Exact Code Search

Introduced in GitLab 15.9 with a flag named index_code_with_zoekt and search_code_with_zoekt which enables indexing and searching respectively. Both are disabled by default.

caution
Exact Code Search is an MVC. For the Exact Code Search feature roadmap, see epic 9404. When this feature reaches the Alpha version, GitLab will dogfood it, and roll it out only to specific customers on GitLab.com who request access to it. On self-managed GitLab, this feature is available and can be enabled. However, GitLab does not provide support or documentation at this development stage.

Usage

When performing any Code search in GitLab it will choose to use “Exact Code Search” powered by Zoekt if the project is part of an enabled Group.

The main differences between Zoekt and advanced search are that Zoekt provides exact substring matching as well as allows you to search for regular expressions. Since it allows searching for regular expressions, certain special characters will require escaping. Backslash can escape special characters and wrapping in double quotes can be used for phrase searches.

To understand the possible filtering options, see the Zoekt query syntax.