In Git, how could I search for a file or directory by path across a number of branches?
I've written something in a branch, but I don't remember which one. Now I need to find it.
Clarification: I'm looking for a file which I created on one of my branches. I'd like to find it by path, and not by its contents, as I don't remember what the contents are.
You could use gitk --all and search for commits "touching paths" and the pathname you are interested in.
Copy & paste this to use git find-file SEARCHPATTERN
Printing all searched branches:
git config --global alias.find-file '!for branch in `git for-each-ref --format="%(refname)" refs/heads`; do echo "${branch}:"; git ls-tree -r --name-only $branch | nl -bn -w3 | grep "$1"; done; :'
Print only branches with results:
git config --global alias.find-file '!for branch in $(git for-each-ref --format="%(refname)" refs/heads); do if git ls-tree -r --name-only $branch | grep "$1" > /dev/null; then echo "${branch}:"; git ls-tree -r --name-only $branch | nl -bn -w3 | grep "$1"; fi; done; :'
These commands will add some minimal shell scripts directly to your ~/.gitconfig as global git alias.
git ls-tree might help. To search across all existing branches:
for branch in `git for-each-ref --format="%(refname)" refs/heads`; do
echo $branch :; git ls-tree -r --name-only $branch | grep '<foo>'
done
The advantage of this is that you can also search with regular expressions for the file name.
Although ididak's response is pretty cool, and Handyman5 provides a script to use it, I found it a little restricted to use that approach.
Sometimes you need to search for something that can appear/disappear over time, so why not search against all commits? Besides that, sometimes you need a verbose response, and other times only commit matches. Here are two versions of those options. Put these scripts on your path:
git-find-file
for branch in $(git rev-list --all)
do
if (git ls-tree -r --name-only $branch | grep --quiet "$1")
then
echo $branch
fi
done
git-find-file-verbose
for branch in $(git rev-list --all)
do
git ls-tree -r --name-only $branch | grep "$1" | sed 's/^/'$branch': /'
done
Now you can do
$ git find-file <regex>
sha1
sha2
$ git find-file-verbose <regex>
sha1: path/to/<regex>/searched
sha1: path/to/another/<regex>/in/same/sha
sha2: path/to/other/<regex>/in/other/sha
See that using getopt you can modify that script to alternate searching all commits, refs, refs/heads, been verbose, etc.
$ git find-file <regex>
$ git find-file --verbose <regex>
$ git find-file --verbose --decorated --color <regex>
Checkout https://github.com/albfan/git-find-file for a possible implementation.
git ls-tree might help. To search across all existing branches:
for branch in `git for-each-ref --format="%(refname)" refs/heads`; do
echo $branch :; git ls-tree -r --name-only $branch | grep '<foo>'
done
The advantage of this is that you can also search with regular expressions for the file name.
A quite decent implementation of the find command for Git repositories can be found here:
git ls-tree might help. To search across all existing branches:
for branch in `git for-each-ref --format="%(refname)" refs/heads`; do
echo $branch :; git ls-tree -r --name-only $branch | grep '<foo>'
done
The advantage of this is that you can also search with regular expressions for the file name.
Copy & paste this to use git find-file SEARCHPATTERN
Printing all searched branches:
git config --global alias.find-file '!for branch in `git for-each-ref --format="%(refname)" refs/heads`; do echo "${branch}:"; git ls-tree -r --name-only $branch | nl -bn -w3 | grep "$1"; done; :'
Print only branches with results:
git config --global alias.find-file '!for branch in $(git for-each-ref --format="%(refname)" refs/heads); do if git ls-tree -r --name-only $branch | grep "$1" > /dev/null; then echo "${branch}:"; git ls-tree -r --name-only $branch | nl -bn -w3 | grep "$1"; fi; done; :'
These commands will add some minimal shell scripts directly to your ~/.gitconfig as global git alias.
Although ididak's response is pretty cool, and Handyman5 provides a script to use it, I found it a little restricted to use that approach.
Sometimes you need to search for something that can appear/disappear over time, so why not search against all commits? Besides that, sometimes you need a verbose response, and other times only commit matches. Here are two versions of those options. Put these scripts on your path:
git-find-file
for branch in $(git rev-list --all)
do
if (git ls-tree -r --name-only $branch | grep --quiet "$1")
then
echo $branch
fi
done
git-find-file-verbose
for branch in $(git rev-list --all)
do
git ls-tree -r --name-only $branch | grep "$1" | sed 's/^/'$branch': /'
done
Now you can do
$ git find-file <regex>
sha1
sha2
$ git find-file-verbose <regex>
sha1: path/to/<regex>/searched
sha1: path/to/another/<regex>/in/same/sha
sha2: path/to/other/<regex>/in/other/sha
See that using getopt you can modify that script to alternate searching all commits, refs, refs/heads, been verbose, etc.
$ git find-file <regex>
$ git find-file --verbose <regex>
$ git find-file --verbose --decorated --color <regex>
Checkout https://github.com/albfan/git-find-file for a possible implementation.
A quite decent implementation of the find command for Git repositories can be found here:
You could use gitk --all and search for commits "touching paths" and the pathname you are interested in.
Source: Stackoverflow.com