RegexSearch is a Java application that performs graphical find and find-and-replace searches for regular expressions on multiple text files. It is free software, distributed under version 3 of the GNU General Public License.

Features:

• It can search for literal text or regular expressions.
• The search can be performed on the following:
  • a single file,
  • a directory, with optional recursion,
  • the files and directories listed in a text file,
  • the files in which the target was found in a previous search, or
  • text on the system clipboard.
  Files can be included in and excluded from the search by means of pathname filters, which allow bounded recursion.
• Occurrences of the target expression within each file are displayed in a scrollable window, with the matched text highlighted.
• Occurrences of the target expression can be replaced individually or globally. If the target is a regular expression, the replacement can include arbitrary parts of the matched text.
• Replacements can be previewed, then accepted or rejected.
• The parsing and matching of regular expressions is performed by the robust Java regular-expression engine. The syntax of Java's regular expressions is similar to that of Python and Perl.
• The results of a search (number of matches, number of replacements) are displayed for each file in which a match is found. The results can be copied to the system clipboard in a form that is suitable for use as a list file to limit the scope of a new search.
• Although a file cannot be edited in RegexSearch's text view, a command can be issued to open the file in an external editor.

The current version of RegexSearch is 3.1 (2013-04-23).