ctrlsf.vim

An ack/ag powered code search and view tool, in an intuitive way with fairly more context.

About upcoming v1.0

There will be several features and changes introduced in v1.0, and the most important one is v1.0 will break backward compatibility.

Where and why backward compatibility is given up?

CtrlSF is at first designed as an wrapper of ag/ack within vim, and the principle of interface design is keeping same interface with ag/ack running on shell. This fact lets user get access to all features of ag/ack, and it's easier to implement too. However I found it is not as useful as I thought, what's worse, this principle limits features I can add to CtrlSF and makes CtrlSF counter-intuitive sometimes.

So I want to change it.

Case-insensitive searching in pre-v1.0 CtrlSF is like this

CtrlSF -i foo

In v1.0, that will be replaced by

CtrlSF -ignorecase foo

For those most frequently used arguments, an upper case short version is also available

CtrlSF -I foo

Major features in v1.0

• New interface (new argument, new completion, etc.)
• Literal string search by default
• Auto detect VCS directory(.git, .hg) and use it as search root
• Search restrict to files of specific type
• Debug mode
• Somthing more...

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Notice: This guide is about usage in pre-v1.0, something may change after v1.0 release. Please read above section for what will change.

Installation

1. Make sure you have ack or ag installed.

2. An easy way to install CtrlSF is using a package manager, like pathogen, vundle or neobundle.

   In vundle:

   Bundle 'dyng/ctrlsf.vim'

3. Read Basic Usage for more.

Basic Usage

1. Run :CtrlSF [pattern], it will split a new window to show search result.

2. Press Enter if you wanna jump to that file, or press q to quit.

3. Press p to explore file in a preview window if you only want a glance.

4. Running :CtrlSFOpen can reopen CtrlSF window if you are interested in other matches. It is free because it won't invoke a same but new search.

5. You can pass arguments like -i, -C or path directly to ack/ag backend in :CtrlSF command.

   CtrlSF -i -C 1 [pattern] /restrict/to/some/dir

Key Maps

In CtrlSF window:

• o, Enter - Jump to file that contains the line under cursor.
• t - Like o but open file in a new tab.
• p - Like o but open file in a preview window.
• O - Like o but always leave CtrlSF window opening.
• T - Lkie t but focus CtrlSF window instead of opened new tab.
• q - Quit CtrlSF window.
• <C-J> - Move cursor to next match.
• <C-K> - Move cursor to previous match.

In preview window:

• q - Close preview window.

Use Your Own Map

Besides the commands, there are also some useful maps.

• <Plug>CtrlSFPrompt

  Input :CtrlSF in command line for you, just a handy alias.

• <Plug>CtrlSFVwordPath

  Input :CtrlSF foo in command line where foo is the current visual selected word, waiting for further input.

• <Plug>CtrlSFVwordExec

  Similar to above, but execute it for you.

• <Plug>CtrlSFCwordPath

  Input :CtrlSF foo in command line where foo is the word under cursor.

• <Plug>CtrlSFPwordPath

  Input :CtrlSF foo in command line where foo is the last search pattern of vim.

For a detail list of all maps, please refer to the document file.

I strongly recommend you should do some maps for a nicer user experience, because 8 keystrokes for every single search are really boring even pain experience. Another reason is that one of the most useful feature 'Search Current Visual Selection' can be accessed by map only.

Example:

nmap     <C-F>f <Plug>CtrlSFPrompt
vmap     <C-F>f <Plug>CtrlSFVwordPath
vmap     <C-F>F <Plug>CtrlSFVwordExec
nmap     <C-F>n <Plug>CtrlSFCwordPath
nmap     <C-F>p <Plug>CtrlSFPwordPath
nnoremap <C-F>o :CtrlSFOpen<CR>

Configuration

• g:ctrlsf_ackprg defines the external ack-like program which CtrlSF uses as source. If nothing is specified, CtrlSF will try ag first and fallback to ack if ag is not available. You can also explicitly define it by

  let g:ctrlsf_ackprg = 'ag'

• g:ctrlsf_position defines where CtrlSf places its window. Possible values are left, right, top and bottom. If nothing specified, the default value is left.

  let g:ctrlsf_position = 'bottom'

• g:ctrlsf_winsize defines the width (if CtrlSF opens vertically) or height (if CtrlSF opens horizontally) of CtrlSF main window. You can specify it with percent value or absolute value.

  let g:ctrlsf_winsize = '30%'
  " or
  let g:ctrlsf_winsize = '100'

• g:ctrlsf_auto_close defines the behavior of CtrlSF window after you press the Enter. By default CtrlSF window will automatically be closed if you jump to some file, you can prevent it by setting g:ctrlsf_auto_close to 0.

  let g:ctrlsf_auto_close = 0

• g:ctrlsf_context defines how to print lines around the matching line (refer to ack's manual). It is default to be -C 3, you can overwrite it by

  let g:ctrlsf_context = '-B 5 -A 3'

A full doc about options can be found in :help ctrlsf-options.

Why not ack.vim or ag.vim ?

1. ack.vim depends on vim's builtin :grep command, so you can't custom output format. What makes me to write this plugin is that I find reading lines with no highlight and no context is totally a pain. (Using :cnext and :cprevious can relieve it, yes.)
2. Fix a misescape bug in ack.vim (and also ag.vim), it lets you can use literal '#' and '%' without annoying escape now. For more information, check manual of ack.vim.
3. ag.vim is actually a fork of ack.vim with minor change.