Re: Elisp: Search a File Without Visiting?

[Stefan Monnier]

> My question: is it possible (using elisp) to search the contents of
> the thesaurus file *without* loading it into a buffer?

Nope.  How would it work ?
I guess what you're thinking about is not "without loading it" but
"without loading it all at once".  In which case, yes, you can use
the BEG and END args of insert-file-contents to load only a part
of the file, so you can search the file 1MB at a time (for instance).

But maybe you'll be better off using something like grep on
your thesaurus and then fetching the relevant part.


        Stefan