---
title: Git Grep
date: 2024-04-09T13:38:41+01:00
tags: git
identifier: "20240409T133841"
---

# `git grep`

To search for commit _content_ (i.e., actual lines of source, as opposed to commit messages and the like), you need to do:

```
git grep <regexp> $(git rev-list --all)
```

`git rev-list --all | xargs git grep <expression>` will work if you run into an "Argument list too long" error.

If you want to limit the search to some subtree (for instance, "lib/util"), you will need to pass that to the `rev-list`subcommand and `grep` as well:

```
git grep <regexp> $(git rev-list --all -- lib/util) -- lib/util
```

This will grep through all your commit text for `regexp`.

The reason for passing the path in both commands is because `rev-list`will return the revisions list where all the changes to `lib/util` happened, but also you need to pass to `grep` so that it will only search in `lib/util`.

Just imagine the following scenario: `grep` might find the same `<regexp>`on other files which are contained in the same revision returned by `rev-list` (even if there was no change to that file on that revision).

Here are some other useful ways of searching your source:

Search working tree for text matching regular expression regexp:

```
git grep <regexp>
```

Search working tree for lines of text matching regular expression regexp1 or regexp2:

```
git grep -e <regexp1> [--or] -e <regexp2>
```

Search working tree for lines of text matching regular expression regexp1 and regexp2, reporting file paths only:

```
git grep -l -e <regexp1> --and -e <regexp2>
```

Search working tree for files that have lines of text matching regular expression regexp1 and lines of text matching regular expression regexp2:

```
git grep -l --all-match -e <regexp1> -e <regexp2>
```

Search working tree for changed lines of text matching pattern:

```
git diff --unified=0 | grep <pattern>
```

Search all revisions for text matching regular expression regexp:

```
git grep <regexp> $(git rev-list --all)
```

Search all revisions between rev1 and rev2 for text matching regular expression regexp:

```
git grep <regexp> $(git rev-list <rev1>..<rev2>)
```

## Resources

https://stackoverflow.com/a/2929502