How do I use an external grep program from within Vim?

Explanation

The :grep command runs an external grep tool and loads the results into Vim's quickfix list. It is faster than :vimgrep for large codebases.

How it works

• :grep pattern files runs the program specified by grepprg
• Results are parsed and loaded into the quickfix list
• :copen opens the quickfix window to browse matches

Example

:grep -r "TODO" src/
:copen
:cnext

Tips

• :set grepprg=rg\ --vimgrep uses ripgrep for faster searching
• :set grepformat=%f:%l:%c:%m sets the output format parser
• :lgrep uses the location list instead of quickfix
• :grep! suppresses the automatic jump to the first match