I would like to use the linux command line tool ack but there is one thing stopping me from using it and that is that I cannot figure out how to tell it where to start searching from. I would like to start to replace my complex find/xargs/grep commands with ack but if I cannot tell it where to start to search from I cannot use it.
For instance I am running a simulation in one directory but I would like to tell ack to search a code library from somewhere else without having to change to that directory to invoke ack.
You can provide the directory as an argument; only if you give it zero arguments past your pattern will it look in the current directory instead of where you ask it.