Add -L symlink follow option, default false

main.go

@@ -47,21 +47,30 @@ to a regular expression to make that specific expression case insensitive.
 
 Files and directories can be excluded with the -x option. This supports bash-style
 globs with '*', '?', '[a-z]', '{this,that}', or '/**/' to match zero or more
-directories. By default, .git and vim swap files are ignored.`,
+directories. By default, .git and vim swap files are ignored. Symlinks named on
+the command line are followed, but by default symlinks are not followed when
+recursing into directories. -L allows them to be dereferenced.`,
 
 	RunE: run,
 }
 
 var (
+	// flags
 	searchRegexp   []string
-	regexps      []*regexp.Regexp
 	searchFixed    []string
 	searchPath     []string
 	excludeList    []string
-	binaryFile   notPlainTextFlag
-	minifiedFile notPlainTextFlag
 	ignoreCase     bool
 	noColour       bool
+	binaryFile     notPlainTextFlag
+	minifiedFile   notPlainTextFlag
+	followSymlinks bool
+
+	// computed from searchRegexp, searchFixed. Each regexp here will be
+	// matched against each line of each input file.
+	regexps []*regexp.Regexp
+
+	// formats output
 	display *Display
 )
 
@@ -73,6 +82,7 @@ func init() {
 	rootCmd.Flags().BoolVarP(&noColour, "no-colour", "C", false, "disable colour output")
 	rootCmd.Flags().Var(&binaryFile, "binary", "what to do with binary files")
 	rootCmd.Flags().Var(&minifiedFile, "minified", "what to do with minified text files")
+	rootCmd.Flags().BoolVarP(&followSymlinks, "dereference", "L", false, "follow symlinks when recursing")
 }
 
 func run(c *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
@@ -129,7 +139,7 @@ func run(c *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 
 	var errs []error
 	for _, path := range searchPath {
-		if err := search(path); err != nil {
+		if err := search(path, true); err != nil {
 			errs = append(errs, err)
 		}
 	}
@@ -155,15 +165,24 @@ NextFile:
 			}
 		}
 
-		if err := search(fullPath); err != nil {
+		if err := search(fullPath, followSymlinks); err != nil {
 			errs = append(errs, err)
 		}
 	}
 	return errors.Join(errs...)
 }
 
-func search(path string) error {
+func search(path string, deref bool) error {
-	st, err := os.Stat(path)
+	var (
+		st  os.FileInfo
+		err error
+	)
+
+	if deref {
+		st, err = os.Stat(path)
+	} else {
+		st, err = os.Lstat(path)
+	}
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}