Git alias for searching for commit messages

Question

I do have aliases found on the web:

find = "log --decorate -i --all --date=short --grep"

search = "!f() { git log --decorate --grep=$1 -i --all --date=short; }; f"

They both do the same: search within commit messages. Is there one somehow one "superior" to the other? Why?

QUESTION -- How could we write an alias for searching for commits that contain particular words in the message?

For example, where:

git search-msg foo bar baz

would match commits containing the words foo, bar and baz, in whichever order?

ANSWER -- Better formatting here (from LeGEC):

search-msg = "!f() { str=\"git log --all-match\"; \
                     for var in \"$@\"; do \
                         str=\"$str --grep '$var'\"; \
                     done; \
                     eval $str; }; f"

Answer 1

First a word about git log's --grep option :

• you can specify it multiple times
• default multiple grep is "match any of the patterns"
• there is an additional --all-match flag, which indicates "match all of the patterns"

Example :

# two commits contain 'foo' in their message (one of them also contains 'bar'):
$ git log --oneline --grep foo
b76121c bar baz foo
b7a342f foo

# two commits contain 'bar' in their message (one of them also contains 'foo'):
$ git log --oneline --grep bar
bbb27f3 (HEAD -> master) bar
b76121c bar baz foo

# if I look for both patterns : I get the union of both searches (3 commits)
$ git log --oneline --grep foo --grep bar
bbb27f3 (HEAD -> master) bar
b76121c bar baz foo
b7a342f foo

# if I add '--all-match' : only the commit which contains both is kept
$ git log --oneline --grep foo --grep bar --all-match
b76121c bar baz foo

---

To answer your question : here is a sample script that takes a list of arguments, and turns them into a git log --all-match --grep aaa --grep bbb command :

# in file git-search-msg :

#!/bin/bash

cmd=("log" "--all-match")

for var in "$@"
do
        cmd+=('--grep')
        cmd+=("$var")
done

git "${cmd[@]}"

If you paste this in a file named git-search-msg, and put it somewhere on your PATH, then git search-msg foo bar baz will do what you want.

---

The following works in plain sh, but uses eval :

#!/bin/sh
str="git log --all-match"

for var in "$@"
do
    # This loops takes arguments one by one and adds
    # them as '--grep' args to the 'git log' command.
    str="$str --grep '$var'"
done

# tech note : this sample script does not escape single quotes
eval $str

If you manage to oneline it (and escape it correctly), you can use it in an alias.

Beware the escaping problems mixed with eval though ...

Answer 2

You may want to add history to search through the whole repository, by adding rev-list to your git log

git log --grep 'Something relevant in my commits' $(git rev-list --all)

Something like should work in the .gitconfig file

[alias]
    search = "!f() { git log --grep \"$1\" $(git rev-list --all); }; f"
[log]
    date = iso

The date = iso thing is here to get a better date (current format is 2019-11-26 17:35:30 +0100)