Git-grep-cli NPM

git-grep-cli

A simple command line tool to search for commit-message or file-content in a git repository to retrieve the corresponding git hash.

It is more convenient and powerful than the native API provided by git, and can help you find files better (including git's --lost-found objects).

"Regret Medicine" for git

From another point of view, git-grep-cli provides stronger "regret medicine" for git, which can help you quickly find lost files (provided that the lost files have been added to the git staging area; for unreachable objects, it must be the changes within two weeks, because the default value of git gc --prune is two weeks ago).

Example: find a lost file

You can follow these steps to execute it:

# create a file
echo "hello world" > lost-file-1
# add it to the staging area
git add lost-file-1
# undo the staging area
git restore --staged lost-file-1
# delete the file
rm lost-file-1

Now, lost-file-1 is lost, and you want to find it back. You can use git-grep-cli to search for it:

ggc "hello world" -t content

You will get the git-hash of lost-file-1, and then you can use git show <hash> to view the content of this file.

Example: find a lost git-commit record

You can follow these steps to execute it:

# create a file
echo "bye bye" > lost-file-2
# add it to the staging area
git add lost-file-2
# commit it
git commit -m "feat: add lost-git-commit"
# undo the commit
git reset --hard HEAD~1

You can use git-grep-cli to find it back:

# find the lost git-commit record by file content
ggc "bye bye" -t content
# or
# find the lost git-commit record by commit message
ggc "lost-git-commit" -t message

You will get the git-hash of the lost git-commit record, and then you can use git show <hash> to view the content of this commit record. You can also use git cherry-pick <hash> to apply this commit record.

Installing

You need to install git-grep-cli globally.

Package manager

Using npm:

npm install git-grep-cli -g

Using yarn:

yarn add git-grep-cli -g

Using pnpm:

pnpm add git-grep-cli -g

Usage

You can use it in your terminal:

ggc -s <your-search-content> [-t <type>] [-l <length>]

options

-s or --search : the search content
-t or --type : the search type, message for git commit message, content for file content, all for both
-l or --length : the length of the returned content

Example

ggc "hello world"
# or
ggc -s "hello world"
# or
ggc -s "hello world" -t message
# or
ggc -s "hello world" -t content -l 50

Features

Support searching for commit-message and file-content
Support searching for lost files and lost git-commit records (provided that the lost files have been added to the git staging area)
Support specifying the length of the returned content