How can I install and use ack library on Windows?

Question

I have never used Perl, but I am really impressed by the ack, which I would like to use for source code searching, etc.

Can anyone guide me of how to make use of this excellent library on Windows?

Answer 1

Nothing worked for me, until I went to the ack website and saw this.

And I ran the following command in cmd prompt:

choco install ack

Answer 2

If you already have msysgit installed, then you don't need to install Perl, because you already have a version. You just need to download the standalone version of ack and put it somewhere in your bash path¹. You can then run ack from your msysgit bash prompt.

If you also want to be able to run ack from the Windows command prompt, then you will need to create a batch script somewhere in your Windows path² with the contents:

@"C:\Program Files\Git\bin\perl" C:\path\to\ack-standalone.pl %*

(You'll obviously need to edit the paths above to match your msysgit installation and where you placed the ack script.)

_{1: I just stuck mine in the mysysgit bin directory: C:\Program Files\Git\bin\ack. This isn't the most sensible location for it, but it works.
2: Again, I just created the file ack.bat in the msysgit bin directory C:\Program File\Git\bin.}

Answer 3

Depending on how you feel about installing pre-built binaries from open source projects, you might also consider The Silver Searcher (ag). It's ack-compatible and faster than ack. It's also available on Linux from the repositories in recent distros.

http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/the-silver-searcher-for-windows.html