EmacsWiki: Category Search And Replace (original) (raw)

Emacs can search in the current buffer, across multiple buffers or in files.

You can also search Emacs itself: introspect documentation, commands, faces, variables,… (See SelfDocumentation). Some completion features use search.

This page is about searching and replacing text in Emacs. Look for ‘search’ in the EmacsManual for more information – that will also provide info about replacing.

Search in Buffers

Vanilla:

• IncrementalSearch – aka Isearch. ‘C-s’ and ‘C-M-s’.
• Incremental search across multiple buffers: command ‘multi-isearch-buffers’. (See the Emacs manual: Other Repeating Search.)
• OccurMode – ‘M-x occur’ and ‘multi-occur’. Similar to grep, but for buffers, not files.

Additional:

• AceJump – a minor mode for Emacs, enabling direct cursor-moving in current view.
• AcmeSearch – Simple right-click searching.
• BuffersMisc
• CharacterFold+ – optional symmetric character folding for Isearch
• Icicles – two unrelated features: ‘icicle-search’ and completion for Isearch:
  • Icicles search: Regexp search within search contexts: text zones defined using regexps (and their subgroups) or using text or overlay property values. Combine syntactic and semantic (predicate) searching. (Cf. Isearch+.)
  • Use completion against previous Isearch search strings.
• VisualRegexp – using the visual-regexp-steroids extension, you can use a modern regexp engine to power isearch.
• Isearch+ – Many extensions to Emacs’ standard Isearch, including search within search contexts: text or overlay property zones, Imenu definitions, and Emacs THINGs (sexps, lists, symbols, paragraphs, whatever). (Cf. Icicles search.)
• LazySearch – A new search mode to search string around point fast.
• msearch – Search matches of text dragged with the mouse in the current buffer.
• Replace+ – Extensions to OccurMode.
• SearchBuffers – Like OccurMode, but for multiple buffers.
• SearchKeybind – ‘occur’ for key bindings and their commands.
• SearchNear – Using OccurMode to find words that are near each other.
• SummaryEditMode – List up matched strings from a buffer, and display them in summary buffer.
• SuperDuperRedundantPlus – can mark all files in dired buffer using ‘dired-mark-files-containing-regexp’ followed by ‘dired-do-query-replace-regexp’.

Replace in Buffers

Vanilla:

• ReplaceRegexp – Query-replace, possibly evaluating an EmacsLisp sexp to compute the replacement text.
• After starting Isearch, ‘query-replace’ with ` M-%’ or ‘query-replace-regexp’ with ` C-M-%’, using the current search string.
• IbufferMode – Operate on multiple buffers, including query replace (Emacs 22).

Additional:

• VisualRegexp – like ‘M-x replace-regexp’, but with live visual feedback directly in the buffer.
• Anything – ‘M-x anything-regexp’, ‘M-x anything-query-replace-regexp’: narrow the matched lines by multiple patterns and replace.
• Icicles search-and-replace – Replace individual search hits in any order. Replace all. Search hits can be regexp matches within a search context that corresponds to a regexp or a regexp-subgroup match. Lisp sexp eval replacement text is allowed, as in ReplaceRegexp. Search and replace across multiple buffers, files, bookmarks, or saved regions.
• Iedit – Replace multiple occurrences of the Isearch string.
• Isearch+ – On-demand replacement during Isearch: hit ‘C-M-RET’ to replace the current search hit, the next N search hits, or all remaining search hits. Can limit search-and-replace to search contexts. Similar to Icicles search-and-replace (sexp eval replacement etc.).
• QueryExchange – Exchange two string interactively.
• Replace+ – Extensions to Emacs’ standard query-replace commands.
• ReplaceGarbageChars – Replace MS and other goofy/“garbage” characters with latin1. Simple elisp code can be easily applied to LaTeX or HTML or other kinds of buffers.
• ReplaceRecentCharacter – Quickly fix typos using a non-incremental search and replace.
• SearchAndReplaceDelimitedStrings – Replace (only) the prefix and suffix of a pattern.
• Replace-in-buffer – Replace text in complete buffer, use current region or next word as pattern
• Lisp:replace-string-simulatenously.el – Replace several strings at the same time. For example, you want to replace “yes”->“no” and “no”->“yes” in some text. If you do it in two replacements, it will replace all occurences “yes” for “no”, so you can’t differentiate between those. With this function, you just do M-x replace-string-simulatenously yes RET no RET no RET yes RET RET

Search Across Files

You can also, of course, visit files to be searched in buffers, and then use the techniques above for SearchInBuffers.

Vanilla:

• GrepMode – ‘M-x grep’
• ‘M-x find-name-dired’
• RecursiveGrep, ‘grep-find’, ‘find-grep-dired’

Additional:

• Anything – ‘M-x anything-grep’ in Lisp:anything-grep.el: narrow the list by multiple patterns
• CharacterFold+ – optional symmetric character folding for Isearch
• FindrPackage – Breadth-first search for files. Search for regexp within found files.
• Grep+ – Emacs ‘grep’ enhancements
• Icicles search across multiple files. Icicles compilation search to visit source-file hits in a *grep* or any compilation buffer. Multiple levels of regexp search.

Replace Across Files

Vanilla:

• DiredSearchAndReplace (‘Q’ in Dired) – Mark files, then search and replace in them.
  • FindGrepDiredSearchAndReplace – find matches in files with grep and replace them with Dired.
• ‘M-x find-name-dired’
• ‘M-x grep’ – GrepMode
• RecursiveGrep, ‘grep-find’, ‘find-grep-dired’
• ‘M-x tags-query-replace’ – replace using etags’ TagFile.

Additional:

• Anything – ‘M-x anything-grep’ in Lisp:anything-grep.el: narrow the list by multiple patterns.
• FindrPackage – Breadth-first search for files. Search for regexp within found files.
• GlobRep Search across multiple files, edit these lines, and save back.
• GrepEd Edit ‘grep’ results and write them back. Does not support M-%, which limits its usefulness.
• Lisp:wgrep.el Writable grep results
  • wgrep.el is based on Lisp:grep-edit.el http://www.bookshelf.jp/elc/grep-edit.el – Supports M-%
• grep-x similar to GlobRep. http://groups.google.com/groups?q=author:shouman%40goofy.cc.utexas.edu&hl=en&safe=off&rnum=2&selm=SHOUMAN.95Apr26224953%40goofy.cc.utexas.edu Usenet Article 1995/04/27
• Icicles search-and-replace – see above. Use Icicles compilation search-and-replace to visit source-file hits in a *grep* buffer and replace text within them.
• MultiReplace
• http://groups.google.com/groups?q=replace+group:gnu.emacs.sources
• TinyReplace replace over multiple files (run M-x grep to and hit % in compile buffer) RCS support.
• TraverseDirectory search a word or regexp in all files in dir and subdir (recursive search).
• VersionControlSearchAndReplace – Search and replace VC files, using Dired ‘Q’.
• (Links are broken or faulty - http://www.peerfear.org/el/replace-recursive.el (successor of http://www.peerfear.org/el/igrep-find-query-replace.el))

See Also

• Namazu – Text indexing and search.
• Tracker – Gnome tool for indexing and search
• LocateFilesAnywhere to find files on your file system, when you don’t know where they are. (This does not search the files; it locates them.)

CategoryExternalUtilities CategoryRegexp