Using Vim to grep projectwide

You can use ...

   :grep -Ir --exclude=*.svn* foo *

... to grep for foo in all files projectwide. The -I flag tells grep to ignore binary files; the -r flag tells grep to descend directories recursively; the --exclude=*.svn* tells grep to avoid directories with .svn anywhere in the name; foo is the search string; and the terminal * starts grep on the contents working directory.