How can I search Git branches for a file or directory?

git branch
Peeja picture Peeja · Dec 16, 2008 · Viewed 130.5k times · Source

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.

Answer

Dustin picture Dustin · Dec 16, 2008

git log + git branch will find it for you:

% git log --all -- somefile

commit 55d2069a092e07c56a6b4d321509ba7620664c63
Author: Dustin Sallings <[email protected]>
Date:   Tue Dec 16 14:16:22 2008 -0800

    added somefile


% git branch -a --contains 55d2069
  otherbranch

Supports globbing, too:

% git log --all -- '**/my_file.png'

The single quotes are necessary (at least if using the Bash shell) so the shell passes the glob pattern to git unchanged, instead of expanding it (just like with Unix find).

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