helm-grepint.el

Generic helm interface to grep

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Description

This package solves the following problems for me:

• A single function call interface to grep and therefore keybinding.
• Selects the grep based on context: Inside a git-repository, runs git-grep, otherwise runs ag.
• Uses helm to select candidates and jumps to the given line with RET.
• A second interactive function helm-grepint-grep-root. This runs the grepping inside a root directory. By default this has been defined for the git-grep where it greps from the git root directory.
• Inside a huge git repository one can create a file defined in the variable helm-grepint-default-config-ag-presearch-marker-file and it will set that directory as the root directory for grepping. It uses ag instead of git-grep as the grep.
• The grepping is case-insensitive by default, but if an upper-case letter is given case-sensitive grepping is done.

The following enables the aforementioned:

    (require 'helm-grepint)
    (helm-grepint-set-default-config-latest)
    (global-set-key (kbd "C-c g") #'helm-grepint-grep)
    (global-set-key (kbd "C-c G") #'helm-grepint-grep-root)

Key bindings within helm

• RET/F1 selects an item and closes the helm session.
• F2 runs the grep command in a grep-mode buffer.
• Right-arrow selects the item, but does not close the helm session. This is similar as helm-occur. Default helmkeybindings for this feature are also available (C-j and C-z).
• M-c cycles case sensitiveness.

Customization

Look into the function helm-grepint-set-default-config to see how the default cases are configured. Also look into helm-grepint-add-grep-config for more details on what is required for a new grep to be defined.

Notable changes

Version 1.6.0

• Add helm-grepint-regexp-quote-pre-input option enable quoting of regular expression characters in the pre-input string. It is disabled by default.

Version 1.5.0

• Use templates in the :arguments of helm-grepint-add-grep-config. Use the templated approach for both git-grep and ag configurations.

Version 1.4.0

• The F2 action runs the command and displays the results in grep-mode. Previously the grep-mode was only faked.

Version 1.3.0

• Make minimum pattern length configurable with helm-grepint-min-pattern-length.
• Use helm-mm-split-pattern to split the pattern. Supports now backslash escaped spaces.
• Make pattern processing altogether configurable with grep-property :modify-pattern-function.
• Remove highlighting with helm-grep-highlight-match to fix a bug.

Version 1.2.0

• Obsoleted helm-grepint-get-grep-config in favor of helm-grepint-grep-config.
• Make the ignore-case a separate argument in the grep configuration. This way it can be toggled on and off easily.
• Add case-fold-search support (case-(in)sensitiveness). Add Helm keybinding M-c to control it.
• Add smart case-sensitiveness checking.
• Add a new configuration helm-grepint-set-default-config-v1.2.0 which makes the smart cases-sensitiveness as the default. The configuration is now the helm-grepint-set-default-config-latest.

Version 1.1.1

• Add --ignore-case argument for git-grep to make it consistent with ag in the helm-grepint-set-default-config.

Version 1.1.0

• Fix incompatibilities with recent helm versions.
• Add helm-grepint-candidate-number-limit variable to control the number of candidates instead of hard-coding 500.
• Create a new example configuration which adds the ag-presearch functionality. The example configurations are now versioned: helm-grepint-set-default-config-v1.0.0 and helm-grepint-set-default-config-v1.1.0.
• Change the helm-grepint-set-default-config function to an alias of helm-grepint-set-default-config-v1.0.0. Add new alias helm-grepint-set-default-config-latest which points to helm-grepint-set-default-config-v1.1.0.

Version 1.0.0

• Add action to create a grep-mode buffer from the helm-buffer.
• Add universal-argument to manually ask the used grep configuration.

Version 0.5.5

• Fix swooping into multiple files within a helm session. Previously it would change default-directory every swoop.
• Add action to open the helm buffer in grep-mode. This enables the use of e.g. wgrep.
• Add helm-grepint-grep-ask-root and set it as default for ag.

Function Documentation

(helm-grepint-add-grep-config NAME &rest CONFIGURATION)

Add configuration NAME with properties from CONFIGURATION.

The configuration can have the following items:

:command

• A command string to run.

:arguments

• Arguments provided for the command when it is run. This and :command is provided for the ‘helm-grepint-run-command’ function.

• The argument string can contain the following strings that are replaced with given strings:

  ":ignore-case-argument" -> The value of :ignore-case-argument. ":search-pattern" -> The pattern from helm.

  If the above are not given, they are concatenated in the above order to the command line.

:enable-function

• A function that returns non-nil if this grep can be used. If this is nil, the grep can be used always.

:root-directory-function

• Function that returns a string of a directory that is regarded as the root directory when running ‘helm-grepint-grep-root’. If this is nil, ‘helm-grepint-grep-root’ behaves exactly as ‘helm-grepint-grep’.

:ignore-case-argument

• The argument for the grep command that makes grepping ignore character case. Traditionally this is ‘--ignore-case’ for a number of different greps. This needs to be defined or the ‘helm-grepint-cycle-character-case’ function has no effect.

:modify-pattern-function

• This modifies the ‘helm-pattern’ before giving it to the grep. If this is nil, the default the ‘helm-grepint-pattern-modify’ function is used.

(helm-grepint-grep-config NAME &optional NEW-CONFIG)

Get a grep configuration with NAME or set it to NEW-CONFIG.

(helm-grepint-grep-config-property NAME PROPERTY &rest NEW-VALUE)

Get a config NAME’s PROPERTY or set it to NEW-VALUE. The config NAME has been added with ‘helm-grepint-add-grep-config’. Returns the current value of the property or nil if either name or property was not found.

(helm-grepint-run-command &rest PLIST)

Run a grep command from PLIST.

The command line is constructed with the following PLIST items:

:command :arguments :extra-arguments.

The :arguments is split on whitespace, but :extra-arguments are used as is.

(helm-grepint-select-grep ASK-GREP)

Select the grep based on :enable-function from ‘helm-grepint-grep-configs’.

If ASK-GREP is non-nil, select the grep by asking with ‘completing-read’. The greps are compared in order of ‘helm-grepint-grep-list’. If the grep does not have :enable-function property, select it automatically.

(helm-grepint-grep-default-root)

Get the default root directory if :root-directory-function isn’t defined.

(helm-grepint-grep-ask-root)

Ask the root directory from user.

(helm-grepint-grep-parse-line LINE)

Parse a LINE of output from grep-compatible programs.

Returns a list of (file line contents) or nil if the line could not be parsed.

(helm-grepint-grep-action-jump CANDIDATE)

Jump to line in a file described by a grep -line CANDIDATE.

(helm-grepint-grep-action-mode CANDIDATE)

Run ‘grep-mode’ with the current pattern.

CANDIDATE is ignored.

(helm-grepint-pattern-modify STR)

Split the STR at whitespace and replace them with .*.

Supports backslash escaping for literal spaces. See ‘helm-mm-split-pattern’ for more details.

(helm-grepint-grep-process)

This is the candidates-process for ‘helm-grepint-helm-source’.

(helm-grepint-grep-filter-one-by-one CANDIDATE)

Propertize each CANDIDATE provided by ‘helm-grepint-helm-source’.

(helm-grepint-cycle-character-case)

Select the next one from the ‘helm-grepint-character-cases’ list.

(helm-grepint-grep &optional ARG)

Run grep in the current directory.

See the usage for ARG in ‘helm-grepint--grep’.

The grep function is determined by the contents of ‘helm-grepint-grep-configs’ and the order of ‘helm-grepint-grep-list’.

(helm-grepint-grep-root &optional ARG)

Function ‘helm-grepint-grep’ is run in a root directory.

See the usage for ARG in ‘helm-grepint--grep’.

(helm-grepint-set-default-config-v1\.0\.0)

Set the default grep configuration into ‘helm-grepint-grep-configs’ and ‘helm-grepint-grep-list’.

(helm-grepint-set-default-config-v1\.1\.0)

Set default grep configuration.

Run ‘helm-grepint-set-default-config-v1.0.0’ and then this function.

Adds configuration for running ag if file set in ‘helm-grepint-default-config-ag-presearch-marker-file’ is found in a git repository before the git root. The use case is running this in huge git repositories and wanting to limit the searching to a subdirectory.

(helm-grepint-set-default-config-v1\.2\.0)

Set default grep configuration.

Run ‘helm-grepint-set-default-config-v1.1.0’ and then this function.

Makes the ‘smart’ character-case as the default. Changes the order of cycling the character-cases. After the ‘smart’ comes case-sensitive.

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