ACK - The Silver Searcher

Mapped to <Leader>a

Usage

:Ack [options] {pattern} [{directories}]

Search recursively in {directories} (which defaults to the current directory) for the {pattern}.

Files containing the search term will be listed in the quickfix 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 :help Ack

For more ack help see ack documentation.

Keyboard Shortcuts

The quickfix results window is augmented with these convenience mappings:

?    a quick summary of these keys, repeat to close
o    to open (same as Enter)
O    to open and close the quickfix window
go   to preview file, open but maintain focus on ack.vim results
t    to open in new tab
T    to open in new tab without moving to it
h    to open in horizontal split
H    to open in horizontal split, keeping focus on the results
v    to open in vertical split
gv   to open in vertical split, keeping focus on the results
q    to close the quickfix window

Append to search result

:AckAdd [options] {pattern} [{directory}] :AckAdd

Appends the result to the previous search.

:LAck [options] {pattern} [{directory}] *:LAck*

Just like |:Ack| but instead of the |quickfix| list, matches are placed in
the current |location-list|.

:AckWindow[!] [options] {pattern} *:AckWindow*

Search all buffers visible in the screen (current tab page only) files for
the {pattern}.

Remember

I don't want to jump to the first result automatically.

I really hate that. When searching, my mindset is not focused on the first match.

Use :Ack!, with bang. If you want this behavior most of the time, you might like an abbreviation or mapping in your personal config, something like these:

cnoreabbrev Ack Ack!
nnoremap <Leader>a :Ack<Space>

let g:ackprg = 'ag --nogroup --nocolor --column'

let g:ackhighlight = 1