Windows

There are several ways to install The Silver Searcher on Windows.

Install Binaries (easy)

Install using Scoop

The Scoop silver searcher package can be installed using

scoop install ag

Install from the unofficial Win32 daily builds

Nightly builds, as a single executable available as GitHub releases. These are built with MSYS, and are current with the most recent silver searcher release.

Install using chocolatey

The chocolatey silver searcher package can be installed using

choco install ag

It will automatically fetch any required dependencies. Note that chocolatey packages are sometimes behind the latest silver searcher release.

Using Cygwin

Ag is available as "the_silver_searcher" in the "Utils" category of the main Cygwin distribution. Run the relevant setup-*.exe and select it from the "Select Packages" screen.

Compile from Source

Compile using MinGW

Install MinGW and MSYS (download page).

mingw-get install autotools

Install PCRE for Windows. Make sure you install it to /mingw, which is C:\MinGW by default. See the MinGW quickstart guide for more information on paths.

Run build.sh.

cinst mingw
REM Add C:\mingw\bin to your path.
mingw-get install autotools
REM Get PCRE.
git clone git://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher.git
cd the_silver_searcher
./build.sh

Native Visual Studio port

Or you can use native Visual Studio port: https://github.com/kjk/the_silver_searcher (compile instructions at: https://github.com/kjk/the_silver_searcher/blob/master/README-WINDOWS.md)