Vim: open files of the matches on the lines given by Grep?

Question

I want to get automatically to the positions of the results in Vim after grepping, on command line. Is there such feature?

Files to open in Vim on the lines given by grep:

% grep --colour -n checkWordInFile *
SearchToUser.java:170:  public boolean checkWordInFile(String word, File file) {
SearchToUser.java~:17:  public boolean checkWordInFile(String word, File file) {
SearchToUser.java~:41:          if(checkWordInFile(word, f))

Answer 1

If you pipe the output from grep into vim

% grep -n checkWordInFile * | vim -

you can put the cursor on the filename and hit gF to jump to the line in that file that's referenced by that line of grep output. ^WF will open it in a new window.

From within vim you can do the same thing with

:tabedit
:r !grep -n checkWordInFile *

which is equivalent to but less convenient than

:lgrep checkWordInFile *
:lopen

which brings up the superfantastic quickfix window so you can conveniently browse through search results.

You can alternatively get slower but in-some-ways-more-flexible results by using vim's native grep:

:lvimgrep checkWordInFile *
:lopen

This one uses vim REs and paths (eg allowing **). It can take 2-4 times longer to run (maybe more), but you get to use fancy \(\)\@<=s and birds of a feather.

Answer 2

Have a look at "Grep search tools integration with Vim" and "Find in files within Vim". Basically vim provides these commands for searching files:

:grep
:lgrep
:vimgrep
:lvimgrep

The articles feature more information regarding their usage.

Answer 3

I think this is what you are looking for:

http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2184

When you open a file:line, for instance when coping and pasting from an error from your compiler (or grep output) vim tries to open a file with a colon in its name. With this little script in your plugins folder if the stuff after the colon is a number and a file exists with the name especified before the colon vim will open this file and take you to the line you wished in the first place.

It's definitely what I was looking for.

Answer 4

You could do this:

% vim "+/checkWordInFile" $(grep -l checkWordInFile *)

This will put in the vim command line a list of all the files that match the regex. The "+/..." option will tell vim to search from the start of each file until it finds the first line that matches the regex.

Correction:

The +/... option will only search the first file for the regex. To search in every file you need this:

% vim "-c bufdo /checkWordInFile" $(grep -l checkWordInFile *)

If this is something you need to do often you could write a bash function so that you only need to specify the regex once (assuming that the regex is valid for both grep and vim).

Answer 5

You probably want to make functions for these. :)

Sequential vim calls (console)

grep -rn "implements" app | # Or any (with "-n") you like
  awk '{
    split($0,a,":"); # split on ":"
    print "</dev/tty vim", a[1], "+" a[2] # results in lines with "</dev/tty vim <foundfile> +<linenumber>
  }' |
  parallel --halt-on-error 1 -j1 --tty bash -ec # halt on error and "-e" important to make it possible to quit in the middle

Use :cq from vim to stop editing.

Concurrent opening in tabs (gvim)

Start the server:

gvim --servername GVIM

Open the tabs:

grep -rn "implements" app | # again, any grep you like (with "-n")
  awk "{ # double quotes because of $PWD
    split(\$0,a,\":\"); # split on ":"
    print \":tabedit $PWD/\" a[1] \"<CR>\" a[2] \"G\" # Vim commands. Open file, then jump to line
  }" | 
  parallel gvim --servername GVIM --remote-send # of course the servername needs to match

Answer 6

I highly recommend ack.vim over grep for this functionality.

http://github.com/mileszs/ack.vim

http://betterthangrep.com/

Answer 7

If you use git, results are often more meaningful when you search only in the files tracked by git. To open files at the given line which is a search result of git grep in vim you will need the fugitive plugin, then

:copen
:Ggrep pattern

Will give you the list in a buffer and you can choose to open files from your git grep results.

Answer 8

In this particular example:

vim SearchToUser.java +170