nbgrep

#!/bin/bash

# usage: nbgrep 'pattern'

SEARCHPATH='~/work'

# 'jq' technique lifted with gratitude 
# from https://gist.github.com/mlgill/5c55253a3bc84a96addf

# Break on newlines instead of any whitespace
# IPython Notebook files often have spaces in it
SAVEIFS=$IFS
IFS=$(echo -en "\n\b")

if ! type mdfind 2> /dev/null; then
    # Use find from findutils
    FILES=$(find $SEARCHPATH -name '*.ipynb')
else
    # mdfind uses OSX's spotlight search, so it's almost instant
    # generate a list of all the ipynb files in any of the directories
    FILES=$(mdfind -onlyin $SEARCHPATH -name '.ipynb')
fi

# On the command line we get the argument to search for
PATTERN=$1

for f in $FILES
do
    # Use 'jq' to filter out only the code in input cells
    # Then remove quoting
    # Colorize it with pygments (give it the most color possible)
    # And finally, search the remainder for a given pattern
    OUTPUT=$(jq '.worksheets[].cells[] | select(.cell_type=="code") | .input[]' $f \
        | sed 's/^"//g;s/"$//g;s/\\n$//g;s/\\"/"/g;s/\\\\/\\/g' \
        | pygmentize -l python \
        | grep $PATTERN)

    # If the grep matched anything, print it
    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
        echo -e "$f:\n\n$OUTPUT\n\n"
    fi
done

IFS=$SAVEIFS

Thanks! I merged the changes into my gist and will update the blog post. I had been hoping to use locatedb if people had it as it gives spotlight-like quick searching, but this will probably be fast enough for most people.