How to exclude certain files from helm-do-grep-1

Question

Suppose, we have the following files: ~/1.js, ~/1.min.js, ~/bad-dir/2.js.

All of them have the following contents:

function hello () {}

I am using helm-do-grep-1 to grep through these files and want exclude certain patterns in file names and directories from search:

(setq helm-grep-ignored-files (list "*.min.js" "/bad-dir/"))

But unfortunately when I run (helm-do-grep-1 (list "/home/user") t nil '("*.js")) and then type "hello", it outputs this:

1.js:1:function hello () {}
1.min.js:1:function hello () {}
2.js:1:function hello () {}

How to setup the exclusions?

d125q · Accepted Answer · 2022-02-16T11:13:50.930

I am afraid that is not possible at the moment, but you can modify helm-grep--prepare-cmd-line yourself and have it work. A simple way it to change helm-grep.el#L510-514 from

         (exclude           (unless (helm-grep-use-ack-p)
                              (if helm-grep-in-recurse
                                  (concat (or include ignored-files)
                                          " " ignored-dirs)
                                ignored-files)))

to

         (exclude           (unless (helm-grep-use-ack-p)
                              (if helm-grep-in-recurse
                                  (concat include " " ignored-files " " ignored-dirs)
                                (concat include " " ignored-files))))

By the way, to ignore bad-dir, you need to use helm-grep-ignored-directories instead of helm-grep-ignored-files.

Here is what you can add to your init file to achieve this:

(with-eval-after-load 'helm-grep
  (defun my-helm-grep--prepare-cmd-line (only-files &optional include zgrep)
    (let* ((default-directory (or helm-ff-default-directory
                                  (helm-default-directory)
                                  default-directory))
           (fnargs            (helm-grep-prepare-candidates
                               only-files default-directory))
           (ignored-files     (unless (helm-grep-use-ack-p)
                                (mapconcat
                                 (lambda (x)
                                   (concat "--exclude="
                                           (shell-quote-argument x)))
                                 helm-grep-ignored-files " ")))
           (ignored-dirs      (unless (helm-grep-use-ack-p)
                                (mapconcat
                                 ;; Need grep version >=2.5.4
                                 ;; of Gnuwin32 on windoze.
                                 (lambda (x)
                                   (concat "--exclude-dir="
                                           (shell-quote-argument x)))
                                 helm-grep-ignored-directories " ")))
           (exclude           (unless (helm-grep-use-ack-p)
                                (if helm-grep-in-recurse
                                    (concat include " " ignored-files " " ignored-dirs)
                                  (concat include " " ignored-files))))
           (types             (and (helm-grep-use-ack-p)
                                   ;; When %e format spec is not specified
                                   ;; in `helm-grep-default-command'
                                   ;; we need to pass an empty string
                                   ;; to types to avoid error.
                                   (or include "")))
           (smartcase         (if (helm-grep-use-ack-p)
                                  ""
                                (unless (let ((case-fold-search nil))
                                          (string-match-p
                                           "[[:upper:]]" helm-pattern))
                                  "i")))
           (helm-grep-default-command
            (concat helm-grep-default-command " %m")) ; `%m' like multi.
           (patterns (helm-mm-split-pattern helm-pattern t))
           (pipe-switches (mapconcat 'identity helm-grep-pipe-cmd-switches " "))
           (pipes
            (helm-aif (cdr patterns)
                (cl-loop with pipcom = (helm-grep--pipe-command-for-grep-command
                                        smartcase pipe-switches)
                         for p in it concat
                         (format " | %s %s" pipcom (shell-quote-argument p)))
              "")))
      (format-spec
       helm-grep-default-command
       (delq nil
             (list (unless zgrep
                     (if types
                         (cons ?e types)
                       (cons ?e exclude)))
                   (cons ?c (or smartcase ""))
                   (cons ?p (shell-quote-argument (car patterns)))
                   (cons ?f fnargs)
                   (cons ?m pipes))))))
  (advice-add 'helm-grep--prepare-cmd-line :override #'my-helm-grep--prepare-cmd-line))

Can you show how I can modify grep command template to achieve the goal. I can changed the file. But I'll need to do it after every upgrade of Emacs. And have 3 Emacses: 2 at work and 1 at home. — user4035, Feb 16 '22 at 10:36
I would say that modifying the grep command template would be a rather hackish and not very extensible way to achieve this. I edited the answer with a snippet that overrides `helm-grep--prepare-cmd-line` with a version that supports both inclusions and exclusions. — d125q, Feb 16 '22 at 11:15

How to exclude certain files from helm-do-grep-1

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