ux: suggest --fixed-strings flag

If a regex syntax error occurs, then ripgrep will suggest
using the --fixed-strings flag.

Fixes #727 

2 files changed, 21 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/src/args.rs b/src/args.rs
index 77cf8cc0..f0f93ccb 100644
--- a/src/args.rs
+++ b/src/args.rs
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ use std::sync::atomic::{AtomicBool, Ordering};
 use clap;
 use encoding_rs::Encoding;
 use env_logger;
-use grep::{Grep, GrepBuilder};
+use grep::{Grep, GrepBuilder, Error as GrepError};
 use log;
 use num_cpus;
 use regex;
@@ -783,7 +783,16 @@ impl<'a> ArgMatches<'a> {
         if let Some(limit) = self.regex_size_limit()? {
             gb = gb.size_limit(limit);
         }
-        gb.build().map_err(From::from)
+        gb.build().map_err(|err| {
+            match err {
+                GrepError::Regex(err) => {
+                  let s = format!("{}\n(Hint: Try the --fixed-strings flag \
+                  to search for a literal string.)", err.to_string());
+                  From::from(s)
+                },
+                err => From::from(err)
+            }
+        })
     }
 
     /// Builds the set of glob overrides from the command line flags.
diff --git a/tests/tests.rs b/tests/tests.rs
index 152eca30..4bd852cd 100644
--- a/tests/tests.rs
+++ b/tests/tests.rs
@@ -1599,6 +1599,16 @@ sherlock!(feature_419_zero_as_shortcut_for_null, "Sherlock", ".",
     assert_eq!(lines, "sherlock\x002\n");
 });
 
+// See: https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/issues/709
+clean!(suggest_fixed_strings_for_invalid_regex, "foo(", ".",
+|wd: WorkDir, mut cmd: Command| {
+    wd.assert_non_empty_stderr(&mut cmd);
+
+    let output = cmd.output().unwrap();
+    let err = String::from_utf8_lossy(&output.stderr);
+    assert_eq!(err.contains("--fixed-strings"), true);
+});
+
 #[test]
 fn binary_nosearch() {
     let wd = WorkDir::new("binary_nosearch");