Looking for a grep GUI

Solution 1:

Searchmonkey. You can find it in universe.

Solution 2:

You could try regexxer, which is in the repositories. You can install it with

sudo apt-get install regexxer

As noted in /usr/share/doc/regexxer/README:

The primary audience of this tool are Linux/Unix users who are tired of typing find/grep/sed/awk/perl command lines.

It seems to be just what you want, as you can search files and folders, and also search within a selected document by using the search and replace feature that uses Perl style regular expressions. (However, you can only search within text files, html and xml files, and similar file types, not pdfs or office documents.)

In summary,

• You can specify various patterns in the pattern search box; for example, globs (*), character classes [ab] and {brace expansions} can be used to help you find your files. You can also search recursively and for hidden files, which is particularly useful.

• You can also use various complex regex patterns in the search/replace box, and there most Perl regular expressions can be used, which you can read about by referring to the previous link. (As an aside, Perl regular expressions can also be used with command-line grep: see man grep; you would need to specify the -P option)

• To search inside a file, or search and replace strings, you find your document with the search on the left hand side, then click the document and use the right hand side to select your search/replace pattern. Then, in the simple example shown, you can click the button to replace or replace all, then save your document.

See also my answer here where I compare the respective search options available in regexxer and searchmonkey:

• Can Searchmonkey find a term inside textfiles?

Solution 3:

I know for these two guis, and I never used them, so I'm not sure if they are available through apt-get. Here are the links:

http://sethoscope.net/grepui/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/jgrep/

And it seems that they are not so rich with features (judging by screenshots).

Hope this helps a bit.