

This makes the command incredibly powerful and flexible, setting it apart from regular grep. Most importantly, git grep allows you to search files in different branches or in different points from the repo’s timeline. It only searches files that Git knows about.

Git grep, on the other hand, has its preferences. Regular grep will search through all files matching the specified patterns. One of the differences between git grep and the regular grep command has to do with what files you can search in using each command. What Files Can Be Searched in Using Git Grep?

Similarly to its general counterpart, git grep allows you to search for a given string pattern inside files, finding the lines that match the specified patterns.īut since grep already exists, why would you use its git counterpart? We’ll cover that in more detail later, but one of the reasons has to do with which files you can search when using git grep. The git grep command is a specialized version of the famous grep command. What is this command about and what can you do with it? Let’s cover that now. Git Grep: The FundamentalsĪs promised, let’s start with some fundamentals of Git Grep. We also don’t assume you have any previous knowledge or experience with grep. I’m currently on Ubuntu as I write this, but the commands should work for Windows and Mac as well. We don’t make any assumptions regarding your operating system.
#Grep example how to
You’ll learn what it is, how it differs from the regular grep, and how to use it in various situations. This post is going to teach you about this command. You may know that there is a Git-specialized version of grep called the git grep command. How do you search for a given string inside many different files? If you’re familiar with the command line, you have the answer on the tip of your tongue: grep.
