[xorcist]

Or just use "grep". It is what it's there for.

Use --include and --exclude-dirs to do what you describe. (The latter is a good idea to set in your GREP_OPTIONS, unless you actually search .git directories.)

[okdana]

GREP_OPTIONS is deprecated in GNU grep since i think 2.20. It will be removed in a future version, and until then it's going to print an irritating warning message every time you use it.

(I don't think there's any such plan for the various BSD greps, so if you use those exclusively you're probably fine.)

[petdance]

Good to know. I've been considering dropping ACK_OPTIONS, and this just might put me over the edge.