Re: using find-grep in emacs

[Bob Proulx]

Dan Espen wrote:
> Rami A writes:
> > M-x find-grep
> > find . -type f -exec grep -n  {} /dev/null \;

What version of emacs are you using?  That isn't emacs 23 nor emacs 24.
So what version is it?  M-x emacs-version

Specifically "\;" should be "+" in emacs 24.

> > Now I have to change /dev/null to be the directory which I want to search 
> > in.

There is a misunderstanding of how that command works.  You wouldn't
replace /dev/null.  Leave it the same.  (Or use -H.)

The string you would want to replace with the directory you want to
search is the "." string not the "/dev/null" string.  The "."
specifies the directory to search.

That space between the "-n" and "{}" is where you should type in the
search pattern.

> > How is it possible to not do that every time I use find-grep and
> > that it could remember the directory I am specifying.
> >
> > Also, How to make it default to search all three file types .h .s
> > .c and nothing else?
> 
> In emacs 24.2.1 the string is:
> 
> find . -type f -print0 | "xargs" -0 -e grep -nH -e 

That looks more like emacs 23.2.1 not 24.2.1.  Emacs 24.3.1 uses this
string by default:

  find . -type f -exec grep -nH -e  {} +
                                   ^ cursor here

> To only look at .hsc files I'd do:
> 
>  find . -type f  -a -name '*.[hsc]' -exec grep -n  {} /dev/null \;
> 
> (Not tested but you should get the idea.)

Looks good to me.  But also include the pattern.  And the -a is superfluous.

  find . -type f -name '*.[hsc]' -exec grep -nH PATTERN {} +

> The "." after find is the directory you want to search in, if you don't
> want to search the current directory, replace the ".".
> 
> I believe /dev/null is there to convince grep that it should display
> file names because it is looking at multiple files.

Yes.  Definitely!  :-)

Bob