Emacs command for searching in files

Question

I want to search in all files from the current folder for macro CODE_INIT_PARAMETERS.

I can do Alt + X occur, Return CODE_INIT_PARAMETERS Return, but this shows only entries from open buffers.

Is there a way to search all files from current folder, from Emacs, without switching to M-x shell and then grep? I want to avoid grep, because for some commands (M-x occur) Emacs do jumps to offending code, and I want that too.

Answer 1

You can try M-x rgrep.

It will ask for:

• the directory where you want to search recursively
• a file pattern for the files you want to include in the search
• the pattern you want to search

As an extra, it will exclude source control private directories from your search (like CVS, .svn or .git).

Answer 2

Emacs provides a built-in command:

M-x grep RET CODE_INIT_PARAMETERS *.c 

(and 'grep-find to search sub directories)

Though I prefer the interface provided by an external package igrep (which provides the commands igrep and igrep-find).