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The Global Replace plugin allows you to search and replace a pattern across multiple files and buffers.
To search and replace a pattern in multiple files, you invoke a command supplied by this plugin with the search pattern. The plugin displays the lines containing the specified pattern in one or more specified files in a Vim buffer. You can use the Vim editing commands to make modifications to this buffer. To incorporate the changes back to the corresponding files, you now invoke a plugin command. This plugin allows you to make multiple modifications across several files in a single pass.
This plugin will run only on Vim 7.0 and above.
The github repository for this plugin is at https://github.com/yegappan/greplace
You can use any one of the Vim plugin managers (dein.vim, pathogen, vam, vim-plug, volt, Vundle, etc.) to install and manage this plugin.
Alternatively, you can also manually download and install the plugin using the following steps.
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Download the greplace.zip file from the https://vim.sourceforge.io site.
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Unzip the files into the $HOME/.vim or the $HOME/vimfiles or the $VIM/vimfiles directory. After this step, you should have the following files (the directory structure should be preserved):
plugin/greplace.vim - global replace command definitions autoload/greplace.vim - autoloaded global replace plugin file doc/greplace.txt - documentation (help) file
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Change to the $HOME/.vim/doc or $HOME/vimfiles/doc or $VIM/vimfiles/doc directory, start Vim and run the ":helptags ." command to process the help file. Without this step, you cannot jump to the help topics.
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Restart Vim.
To uninstall the global replace plugin, remove the plugin/greplace.vim, autoload/greplace.vim and doc/greplace.txt files from the $HOME/.vim or $HOME/vimfiles directory.
The following commands are provided by this plugin:
:Gsearch Search for a given pattern in the specified group of files and display the matches in the replace buffer.
:Gbuffersearch Search for a given pattern in all the buffers in the Vim buffer list.
:Gargsearch Search for a given pattern in all the files in the Vim argument list.
:Gqfopen Use the results from the quickfix list.
:Greplace Incorporate the modifications from the replace buffer into the corresponding files.
One example sequence of commands for using this plugin is:
:Gsearch mypattern *.java *.c
The above command will search for mypattern in *.java and *.c
files in the current directory and display the matching lines
in a buffer.
<You can now use the Vim editing commands to modify the buffer>
:Greplace
The above command will load each of the buffer which needs to be changed
and ask you to confirm whether to make the change or not
:bufdo update
<To save all the modified buffers>
In the above sequence, instead of ":Gsearch", you can use ":Gbuffersearch" or ":Gargsearch" commands to search for a pattern in the files in the Vim buffer list or the argument list.
The ":Gsearch" command uses the Vim ":grep" command to search for the pattern in the specified files. The ":grep" command uses the program specified by the "grepprg" option to search for the pattern. By default, the "grepprg" option is set to either grep (on Unix) or findstr (on MS-Windows). By modifying the "grepprg" option, you can also use other programs for searching. To use the Vim internal grep, set the "grepprg" option to "internal".
The syntax of the ":Gsearch" command is:
:Gsearch [<grep-option(s)>] [[<pattern>] [<filename(s)>]]
The arguments to the ":Gsearch" command are optional.
The first set of arguments, if present, specify the options to the grep program. These options must start with "-" (for Unix) and "/" (for MS-Windows). For example, to ignore case, you can use "-i" for the Unix grep program.
The next argument specifies the pattern. You cannot use space characters in the pattern. To specify space or other special characters in the pattern, don't specify the pattern in the command-line. You will then be prompted to enter the pattern where you can enter the special characters. See below for more information.
The last set of arguments specify the filenames. You can use wild cards (like '*') in the filenames. You can also complete directory and file names by pressing .
If the pattern or the filenames is not supplied as argument to the ":Gsearch" command, then you will be prompted to enter the pattern and the filenames. The default value for the search pattern is the keyword under the cursor. In the prompt for entering the pattern, you can enter a pattern with space and other special characters. In the prompt for entering the filenames, you can press to complete the directory and file names.
To search for a pattern in the files in the Vim buffer list, use the ":Gbuffersearch" command. The syntax of this command is:
:Gbuffersearch [<grep-option(s)>]
This command is similar to the ":Gsearch" command. This command searches for the specified pattern in all the files in the buffer list. You cannot specify filenames to this command.
To search for a pattern in the files in the Vim argument list, use the ":Gargsearch" command. The syntax of this command is:
:Gargsearch [<grep-option(s)>]
This command is similar to the ":Gsearch" command. This command will search for the specified pattern in all the files in the argument list. You cannot specify filenames to this command.
The difference between the ":Gbuffersearch" command and the Vim ":bufdo %s/pattern/replace/c" command is that the ":Gbuffersearch" command allows you to inspect and change the matching lines in a buffer and then incorporate the changes. You can also make different changes to different lines. With a single ":bufdo" command, you can make only the one type of change in all the buffers. The same difference applies for the ":Gargsearch" and the ":argdo" command.
Sometimes, you may have the desired list of filenames and the matching lines in them already in the quickfix list. For example, you can run tools like cscope, GNU id-utils, GNU global, etc., and get the results into the quickfix list. To use this list of files for replacing text, you can use the ":Gqfopen" command. This command doesn't take the pattern or filenames arguments. It parses the file names and lines in them from the current quickfix list and displays it in the replace buffer.
You can edit the contents of the replace buffer using the Vim editing commands. You cannot save the contents to a regular file. You should not change the filename or line numbers in the replace buffer. You should not add additional lines in this buffer. If you don't want to make any changes, you can close the replace buffer.
You can use the ":Greplace" command to store the modified lines from the replace buffer back to the corresponding files. This command is available only in the replace buffer.
The ":Greplace" command will prompt you to confirm each of the changes. At this prompt, you can press 'y' to accept the change, 'n' to reject the change, 'a' to accept all the changes, 'b' to accept all the changes in the current buffer and 'q' or to exit the replace prompt and stop making the changes.
To incorporate the modifications without the prompt, add "!" to the ":Greplace" command. This will force the ":Greplace" command to make the changes without any prompts for confirmation.
The modified files will not be automatically saved. You can save all of them using the ":wall" command or you can individually inspect the buffers for the changes and then save the buffer using the ":w" command. You can undo the changes individually by using the Vim "u" command. To save only files that are modified, you can use the ":bufdo update" command.
Permission is hereby granted to use and distribute the greplace plugin, with or without modifications, provided that this copyright notice is copied with it. Like anything else that's free, greplace.vim is provided as is and comes with no warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. In no event will the copyright holder be liable for any damages resulting from the use of this software.