How to combine rg with less in terminal

USECASE

The aim of this page 📝 is to explain how to paginate the results of ripgrep (rg) using less. This is especially useful for querying my knowledge base, which is a simple file tree full of markdown files, edited in Visual Studio Code.

less is a powerful terminal pager program used to view the contents of a file one screen at a time. It allows backward and forward navigation through the file, and it is more feature-rich than other pagers like more. With less, you can search within the file, navigate by lines or pages, and even view files with color formatting.

• Ripgrep (rg) is a powerful tool for searching within files.
• To handle large search results, pipe the output to a pager like less.
• The -R flag is crucial for displaying colors correctly in less.
• Using ripgrep with the --pretty flag and less provides a great combination.

rg --pretty '<search_term>' | less -R

• Benefits of this approach:
  • Scroll up/down through results: Navigate large outputs easily.
  • Search within results: Press / in less to search (like vim)
  • Preserved colors and formatting: Keep syntax highlighting.
  • Line numbers and file names remain visible.
  • Easy exit: Press q to quit less.
  • Hyperlinks + preview: with Warp, I'll get the contents of the linked file OOTB

LINKS

• https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep
• https://www.tecmint.com/less-command-examples/