Vim: Ignore Special Path in Search

Question

In my .vimrc file, I have two very useful lines:

set path=~/nbapp/**
set backupdir=~/nbapp/temp

The first line allows me to search in my project directory and subdirectories. The second line makes vim create backup files in a special temporary folder, rather than disturbing me by adding tens of backup files having the exact same name except for a '~' at the end. However, since the temporary files are still inside the 'nbapp' folder (and I want to keep them there because they are related to the project), it means they are also going to be searched when I make a search, which sometimes disturb me, because I keep looking at searched results, yet to discover that they are actually in the temporary folder.

Is there any possible way to exclude paths from search (i.e. vimgrep)? I want to exclude the 'temp' folder.

Regards,
Rafid

Yellowhammer

Answer 1

Use the 'wildignore' option:

:set wildignore+=**/temp/**

or if you would like to be more specific:

:set wildignore+=~/nbapp/temp/**

This should exlude all files in the nbapp/temp directory in :find result.

Thrill

I was looking for exactly this, for ignoring build folders in :find searches. Thanks! – Somatoplasm

Worked for me in vim 7.4 – Luing

Answer 2

Instead of vimgrep I use the grep command

:help grep

I use the setting

set grepprg=grep\ -nIh\ --exclude=tags\ --exclude=cscope.out

when I want to search files but excluding the tag files and cscope files. You could modify the above to not search any files ending with a ~. I don't think you can exclude the folder using grep (or maybe you can, try --exclude=~/nbapp/temp/* it might work I haven't tested it).

If that does not work I recomend using ack for the grepprg instead of grep. ack as an option ignore-dir=name in which you can explicitly ignore a folder.

Hickox

Recent versions of grep has --ignore-dir too, which might be just what you are looking for. – Stolid

To not break quickfix window better would be set grepprg=grep\ -n\ --exclude=tags\ --exclude=cscope.out\ $*\ /dev/null – Walkout

Answer 3

To exclude some dirs from :find and gf (for example node_modules) you can set:

:set path=**
:set wildignore+=*/node_modules/*

Shaner

Apparently you've never listened to Jimmy Soul – Confidence

@WayneWerner I didn't got your comment. Right after 2 years ago :) – Shaner

I'm pretty confused at the moment exactly what in the world I meant at the time :D – Confidence

set wildignore looks like do nothing when in .vim/ftplugin. – Marinara

Answer 4

For example in Ubuntu just

sudo apt-get install ack-grep

sudo ln -s /usr/bin/ack-grep /usr/bin/ack

then install http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2572

and now add next line to your .vimrc

noremap <C-f> :copen<CR>:Ack --ignore-dir #first_ignore_dir# --ignore-dir #second_ignore_dir# -ai 

• its open search frame by Ctr+F, have fun

Stumpage

Answer 5

set path-=~/nbapp/temp

is the preferred method of removing path entries, as it guards you against vim upgrades that may modify the value of 'path'.

Tempo

That doesn't seem to be working! It still shows me the backup files. – Yellowhammer