Once you are done, type x to execute the saving of all files marked for save. It will mark the file for later save action. If you are using a emacs version 21, then you can do this: call list-buffers, then move the cursor to the file you want to save and type s. If you are using emacs version 22 or later, then call ibuffer to go into a buffer listing mode, then type 【* u】 to mark all unsaved files, then type S to save them all. Now, after you went through the above ordeal, there is one more step you need to do, and that is saving the changed files. If you want to cancel the whole operation without saving any changes you've made, type 【Ctrl+g】, then exit emacs using the menu 〖File ▸ Exit Emacs〗. If you simply want emacs to go ahead and make all such changes to the current file, type !. When this happens, emacs will prompt you, and you have a choice of making the change or skip the change. Now, emacs will use your pattern and check the files, and stop and show you whenever a match occurred. It will prompt you for the regex string and the replacement string. For simplicity, let's say you just want to replace the word “quick” by “super”. Now, you are ready to do the interactive find replace. If you don't care about what kind of file but simply all files under that dir, then give “-type f”. If you need to do the replacement on all HTML files, then type -name '*html'. Note: if you are using emacs on a unix non-graphical text terminal, and if 【Alt+x】 does not work, the equivalent key stroke is 【Esc x】.Įmacs will ask you with the prompt “Run find (with args): ”. (you call a command by pressing 【Alt+x】) Then, type a directory name, ⁖ /Users/mary/myfiles If you want to do find/replace on files inside a directory, including hundreds of subdirectories, here's a method to select all these files.Ĭall find-dired. Selecting Files in a Directory and All Its Sub-Directories (You can find a list of the mark commands in the graphical menu “Mark” (this menu appears when you are in the dired mode).)

For example, if you want to mark all HTML files, then type 【% m】 then. The sub-directory's content will be listed at the bottom.) To mark all files by a regex, type 【% m】, then type your regex pattern. (To list subdirectories, move your cursor to the directory and press i. You mark a file by moving the cursor to the file you want, then press m.

Now, you will be shown the list of files, and now you need to mark the files you want the regex find/replace to work on. Type the directory path, then press Enter. Use the graphical menu 〖File ▸ Open Directory〗. (Or, double click the Emacs icon if you are in a Graphics User Interface environment)įirst you need to select the files you want to do the replace. Start emacs by typing “emacs” in the command line interface prompt. Type 【* u】 to mark all unsaved files, type S to save all marked files, type D to close them all. Call ibuffer to list all opened files.To do the replacement on all files without further asking, type Y.Type ! to replace all occurrences in current file without asking, N to skip all possible replacement for rest of the current file.Type 【Ctrl+g】 to abort the whole operation. For each occurrence, type y to replace, n to skip.Type your find regex and replace string.Type Q to call dired-do-query-replace-regexp.Call dired to list files in dir, or call find-dired if you need all subdirectories.If you don't already know/use iedit mode it's a very handy tool, I strongly recommend you give it a look. I find it very useful for doing source edits and renaming symbols (variables, function names etc.) across a project. You can also use the results in rgrep to jump into the files, for example if you have an unexpected match. The main benefit of this method is that you can use iedit-mode to toggle off certain matches M. Wgrep will let you edit the rgrep results, so set a region on the string to match and start iedit-mode with C- (depending on your terminal you may need to re-bind this)Īll occurrences will be editable at once. Next you'll need to run wgrep start it with C-s C-p. You'll be able to specify file types/pattern and the folder to recurse. Both iedit and wgrep must be installed via MELPA or Marmalade (using M-x package-list-packages)įirst run M-x rgrep to find the string you're looking for. It's a more interactive method, and requires wgrep, rgrep and iedit. The answers provided are great, however I thought I'd add a slightly different approach.

Emacs find and replace