fex ☆
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Description:
Powerful field extraction tool
Type: Formula  |  Latest Version: 2.0.0@0  |  Tracked Since: Dec 17, 2025
Links: Homepage  |  formulae.brew.sh
Category: Developer tools
Tags: text-processing cli regex log-analysis data-extraction
Install: brew install fex
About:
Fex is a command-line utility for extracting specific fields from structured text streams like log files. It uses a simple, Perl-compatible regular expression syntax to define named capture groups, outputting results in a consistent format. This tool is valuable for parsing complex data without the overhead of more verbose scripting languages.
Key Features:
  • Simple syntax for defining named capture groups
  • Outputs extracted fields in a consistent, parseable format
  • Designed for high performance on large text streams
  • Handles complex log formats and unstructured text
Use Cases:
  • Parsing web server access logs to extract IP addresses, URLs, or status codes
  • Sifting through application logs to find and analyze specific error messages
  • Filtering command output to isolate specific data points for further processing
Alternatives:
  • awk – More powerful and general-purpose text processing, but with a steeper learning curve for complex extractions.
  • grep – Excellent for matching lines, but not designed for structured field extraction and output.
  • jq – The standard for parsing JSON, whereas fex is specialized for regex-based extraction from plain text.
License: Apache-2.0
Bottles available for: arm64_tahoe, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_ventura, arm64_monterey, arm64_big_sur, sonoma, ventura, monterey, big_sur, catalina, arm64_linux, x86_64_linux
Version History
Detected Version Rev Change Commit
Sep 13, 2025 7:24pm 0 VERSION_BUMP 99685042
Sep 13, 2024 5:22am 0 VERSION_BUMP 175df8c7
Oct 1, 2023 3:12pm 0 VERSION_BUMP 68f9f916
Nov 26, 2022 2:11am 0 VERSION_BUMP f520a45a
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