BurntSushi/ripgrep

Support apply smart case to each individual search pattern separately

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#1791 opened on Jan 31, 2021

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 (2 comments) (1 reaction) (0 assignees)Rust (63,768 stars) (2,559 forks)batch import
enhancementhelp wanted

Description

Describe your feature request

ripgrep support to search several patterns together by -e or listing patterns in a file and using -f to specify the file. Meanwhile, --smart-case option can judge search pattern if it needs a case sensitive searching. But, for now, all patterns are treated together to match the smart case rule. i.e. if I use rg -S -e Abc -e bcd, search pattern bcd also be treated as case sensitive. So, I think it's better to support apply smart case rule to every search pattern separately, especially in the -f usage. But I am not sure if patterns in a single regex should support this.

I think ripgrep's man page for this change would be like:

 -S, --smart-case
            Searches case insensitively if the pattern is all lowercase. Search case
            sensitively otherwise. Every individual search pattern follow this rule 
            by itself, including PATTERN specified by -e and patterns in PATTERNFILE
            specified by -f.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
rust
Domain
clisearch
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-2 days
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
fresh
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Familiarity with RustUnderstanding of regexKnowledge of ripgrep internals
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
40
Research direction
Examine the smart case logic in `grep/src/search.rs` and how patterns are compiled. The current implementation treats all patterns as a single regex set. To apply smart case per pattern, each pattern needs to be evaluated individually. Look at how ` e` and ` f` options are processed in `grep/cli.rs`. Consider creating a `Pattern` struct that holds the original text and a flag for case sensitivity, then modify the matcher to handle per pattern flags. Review existing tests in `tests/` for smart case to understand expected behavior.