file-query-replace

Replace text in many files or buffers.

Shift-F7

This command prompts for the text to search for and the replacement text. Then it prompts for a file name which may contain wildcards. The command then performs a query-replace on each file that matches the pattern, going to each occurrence of the search text, and asking whether or not to replace it.

If the use-grep-ignore-file-variables variable is nonzero, Epsilon skips over any file with an extension listed in grep-ignore-file-extensions; by default some binary file types are excluded, or those that match the grep-ignore-file-basename, grep-ignore-file-pattern, or grep-ignore-file-types variables, or those bigger than grep-ignore-file-max-size.

With a numeric argument, the command instead searches through all buffers. The buffer name pattern may contain the wildcard characters ? to match any single character, * to match zero or more characters, or a character class like [^a-zA-Z] to match any non-alphabetic character.

At each occurrence of the search text, you have these choices:

y or <Space>: replaces and goes to the next match.
n or <Backspace>: doesn't replace, but goes to the next match.
<Esc>: exits immediately.
. (<Period>): replaces and then exits.
^ (<Caret>): backs up to the previous match, as long as it's within the same file.
!: replaces all remaining occurrences in the current file without prompting, then asks if you want to replace all occurrences without prompting in all remaining files.
, (<Comma>): replaces the current match but doesn't go to the next match.
Ctrl-r: enters a recursive edit, allowing you to modify the buffer arbitrarily. When you exit the recursive edit with exit-level, the replacement continues.
Ctrl-g: exits and returns point to its original location in the current buffer, then asks if you want to look for possible replacements in the remaining files.
Ctrl-w: toggles the state of word mode.
Ctrl-t: toggles the state of regular expression mode (see the description of regex-replace).
Ctrl-c: toggles the state of case-folding.
Any other key: causes the command to skip to the next file.

The command doesn't save modified files back to disk. You can use the save-all-buffers command on Ctrl-x s to do this.

More info:

Replacing

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