how to search files & folders by 'a word or phrase in the file'

sallam · 7th April 2003

I have never managed to do this:
I have a folder, containing subfolders. They have many text files in them. Now: I need to search these text files to find the one which has a specific word or phrase in it. What I do is to hit Ctrl+f to open the search left pane. Then I click 'All files and folders', type the extention of the files I'm searching in (example: .php) and type the word(s) I'm looking for in 'a word or phrase in the file'. Searching within that folder starts. BUT IT NEVER RETURNS A THING, EVER!

Am I doing it wrong? how on earth can I do this?

Welshjim · 7th April 2003

sallam--Based on my experience in Win98 the Find functions generally work
1) Only on the [b]titles[b] of files and folders (if you search on a whole directory) or
2) Within a single page of an opened file.
So you can not "Find" a word within a folder containing many files, or even within a file containing multiple pages--unless in the latter case the word is on the single page you have opened.
Some file systems work differently, however. Acrobat Reader files (.pdf) permit searching withing the entire document.
And, of course, maybe WinXP is different.
Edit--And so it is, based on the following post.

unixfan · 7th April 2003

Known problem, see 309173 and search problems or use Agent Ransack