The vim grep operator

Description

The vim grep operator plugin, inspired by Steve Losh and his book: http://learnvimscriptthehardway.stevelosh.com/

This plugin's has 2 goals:

• bring motion and visual selection to the :grep command
• open the quickfix window on the fly for easy file match navigation

<leader>g{motion} or <leader>g on a visual selection will produce this output:

<leader><leader>g{motion} or <leader><leader>g will prompt you for filenames and will produce this output:

Installation

Use pathogen or a pathogen compatible plugin manager.

If you are using git for source code management, you should have your grepprg option set to something like this:

set grepprg=git\ grep\ -n\ $*

Suggested ~/.vimrc mappings

nmap <leader>g <Plug>GrepOperatorOnCurrentDirectory
vmap <leader>g <Plug>GrepOperatorOnCurrentDirectory
nmap <leader><leader>g <Plug>GrepOperatorWithFilenamePrompt
vmap <leader><leader>g <Plug>GrepOperatorWithFilenamePrompt

Choose your grep operator (default: grep)

let g:grep_operator = 'Ag'
let g:grep_operator = 'Ack'

Configuration

Setting the search register allows hlsearch to highlight that pattern. It also allows using the n, N motions (find next/previous pattern). Handling the hlsearch option is up to you.

let g:grep_operator_set_search_register = 1

Examples

<leader>giw will grep the current directory for the word under the cursor and open the quickfix window.
<leader>ga( will grep for what's inside the parenthesis including the parenthesis.
<leader>gi' will grep for what's inside the quotes.

Visually select some characters and type <leader>g. This will grep for the selected text.

You can also be prompted for files to grep by using the same motions or visual selection but with the <leader><leader>g mapping.

Useful readings

:h grepprg
:h quickfix
:h text-objects
http://learnvimscriptthehardway.stevelosh.com/ and specifically chapters 32, 33, 34