How to do 'search for keyword in files' in emacs in Windows without cygwin?

Posted by Anthony Kong on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Anthony Kong
Published on 2013-10-16T07:53:00Z Indexed on 2013/11/04 3:58 UTC
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I want to search for keyword, says 'action', in a bunch of files in my Windows PC with Emacs.

It is partly because I want to learn more advanced features of emacs. It is also because the Windows PC is locked down by company policy. I cannot install useful applications like cygwin at will.

So I tried this command: M-x rgrep

It throws the following error message:

*- mode: grep; default-directory: "c:/Users/me/Desktop/Project" -*-
Grep started at Wed Oct 16 18:37:43

find . -type d "(" -path "*/SCCS" -o -path "*/RCS" -o -path "*/CVS" -o -path "*/MCVS" -o -path "*/.svn" -o -path "*/.git" -o -path "*/.hg" -o -path "*/.bzr" -o -path "*/_MTN" -o -path "*/_darcs" -o -path "*/{arch}" ")" -prune -o "(" -name ".#*" -o -name "*.o" -o -name "*~" -o -name "*.bin" -o -name "*.bak" -o -name "*.obj" -o -name "*.map" -o -name "*.ico" -o -name "*.pif" -o -name "*.lnk" -o -name "*.a" -o -name "*.ln" -o -name "*.blg" -o -name "*.bbl" -o -name "*.dll" -o -name "*.drv" -o -name "*.vxd" -o -name "*.386" -o -name "*.elc" -o -name "*.lof" -o -name "*.glo" -o -name "*.idx" -o -name "*.lot" -o -name "*.fmt" -o -name "*.tfm" -o -name "*.class" -o -name "*.fas" -o -name "*.lib" -o -name "*.mem" -o -name "*.x86f" -o -name "*.sparcf" -o -name "*.dfsl" -o -name "*.pfsl" -o -name "*.d64fsl" -o -name "*.p64fsl" -o -name "*.lx64fsl" -o -name "*.lx32fsl" -o -name "*.dx64fsl" -o -name "*.dx32fsl" -o -name "*.fx64fsl" -o -name "*.fx32fsl" -o -name "*.sx64fsl" -o -name "*.sx32fsl" -o -name "*.wx64fsl" -o -name "*.wx32fsl" -o -name "*.fasl" -o -name "*.ufsl" -o -name "*.fsl" -o -name "*.dxl" -o -name "*.lo" -o -name "*.la" -o -name "*.gmo" -o -name "*.mo" -o -name "*.toc" -o -name "*.aux" -o -name "*.cp" -o -name "*.fn" -o -name "*.ky" -o -name "*.pg" -o -name "*.tp" -o -name "*.vr" -o -name "*.cps" -o -name "*.fns" -o -name "*.kys" -o -name "*.pgs" -o -name "*.tps" -o -name "*.vrs" -o -name "*.pyc" -o -name "*.pyo" ")" -prune -o  -type f "(" -iname "*.sh" ")" -exec grep -i -n "action" {} NUL ";"
FIND: Parameter format not correct

Grep exited abnormally with code 2 at Wed Oct 16 18:37:44

I believe rgrep tried to spwan a process and called 'FIND' with all the parameters. However, since it is a Windows, the default Find executable simply does not know how to handle.

What is the better way to search for a keyword in multiple files in Emacs on Windows platform, without any dependency on external programs?

Emacs version: 24.2.1

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