Comby vs GNU GLOBAL
Comby
comby.devGNU GLOBAL
gnu.orgSide by side
| Figure | Comby | GNU GLOBAL |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Code Search Tools | 7.7 (#15) | 8.1 (#7) |
| License | The public comby-tools/comby GitHub repository identifies its license as Apache-2.0. | GNU GLOBAL is free software that may be copied, modified, and redistributed under the GNU GPL. |
| Purpose | Comby is a tool for searching and changing code structure using lightweight templates. | GNU GLOBAL is a source code tagging system for locating objects such as functions, macros, structs, and classes in source files. |
| Support | The help page directs users to the Gitter channel for usage questions and pattern-writing help, and to GitHub issues for installation problems. | The project directs users seeking help to the [email protected] mailing list. |
Plans
In their own words
Comby
Comby is a free, open-source tool for searching and changing code structure with lightweight templates. It recognizes basic syntax in code, strings, and comments across many languages, with parsers listed for C/C++, C#, Go, Java, JavaScript, Python, Rust, Swift, and TypeScript, plus a generic matcher for other formats. The project targets large refactors and one-off changes, and an interactive review mode lets users inspect proposed edits. Comby can run from its command line, Python bindings, or HTTP requests sent to a server on your machine. Installation instructions cover macOS with Homebrew, Ubuntu, Windows through Ubuntu on WSL, and Docker; building from source is also described. Linked projects include an Emacs package and a prototype VS Code extension. Other uses include structural code search, compiler fuzzing, test-case reduction, editor find and replace, and academic research. Comby matches balanced delimiters while accounting for comments and string literals, and supports regex search. It is self-hosted and available for API, Linux, macOS, and Windows use. The Apache-2.0 license is identified in the public repository.