Question

I want to execute a substitution in vim on around 20 *.C and *.H files, and I want to open them all at once. All files are distributed in multiple nested directories, and the command is executed in the top parent directory. Can I do this using only vim, or do I need the “find” command and the “-p” option as shown on this answer?

Answer 1

1. Start Vim at the root of your project:

   $ vim /path/to/project
   

2. Add the relevant files to the arglist, recursively:

   :argadd **/*.C **/*.H
   

   See :h starstar and :h :argadd.

3. Perform your substitution on every file in the arglist:

   :argdo s/foo/bar/gc
   

   See :h argdo and :h s_flags.