excluding dirs doesn't work with grep

[kmatheussen]

The "--exclude-dir" option for grep requires a relative path, while dumb-jump provides absolute path. I fixed it like this for myself, but this breaks the other searchers so it's just a hack:

@@ -2598,7 +2599,7 @@
                (push (expand-file-name (match-string 1) local-root)
                      include))
               ((looking-at "^-/?\\(.+\\)")
-               (push (expand-file-name (match-string 1) local-root)
+               (push (match-string 1)
                      exclude)))
         (forward-line))
       (list :exclude (nreverse exclude)

Also, I can't get ag or rg to work. They only find about half of my hits. The shell command finds all hits, but only a few of them are displayed in emacs for some reason.

Also, I can't make 'git-grep' work either. It just shows result for the current repository. But not in sub directories outside the repository (which I need). Adding "+otherdirectory" doesn't help.

Anyway, great program! 'grep' with the above hack works very well.

[jacktasia]

@coderabbitai thoughts?

[coderabbitai]

🧩 Analysis chain

🏁 Script executed:

#!/bin/bash
# Fetch details of issue `#462` from jacktasia/dumb-jump repository
gh issue view 462 --repo jacktasia/dumb-jump --json title,body,state,labels,comments,author,createdAt,updatedAt

# Also get the comment details if any
gh issue view 462 --repo jacktasia/dumb-jump --comments

Length of output: 1810

---

@jacktasia This is a legitimate bug report with some interesting complexity:

Main Issue: grep --exclude-dir with absolute paths

The user correctly identified that grep's --exclude-dir option expects relative path patterns (like node_modules or */build), not absolute paths. The current code at line ~2601 uses expand-file-name which creates absolute paths that grep can't match against.

Root cause: Different searchers have different expectations for exclude paths:

• grep: wants relative glob patterns for --exclude-dir
• ag/rg: typically handle both absolute and relative paths better
• git-grep: uses gitignore-style patterns

Potential Solutions

1. Searcher-specific path handling:

;; When building exclude args, check which searcher is being used
(if (eq searcher 'grep)
    (match-string 1)  ; relative path for grep
    (expand-file-name (match-string 1) local-root))  ; absolute for others

2. Convert to basename patterns for grep:

;; For grep, use just the directory name as a pattern
(if (eq searcher 'grep)
    (file-name-nondirectory (match-string 1))
    (expand-file-name (match-string 1) local-root))

Secondary Issues

ag/rg finding only half the hits: This might be a separate issue related to:

• Result parsing/filtering in the elisp code
• Buffer size limits
• These tools' default ignore patterns (they respect .gitignore by default)

git-grep not searching outside repo: This is by design - git-grep only works within git repository boundaries. For cross-repo searching, grep/ag/rg would be better choices.

Recommendation

This needs a proper fix that makes the exclude path handling searcher-aware. The user's hack validates the approach, but a production fix should handle all searchers correctly. Would you like me to search the codebase to understand the current implementation better and propose a complete solution?