the_platinum_searcher ☆
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Description:
Multi-platform code-search similar to ack and ag
Type: Formula  |  Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025
Links: Homepage  |  formulae.brew.sh
Category: Developer tools
Tags: search grep developer-tools productivity go
Install: brew install the_platinum_searcher
About:
The Platinum Searcher (pt) is a fast code search tool written in Go, designed as a drop-in replacement for ack and the_silver_searcher (ag). It offers significant performance improvements by leveraging Go's concurrency for parallel file searching. The tool supports standard regular expressions and ignores version control directories by default for cleaner results.
Key Features:
  • High-speed parallel searching written in Go
  • Respects .gitignore and ignores VCS directories
  • Supports standard PCRE regular expressions
  • Colorized output for better readability
Use Cases:
  • Searching large codebases for specific function calls or patterns
  • Refactoring code by finding all instances of a variable name
  • Quickly locating configuration or documentation files
Alternatives:
  • ripgrep (rg) – rg is generally faster and more feature-rich, making it the modern standard.
  • the_silver_searcher (ag) – ag is the direct inspiration for pt, offering similar performance and features.
  • ack – ack is a Perl-based predecessor that is slower but highly configurable.
Version History
Detected Version Rev Change Commit
Sep 12, 2025 1:10am 0 VERSION_BUMP a90a6754
Jan 7, 2025 8:01pm 0 VERSION_BUMP 99bedece
Sep 12, 2024 10:42pm 0 VERSION_BUMP dd7d9571
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