Project based searching within Emacs can be done using projectile.

It allows for per-project configuration of ignore files (in a <projectroot>\.projectile file), or specify subdirectories to monitor and ignore all others.

It can run grep, ack (requires ack-and-a-half.el) and ag (ag.el) on files within the defined project (either based on the .projectile file or by finding a supported VC file to define a project root).

Project based searching within Emacs can be done using projectile.

It allows for per-project configuration of ignore files (in a <projectroot>\.projectile file), or specify subdirectories to monitor and ignore all others.

It can run grep, ack (requires ack-and-a-half.el) and ag (ag.el) on files within the defined project (either based on the .projectile file or by finding a supported VC file to define a project root).

Useful Commands

(With regards to searching through useful files)

As per Projectile Readme

• C-c p s g :: Run grep on the files in the project.
• C-c p s a :: Runs ack on the project. Requires the presence of ack-and-a-half.
• C-c p s s :: Runs ag on the project. Requires the presence of ag.el.
• C-c p f :: Display a list of all files in the project.
• C-c p d :: Display a list of all directories in the project.
• C-c p a :: Switch between files with the same name but different extension in the project.
• C-c p o :: Runs multi-occur on all project buffers currently open.

These will only act on files defined as being part of the project (or found when the cache is generated/regenerated).