Do the following:
grep -rnw '/path/to/somewhere/' -e "pattern"
grep --exclude=\*.{o,a,.so} -rnw '.' -e "msse"
-r or -R is recursive, -n is line number and -w stands match the whole word. -l (letter L) can be added to have just the file name.
Along with these, --exclude or --include parameter could be used for efficient searching. Something like below:
grep --include=\*.{c,h} -rnw '/path/to/somewhere/' -e "pattern"
This will only search through the files which have .c or .h extensions. Similarly a sample use of --exclude:
grep --exclude=*.o -rnw '/path/to/somewhere/' -e "pattern"
Above will exclude searching all the files ending with .o extension. Just like exclude file it's possible to exclude/include directories through --exclude-dir and --include-dir parameter, the following shows how to integrate --exclude-dir:
grep --exclude-dir={dir1,dir2,*.dst} -rnw '/path/to/somewhere/' -e "pattern"
This works for me very well, to achieve almost the same purpose like yours.