Projects can be searched for specific text within Vim:
:grep sometext
Can we grep faster?
Override to use The Silver Searcher
grep is a built-in command of Vim.
By default, it will use the system’s grep command.
We can overwrite it to use
The Silver Searcher’s
ag command by putting this in
our ~/.vimrc:
1" The Silver Searcher
2if executable('ag')
3 " Use ag over grep
4 set grepprg=ag\ --nogroup\ --nocolor
5
6 " Use ag in CtrlP for listing files. Lightning fast and respects .gitignore
7 let g:ctrlp_user_command = 'ag %s -l --nocolor -g ""'
8
9 " ag is fast enough that CtrlP doesn't need to cache
10 let g:ctrlp_use_caching = 0
11endif
Search for the word under the cursor
This searches for the text under the cursor and shows the results in a “quickfix” window:
1" bind K to grep word under cursor
2nnoremap K :grep! "\b<C-R><C-W>\b"<CR>:cw<CR>
It looks like this when K is typed with the cursor over SubscriptionMailer:
Cursor over each search result, hit Enter, and the file will be opened.
Using ag arguments
This defines a new command Ag to search for the provided text
and open a “quickfix” window:
1" bind \ (backward slash) to grep shortcut
2command -nargs=+ -complete=file -bar Ag silent! grep! <args>|cwindow|redraw!
Map it to any character, such as \:
1nnoremap \ :Ag<SPACE>
When \ is pressed, Vim waits for input:
1:Ag
Standard ag arguments may be passed in at this point:
1:Ag -i Stripe app/models
Hitting Enter results in:
