How to search through commit history using either of:

• git log
• git grep

Examples use the Git repository for the “Pro Git” book found here.

The git log command supports looking for commits by the content of their commit messages, or even the content of the diff they introduced. All examples here can be enhanced with the regular git log options.

Search for a given author, with variations:

$ git log --author="Robert P. J. Day"
$ git log --author="Robert P\. J\. Day"
$ git log --author="P\. J\."
$ git log --author="Robert P. J. Day" --oneline