Plugin to integrate various grep like search tools with Vim.
The grep plugin integrates grep like utilities (grep, fgrep, egrep, agrep, findstr, silver searcher (ag), ripgrep, ack, git grep, sift, platinum searcher and universal code grep) with Vim and allows you to search for a pattern in one or more files and jump to them.
In Vim version 8.0 and above, the search command is run asynchronously in the background and the results are added to a quickfix list.
This plugin works only with Vim and not with neovim.
To use this plugin, you will need the grep like utilities in your system. If a particular utility is not present, then you cannot use the corresponding features, but you can still use the rest of the features supported by the plugin.
To use the this plugin with grep, you will need the grep, fgrep and egrep utilities. To recursively search for files using grep, you will need the find and xargs utilities. These tools are present in most of the Unix and MacOS installations. For MS-Windows systems, you can download the GNU grep and find utilities from the following sites:
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/grep.htm
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/findutils.htm
On MS-Windows, you can use the findstr utility to search for patterns. This is available by default on all MS-Windows systems.
The plugin supports various search utilities listed in the table below.
| Search Tool | Home Page | Grep Plugin Command |
|---|---|---|
| Ripgrep | https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep | :Rg |
| Silver Searcher | https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher | :Ag |
| Git grep | https://git-scm.com/ | :Gitgrep |
| Ack | https://beyondgrep.com/ | :Ack |
| Sift | https://sift-tool.org | :Sift |
| Platinum Searcher | https://github.com/monochromegane/the_platinum_searcher | :Ptgrep |
| Universal Code Grep | https://gvansickle.github.io/ucg | :Ucgrep |
| agrep | https://www.tgries.de/agrep | :Agrep |
The ripgrep, silver searcher, git grep, ack, sift, platinum searcher and universal code grep utilities can search for a pattern recursively across directories without using any other additional utilities like find and xargs.