Better than Grep
update
As Andy Lester told me ack 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 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.
Better than grep
One of the my main usage of grep is
grep ‘pattern’ */(.)
Most of time it is enough. But it is far better with colored output. ack-grep in Ubuntu does that. As I couldn’t install it on my ‘Evil Company Server’, I had done one myself in very few lines:
#!/usr/bin/env zsh (($#<1)) && { print ‘usage: ack “regexp”’ >&2; exit 1 }
For my team and I it is usable enough. I hope it could help.