RE: find files in emacs

[Drew Adams]

    I've a big java project that i'm doing in emacs with jdee and ecb. I
    want to find a file that exists somewhere inside the project. Is there
    any quick way to do it?

What do you know about the file - the name? part of the name? the directory
name (path)? part of the directory name?

You can use command `icicle-locate-file' to find (visit) any file on your
file system. It lets you use a regexp to match any parts of the file name,
including any parts of its path.

It's in Icicles: http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/Icicles and is
described here:
http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/Icicles_-_File-Name_Input. The Icicles
libraries are here:
http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/Icicles_-_Libraries.

Just download the libraries, byte-compile them, put them in your
`load-path', `M-x load-library icicles', `M-x icy-mode', `M-x C-u
icicle-locate-file' and type the root directory of your search. You can then
type a regexp that matches what you know about the file name and its path.
You can change the regexp input on the fly and see the resulting hits
updated incrementally in buffer *Completions*, if you like.

If you do this often and you are searching a large file system, you can use
a persistent cache to speed things up after the first time - see the doc.

There are other packages that also let you locate files, in different ways.
See http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/LocateFilesAnywhere. And you can
of course use the various forms of the Unix or GNU/Linux `find' command that
are available in Emacs - see the Emacs manual for that.