Feature Matrix

This page states what Grex supports and where behavior changes by target. The Usage Guide explains workflows; the Technical Reference defines exact formats and limits.

Target support matrix

Capability	Windows / UNC	WSL	Docker direct	Docker mirror	CLI
Plain-text search	.NET string comparison	grep	grep -F	Local .NET engine	Local engine or WSL adapter
Regex search	.NET Regex	grep -E	grep -E	.NET Regex	Local engine or WSL adapter
Case sensitivity	Yes	grep -i when off	grep -i when off	Yes	Yes
Culture / Unicode / diacritics	Yes for text search	No	No	Yes	Defaults only; no CLI flags
Recursive search	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Match Files	`	` wildcards and exclusions	Post-filtered	Post-filtered	Yes
Exclude Dirs	Names or Regex	Find plus post-filter	Find pruning	Yes	Yes
.gitignore	Nested custom parser	git grep at Git root	Selected-root file, simplified	Nested custom parser	Same as target adapter
Hidden / system / binary / links	Yes	Adapter-specific	Adapter-specific	Yes	Yes
Size filter	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Windows Search index	Plain text only	No	No	No	No flag
Document/archive extraction	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes for local targets
Context preview	Yes	Yes when path conversion works	No host preview	Mirror path during active search	No
Replace	Direct file write	sed -i	No	No	No
Export	CSV, JSON, clipboard	Same GUI output	Same GUI output	Same GUI output	Text, JSON, CSV

Docker mode is presented as one target in the UI. The direct and mirror columns explain its two internal strategies.

Search

Text matching

Local Text Search supports:

• ordinal, current-culture, and invariant-culture comparison;
• case-sensitive and case-insensitive forms;
• NFC, NFD, NFKC, and NFKD normalization;
• optional diacritic removal;
• a selected comparison culture.

WSL and direct Docker targets delegate matching to the target's grep, so only the options mapped to grep apply.

Regex matching

Local and mirrored Regex Search uses .NET Regex with a 10-second timeout. Grex intentionally avoids RegexOptions.Compiled for user patterns to prevent unbounded process-level cache growth.

WSL and direct Docker use extended grep expressions. .NET-only constructs may fail or match differently there.

Parallelism and streaming

• Local search processes up to eight files concurrently.
• Normal text files are streamed line by line.
• Encoding detection reads at most the first 64 KB.
• Direct Docker search batches files with find -exec.
• Results are accumulated per tab and published to observable collections in batches.

Paths and environments

Windows and UNC

Grex accepts drive paths and UNC shares using the current Windows user's permissions. Inaccessible files are skipped.

WSL

Supported forms include:

\\wsl$\Ubuntu\home\user
\\wsl.localhost\Ubuntu-24.04\home\user
/home/user
/mnt/c/Users/user

Grex extracts an explicit distribution from UNC forms. Plain Linux paths use the default WSL distribution.

Docker

Docker search is opt-in. It requires the Docker CLI, a reachable daemon, and a running Linux container.

Direct mode:

• checks for grep through the Docker API;
• executes find and grep inside the container;
• caches grep availability for up to 50 containers;
• reads only the selected root's .gitignore;
• does not apply size limits or document extraction.

Mirror fallback:

• copies the selected container path to %LocalAppData%\Grex\docker-mirrors;
• uses a temporary tar archive in the container when dereferencing links;
• searches the copy with the local engine;
• removes the mirror after use when possible;
• cleans the active mirror when the target changes, Docker is disabled, or the tab closes; crash leftovers require manual deletion.

Browse, Windows Search, and Replace are disabled for a selected container.

Filters

Grex can combine:

• filename includes and excludes;
• directory name or Regex exclusions;
• nested .gitignore rules on local paths;
• recursion;
• Windows hidden and system attributes;
• Unix dotfile filtering;
• known binary-extension filtering;
• symbolic-link/reparse-point filtering;
• file-size comparisons;
• Windows Search candidate seeding.

With Include system files off, common dependency, build, VCS, and Linux system directories are excluded. See System path exclusions.

Size tolerance

Size comparisons deliberately include a tolerance:

• KB: 10 KB
• MB: 1 MB
• GB: 25 MB

This affects less-than, equal-to, and greater-than comparisons. Direct Docker search is the exception and ignores size.

Binary and document search

With Include binary files on, the local engine attempts:

• .docx, .xlsx, .pptx;
• .odt, .ods, .odp;
• .zip;
• .pdf up to 50 MB;
• .rtf.

Behavior is best effort:

• ZIP-based formats search UTF-8 .xml, .txt, and .rels entries.
• PDF extraction scans raw streams and simple text objects. It is not a complete PDF parser and performs no OCR.
• RTF extraction strips common control sequences.
• Encrypted, scanned, compressed, or unusual documents can produce no result.
• Legacy Office, images, media, executables, and most archives remain excluded.

Binary extraction is for search only. Replace skips known binary, archive, and document formats.

Results and inspection

Content results

Content mode shows one row per matching line with filename, line, column, sanitized text, relative path, and per-line match count.

File results

Files mode groups matches by path and shows size, total matches, extension, encoding, relative path, and modification time.

Result tools

• sortable and resizable columns;
• persisted column visibility;
• in-memory plain-text or Regex filtering;
• context preview with 1 to 20 surrounding lines;
• double-click open;
• Explorer and clipboard context actions;
• Docker-aware copy actions;
• CSV, JSON, and clipboard export.

Replace

Replace is available for Windows, UNC, and WSL targets.

Safeguards:

• explicit Replace mode;
• non-empty replacement requirement;
• confirmation dialog;
• active-operation cancellation;
• Docker target lockout;
• local 100 MB per-file cap;
• Files result summary after writes.

Boundaries:

• no undo, backup, transaction, or journal;
• Windows/UNC writes are direct;
• WSL applies file/directory filters before sed -i -E and treats replacement text literally;
• cancellation does not roll back completed files;
• failures can yield a partial change set;
• known binary, archive, and document formats are skipped.

Use version control or a backup before replacing.

Search organization

Tabs

Each tab retains its own path, query, filter values, results, sorting, and active work.

Recent paths and searches

• Recent paths: 20
• Recent searches: 20
• Duplicate entries move to the top
• Individual or full-history removal is available

Recent search entries store a practical subset of filters, not every tab property.

Profiles

Up to 50 named profiles store a fuller path/query/filter snapshot. Profiles support apply, overwrite, and delete. They do not store results, replacement text, or Docker container selection.

Regex Builder

The Regex Builder offers:

• Email, Phone, Date, Digits, and URL presets;
• sample text and live matches;
• case-insensitive, multiline, and global switches;
• a visual breakdown of literals, groups, classes, anchors, escapes, and quantifiers;
• overwrite confirmation for an existing pattern.

It does not automatically transfer a pattern to Search.

AI chat

AI chat supports OpenAI-compatible GET /v1/models and POST /v1/chat/completions style endpoints.

It provides conversational search guidance from:

• current path and query;
• Text/Regex and Content/Files modes;
• filter suggestions;
• current tab conversation history, capped at 200 messages.

It does not read or send file contents or result rows automatically, execute suggested searches, or modify files.

Model selection can be explicit, first-model discovery, or gpt-4o-mini fallback. The HTTP timeout is 90 seconds.

The API key is stored in plain-text settings and included in settings exports. See Security and Privacy.

Settings and personalization

Grex persists:

• default search and result modes;
• default Match Files and Exclude Dirs;
• filter defaults;
• string-comparison settings;
• UI language;
• 12 theme choices;
• Docker enablement;
• AI endpoint, key, and model;
• context-preview line counts;
• column visibility;
• window size and position.

Settings export, import, restore, restart, notification test, and localization test actions are available. Import keeps window geometry local and merges every other field present; see Settings backup and import.

Localization

The repository ships an English catalog plus 107 non-English resource catalogs. Non-English coverage is incomplete and status varies by locale. Missing entries fall back to English or the resource key.

The UI can refresh language-dependent labels and registered tooltips without a full reinstall. Some changes may require restart.

See the Translation Guide for the authoritative status script and contribution workflow.

CLI

grex-cli provides:

• positional <path> <term> input;
• text or Regex search;
• common file filters;
• text, JSON, and CSV output;
• count, files-only, and quiet modes;
• exit codes 0, 1, and 2.

The CLI does not expose Docker search, replacement, Windows Search, or the GUI's advanced comparison settings. See the CLI reference.

Deliberate non-features

Grex currently has:

• no automatic updater;
• no telemetry, analytics, or crash uploader implemented by the application;
• no replace undo;
• no Docker replace;
• no OCR;
• no cross-platform GUI or CLI build;
• no background filesystem index of its own;
• no automatic AI file upload.