Emacs: fastest way to open a file whose location is not known

Question

What is the easiest way to open a txt file whose path has to be found using the shell find command?

For example, let say I want to open a file that I know is (uniquely) named example.txt and which I know is "somewhere I can find it using the shell find command".

What I do currently is this:

I do C-u (universal-argument) then M-! (shell command)

I then enter the find, for example:

find . -iname "example.txt"

Then the full path (which I didn't know previously) appears in the buffer, I cut it, then I hit C-x C-f, I delete what written by default and then paste what I cut before.

This seems a bit long and requires quite a few keystrokes, cut'n'pasting etc.

Is there an easiest way to do the same (without writing a new custom Emacs command)?

Answer 1

Try out ifind.el

M-x ifind /some/starting/point/example.txt

Will search for example.txt in directories below /some/starting/point.

Answer 2

Using only built-in functionality, I would:

• Go to a shell buffer: M-x shell
• Run my find command.
• Move the cursor up so that it's on top of the file path that was found.
• Run the find-file-at-point command: M-x ffap.

I use find-file-at-point often enough that I have it bound to a dedicated key, s-\ (super-backslash).

Answer 3

M-x find-name-dired

Enter the dir (defaults to current) and filename (shell globs work too) and you'll get a virtual dired buffer with the results. Go the file you want and hit 'a'

Answer 4

If your folder constitutes a "project" - something under a version control or having a root folder marker such as project.el, .dir-locals.el, etc, you can use the find-file-in-project, which in my opinion is an excellent solution to this problem.

Answer 5

M-x find-dired RET

then you have a dired buffer showing your files returned by find. You can use classic dired command to open/move/rename... files and directories.

Answer 6

M-x locate is the fastest way to find and open a file, esp. if you know the exact filename, in emacs.

Answer 7

Also have a look at LocateFilesAnywhere

I happen to use M-x anything-locate

Answer 8

I am surprised that globalff is not mentioned as one of the viable option. Sure it requires locate command but its quite fast and useful when you can't recall the exact name.