Getting 'git grep' to work effectively in vim

Question

Fugitive.vim allows me to run git grep commands; unfortunately, the results are not stored in a quickfix-list, so I need to run :cw after a :Ggrep in order to have an easily parseable result list.

I would like to type :Ggr "def my_function" instead of:

:Ggrep "def my_function"
:cw

How can I define this :Ggr command in my .vimrc file?

EDIT

Once the :Ggr command is defined, I can map to git grep on the word under the cursor, which is really awesome:

nnoremap <C-F> :Ggr <cword><CR>

Forensic

possible duplicate of VIM - multiple commands on same line – Dowery

Note that I will have to pass the argument of :Ggr to :Ggrep... So it's not as simple as running two commands in a row. – Home

:Ggrep does fill the quickfix list however the window does not automatically open. Maybe you want the quickfix window to open after any grep invocation, autocmd QuickFixCmdPost *grep* cwindow, as suggested on the vim-fugitive FAQ section. – Hyacinthus

Answer 1

This works for me:

:command -nargs=+ Ggr execute 'silent Ggrep!' <q-args> | cw | redraw!

Balfore

You could have added that as a comment to my answer, since it's only a small tweak to it. Many would consider what you did bad form. At least document the changes and why they are necessary. – Bobbyebobbysocks

This seems not to be needed anymore. As of 2022, and as per Fugitive's doc, this should be enough: command -nargs=+ Ggr execute 'Ggrep! -q' <q-args> – Bickart

Answer 2

You can use the <args> symbol to insert the arguments given to your custom command:

:command -nargs=+ Ggr execute 'Ggrep' <q-args> | cw

Note: As the :Ggrep command doesn't have the -bar argument, it cannot be chained, so :execute has to be used.

Bobbyebobbysocks

This is almost perfect: the Ggrep command opens a window that needs to be closed before the cw command is run, so I have to press <enter> to close it. Any idea how to improve this? – Home

You can emulate that key press via ... | execute "normal \<CR>" | cw, or (perhaps easier) try ... | close | cw. – Bobbyebobbysocks

That doesn't seem to work, I still have the "Press ENTER of type command to continue" message that is displayed following the :Ggrep command. – Home

Oh, that hit-enter prompt, not a window; I misunderstood; yeah, that's difficult to avoid. – Bobbyebobbysocks

Too bad. Your answer is sufficient anyway. – Home

Answer 3

Already mentioned in one of the comments, but I thought the plugin-recommended solution on the fugitive.vim site deserved its own answer:

autocmd QuickFixCmdPost *grep* cwindow

(from: https://github.com/tpope/vim-fugitive)

Recife

This is correct. However, this requires to press <return> once after the :Ggr command, which is inconvenient. – Home