Is there a more efficient way to use grep?

Question

I have been using grep to search databases. I've been using the following command when searching multiple folders with multiple text files.

grep 'text_search' */*

is there a better command that will speed up the process of searching through large amounts of data? I am open to using other tools if needed.

Answer 1

I'm a fan of ripgrep

If you prefer to stick with grep, grep -F matches strings not patterns (which may or may not be faster; I'm not sure if modern greps simplify a simple pattern to a string search).

Running grep in parallel is also an option. I use GNU parallel for this.

find . -type f | parallel --jobs {#jobs} -n 500 -k -m grep -H {search-pattern} {}

(jobs and search-pattern aren't surrounded in braces; they indicate a variable you need to enter)