komodokode / ret

Ret

A pure-python command-line regular expression tool for stream filtering, extracting, and parsing.

Installation

You can install this via

python3 -m pip install ret

or using pipx

pipx install ret

Ret is pure python (3.6+) with no dependencies.

Usage

Example

You can use Ret to extract text via regex capture groups:

$ git branch
* master
$ git branch | ret "\*\s+(\w+)" --group 1
master

finding all occurrences of a pattern:

$ ls | ret ".*\.py" findall
foo.py
bar.py

Background

I love grep. But grep isn't really for text extraction.

For example, you cannot extract regexes via capture groups.

Since I wanted that functionality, I decided to build this, Ret.

Why the name?

Ret is an acronym for r egular e xpression t ool.

Why it can't replace grep (yet)

Grep is great for searching directories Currently, ret can only read from a file or stdin.

Furthermore, you cannot guarantee that ret is installed on the machine.

Also, Ret relies on the (slow) python regex engine.

Feel free to contribute!