# wgrep

6 Hacker News commenters recommended wgrep and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Lets you edit grep search results directly in Emacs and save the changes back to the files. People call it one of their favorite Emacs tools, and it has landed in Emacs 30.

## Why people recommend it

- Edits grep results in place (2 comments): "or do the same for a set of files (grep-mode and wgrep)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47566754)) "wgrep-mode for editing files is amazing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49039194))
- Praised as a favorite Emacs tool (2 comments): "Strengths: magit, wgrep, vterm, buffer management, plugins & packaging." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47978107)) "it's been one of my favorite tools" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49613162))
- Integrates well with other Emacs tools (2 comments): "Strengths: magit, wgrep, vterm, buffer management, plugins & packaging." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47978107)) "what makes them great is actually the integration between them" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47931829))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Evil mode for Emacs](https://hackerapproved.com/p/evil-mode.md): 39 recommend
- [TRAMP for Emacs](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tramp.md): 25 recommend
- [SLIME](https://hackerapproved.com/p/slime.md): 19 recommend
- [Vertico](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vertico.md): 18 recommend
- [Eglot](https://hackerapproved.com/p/eglot.md): 16 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "wgrep", https://hackerapproved.com/p/wgrep/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).