Search through all branches and history of a repository. Can be sourced or put in a bin folder and run as a script. All passed parameters go straight to `git grep` but it searches through the last 300 commits unless you use `-y`. See git-grep(1) for valid options.

gitgrep

#!/bin/bash
gitgrep () 
{ 
    ref_max=300;
    if [ -z "$1" ]; then
        echo "Usage: gitgrep [-y num] <search_options> pattern";
        echo " -y num is max number of back refs to reverse-order search.";
        return 1;
    fi;
    if [ "$1" == "-y" ]; then
        shift;
        ref_max="$1";
        shift;
    fi;
    sed_pat=$(for ref in $(git rev-list --all | head -$ref_max); do 
    branch=$(git branch --contains $ref | head -1 | cut -c3-); 
    echo "s/^${ref}:/${branch}:${ref}:/;"; 
  done );
    git grep "$@" $(git rev-list --all | head -$ref_max) | sed -e "${sed_pat}"
}
# test to see if we're sourced and if not, execute the method with passed params
(return 0 2>/dev/null) || gitgrep "$@"