Fast 'Find in Files' for VIM?

search vim full-text-search find code-search-engine
Christopher Stott picture Christopher Stott · Jul 8, 2009 · Viewed 10.9k times · Source

What are some options for getting really fast 'Find in Files' searching in VIM?

Our codebase is large enough that searching needs to work off an index. grep/vimgrep/etc are too slow.

Indexing doesn't need to be particularly fast; I can index overnight.

Thanks,

[EDIT] I'm also working in a Windows environment.

Answer

ars picture ars · Jul 8, 2009

If it's source code (rather than full text search), then ctags with the TagList plugin should work well for your needs. See, for example:

http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2009/04/ctags-taglist-vi-vim-editor-as-sourece-code-browser/

EDIT: TagList and ctags will work on Windows as well (that's what I use). See the TagList install page and FAQ. The following links might prove useful:

There's also a TagList forum where you can get further help:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/taglist/

I set it up on my windows machine a while back, but I don't remember encountering any problems.

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