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As my org files keep growing, it is getting more complicated to find what I'm looking for. For now I'm using helm-occur to find strings and helm-org-in-buffer-headings to find headings in org files. However I want to be able to limit the scope of the search to the current heading including subheadings.

I have found helm-org-parent-headings, but I couldn't find "helm-org-child-headings".

EDIT

The command org-narrow-to-subtree mentioned by Tobias is a good solution, however I'm looking for a command that does not change the contents of the org buffer (I still can't figure out how to return to the "original" buffer without killing the buffer created by org-narrow-to-subtree).

helm-org-parent-headings displays headings like helm-org-in-buffer-headings WITHOUT changing the buffer, but as the name suggests it only displays parents.

So what I am looking for is a command that does the opposite and only displays children of the heading in a helm buffer.

Furthermore I want to modify helm-occur to search only for strings, that belong to children of the heading at point.

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  • 4
    Maybe you can use org-narrow-to-subtree.
    – Tobias
    Mar 21, 2017 at 14:36
  • Thanks. But I'm looking for a solution similiar to helm-org-parent-headings.
    – bertfred
    Mar 21, 2017 at 17:15
  • Explain what your comment means in the question body: Just what behavior are you looking for? Describe what helm-org-parent-headings does, for which you want something similar.
    – Drew
    Mar 21, 2017 at 19:42
  • You need to "widen" the buffer to undo the narrowing. Either use: M-x widen or C-x n w You can narrow with C-x n s It looks like helm-org-in-buffer-headings temporarily widens your buffer, so you are going to have to write your own code to get what you want.
    – John Kitchin
    Mar 22, 2017 at 10:46
  • As @JohnKitchin and @Tobias, I recommend to use narrowing. If you're struggeling with getting back to the original buffer (aka widening), I recommend to use narrow-or-widen-dwim that Artur Malabarba kindly shared in his blog some time ago: endlessparentheses.com/emacs-narrow-or-widen-dwim.html Narrowing and widening can then be done with one and the same key. Artur Malabarba binds it to C-x n, but it's easy to change this.
    – Timm
    Oct 18, 2017 at 6:33

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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The following commands search within current heading or within current top level heading when called with prefix argument:

(require 'rx)
(require 'cl-lib)

(defun org-goto-top-level+ ()
  (let ((rx (rx bol "*" (one-or-more (not (any "*"))) eol)))
    (or  (looking-at rx)
         (re-search-backward rx nil t)
         (re-search-forward rx nil t))))

(defun helm-occur-current+ (arg)
  (interactive "P")
  (let ((opos (point)))
    (when (or (not arg)
              (org-goto-top-level+))
      (save-restriction
        (org-narrow-to-subtree)
        (helm-occur))
      (when (= helm-exit-status 1)
        (goto-char opos)))))

(defun helm-org-in-current-headings+ (arg)
  (interactive "P")
  (let ((opos (point)))
    (when (or (not arg)
              (org-goto-top-level+))
      (save-restriction
        (org-narrow-to-subtree)
        (cl-letf (((symbol-function #'buffer-base-buffer)
                   ;; see `helm-org--get-candidates-in-file'
                   ;; this prevents it from widening the buffer
                   (lambda (&rest _) t)))
          (helm-org-in-buffer-headings)))
      (when (= helm-exit-status 1)
        (goto-char opos)))))
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  • Perfect. Thanks!
    – bertfred
    Aug 17, 2019 at 14:42
0

It isn't quite the same as helm-occur, but the agenda is a useful tool to find things. Agenda searches can be restricted to the current buffer or subtree using < in the agenda dispatcher. C-c a < < will restrict the agenda search to just the current subtree. You can search for tags, properties or just strings.

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John Kitchin proposed in his comment that you should write your own function to get exactly what you want. I assume you want to call occur for the current sub-tree of org.

Maybe the following example is sufficient for you or it gives you a starter.

Just copy-paste the code in your emacs init file.

After evaluating the init file or after re-starting emacs you can place point in one of the headers of an org file and run M-x org-occur-children RET in the same way as you would run occur.

(require 'org)
(defun org-occur-children (regexp &optional nlines)
  "Run occur only in current org subtree.
See `occur' for the meaning of the arguments and for interactive calls."
  (interactive (occur-read-primary-args))
  (save-restriction
    (org-narrow-to-subtree)
    (funcall #'occur regexp nlines)))
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