Include .env in results

[joshmedeski]

Hello, I'd like to include my .env file in these results:

rg --files --hidden

.env is in my .gititnore and I'd like to keep it that way, however I'd like to be able to see it in my results. I'm hoping their is an flag that can be added to tell ripgrep I want to not show all files from gitignore except .env.

Something like this?

rg --files --hidden --include ".env"
rg --files --hidden --exclude "!.env"

I've spent some time in the docs, discussions and issues and can't find what I'm looking for.

Is this possible?

[BurntSushi]

Probably the simplest approach here is to do echo '!/.env' > .rgignore, which whitelists it. But then it will appear in results even without --hidden. But I think that's the best you can do. ripgrep is not arbitrarily flexible in this area.

[joshmedeski]

Great, that works on one project. Can I set a global .rgignore for all projects?

[BurntSushi]

Use --ignore-file. You can put that in an alias on ripgrep's config file.

[steliyan]

I am a bit at a loss here. I can't really get un-ignoring to work when specifying an ignore file through the CLI. I feel I missing something stupid on my side, but I am not sure what it is.

Here's my setup/project for an easy repro.

ripgrep setup

Here's my setup (dotfiles):

$ echo $RIPGREP_CONFIG_PATH
/Users/steliyan/.config/ripgrep/ripgreprc

$ ls --tree ~/.config/ripgrep
ripgrep
├── ignore
└── ripgreprc

ignore contents:

!.env

ripgreprc contents:

--hidden

Sample project

$ ls --tree ~w/rg-sample -A --icon never
rg-sample
├── .env
├── .gitignore
├── app.js
└── hidden-by-gitignore

.gitignore contents:

.env
hidden-by-gitignore

Command

\rg --hidden --ignore-file=~/.config/ripgrep/ignore --files .

The output is as follows, note that .env is missing:

./.gitignore
./app.js

If I add app.js to the ~/.config/ripgrep/ignore file then the app.js is properly filtered out from the output.

Also, if I move the ~/.config/ripgrep/ignore as ~/.rgignore (or ~/.ignore) then .env file shows in the output as expected.

Debug output

Here's an excerpt from the debug output regarding the .env:

DEBUG|ignore::walk|crates/ignore/src/walk.rs:1741: ignoring ./.env: Ignore(IgnoreMatch(Gitignore(Glob { from: Some("./.gitignore"), original: ".env", actual: "**/.env", is_whitelist: false, is_only_dir: false })))

[BurntSushi]

--ignore-file has lower precedent than gitignore in your directory tree. In your case, .env is being ignored explicitly by a gitignore file rather than being ignored merely because it is a hidden file. So the technique of using --ignore-file to whitelist it won't work.

Above all else, whitelisting requires a higher precedent rule than what is causing the file to be ignored. So, as the debug message tells you, if .env is being ignored by a rule in ./.gitignore, then you can add a whitelist rule to ./.rgignore to un-ignore it.

[steliyan]

So, there is no way to override the .gitignore behavior with a file outside the current directory (or parent directories)?

[BurntSushi]

Correct.

[steliyan]

Fair, I am glad I was not losing my mind. :))

Btw, thanks for all the efforts put into ripgrep, I am fully aware it's not possible to cover all possible use-cases and feature requests. ;)