148 lines
5.3 KiB
Markdown
148 lines
5.3 KiB
Markdown
# ack.vim
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Run your favorite search tool from Vim, with an enhanced results list.
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This plugin was designed as a Vim frontend for the Perl module [App::Ack]. Ack
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can be used as a replacement for 99% of the uses of _grep_. The plugin allows
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you to run ack from vim, and shows the results in a split window.
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But here's a little secret for the Vim-seasoned: it's just a light wrapper for
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Vim's [grepprg] and the [quickfix] window for match results. This makes it easy
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to integrate with your own Vim configuration and use existing knowledge of core
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features. It also means the plugin is flexible to use with other search tools.
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[App::Ack]: http://search.cpan.org/~petdance/ack/ack
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[grepprg]: http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/options.html#'grepprg'
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[quickfix]: http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/htmldoc/quickfix.html#quickfix
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## Installation
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### Ack
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You will need ack (>= 2.0), of course. To install it follow the
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[manual](http://beyondgrep.com/install/).
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### The Plugin
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It is recommended to use one of the popular plugin managers for Vim. There are
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many and you probably already have a preferred one, but a few examples for your
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copy-and-paste convenience:
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#### Vundle
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Plugin 'mileszs/ack.vim'
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#### NeoBundle
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NeoBundle 'mileszs/ack.vim'
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#### Manual (not recommended)
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[Download][releases] the plugin and extract it in `~/.vim/` (or
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`%PROGRAMFILES%/Vim/vimfiles` on Windows).
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[zipball]: https://github.com/mileszs/ack.vim/archive/master.zip
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## Usage
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:Ack [options] {pattern} [{directories}]
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Search recursively in `{directories}` (which defaults to the current directory)
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for the `{pattern}`.
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Files containing the search term will be listed in the quickfix window, along
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with the line number of the occurrence, once for each occurrence. `<Enter>` on
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a line in this window will open the file, and place the cursor on the matching
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line.
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Just like where you use `:grep`, `:grepadd`, `:lgrep`, and :`lgrepadd`, you can
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use `:Ack`, `:AckAdd`, `:LAck`, and `:LAckAdd` respectively. (See `:help Ack`
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after installing, or [`doc/ack.txt`][doc] in the repo, for more information.)
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For more ack help see [ack documentation](http://beyondgrep.com/documentation/).
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[doc]: https://github.com/mileszs/ack.vim/blob/master/doc/ack.txt
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### Keyboard Shortcuts
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The quickfix results window is augmented with these convenience mappings:
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? a quick summary of these keys, repeat to close
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o to open (same as Enter)
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O to open and close the quickfix window
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go to preview file, open but maintain focus on ack.vim results
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t to open in new tab
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T to open in new tab without moving to it
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h to open in horizontal split
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H to open in horizontal split, keeping focus on the results
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v to open in vertical split
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gv to open in vertical split, keeping focus on the results
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q to close the quickfix window
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### Gotchas
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Some characters have special meaning, and need to be escaped in your search
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pattern. For instance, `#`. You need to escape it with `:Ack '\\\#define
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foo'` to search for '#define foo'. See [issue #5].
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[issue #5]: https://github.com/mileszs/ack.vim/issues/5
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## Possibly FAQ
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#### Can I use `ag` ([The Silver Searcher]) with this?
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Absolutely, and probably other tools if their output is similar or you can
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write a pattern match for it--just set `g:ackprg`. If you like, you can fall
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back to Ack in case you use your vimrc on a system without Ag available:
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```vim
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if executable('ag')
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let g:ackprg = 'ag --vimgrep'
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endif
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```
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Since Ack is quite portable you might check a copy of it into your dotfiles
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repository in `~/bin` so you'll nearly always have it available.
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#### What's the difference from ag.vim?
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Well... not a lot really.
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Present maintainer, yours truly, [kind of wishes they never forked][sadface],
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contributes to both, and wouldn't mind seeing them merged again. ag.vim got a
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nice code clean-up (which ack.vim is now hopefully getting), and ack.vim picked
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up a few features that haven't made their way to ag.vim, like `:AckWindow`,
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optional background search execution with [vim-dispatch], and auto-previewing.
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[The Silver Searcher]: https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher
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[sadface]: https://github.com/mileszs/ack.vim/commit/d97090fb502d40229e6976dfec0e06636ba227d5#commitcomment-5771145
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## Changelog
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Please see [the Github releases page][releases].
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### 1.0.9 (unreleased)
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* Fix location list and layout of quickfix when using Dispatch (#154)
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* Fix the quick help overlay clobbering the list mappings
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* Fix `:AckFile` when using Dispatch
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* Restore original `'makeprg'` and `'errorformat'` when using Dispatch
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* Internal refactoring and clean-up
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## Credits
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This plugin is derived from Antoine Imbert's blog post [Ack and Vim
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Integration][] (in particular, the function in the update to the post). [Miles
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Sterrett][mileszs] packaged it up as a plugin and documented it in Vim's help
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format, and since then [many contributors][contributors] have submitted
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enhancements and fixes.
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And of course, where would we be without [Ack]. And, you know, Vim.
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[Ack and Vim Integration]: http://blog.ant0ine.com/typepad/2007/03/ack-and-vim-integration.html
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[mileszs]: https://github.com/mileszs
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[contributors]: https://github.com/mileszs/ack.vim/graphs/contributors
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[Ack]: http://beyondgrep.com/
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[vim-dispatch]: https://github.com/tpope/vim-dispatch
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[releases]: https://github.com/mileszs/ack.vim/releases
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