I always forget how to do this efficiently with Vim's arglist. Drawing inspiration from a post over at Stack Overflow, I wrote a Bash function to perform a project-wide search & replace.

It does the following:

• find files matching a file-pattern
• narrow down to those files containing a search-pattern
• within those files, replace all occurrences of the search-pattern

Example usage: greplace **.rb old_method new_method

greplace() {
 if [ "${#}" != 3 ]; then
 echo "Usage: greplace file_pattern search_pattern replacement"
 return 1
 else
 file_pattern=1ドル
 search_pattern=2ドル
 replacement=3ドル
 find . -name "${file_pattern}" |
 xargs grep -rwl "${search_pattern}" |
 xargs sed -i '' "s/[[:<:]]${search_pattern}[[:>:]]/${replacement}/g"
 fi
}

I'm on OSX, so unfortunately I had to use the ugly (and I assume non-portable) [[:<:]] word-boundaries for sed. I tried \b and \<, with and without -E (for extended regular expressions), but still no dice.

I also debated whether to bake the word-boundaries in or leave them up to the caller (my poor little fingers). But I can't imagine wanting use this without word boundaries. I'd much rather miss a replacement because it's a variation on the search term than accidentally mangle a word happens to contain the search term.

Another potential issue is the fact that I'm using sed -i '' to perform the in-place replacements without making any backup files. This seems fine for my use, since I'm invariably using Git for version control. I'm curious how big a risk this is though.

Update Props to janos for his pointers and improvements. Here's an updated version:

greplace() {
 if [ "$#" != 3 ]; then
 echo "Usage: greplace file_pattern search_pattern replacement"
 return 1
 else
 file_pattern=1ドル
 search_pattern=2ドル
 replacement=3ドル
 # This works with BSD grep and the sed bundled with OS X.
 # GNU grep takes `-Z` instead of `--null`.
 # Other versions of sed may not support the `-i ''` syntax.
 find . -name "$file_pattern" -exec grep -lw --null "$search_pattern" {} + |
 xargs -0 sed -i '' "s/[[:<:]]$search_pattern[[:>:]]/$replacement/g"
 fi
}

I always forget how to do this efficiently with Vim's arglist. Drawing inspiration from a post over at Stack Overflow, I wrote a Bash function to perform a project-wide search & replace.

It does the following:

• find files matching a file-pattern
• narrow down to those files containing a search-pattern
• within those files, replace all occurrences of the search-pattern

Example usage: greplace **.rb old_method new_method

greplace() {
 if [ "${#}" != 3 ]; then
 echo "Usage: greplace file_pattern search_pattern replacement"
 return 1
 else
 file_pattern=1ドル
 search_pattern=2ドル
 replacement=3ドル
 find . -name "${file_pattern}" |
 xargs grep -rwl "${search_pattern}" |
 xargs sed -i '' "s/[[:<:]]${search_pattern}[[:>:]]/${replacement}/g"
 fi
}

I'm on OSX, so unfortunately I had to use the ugly (and I assume non-portable) [[:<:]] word-boundaries for sed. I tried \b and \<, with and without -E (for extended regular expressions), but still no dice.

I also debated whether to bake the word-boundaries in or leave them up to the caller (my poor little fingers). But I can't imagine wanting use this without word boundaries. I'd much rather miss a replacement because it's a variation on the search term than accidentally mangle a word happens to contain the search term.

Another potential issue is the fact that I'm using sed -i '' to perform the in-place replacements without making any backup files. This seems fine for my use, since I'm invariably using Git for version control. I'm curious how big a risk this is though.

Update Props to janos for his pointers and improvements. Here's an updated version:

greplace() {
 if [ "$#" != 3 ]; then
 echo "Usage: greplace file_pattern search_pattern replacement"
 return 1
 else
 file_pattern=1ドル
 search_pattern=2ドル
 replacement=3ドル
 # This works with BSD grep and the sed bundled with OS X.
 # GNU grep takes `-Z` instead of `--null`.
 # Other versions of sed may not support the `-i ''` syntax.
 find . -name "$file_pattern" -exec grep -lw --null "$search_pattern" {} + |
 xargs -0 sed -i '' "s/[[:<:]]$search_pattern[[:>:]]/$replacement/g"
 fi
}

I always forget how to do this efficiently with Vim's arglist. Drawing inspiration from a post over at Stack Overflow, I wrote a Bash function to perform a project-wide search & replace.

It does the following:

• find files matching a file-pattern
• narrow down to those files containing a search-pattern
• within those files, replace all occurrences of the search-pattern

Example usage: greplace **.rb old_method new_method

greplace() {
 if [ "${#}" != 3 ]; then
 echo "Usage: greplace file_pattern search_pattern replacement"
 return 1
 else
 file_pattern=1ドル
 search_pattern=2ドル
 replacement=3ドル
 find . -name "${file_pattern}" |
 xargs grep -rwl "${search_pattern}" |
 xargs sed -i '' "s/[[:<:]]${search_pattern}[[:>:]]/${replacement}/g"
 fi
}

I'm on OSX, so unfortunately I had to use the ugly (and I assume non-portable) [[:<:]] word-boundaries for sed. I tried \b and \<, with and without -E (for extended regular expressions), but still no dice.

I also debated whether to bake the word-boundaries in or leave them up to the caller (my poor little fingers). But I can't imagine wanting use this without word boundaries. I'd much rather miss a replacement because it's a variation on the search term than accidentally mangle a word happens to contain the search term.

Another potential issue is the fact that I'm using sed -i '' to perform the in-place replacements without making any backup files. This seems fine for my use, since I'm invariably using Git for version control. I'm curious how big a risk this is though.

I always forget how to do this efficiently with Vim's arglist. Drawing inspiration from a post over at Stack Overflow, I wrote a Bash function to perform a project-wide search & replace.

It does the following:

• find files matching a file-pattern
• narrow down to those files containing a search-pattern
• within those files, replace all occurrences of the search-pattern

Example usage: greplace **.rb old_method new_method

greplace() {
 if [ "${#}" != 3 ]; then
 echo "Usage: greplace file_pattern search_pattern replacement"
 return 1
 else
 file_pattern=1ドル
 search_pattern=2ドル
 replacement=3ドル
 find . -name "${file_pattern}" |
 xargs grep -rwl "${search_pattern}" |
 xargs sed -i '' "s/[[:<:]]${search_pattern}[[:>:]]/${replacement}/g"
 fi
}

I'm on OSX, so unfortunately I had to use the ugly (and I assume non-portable) [[:<:]] word-boundaries for sed. I tried \b and \<, with and without -E (for extended regular expressions), but still no dice.

I also debated whether to bake the word-boundaries in or leave them up to the caller (my poor little fingers). But I can't imagine wanting use this without word boundaries. I'd much rather miss a replacement because it's a variation on the search term than accidentally mangle a word happens to contain the search term.

Another potential issue is the fact that I'm using sed -i '' to perform the in-place replacements without making any backup files. This seems fine for my use, since I'm invariably using Git for version control. I'm curious how big a risk this is though.

Update Props to janos for his pointers and improvements. Here's an updated version:

greplace() {
 if [ "$#" != 3 ]; then
 echo "Usage: greplace file_pattern search_pattern replacement"
 return 1
 else
 file_pattern=1ドル
 search_pattern=2ドル
 replacement=3ドル
 # This works with BSD grep and the sed bundled with OS X.
 # GNU grep takes `-Z` instead of `--null`.
 # Other versions of sed may not support the `-i ''` syntax.
 find . -name "$file_pattern" -exec grep -lw --null "$search_pattern" {} + |
 xargs -0 sed -i '' "s/[[:<:]]$search_pattern[[:>:]]/$replacement/g"
 fi
}

I always forget how to do this efficiently with Vim's arglist. Drawing inspiration from a post over at stackoverflow, I wrote a Bash function to perform a project-wide search & replace.

It does the following:

• find files matching a file-pattern
• narrow down to those files containing a search-pattern
• within those files, replace all occurrences of the search-pattern

Example usage: greplace **.rb old_method new_method

greplace() {
 if [ "${#}" != 3 ]; then
 echo "Usage: greplace file_pattern search_pattern replacement"
 return 1
 else
 file_pattern=1ドル
 search_pattern=2ドル
 replacement=3ドル
 find . -name "${file_pattern}" |
 xargs grep -rwl "${search_pattern}" |
 xargs sed -i '' "s/[[:<:]]${search_pattern}[[:>:]]/${replacement}/g"
 fi
}

I'm on OSX, so unfortunately I had to use the ugly (and I assume non-portable) [[:<:]] word-boundaries for sed. I tried \b and \<, with and without -E (for extended regular expressions), but still no dice.

I also debated whether to bake the word-boundaries in or leave them up to the caller (my poor little fingers). But I can't imagine wanting use this without word boundaries. I'd much rather miss a replacement because it's a variation on the search term than accidentally mangle a word happens to contain the search term.

Another potential issue is the fact that I'm using sed -i '' to perform the in-place replacements without making any backup files. This seems fine for my use, since I'm invariably using Git for version control. I'm curious how big a risk this is though.

I always forget how to do this efficiently with Vim's arglist. Drawing inspiration from a post over at Stack Overflow, I wrote a Bash function to perform a project-wide search & replace.

It does the following:

• find files matching a file-pattern
• narrow down to those files containing a search-pattern
• within those files, replace all occurrences of the search-pattern

Example usage: greplace **.rb old_method new_method

greplace() {
 if [ "${#}" != 3 ]; then
 echo "Usage: greplace file_pattern search_pattern replacement"
 return 1
 else
 file_pattern=1ドル
 search_pattern=2ドル
 replacement=3ドル
 find . -name "${file_pattern}" |
 xargs grep -rwl "${search_pattern}" |
 xargs sed -i '' "s/[[:<:]]${search_pattern}[[:>:]]/${replacement}/g"
 fi
}

I'm on OSX, so unfortunately I had to use the ugly (and I assume non-portable) [[:<:]] word-boundaries for sed. I tried \b and \<, with and without -E (for extended regular expressions), but still no dice.

I also debated whether to bake the word-boundaries in or leave them up to the caller (my poor little fingers). But I can't imagine wanting use this without word boundaries. I'd much rather miss a replacement because it's a variation on the search term than accidentally mangle a word happens to contain the search term.

Another potential issue is the fact that I'm using sed -i '' to perform the in-place replacements without making any backup files. This seems fine for my use, since I'm invariably using Git for version control. I'm curious how big a risk this is though.