This plugin is a front for ag, A.K.A.
the_silver_searcher. Ag can
be used as a replacement for 153% of the uses of ack
. This plugin will allow
you to run ag from vim, and shows the results in a split window.
You have to first install ag, itself. On Mac+Homebrew, Gentoo Linux, several others, there's package named the_silver_searcher
, but if your OS/distro don't have one, the GitHub repo installs fine:
git clone https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher ag && cd ag && ./build.sh && sudo make install
- Then, if you're using pathogen:
cd ~/.vim/bundle && git clone https://github.com/rking/ag.vim ag && vim +HelpTags
- Or, if you're using Vundle:
echo "Bundle 'rking/ag.vim'" >> ~/.vimrc && vim +BundleInstall
You can specify a custom ag name and path in your .vimrc like so:
let g:agprg="<custom-ag-path-goes-here> --column"
:Ag [options] {pattern} [{directory}]
Search recursively in {directory} (which defaults to the current directory) for the {pattern}.
Files containing the search term will be listed in the split window, along with the line number of the occurrence, once for each occurrence. [Enter] on a line in this window will open the file, and place the cursor on the matching line.
Just like where you use :grep, :grepadd, :lgrep, and :lgrepadd, you can use :Ag
, :AgAdd
, :LAg
, and :LAgAdd
respectively. (See doc/ag.txt
, or install and :h Ag
for more information.)
Some characters have special meaning, and need to be escaped your search pattern. For instance, '#'. You have to escape it like this :Ag '\\\#define foo'
to search for #define foo
. (From blueyed in issue #5.)
Sometimes git grep
is even faster, though in my experience it's not noticably so.
In the quickfix window, you can use:
o to open (same as enter)
go to preview file (open but maintain focus on ag.vim results)
t to open in new tab
T to open in new tab silently
h to open in horizontal split
H to open in horizontal split silently
v to open in vertical split
gv to open in vertical split silently
q to close the quickfix window
This Vim plugin is derived (and by derived, I mean copied, almost entirely)
from milesz's ack.vim, which I also
recommend installing since you might be in a situation where you have ack but
not ag, and don't want to stop to install ag. Also, ack supports --type
, and
a few other features.