.

File Type Filtering: Add a feature to filter files by type.

Support for Binary Files: Add an option to handle binary files or to skip them entirely during the search.