----- created_at: 2009-07-22T16:15:23+02:00 kind: article title: Better than Grep author_name: Yann Esposito author_uri: yannesposito.com menupriority: 1 ----- # update As [Andy Lester](http://www.theworkinggeek.com) told me [`ack`](http://betterthangrep.com) is a simple file you only have to copy in your `~/bin` folder. Now I've got `ack` on my professional server. Go on [http://betterthangrep.com](http://betterthangrep.com) to download it. Sincerely, I don't understand `ack` don't become a common command on all UNIX systems. I can no more live without. For me it is as essential as `which` or `find`. newcorps Better than grep ============================================= One of the my main usage of `grep` is
grep 'pattern' **/*(.)
#!/usr/bin/env zsh
(($#<1)) && { print 'usage: ack "regexp"' >&2; exit 1 }
listeFic=( **/*(.) )
autoload zargs
zargs -- $listeFic -- grep $1 | perl -ne 'use Term::ANSIColor;
if (m/([^:]*)(:.*)('$1')(.*)/) {
print color("green").$1;
print color("reset").$2;
print color("black","on_yellow").$3;
print color("reset").$4."\n";
} '