Custom shell function in .zshrc to search strings

seek() {
  if [ "$1" != "" ]
  then
    grep -H -r --exclude-dir=node_modules "$1" * | less
  else
    echo "need to type in a string"
  fi
}

I use this function when I join an existing project and I need to get familiar with the codebase. I got tired of typing in grep -H -r 'string' * | less so I created this little function to make the process quicker.

Now we just type in seek custom_method and a list of files will appear in a project that contain that method or whaterver string you passed. I added a flag to exclude node_modules because usually that is not an area of interest.

This is helpful when searching file names is not enough. I’m pretty excited about this one. I hope it helps you out!