Overview

As a developer, two major challenges when transitioning to Vim from other editors/IDEs are figuring out how to search for a file or content. Even after using Vim for a while, you might forget these commands if not used frequently.

This documentation aims to provide a clear guide on how to search in Vim.

Search for a file

In Vim, this is commonly referred to as fuzzy find.

Configuration:

set path+=**
set wildmenu

For example, to locate a README file in a repo:

:find README

Pressing the Tab key will trigger a menu showing all possible files.

Search for Occurrence

The :vim command is a shorthand for the :vimgrep command, and it is preferred for simplicity.

For example, to look for PY_VERSION keyword in cpython repo:

:vim /PY_VERSION/g */*.h

This command will search for PY_VERSION in all .h files in the current directory and its subdirectories.

Feel free to expand on these examples and configurations as you become more comfortable with Vim’s search functionalities.