#!/bin/bash
find . -path '*.svn*' -prune -o -type f -print0 \\
    | xargs -0 grep --col "$1"

This is of course a bash script wherein the first argument is the pattern to search for within the files. I’ve hardcoded it to skip any files including '.svn' in their full path. I guess I’ve also hardcoded where to start the search (the current directory).

egrep regex syntax is fine, I’m just more used to Perl-style regexes. The -H is necessary if find only passes one filename to xargs, but you’re right, it would be fine to omit that.

I agree the grep args -r paired with --include are conceptually the same as using find and piping to xargs and grep, but you’re firing up three processes when only one is necessary. Also, the command line is a little shorter. :)

egrep '^#include +<rpc' */*.c
egrep '^#include +<rpc' */*/*.c
egrep '^#include +<rpc' */*/*/*.c
egrep '^#include +<rpc' */*/*/*/*.c

If you’re in a hurry the command line substitution is pretty quick to add another splat slash to each one until you run out of directory depth.

egrep has better support for regexes than plain ‘ol grep does.

find . -type f -name *.c -print0 |xargs -0 egrep '^#include +<rpc'

I don’t think you need the -P if you use egrep or the -H at all. I’m not sure what you’re getting out of the -r as find is passing xargs fully qualified paths to files that you’re searching. You can’t descend to a subdirectory of a file.

Maybe I’m missing something.
etc…