Emacs command for searching in files
EmacsEmacs Problem Overview
I want to search in all files from the current folder for macro CODE_INIT_PARAMETERS.
I can do Alt + X occur, Return CODE_INIT_PARAMETERS Return, but this shows only entries from open buffers.
Is there a way to search all files from current folder, from Emacs, without switching to M-x shell and then grep? I want to avoid grep, because for some commands (M-x occur) Emacs do jumps to offending code, and I want that too.
Emacs Solutions
Solution 1 - Emacs
You can try M-x rgrep.
It will ask for:
- the directory where you want to search recursively
- a file pattern for the files you want to include in the search
- the pattern you want to search
As an extra, it will exclude source control private directories from your search (like CVS, .svn or .git).
Solution 2 - Emacs
Emacs provides a built-in command:
M-x grep RET CODE_INIT_PARAMETERS *.c
(and 'grep-find to search sub directories)
Though I prefer the interface provided by an external package igrep (which provides the commands igrep and igrep-find).
Solution 3 - Emacs
If you open a folder in dired, and mark all of the files (with 'm') you can run 'dired-do-search ('A' in my bindings). This will search all marked files. To get to the next one, run tags-loop-continue (M-,)
I have set up several ELisp functions to mark various subsets of the files (.h files, .cpp files, etc.) and to create a recursive dired to search a whole tree...
Solution 4 - Emacs
This is an improvement on Trey Jackson's suggestion.
M-x grep
You will see the grep command, e.g. grep -nH -e
Add R to the first set of flags (for recursive), and put your search term after -e
grep -nHR -e CODE_INIT_PARAMETERS
Hit RET. The results will be understandable by Emacs -- you will be able to click or otherwise navigate to them, like M-x occur. You may need to put the search directory at the end of the command:
grep -nHR -e CODE_INIT_PARAMETERS /path/to/root/of/search
Solution 5 - Emacs
M-x find-grep-dired also works similarly as rgrep
Solution 6 - Emacs
In cases where
- you may be searching repeatedly; and
- etags will work
you might consider using etags and invoking either find-tag (bound to M-. by default) or tags-search (no default binding but can be continued with M-,).
Solution 7 - Emacs
There is as well ack-grep mode for Emacs which uses the ack-grep tool which is specifically designed for ''grepping'' programming languages and IMHO looks nicer than the output of M-x grep.
But as mentioned earlier etags should be the proper way!