ugrep Ultra-Fast Searcher

ugrep is an ultra-fast, feature-rich grep replacement for searching file systems, written in C++ by Robert van Engelen. With over 4,100 stars as of 2026, ugrep aims to be the most powerful and fastest text search tool available, offering significantly better performance than grep and ripgrep in many scenarios while providing advanced features not found in either. Key features include: extreme performance (utilizing SIMD-accelerated pattern matching and multi-threaded search, achieving 2-10x faster search than traditional grep on large files), fuzzy searching (finding approximate matches with configurable edit distance, supporting Levenshtein distance for typo-tolerant search), hexadecimal view (displaying binary files as hex output with pattern highlighting, making binary file searching practical), interactive query mode (TUI interface for iteratively refining search queries with live result updates), Boolean queries (combining multiple patterns with AND, OR, and NOT operators in a single search), nested archive search (recursively searching inside compressed archives, tarballs, zip files, and cpio files without manual extraction), file type filtering (searching only specific file types like source code, documents, or media files using predefined or custom file type patterns), JSON, CSV, and XML search (structured search within specific fields, columns, or elements of structured data files), pattern highlighting (configurable color highlighting of matches with context lines), boolean file selection (selecting files to search based on patterns, sizes, dates, and attributes), output formats (standard grep-like output, JSON, and structured output for programmatic processing), and configuration files for persistent settings and aliases.