If you’re using version control for your project, this often includes metadata in the .svn, .git, or .hg directories. This is dealt with easily enough by exclud

If you’re using version control for your project, this often includes metadata in the .svn, .git, or .hg directories. This is dealt with easily enough by excluding (grep -v) Actually, some version control systems allow you to grep managed files specifically. E.g. in Git using git grep, including specific commits, branches, etc. Tim Pope's Fugitive git plugin for vim also does this (:Ggrep), and puts results on the quickfix list.