how to find commits in a given file containing a specific text?

Question

There is a file in my git repo which was changed a lot of times. I want to know the revisions in which a specific text was present in this file.

Is there a git command to get this information?

Something like:

git find "specific_text" -- /frequently/modified/file

Which would output a list of commits.

Does this answer your question? How to grep (search) committed code in the Git history — Luuk
– Luuk, Commented Oct 15, 2020 at 13:07
It is not called find, it is called grep. Type git help grep in your terminal or read its documentation on the Git website. — axiac
– axiac, Commented Oct 15, 2020 at 13:17

LeGEC · Accepted Answer · 2022-10-27 19:50:18Z

git grep <pattern> will search only one commit.

If you want to search all of git's history, use one of the pickaxe options :

git log -G "specific_text" -- frequently/modified/file # or : git log -S "specific_text" -- frequently/modified/file

The difference between the two is explained in the docs :

-G will list all commits where specific_text appears in the diff,
-S will only list commits where the count of specific_text changes, e.g : the commit where this text appears, the commit where it gets deleted, but not a commit which just moves it around, without adding or removing an instance.

You can also add -p if you want to see the diff itself :

git log -p -S "specific_text" -- frequently/modified/file

ignoring_gravity · Accepted Answer · 2020-10-15 13:30:28Z

2

You can do

git log -G 'specific text' -- /frequently/modified/file

answered Oct 15, 2020 at 13:30

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