See Find in files within Vim. Tip 1392 Printable Monobook Previous Next created November 21, 2006· complexity basic· author Mauro · version 6.0 With bash or ksh add on .bashrc or on .kshrc: function vimgrep { vimgrep_temp_file=/tmp/vimgrep_$$.tmp find . \( -name "*.cc" -o -name "*.h" -o -name "*.i" -o -name "*.icc" \) -print -follow | grep -v "CVS/" | sed "s/ /\\\/g" | xargs egrep -H -n -e $* > $vimgrep_temp_file gvim -q $vimgrep_temp_file -c copen rm $vimgrep_temp_file } and type from shell: $ vimgrep searchstring In Vim you can set grepprg to vimgrep: :set grepprg=vimgrep