LazyVim/Tutorial/Search for a Phrase Across Files

• Tutorial: Search for a Phrase Across Files in LazyVim

  • What You'll Do

    • We will search this garden for a phrase that appears on one line of a file. We will search the whole Git repository, narrow the search to Neovim's current directory, treat punctuation as ordinary text, and include hidden or ignored files when needed.

  • Before You Start

    • Use this garden's current LazyVim setup, where the nvim/Plugin/snacks.nvim/Picker runs searches with rg.
    • <leader> is the Space key.
    • Run :checkhealth lazyvim if the picker reports that rg is unavailable.

  • Open the Garden at Its Git Root

    • From a shell, open the garden from the path registered with ghq:
      • bash

        cd "$(ghq list --full-path --exact github.com/codekiln/logseq-encode-garden)"
        nvim .

    • Run :pwd in LazyVim. You will see the garden's repository root.

  • Search the Whole Repository

    • Press <leader>/. <leader>sg opens the same repository-root search on a mnemonic key sequence.
    • Type the garden's rulesync targets into the picker without quotation marks.
    • The results update while you type. The list includes README.md, where the complete phrase occurs on one line. This tutorial also appears because it contains the exercise phrase.
    • Move to the README.md result with <C-j> and <C-k> or the arrow keys, then press Enter. LazyVim opens the file with the cursor on the match.
    • Notice that the spaces stay inside one search pattern. Quotation marks are unnecessary; typing them would ask rg to find quotation-mark characters in the file.
    • LazyVim/Tutorial/Search for a Phrase Across Files/Q/How do we know that rg is used for search in LazyVim?

  • Treat Punctuation as Ordinary Text

    • Press <leader>/ to open another repository search.
    • Press <Alt-r> to turn off regular-expression matching, then type tags:: [[Diataxis/Tutorial]].
    • The results include tutorial pages whose frontmatter contains that complete text. With regular expressions turned off, characters such as [ and ] are matched literally.
    • Press <Alt-r> again when a search needs regular-expression syntax.
    • LazyVim/Tutorial/Search for a Phrase Across Files/Q/Why does searching for the tags line for Diataxis Tutorial require turning off Regex matching in rg?
    • LazyVim/Tutorial/Search for a Phrase Across Files/Q/What does the R indicate in the title of the Grep dialog?

  • Search Only the Current Directory

    • Run :cd pages. Neovim's current directory now ends in /pages while the Git root remains the garden's top directory. A floating Messages notification reports the new path.
    • LazyVim/Tutorial/Search for a Phrase Across Files/Q/Why does cd pages show a Messages notification but pwd shows nothing visible?
    • LazyVim/Tutorial/Search for a Phrase Across Files/Q/Are cd and pwd built-in vim commands that do something different than the shell version of cd and pwd?
    • Press <leader>sG; the uppercase G chooses the current-directory form of the grep picker.
    • Type Fuzzy file picker scoped to the detected root.
    • The results include LazyVim___Keyshort___Search.md under pages/. Files outside pages/ are outside this search.
    • Run :cd .. when you want Neovim's current directory to be the repository root again.
      • LazyVim/Tutorial/Search for a Phrase Across Files/Q/Is there a command to cd back to the original directory nvim was launched with, or do you need to remember where you are and use relative directory navigation?

  • Restrict the Search to One File Extension

    • Press <leader>/ to open a repository search.
    • Type garden -- -g=*.md. Everything before -- is the search phrase; everything after it is passed to rg as extra arguments, here the rg/-g flag.
    • The results are limited to files whose name matches *.md, so files such as mise.toml or .gitignore no longer appear even if they contain the word garden.
    • -t md works the same way: garden -- -t md restricts the search to rg's built-in Markdown file type, which already covers .md, .markdown, .mdx, and related extensions.
    • LazyVim/Tutorial/Search for a Phrase Across Files/Q/How does the picker split the phrase from the extra rg arguments?

  • Include Hidden or Ignored Files

    • Open either grep picker and enter the phrase first.
    • Press <Alt-h> to include hidden files. The picker reruns the search with hidden files enabled.
    • Press <Alt-i> to include files excluded by ignore rules. The picker reruns the search without applying those rules.
    • Press either key again to return to the usual project search.

  • What You've Learned

    • <leader>/ and <leader>sg search the detected project root; in a Git repository, that is the Git root.
    • <leader>sG searches Neovim's current working directory, which :pwd displays and :cd changes.
    • A phrase containing spaces is one contiguous rg pattern. <Alt-r> makes punctuation literal, while <Alt-h> and <Alt-i> broaden which files are searched.
    • Typing -- after the phrase, followed by flags such as -g=*.md or -t md, restricts a search to one file extension or type.
    • Enter opens the selected match at the matching line.