bp/bp.1

.\" Automatically generated by Pandoc 2.14.0.2
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.TH "BP" "1" "May 17 2021" "" ""
.hy
.SH NAME
.PP
bp - Bruce\[aq]s Parsing Expression Grammar tool
.SH SYNOPSIS
.PP
\f[B]bp\f[R] [\f[I]options\&...\f[R]] \f[I]pattern\f[R] [[\f[B]--\f[R]]
\f[I]files\&...\f[R]]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
\f[B]bp\f[R] is a tool that matches parsing expression grammars using a
custom syntax.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
\f[B]-p\f[R], \f[B]--pattern\f[R] \f[I]pat\f[R]
Give a pattern in BP syntax instead of string syntax (equivalent to
\f[B]bp \[aq]\[rs](pat)\[aq]\f[R]
.TP
\f[B]-w\f[R], \f[B]--word\f[R] \f[I]word\f[R]
Surround a string pattern with word boundaries (equivalent to
\f[B]bp \[aq]\[rs]|word\[rs]|\[aq]\f[R])
.TP
\f[B]-e\f[R], \f[B]--explain\f[R]
Print a visual explanation of the matches.
.TP
\f[B]-j\f[R], \f[B]--json\f[R]
Print a JSON list of the matches.
(Pairs with \f[B]--verbose\f[R] for more detail)
.TP
\f[B]-l\f[R], \f[B]--list-files\f[R]
Print only the names of files containing matches instead of the matches
themselves.
.TP
\f[B]-i\f[R], \f[B]--ignore-case\f[R]
Perform pattern matching case-insensitively.
.TP
\f[B]-I\f[R], \f[B]--inplace\f[R]
Perform filtering or replacement in-place (i.e.\ overwrite files with
new content).
.TP
\f[B]-r\f[R], \f[B]--replace\f[R] \f[I]replacement\f[R]
Replace all occurrences of the main pattern with the given string.
.TP
\f[B]-s\f[R], \f[B]--skip\f[R] \f[I]pattern\f[R]
While looking for matches, skip over \f[I]pattern\f[R] occurrences.
This can be useful for behavior like \f[B]bp -s string\f[R] (avoiding
matches inside string literals).
.TP
\f[B]-g\f[R], \f[B]--grammar\f[R] \f[I]grammar-file\f[R]
Load the grammar from the given file.
See the \f[B]GRAMMAR FILES\f[R] section for more info.
.TP
\f[B]-G\f[R], \f[B]--git\f[R]
Use \f[B]git\f[R] to get a list of files.
Remaining file arguments (if any) are passed to \f[B]git --ls-files\f[R]
instead of treated as literal files.
.TP
\f[B]-B\f[R], \f[B]--context-before\f[R] \f[I]N\f[R]
The number of lines of context to print before each match (default: 0).
See \f[B]--context\f[R] below for details on \f[B]none\f[R] or
\f[B]all\f[R].
.TP
\f[B]-A\f[R], \f[B]--context-after\f[R] \f[I]N\f[R]
The number of lines of context to print after each match (default: 0).
See \f[B]--context\f[R] below for details on \f[B]none\f[R] or
\f[B]all\f[R].
.TP
\f[B]-C\f[R], \f[B]--context\f[R] \f[I]N\f[R]
The number of lines to print before and after each match (default: 0).
If \f[I]N\f[R] is \f[B]none\f[R], print only the exact text of the
matches.
If \f[I]N\f[R] is \f[B]\[lq]all\[rq]\f[R], print all text before and
after each match.
.TP
\f[B]-f\f[R], \f[B]--format\f[R] \f[I]auto\f[R]|\f[I]fancy\f[R]|\f[I]plain\f[R]
Set the output format.
\f[I]fancy\f[R] includes colors and line numbers, \f[I]plain\f[R]
includes neither, and \f[I]auto\f[R] (the default) uses \f[I]fancy\f[R]
formatting only when the output is a TTY.
.TP
\f[B]-h\f[R], \f[B]--help\f[R]
Print the usage and exit.
.TP
\f[I]pattern\f[R]
The main pattern for bp to match.
By default, this pattern is a string pattern (see the \f[B]STRING
PATTERNS\f[R] section below).
.TP
\f[I]files\&...\f[R]
The input files to search.
If no input files are provided and data was piped in, that data will be
used instead.
If neither are provided, \f[B]bp\f[R] will search through all files in
the current directory and its subdirectories (recursively).
.SH STRING PATTERNS
.PP
One of the most common use cases for pattern matching tools is matching
plain, literal strings, or strings that are primarily plain strings,
with one or two patterns.
\f[B]bp\f[R] is designed around this fact.
The default mode for bp patterns is \[lq]string pattern mode\[rq].
In string pattern mode, all characters are interpreted literally except
for the backslash (\f[B]\[rs]\f[R]), which may be followed by an escape
or a bp pattern (see the \f[B]PATTERNS\f[R] section below).
Optionally, the bp pattern may be terminated by a semicolon
(\f[B];\f[R]).
.SH PATTERNS
.PP
\f[B]bp\f[R] patterns are based off of a combination of Parsing
Expression Grammars and regular expression syntax.
The syntax is designed to map closely to verbal descriptions of the
patterns, and prefix operators are preferred over suffix operators (as
is common in regex syntax).
Patterns are whitespace-agnostic, so they work the same regardless of
whether whitespace is present or not, except for string literals
(\f[B]\[aq]...\[aq]\f[R] and \f[B]\[dq]...\[dq]\f[R]), character
literals (\f[B]\[ga]\f[R]), and escape sequences (\f[B]\[rs]\f[R]).
Whitespace between patterns or parts of a pattern should be used for
clarity, but it will not affect the meaning of the pattern.
.TP
\f[I]pat1 pat2\f[R]
A sequence: \f[I]pat1\f[R] followed by \f[I]pat2\f[R]
.TP
\f[I]pat1\f[R] \f[B]/\f[R] \f[I]pat2\f[R]
A choice: \f[I]pat1\f[R], or if it doesn\[aq]t match, then
\f[I]pat2\f[R]
.TP
\f[B].\f[R]
Any character (excluding newline)
.TP
\f[B]\[ha]\f[R]
Start of a line
.TP
\f[B]\[ha]\[ha]\f[R]
Start of the text
.TP
\f[B]$\f[R]
End of a line (does not include newline character)
.TP
\f[B]$$\f[R]
End of the text
.TP
\f[B]_\f[R]
Zero or more whitespace characters, including spaces and tabs, but not
newlines.
.TP
\f[B]__\f[R]
Zero or more whitespace characters, including spaces, tabs, newlines,
and comments.
Comments are undefined by default, but may be defined by a separate
grammar file.
See the \f[B]GRAMMAR FILES\f[R] section for more info.
.TP
\f[B]\[dq]foo\[dq]\f[R], \f[B]\[aq]foo\[aq]\f[R]
The literal string \f[B]\[lq]foo\[rq]\f[R].
Single and double quotes are treated the same.
Escape sequences are not allowed.
.TP
\f[B]\[ga]\f[R]\f[I]c\f[R]
The literal character \f[I]c\f[R] (e.g.\ \f[B]\[ga]\[at]\f[R] matches
the \[lq]\[at]\[rq] character)
.TP
\f[B]\[ga]\f[R]\f[I]c1\f[R]\f[B]-\f[R]\f[I]c2\f[R]
The character range \f[I]c1\f[R] to \f[I]c2\f[R]
(e.g.\ \f[B]\[ga]a-z\f[R]).
Multiple ranges can be combined with a comma
(e.g.\ \f[B]\[ga]a-z,A-Z\f[R]).
.TP
\f[B]\[ga]\f[R]\f[I]c1\f[R]\f[B],\f[R]\f[I]c2\f[R]
Any one of the given character or character ranges \f[I]c1\f[R] or
\f[I]c2\f[R] (e.g.\ \f[B]\[ga]a,e,i,o,u,0-9\f[R])
.TP
\f[B]\[rs]\f[R]\f[I]esc\f[R]
An escape sequence (e.g.\ \f[B]\[rs]n\f[R], \f[B]\[rs]x1F\f[R],
\f[B]\[rs]033\f[R], etc.)
.TP
\f[B]\[rs]\f[R]\f[I]esc1\f[R]\f[B]-\f[R]\f[I]esc2\f[R]
An escape sequence range from \f[I]esc1\f[R] to \f[I]esc2\f[R]
(e.g.\ \f[B]\[rs]x00-x1F\f[R])
.TP
\f[B]\[rs]\f[R]\f[I]esc1\f[R]\f[B],\f[R]\f[I]esc2\f[R]
Any one of the given escape sequences or ranges \f[I]esc1\f[R] or
\f[I]esc2\f[R] (e.g.\ \f[B]\[rs]r,n,x01-x04\f[R])
.TP
\f[B]\[rs]N\f[R]
A special case escape that matches a \[lq]nodent\[rq]: one or more
newlines followed by the same indentation that occurs on the current
line.
.TP
\f[B]\[rs]i\f[R]
An identifier character (e.g.\ alphanumeric characters or underscores).
.TP
\f[B]\[rs]I\f[R]
An identifier character, not including numbers (e.g.\ alphabetic
characters or underscores).
.TP
\f[B]|\f[R]
A word boundary (i.e.\ the edge of a word).
.TP
\f[B]\[rs]b\f[R]
Alias for \f[B]|\f[R] (word boundary)
.TP
\f[B]!\f[R] \f[I]pat\f[R]
Not \f[I]pat\f[R]
.TP
\f[B][\f[R] \f[I]pat\f[R] \f[B]]\f[R]
Maybe \f[I]pat\f[R]
.TP
\f[I]N\f[R] \f[I]pat\f[R]
Exactly \f[I]N\f[R] repetitions of \f[I]pat\f[R]
(e.g.\ \f[B]5 \[dq]x\[dq]\f[R] matches \f[B]\[lq]xxxxx\[rq]\f[R])
.TP
\f[I]N\f[R] \f[B]-\f[R] \f[I]M\f[R] \f[I]pat\f[R]
Between \f[I]N\f[R] and \f[I]M\f[R] repetitions of \f[I]pat\f[R]
(e.g.\ \f[B]2-3 \[dq]x\[dq]\f[R] matches \f[B]\[lq]xx\[rq]\f[R] or
\f[B]\[lq]xxx\[rq]\f[R])
.TP
\f[I]N\f[R]\f[B]+\f[R] \f[I]pat\f[R]
At least \f[I]N\f[R] or more repetitions of \f[I]pat\f[R]
(e.g.\ \f[B]2+ \[dq]x\[dq]\f[R] matches \f[B]\[lq]xx\[rq]\f[R],
\f[B]\[lq]xxx\[rq]\f[R], \f[B]\[lq]xxxx\[rq]\f[R], etc.)
.TP
\f[B]*\f[R] \f[I]pat\f[R]
Some \f[I]pat\f[R]s (zero or more, e.g.\ \f[B]* \[dq]x\[dq]\f[R] matches
\f[B]\[lq]\[lq]\f[R], \f[B]\[rq]x\[rq]\f[R], \f[B]\[lq]xx\[rq]\f[R],
etc.)
.TP
\f[B]+\f[R] \f[I]pat\f[R]
At least one \f[I]pat\f[R]s (e.g.\ \f[B]+ \[dq]x\[dq]\f[R] matches
\f[B]\[lq]x\[rq]\f[R], \f[B]\[lq]xx\[rq]\f[R], \f[B]\[lq]xxx\[rq]\f[R],
etc.)
.TP
\f[I]repeating-pat\f[R] \f[B]%\f[R] \f[I]sep\f[R]
\f[I]repeating-pat\f[R] (see the examples above) separated by
\f[I]sep\f[R] (e.g.\ \f[B]*word % \[dq],\[dq]\f[R] matches zero or more
comma-separated words)
.TP
\f[B]..\f[R] \f[I]pat\f[R]
Any text (except newlines) up to and including \f[I]pat\f[R]
.TP
\f[B].. %\f[R] \f[I]skip\f[R] \f[I]pat\f[R]
Any text (except newlines) up to and including \f[I]pat\f[R], skipping
over instances of \f[I]skip\f[R]
(e.g.\ \f[B]\[aq]\[dq]\[aq] ..%(\[aq]\[rs]\[aq] .) \[aq]\[dq]\[aq]\f[R]
opening quote, up to closing quote, skipping over backslash followed by
a single character)
.TP
\f[B].. =\f[R] \f[I]only\f[R] \f[I]pat\f[R]
Any number of repetitions of the pattern \f[I]only\f[R] up to and
including \f[I]pat\f[R] (e.g.\ \f[B]\[dq]f\[dq] ..=abc \[dq]k\[dq]\f[R]
matches the letter \[lq]f\[rq] followed by some alphabetic characters
and then a \[lq]k\[rq], which would match \[lq]fork\[rq], but not
\[lq]free kit\[rq]) This is essentially a \[lq]non-greedy\[rq] version
of \f[B]*\f[R], and \f[B].. pat\f[R] can be thought of as the special
case of \f[B]..=. pat\f[R]
.TP
\f[B]<\f[R] \f[I]pat\f[R]
Matches at the current position if \f[I]pat\f[R] matches immediately
before the current position (lookbehind).
Conceptually, you can think of this as creating a file containing only
the \f[I]N\f[R] characters immediately before the current position and
attempting to match \f[I]pat\f[R] on that file, for all values of
\f[I]N\f[R] from the minimum number of characters \f[I]pat\f[R] can
match up to maximum number of characters \f[I]pat\f[R] can match (or the
length of the current line upto the current position, whichever is
smaller).
\f[B]Note:\f[R] For fixed-length lookbehinds, this is quite efficient
(e.g.\ \f[B]<(100 \[dq]x\[dq])\f[R]), however this could cause
performance problems with variable-length lookbehinds
(e.g.\ \f[B]<(\[dq]x\[dq] 0-100\[dq]y\[dq])\f[R]).
Also, it is worth noting that \f[B]\[ha]\f[R], \f[B]\[ha]\[ha]\f[R],
\f[B]$\f[R], and \f[B]$$\f[R] all match against the edges of the slice,
which may give false positives if you were expecting them to match only
against the edges file or line.
.TP
\f[B]>\f[R] \f[I]pat\f[R]
Matches \f[I]pat\f[R], but does not consume any input (lookahead).
.TP
\f[B]\[at]\f[R] \f[I]pat\f[R]
Capture \f[I]pat\f[R]
.TP
\f[B]foo\f[R]
The named pattern whose name is \f[B]\[lq]foo\[rq]\f[R].
Pattern names come from definitions in grammar files or from named
captures.
Pattern names may contain dashes (\f[B]-\f[R]), but not underscores
(\f[B]_\f[R]), since the underscore is used to match whitespace.
See the \f[B]GRAMMAR FILES\f[R] section for more info.
.TP
\f[B]\[at]\f[R] \f[I]name\f[R] \f[B]=\f[R] \f[I]pat\f[R]
Let \f[I]name\f[R] equal \f[I]pat\f[R] (named capture).
Named captures can be used as backreferences like so:
\f[B]\[at]foo=word \[ga]( foo \[ga])\f[R] (matches
\f[B]\[lq]asdf(asdf)\[rq]\f[R] or \f[B]\[lq]baz(baz)\[rq]\f[R], but not
\f[B]\[lq]foo(baz)\[rq]\f[R])
.TP
\f[I]pat\f[R] \f[B]=>\f[R] \f[B]\[dq]\f[R]\f[I]replacement\f[R]\f[B]\[dq]\f[R]
Replace \f[I]pat\f[R] with \f[I]replacement\f[R].
Note: \f[I]replacement\f[R] should be a string (single or double
quoted), and it may contain escape sequences (e.g.\ \f[B]\[rs]n\f[R]) or
references to captured values: \f[B]\[at]0\f[R] (the whole of
\f[I]pat\f[R]), \f[B]\[at]1\f[R] (the first capture in \f[I]pat\f[R]),
\f[B]\[at]\f[R]\f[I]foo\f[R] (the capture named \f[I]foo\f[R] in
\f[I]pat\f[R]), etc.
For example,
\f[B]\[at]word _ \[at]rest=(*word % _) => \[dq]\[at]rest:\[rs]n\[rs]t\[at]1\[dq]\f[R]
matches a word followed by whitespace, followed by a series of words and
replaces it with the series of words, a colon, a newline, a tab, and
then the first word.
.TP
\f[I]pat1\f[R] \f[B]\[ti]\f[R] \f[I]pat2\f[R]
Matches when \f[I]pat1\f[R] matches and \f[I]pat2\f[R] can be found
within the text of that match.
(e.g.\ \f[B]comment \[ti] {TODO}\f[R] matches comments that contain the
word \f[B]\[lq]TODO\[rq]\f[R])
.TP
\f[I]pat1\f[R] \f[B]!\[ti]\f[R] \f[I]pat2\f[R]
Matches when \f[I]pat1\f[R] matches, but \f[I]pat2\f[R] can not be found
within the text of that match.
(e.g.\ \f[B]comment \[ti] {IGNORE}\f[R] matches only comments that do
not contain the word \f[B]\[lq]IGNORE\[rq]\f[R])
.TP
\f[I]name\f[R]\f[B]:\f[R] \f[I]pat\f[R]
Define \f[I]name\f[R] to mean \f[I]pat\f[R] (pattern definition)
.TP
\f[B](!)\f[R] \f[I]error-pat\f[R]
If \f[I]error-pat\f[R] matches, \f[B]bp\f[R] will not print any results
in this file and instead print an error message to \f[B]STDERR\f[R]
highlighting the matching position of \f[I]error-pat\f[R] in the file
and printing the text of \f[I]error-pat\f[R] as an error message.
Then, \f[B]bp\f[R] will exit with a failure status and not process any
further files.
.TP
\f[B]#\f[R] \f[I]comment\f[R]
A line comment
.SH GRAMMAR FILES
.PP
\f[B]bp\f[R] allows loading extra grammar files, which define patterns
which may be used for matching.
The \f[B]builtins\f[R] grammar file is loaded by default, and it defines
a few useful general-purpose patterns.
For example, it defines the \f[B]parens\f[R] rule, which matches pairs
of matching parentheses, accounting for nested inner parentheses:
.RS
.PP
\f[B]bp -p \[aq]\[dq]my_func\[dq] parens\[aq]\f[R]
.RE
.PP
\f[B]bp\f[R] also comes with a few grammar files for common programming
languages, which may be loaded on demand.
These grammar files are not comprehensive syntax definitions, but only
some common patterns.
For example, the c++ grammar file contains definitions for
\f[B]//\f[R]-style line comments as well as \f[B]/*...*/\f[R]-style
block comments.
Thus, you can find all comments with the word \[lq]TODO\[rq] with the
following command:
.RS
.PP
\f[B]bp -g c++ -p \[aq]comment \[ti] {TODO}\[aq] *.cpp\f[R]
.RE
.SH EXAMPLES
.PP
Find files containing the string \[lq]foo\[rq] (a string pattern):
.RS
.PP
\f[B]ls | bp foo\f[R]
.RE
.PP
Find files ending with \[lq].c\[rq] and print the name with the
\[lq].c\[rq] replaced with \[lq].h\[rq]:
.RS
.PP
\f[B]ls | bp \[aq].c\[rs]$\[aq] -r \[aq].h\[aq]\f[R]
.RE
.PP
Find the word \[lq]foobar\[rq], followed by a pair of matching
parentheses in the file \f[I]my_file.py\f[R]:
.RS
.PP
\f[B]bp -p \[aq]{foobar} parens\[aq] my_file.py\f[R]
.RE
.PP
Using the \f[I]html\f[R] grammar, find all \f[I]element\f[R]s matching
the tag \f[I]a\f[R] in the file \f[I]foo.html\f[R]:
.RS
.PP
\f[B]bp -g html -p \[aq]element \[ti] (\[ha]\[ha]\[dq]<a \[dq])\[aq] foo.html\f[R]
.RE
.SH AUTHORS
Bruce Hill (\f[I]bruce\[at]bruce-hill.com\f[R]).