RYGEX

Python (with some Rust) string and regex search tool

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Alpha - Testing Release

This repository contains the alpha (testing) version of the regex_ext library and its accompanying regex cli command‑line interface.

• What's here
  • A core regex_ext library written in rust
  • A prototype regex command‑line tool which demonstrates functionality.
• Current State
  • The library is functional but not yet production‑ready.
  • Some CLI commands may behave unexpectedly.
• Why Alpha Release
  • Gather feedback from early users and contributors.
  • Identify bugs and usability issues before a stable release.
  • I still have a use case for this library in it's current state.
• What to expect
  • Documentation/README may be incomplete and change as we refine the user experience.
  • Occasional breaking changes while we experiment with design choices.
  • Frequent updates as we stabilize APIs and fix regressions.

Why RYGEX?

Tools like grep, sed, awk, tail, head are amazing—but often you find yourself piping one into another to get exactly what you need. rygex combines many of their capabilities in a single command-line tool, with an optional regex_ext python library written in rust to improve performance of parsing large amounts of text.

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Installation

Easy

1. Using PyPi

pip install rygex

Build from source

1. Clone the repo and enter

   git clone https://github.com/jonnypeace/rygex.git
   cd rygex

2. Install Python dependencies

   pip install -r requirements.txt

3. (Optional) Build and install the Rust extension

    # Recommended in a python virtual environment
    python3 -m venv .venv
    maturin build --release
    pip install target/wheels/rygex-*.whl --force-reinstall

4. (Optional) If you need to run rygex as root but keep it in your venv, add your venv’s bin/ to secure_path in /etc/sudoers:

    # Pay attention to the paths of your virtual environment for this bit....
    # In /etc/sudoers (via `visudo`), near the top:
    Defaults    secure_path="/home/YOUR_USERNAME/.venv/bin:/usr/local/sbin:…"
   
    # Then, in your ~/.bashrc, auto-activate the venv:
    echo 'source "$HOME/.venv/bin/activate"' >> ~/.bashrc

Tested on Python 3.12+ (Ubuntu 24.04, Arch Linux). Other platforms may work but are untested.

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Features

• String search (-s/--start, -e/--end, Rust-accelerated) - under development after using rust
• Fixed-string grep (-F/--fixed-string, Rust) - Under Development
• Python regex (-p/--pyreg) and Rust regex (-rp/--rpyreg)
• Omit characters before/after matches (-of, -ol, -O)
• Line slicing (-l/--lines) as start:stop[:step]
• Case-insensitive search (-i/--insensitive)
• Unique, sorted, reverse output (-u, -S, -r)
• Count matches and total matches (-c, -t)
• Multithreading (-m/--multi)
• Modular Rust library (rygex_ext) for Python integration

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Usage

rygex [OPTIONS] -f <FILE>

Required arguments

You must supply one of:

• -s/--start PATTERN [INDEX] -e/--end PATTERN [INDEX]
• -p/--pyreg <REGEX> [GROUP]
• -rp/--rpyreg <REGEX> [GROUP]
• -F/--fixed-string <PATTERN>

…and a source:

• -f/--file <PATH>
• piped input (e.g. cat file | rygex -p foo). Currently, piping only works with -p as i switch support to the rust implementation.

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String searches

• Start + End

  rygex --start foo 2 --end bar 1 -f logfile.txt

  Finds the 2nd occurrence of foo up to the 1st bar.

• Omit first/last chars

  rygex --start "(" 1 --end ")" 1 -of 0 -ol 0 -f logfile.txt

  Strips the outer parentheses from the match.

• Omit all

  rygex --start foo --end bar -O -f logfile.txt

  Removes both foo and bar from the ends of each match.

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Regex searches

• Python regex

  rygex -p '\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}' -f data.log

• Rust regex (faster)

  rygex -rp '\w+@\w+\.\w+' -f emails.txt

You can supply an optional group index to extract capture groups:

rygex -p 'User: (\w+)' '1' -f users.log

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Common options

Flag	Description
-i, --insensitive	Case-insensitive matching
-l, --lines SLICE	Line slicing (e.g. 0:5, -3:, 5:10:2)
-u, --unique	Show unique matches only
-S, --sort	Sort output (combine with -r for reverse)
-c, --counts	Show per-match counts
-t, --totalcounts	Show total number of matches
-m [CORES], --multi	Multithreading (defaults to all available cores if no number supplied)
-v, --version	Show version and exit

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Roadmap

• Improve and expand docstrings
• Refactor into stable 1.0 branch
• Add more benchmarks and CI tests
• Docker container for easy deployment
• Recursive Search through directories, with excludes
• Improve Match, compile, search and Iterables (not just lists) using rust

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.