17

I have started using ack which is much faster than grep. However using ack I want to search for file name rather than file contents. Is there a way to do that?

Improve this question
0
17

Use the right tool for the right job. If you want to search for filename, use 'find':

$ # search for all *.txt file in current directory
$ find . -iname "*.txt"
Improve this answer
6
  • 1
    very true. "once you hold a hammer in your hand everything starts to look like a nail" :) – akira Apr 25 '10 at 15:05
  • 2
    Well, ack (and grep) are nicer because you don't have to be explicit about regexes unless you want to. I usually just do a find . | ack whatev.ext – Ehtesh Choudhury May 25 '12 at 15:49
  • This works for finding directories as well. – Pratik Khadloya Jul 24 '12 at 17:03
  • 1
    find and ack behave differently since ack filters out a lot of results by default (contents of version control directories, compiled objects in a source repository) that would be included by find. The best hammer depends on the results you want. – Joshua Goldberg Jan 8 '15 at 22:05
  • 1
    This is not answering the question... – lajarre Jun 26 '15 at 9:42
24
ack -g REGEX

Print files where the relative path + filename matches REGEX

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    add [^/]*$ to your REGEX to search in the filename only – simon Sep 3 '17 at 1:14
8

I agree it makes sense to use find if you're just searching for *.txt files. However, ack has powerful file-type detectiong features, so you can use

ack -f --perl

which will find all the Perl files, based on both the filename (*.pm, *.pl, *.t and *.pod) and the shebang line.

Improve this answer
1

You can do : 

ack -f | ack "filename.ext"
Improve this answer
0

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.