What should I expect using --files-without-match and --count

[FrancescElies]

If I want to search files without a certain word I would do as follows

ripgrep on  master [⇡] is 📦 v13.0.0 via 🦀 v1.66.0
❯ rg --files-without-match "strict" -tmd
RELEASE-CHECKLIST.md
README.md
crates\searcher\README.md
crates\regex\README.md
crates\printer\README.md
crates\pcre2\README.md
crates\matcher\README.md
crates\ignore\README.md
crates\grep\README.md
crates\globset\README.md
crates\core\README.md
crates\cli\README.md
ci\docker\README.md
benchsuite\runs\2022-12-16-archlinux-duff\README.md
benchsuite\runs\2020-10-14-archlinux-frink\README.md
.github\ISSUE_TEMPLATE\feature_request.md
.github\ISSUE_TEMPLATE\bug_report.md

Now if I want to count how many files don't contain a certain match I would expect the following to give me that answer but instead it is the same as if I search for files matching

ripgrep on  master [⇡] is 📦 v13.0.0 via 🦀 v1.66.0
❯ rg --files-without-match "strict" -tmd -c
GUIDE.md:6
FAQ.md:1
CHANGELOG.md:3

ripgrep on  master [⇡] is 📦 v13.0.0 via 🦀 v1.66.0
❯ rg "strict" -tmd -c
GUIDE.md:6
FAQ.md:1
CHANGELOG.md:3

Are my expectations of rg --files-without-match "strict" -tmd -c wrong?

ripgrep on  master [⇡] is 📦 v13.0.0 via 🦀 v1.66.0
❯ rg --version
ripgrep 13.0.0
-SIMD -AVX (compiled)
+SIMD +AVX (runtime)

[BurntSushi]

I think this might be a documentation bug (and a partial implementation hiccup). Namely, the code implements --files-without-match and --count as mutually exclusive options:

ripgrep/crates/core/args.rs

Lines 1585 to 1600 in fe97c0a

	fn summary_kind(&self) -> Option<SummaryKind> {
	let (count, count_matches) = self.counts();
	if self.is_present("quiet") {
	Some(SummaryKind::Quiet)
	} else if count_matches {
	Some(SummaryKind::CountMatches)
	} else if count {
	Some(SummaryKind::Count)
	} else if self.is_present("files-with-matches") {
	Some(SummaryKind::PathWithMatch)
	} else if self.is_present("files-without-match") {
	Some(SummaryKind::PathWithoutMatch)
	} else {
	None
	}
	}

But the actual argument parser doesn't define --files-without-match and --count as flags that override one another. That means both --files-without-match --count and --count --files-without-match behave the same, but the former should show match counts while the latter should show all files that don't match.

The reason why ripgrep behaves this way is because it doesn't make sense to combine --files-without-match with --count. There's nothing to count. The behavior is merely to show any file that does not match.

Now there is the related query of "show me a count of the number of lines that do not match my query." You can do that with --files-with-matches --count --invert-match, or -lcv for short.