This plugin is a front for the Perl module App::Ack. Ack can be used as a replacement for 99% of the uses of grep. This plugin will allow you to run ack from vim, and shows the results in a split window.
The Official Version of this plugin is available at vim.org.
You have to install ack, of course.
Install on Debian / Ubuntu with:
sudo apt-get install ack-grep
Install on Fedora with:
su -l -c 'yum install ack'
Install on Gentoo with:
sudo emerge ack
Install with Homebrew:
brew install ack
Install with MacPorts:
sudo port install p5-app-ack
Install with Gentoo Prefix:
emerge ack
Install on FreeBSD with:
cd /usr/ports/textproc/p5-ack/ && make install clean
You can specify a custom ack name and path in your .vimrc like so:
let g:ackprg="<custom-ack-path-goes-here> -H --nocolor --nogroup --column"
Otherwise, you are on your own.
If you have Rake installed, you can just run: rake install.
Otherwise, the file ack.vim goes in ~/.vim/plugin, and the ack.txt file belongs in ~/.vim/doc. Be sure to run
:helptags ~/.vim/doc
afterwards.
:Ack [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 :Ack, :AckAdd, :LAck, and :LAckAdd respectively. (See doc/ack.txt, or install and :h Ack for more information.)
From the ack docs (my favorite feature):
--type=TYPE, --type=noTYPE
Specify the types of files to include or exclude from a search. TYPE is a filetype, like perl or xml. --type=perl can also be specified as --perl, and --type=noperl can be done as --noperl.
If a file is of both type "foo" and "bar", specifying --foo and --nobar will exclude the file, because an exclusion takes precedence over an inclusion.
Type specifications can be repeated and are ORed together.
See ack --help=types for a list of valid types.
Some characters have special meaning, and need to be escaped your search pattern. For instance, '#'. You have to escape it like this :Ack '\\\#define foo' to search for #define foo. (From blueyed in issue #5.)
In the quickfix window, you can use:
o to open (same as enter)
go to preview file (open but maintain focus on ack.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, essentially) from Antoine Imbert's blog post Ack and Vim Integration (in particular, the function at the bottom of the post). I added a help file that provides just enough reference to get you going. I also highly recommend you check out the docs for the Perl script 'ack', for obvious reasons: ack - grep-like text finder.