Can I git grep across all revisions in a Git repository? How?

I need to search for a sequence of digits. I'm interested in the contents of files, not just commit messages or hashes. It is acceptable to limit the search to only .java files, if it helps.

This doesn't work. The repository is big, it may have something to do with it.

git grep "509038" $(git rev-list --all)
Сбой выполнения программы git.exe: The filename or extension is too longстрока:1 знак:1
+ git grep "509038" $(git rev-list --all)
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
строка:1 знак:21
+ git grep "509038" $(git rev-list --all)
+                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ResourceUnavailable: (:) [], ApplicationFailedException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NativeCommandFailed

Windows 10.

Can I git grep across all revisions in a Git repository? How?

I need to search for a sequence of digits. I'm interested in the contents of files, not just commit messages or hashes. It is acceptable to limit the search to only .java files, if it helps.

This doesn't work. The repository is big, it may have something to do with it.

git grep "509038" $(git rev-list --all)
Сбой выполнения программы git.exe: The filename or extension is too longстрока:1 знак:1
+ git grep "509038" $(git rev-list --all)
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
строка:1 знак:21
+ git grep "509038" $(git rev-list --all)
+                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ResourceUnavailable: (:) [], ApplicationFailedException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NativeCommandFailed

Windows 10.

• git
• windows-10

• Please switch terminal to English language/locale. SO/SE is English-only net of sites: meta.stackexchange/questions/13676/… – phd Commented 21 hours ago
• Does git grep "509038" works? If it works, I'd limit the number of commits like git grep "509038" $(git rev-list --all --since="2025-01-01") – KH Kim Commented 21 hours ago
• 2 The problem is that git rev-list --all lists too many commits so they cannot be listed at the command line. Use xargs to process commits in batches: git rev-list --all | xargs git grep 509038 – phd Commented 20 hours ago
• 8 git log -S<some-text> --all -- '*.java' should be good enough to track the commits where that was added/deleted.... which should be good enough to track down where it is present. – eftshift0 Commented 20 hours ago
• 1 same suggestion as eftshift0, perhaps -G is more suited to finding all the occurrences of that string. – LeGEC Commented 18 hours ago

1 Answer 1

You can use git log --all -S<some-text> to find commits where that piece of text is added/removed in history. @LeGEC provided a tip to use -G<some-text> which, after reading how it differs from -S, sounds handy too.

https://git-scm/docs/git-log#Documentation/git-log.txt-code-Sltstringgtcode

-S<string>
Look for differences that change the number of occurrences of the specified <string> (i.e. addition/deletion) in a file. Intended for the scripter’s use.

It is useful when you’re looking for an exact block of code (like a struct), and want to know the history of that block since it first came into being: use the feature iteratively to feed the interesting block in the preimage back into -S, and keep going until you get the very first version of the block.

Binary files are searched as well.

-G<regex>
Look for differences whose patch text contains added/removed lines that match <regex>.

To illustrate the difference between -S<regex> --pickaxe-regex and -G<regex>, consider a commit with the following diff in the same file:

+    return frotz(nitfol, two->ptr, 1, 0);
...
-    hit = frotz(nitfol, mf2.ptr, 1, 0);
While git log -G"frotz\(nitfol" will show this commit, git log -S"frotz\(nitfol" --pickaxe-regex will not (because the number of occurrences of that string did not change).

Unless --text is supplied patches of binary files without a textconv filter will be ignored.

See the pickaxe entry in gitdiffcore[7] for more information.