Bash search function - Quickly search for files containing text Piping find output into grep and optionally into your editor

bash_search.sh

# Function to search for string in a set of files
#
# Add this function to ~/.bashrc
# Restart terminal or run: source ~/.bashrc
# Optionally set EDITOR in ~/.bash_profile (I use "EDITOR=subl")
#
# Examples:
#     # Outputs filenames and matches of all found occurrences of "authenticate_user" in .rb files
#     search *.rb "authenticate_user"
#
#     # Open .rb files containing "authenticate_user" in default editor
#     # Uses EDITOR variable or falls back to 'open' (mac) or 'xdg-open' (linux)
#     search *.rb "authenticate_user" -o
#
#     # View a list of .rb files containing "authenticate_user" or "authenticate_admin" with 'less'
#     search *.rb "authenticate_[user|admin]" -l | less
#
#     # Open .rb files containing "authenticate_admin" in vim
#     search *.rb "authenticate_admin" -x vim
#
# By design, the "options" are awkwardly at the end - it's by design to enable my iterative search workflow
#     search *.scala Logger             # too many results
#     search *.scala LoggerFactory      # better set of results
#     search *.scala LoggerFactory -o   # open results in default editor (e.g. sublime-text)
# Perhaps someday I'll make it more flexible with the options location. Perhaps.

function search() {
    iname="$1" && shift
    pattern="$1" && shift
    args="$1" && shift

    if [ "$args" = "-x" ]; then
        xargs="$@"
    fi

    # Determine best editor for -o option
    if [ -n "$EDITOR" ]; then
        editor="$EDITOR"
    elif which xdg-open &> /dev/null; then
        editor="xdg-open" #linux
    else
        editor="open"     # mac
    fi

    # echo -e "iname: $iname \npattern: $pattern \nargs:$args\nxargs:$xargs"
    # echo -e "editor: $editor"

    if [ "$iname" = "-h" ] || [ "$iname" = "--help" ] || [ -z "$iname" ] || [ -z "$pattern" ]; then
        echo -e "Usage: search <filename_pattern> <grep_pattern> [option]"  
        echo -e "By default, prints list of files and matches"
        echo -e "\t-l             Output just list of files"
        echo -e "\t-x <command>   Pass the list of files into command via xargs"
        echo -e "\t-o             Open the list of files in default editor. Uses EDITOR variable or ."
    elif [ "$args" = "-l" ]; then
        find . -iname "$iname" -print0 | xargs -0 grep -l "$pattern"
    elif [ "$args" = "-x" ]; then
        find . -iname "$iname" -print0 | xargs -0 grep -l "$pattern" | xargs -o $xargs
    elif [ "$args" = "-o" ]; then
        find . -iname "$iname" -print0 | xargs -0 grep -l "$pattern" | xargs -o $editor 
    else
        find . -iname "$iname" -print0 | xargs -0 grep --color -n "$pattern"
    fi
}