Multiline search and replace with quickfix list and :cdo

Question

I'm working on applying doctrine/coding-standard on doctrine/orm, and I would like to work smarter.

I would like to search occurences of

    /**
     * @Id
     * @Column(type="integer")
     * @GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
     */

and replace them with

    /**
     * @var int
     * @Id
     * @Column(type="integer")
     * @GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
     */

My current grepprg is rg\ --vimgrep\ --smart-case, so I tried :gr '/\*\*\n \* @Id\n \* @Column.*"integer"\)\n \* @GeneratedValue.*\n \*/' --multiline tests/ (I'm planning to use :cdo … after that, which should be easy enough.

It finds the occurences alright, but it formats them in such a way that each line of the matched block is considered a separate occurence, like this:

tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/Ticket/DDC881Test.php:109:5:    /**
tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/Ticket/DDC881Test.php:110:5:     * @Id
tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/Ticket/DDC881Test.php:111:5:     * @Column(type="integer")
tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/Ticket/DDC881Test.php:112:5:     * @GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/Ticket/DDC881Test.php:113:5:     */
tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/Ticket/DDC881Test.php:189:5:    /**
tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/Ticket/DDC881Test.php:190:5:     * @Id
tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/Ticket/DDC881Test.php:191:5:     * @Column(type="integer")
tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/Ticket/DDC881Test.php:192:5:     * @GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/Ticket/DDC881Test.php:193:5:     */

That will not work well with :cdo I'm afraid. Maybe it would work if rg '/\*\*\n \* @Id\n \* @Column.*"integer"\)\n \* @GeneratedValue.*\n \*/' --multiline tests/ --vimgrep printed the following instead:

tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/Ticket/DDC881Test.php:109:5:    /**
                                                                     * @Id
                                                                     * @Column(type="integer")
                                                                     * @GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
                                                                     */
tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/Ticket/DDC881Test.php:189:5:    /**
                                                                     * @Id
                                                                     * @Column(type="integer")
                                                                     * @GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
                                                                     */

How would you do such a complicated search and replace?

Answer 1

Answering my own question: It's a bit hackish, but you can hijack ripgrep's --replace flag, you can essentially replace each match with a single line one, producing the desired effect. In the end, what I did is the following:

:gr '/\*\*\n     \* @Id\n     \* @Column.*"integer"\)\n     \* @GeneratedValue.*\n     \*/' --multiline tests/ -r 'whatever, it does not matter'
:cdo call append('.', '     * @var int') | update

In more generic terms, _if ripgrep is your grepprg:

:gr 'some multiline pattern' --multiline tests/ -r 'whatever, it does not matter'
:cdo the colon command you want to execute for each occurence | update

The same does not seem to be doable with grep.