Hi Linus,

> Date: 2026-11-05 15:21:35-0800
> From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
>
> On Thu, 5 Nov 2026 at 14:25, Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org> wrote:
> >
> > I'm not a fan of git-grep(1), because it's easier to remember grep(1),
> > as I already need to remember it for other stuff.
> 
> Why?

Perhaps it's fear of the unknown.  'find | xargs grep' has always worked
just fine.

> "git grep" is *literally* the exact same thing as "git ls-files |
> xargs grep" that you apparently find so natural. It takes all the same
> arguments as "grep" does.

Hmmmm, if it's literally exactly the same thing, I guess I'll give it
a try.  I was probably worried that it might have subtle issues, but
being morally the same, it's comforting.

> Except "git grep" is way more capable if you ever go "Oh, but I'd like
> to go back to an older version".
> 
> That makes no sense.
> 
> > I'm finding some issues with git-ls-files(1), though: it's listing
> > symlinks, which grep(1) complains about.  I wish I could discard those
> > with something like '-type f'.
> 
> Christ.
> 
> "Doctor, doctor, it hurts when I hit myself in the face with a spiky object".

:-)

> 
> Stop doing that. You're just being silly for no reason.
> 
> >         $ time git ls-files | xargs grep ARRAY_SIZE | wc -l
> 
> Just do the sane thing. Look:
> 
>    git grep ARRAY_SIZE | wc -l
> 
> Trust me. Just learn to write "git grep". After five minutes of doing
> that, you'll realize that you should always have done it, and you were
> silly thinking anything else.

I'll trust you; I'll give it a try.  :)

> 
> And it's faster too:
> 
>   $ time git ls-files | xargs grep ARRAY_SIZE 2&>1 > /dev/null
> 
>   real 0m0.636s
>   user 0m0.367s
>   sys 0m0.307s
> 
>   $ time git grep ARRAY_SIZE > /dev/null
> 
>   real 0m0.519s
>   user 0m1.837s
>   sys 0m1.719s
> 
> (I used that "2&>1" to obviously remove the errors from the stupid
> mis-used of xargs).
> 
> And it's *safer* too, because if you have filenames with spaces, "git
> grep" does the right thing. Your xargs thing now needs to start using
> "-z" to git ls-files and "-0" to grep to actually be safe.

Yup, I don't have file names with spaces, because of this (and many
other scripts).

> So just embrace "git grep". I can pretty much guarantee that if you
> use it a while you'll never go back.

Ok.  Thanks!  I'll try it.  :)


Cheers,
Alex

> 
>             Linus

-- 
<https://www.alejandro-colomar.es>