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World 10: Deep Git

Search your history

You will learn: how to find when text changed, where it lives now, and who touched each line.

The problem

A customer asks: “When did the price RM10 appear?” Five commits, three people. Reading every change takes ages. What is faster?

Watch

git log -S "TODO" finds commits that added or removed that text. People call it the pickaxe (log -S): A search for commits that added or removed some text.. Here, one commit added TODO and one removed it.

Try it

Your turn. Which commit added “RM10”?

Watch

git grep searches the files Git tracks, as they are now. -n adds line numbers.

Tap the match inside the stylesheet.

~/shop $ git grep -n footer

0 of 1 found

Watch

git blame shows who last changed each line, and in which commit. It is for finding context, not for blaming people!

Predict

blame: Shows who last changed each line of a file, and in which commit. says Aisyah last changed the footer line. Did Aisyah add the footer?

Check

Which tool answers each question best?

Drag a card into a box. Or tap the card, then tap the box.

        Watch

        git shortlog -sn counts commits per person, the most first. Handy for a thank-you note in your release.

        You did it!

        You can now find when, where and who in your project’s history.

        Go deeper (optional)

        git log -G "regex" matches any changed line, not just added or removed text. git log --author=Ben shows one person’s commits. git log --grep=footer searches the messages. Add -p to see each change. git blame -L 2,3 file looks at lines 2 to 3 only.