The ripgrep tool should prefer the system ripgrep, when possible.

[albertosantini]

What happened?

ripgrep package is downloaded, even if it is already downloaded (and in the path).

What did you expect to happen?

If ripgrep is already downloaded, we may avoid downloading again.
Furthermore, if ripgrep is in the PATH, we may avoid downloading at all.

Client information

Client Information

Run gemini to enter the interactive CLI, then run the /about command.

> /about

╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│                                                  │
│ About Gemini CLI                                 │
│                                                  │
│ CLI Version      0.9.0                           │
│ Git Commit       a93d92a3                        │
│ Model            gemini-2.5-pro                  │
│ Sandbox          no sandbox                      │
│ OS               win32                           │
│ Auth Method      OAuth                           │
│                                                  │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Login information

No response

Anything else we need to know?

No response

[albertosantini]

See

gemini-cli/packages/core/src/tools/ripGrep.ts

Lines 27 to 37 in dd42893

	/**
	* Checks if `rg` exists, if not then attempt to download it.
	*/
	export async function canUseRipgrep(): Promise<boolean> {
	if (await fileExists(getRgPath())) {
	return true;
	}
	await downloadRipGrep(Storage.getGlobalBinDir());
	return await fileExists(getRgPath());
	}

if (await fileExists(getRgPath())) {
In Windows this always returns false because getRgPath is looking for rg and not rg.exe.
return path.join(Storage.getGlobalBinDir(), 'rg');

At the moment vscode-ripgrep is always downloaded, slowing down startup time, then it is unzipped and the executable moved to .gemini/tmp/bin.

I suggest one fix and one change:

• improving getRgPath for Windows environment
• changing the logic, if ripgrep executable is in the PATH, no download.

What do you think about it?

Edit: Anyway it is downloaded an old version of ripgrep 13.x. Need to update to 14.x

[cornmander]

Thanks, those are both great ideas. I will file feature requests and get these prioritized.

[cornmander]

Re-marking this as an enhancement since the bug part should be fixed.