Find a text change that might have been seen by Git's dangling blob/commit history

find-change.bash

#!/bin/bash
# Craig Hesling
#
# Find a change in Git's vast dangling blob/commmit archive.
#
# Usage: find-change.bash <grep-pattern1> [<grep-patter2> [grep-patterns...]]

mapfile -t LOST < <(git fsck --lost-found)

PATTERNS=( "$@" )

for item in "${LOST[@]}"; do
	echo "# Checking out git '${item}'."
	git_type=$(cut -d' ' -f2 <<<"${item}")
	git_hash=$(cut -d' ' -f3 <<<"${item}")

	case $git_type in
	commit)
		for pattern in "${PATTERNS[@]}"; do
			git show $git_hash | grep "${pattern}"
		done
		;;
	blob)
		for pattern in "${PATTERNS[@]}"; do
			git cat-file blob $git_hash | grep "${pattern}"
		done
		;;
	tree)
		# Could search git trees.
		echo "Don't know how to look at this"
		;;
	*)
		echo "Unknown type"
		;;
	esac
done