Can I create an ack file type based on a filename, not extension?

Question

I would like to include files with a specific name -- not an extension -- in my ack search. Is this possible with ack?

If I use the -G option, this would exclude all other file types. (So I can't put it in my .ackrc file.)

I tried to use --type-set mytype=filename.txt but this only works for extensions, so this would search for files including the pattern .filename.txt, thus not find filename.txt. (That's also what the ack --help types shows: --mytype .filename.txt, not --mytype filename.txt.)

Someone any ideas?

Armallas

Answer 1

man ack says that the files to be searched in can be given through standard input.
So this should work:

find . -name filename.txt | ack PATTERN -

Unfortunately, it doesn't. It gives ack: Ignoring 1 argument on the command-line while acting as a filter., which apparently is a bug in ack. When this bug will be fixed, we should be able to use

find . -name filename.txt | ack --nofilter PATTERN -

Armallas

In the mean time, just use xargs: find . -name filename.txt | xargs ack PATTERN - – Offside

Answer 2

You also do it like if you're using zsh:

ack 'Pattern' **/filename.txt

Gastroenterostomy

In my case, this doesn't check all the files filename.txt in the subtree, only some of them. – Armallas

This seems to depend on the shell you are using. For bash you can go on searching like this: */filename.txt, */*/filename.txt,... – Armallas

Answer 3

What you're asking is "can I make a filetype that ack recognizes based on a filename", and the answer is "No, not in ack 1.x, but you can in ack 2.0". ack 2.0 is in alpha release, and we hope to have a beta by Christmas.

As @Christian pointed out above, you can specify the given filename on the command line, but that bypasses filetype checking entirely.

Elatia

Answer 4

I know this is a late reply, but could you simply specify the filename when you run ack?

ack 'My Text' filename.txt

Detergency

-> ack filename.txt: No such file or directory unless there is a filename.txt in the current directory, but that would still ignore all the other files with this name in the subdirectories. – Armallas