emacs - find-name-dired - how to change default directory

In emacs when you type M-x find-name-dired it will give you two prompts. The first is what directory path you want to search in, and the second is what the file pattern you would like to search for.

How do I change it (in my .emacs) so the first prompt is always a specific project directory?

Also, how do I make it so the file name search is case insensitive?

Solution

To get a different starting directory, you can advise the function to read the arguments using a different starting directory like so:

(defadvice find-name-dired (before find-name-dired-with-default-directory activate)
  "change the argument reading"
  (interactive
   (let ((default-directory "/some/path"))
     (call-interactively 'get-args-for-my-find-name-dired))))

(defun get-args-for-my-find-name-dired (dir pattern)
  (interactive "DFind-name (directory): \nsFind-name (filename wildcard): ")
  (list dir pattern))

And then you just call my-find-name-dired.

Regarding case insensitivity, you can customize the variable find-name-arg to be the case insensitive version:

(setq find-name-arg "-iname")