This package includes Emacs minor modes (iedit-mode and iedit-rectangle-mode) based on a API library (iedit-lib) and allows you to alter one occurrence of some text in a buffer (possibly narrowed) or region, and simultaneously have other occurrences changed in the same way, with visual feedback as you type.
`iedit-mode’ is a great alternative of build-in replace commands:
- A more intuitive way to alter all the occurrences at once
- Visual feedback
- Less keystrokes in most cases
- Preserve case optionally
Normal work flow of Iedit mode is like:
- Move point to a target by `isearch’ or other moving commands
- Press C-;(The default key binding) to enable Iedit mode. The thing under the point is recognized as an occurrence, and all the occurrences in the buffer are highlighted
- Edit one of the occurrences The change is applied to other occurrences simultaneously.
- Finish - by pressing C-; again
Many other work flows to highlight occurrences are possible, for example, activation from isearch, incremental selection and markup tag pair selection.
You can also use Iedit mode as a quick way to temporarily show only the buffer lines that match the current text being edited. This gives you the effect of a temporary `keep-lines’ or `occur’. To get this effect, hit C-’ when in Iedit mode - it toggles hiding non-matching lines.
`iedit-mode’ is optimized for renaming refactoring in many ways:
- The symbol under point is selected as occurrence by default and only complete symbols are matched
- With digit prefix argument 0, only occurrences in current function are matched
- Last renaming refactoring is remembered and can be applied to other buffers later
- Once in iedit mode, you can select a region and hit C-; again to restrict the search area to the region
- Restricting the search area to just the current line can be done by pressing M-I.
- Restricting the search area to the lines near the current line can be done by pressing M-{ and M-}. These will expand the search region one line at a time from the top and bottom. Add a prefix argument to go the opposite direction.
Iedit-rectangle-mode provides rectangle support with visible rectangle highlighting, which is similar with cua mode rectangle support. But it’s lighter weight and uses iedit mechanisms.
There are also some other facilities you may never think about. Refer to the document of function `iedit-mode’ (C-h f iedit-mode RET) for more details.
The easiest way to install and keep Iedit up-to-date is using Emacs’s built-in package manager. Iedit is available in the MELPA repository. Refer to http://melpa.org/#/getting-started for how to install a package from MELPA.
You can also clone Iedit’s repository or download a zip package from GitHub https://github.com/victorhge/iedit
You will need to add a few extra lines in your .emacs file, to make your Emacs knows about the package:
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/dir/to/your/iedit")
(require 'iedit)