Find all binary files in git HEAD

Question

I have a huge git repo that eventually want to clean up with bfg.
But first, I want to track down and remove files in the HEAD which git treats as binary...

So, what i'm looking for is a command to find all files in the HEAD that git treats as binary.

These didn't help:

• List all text (non-binary) files in repo < I am looking for binary files. not text files.
• Git find all binary files in history < I only care about the HEAD
• http://git.661346.n2.nabble.com/git-list-binary-and-or-non-binary-files-td3506370.html < I tried those commands and they don't help.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Answer 1

diff <(git grep -Ic '') <(git grep -c '') | grep '^>' | cut -d : -f 1 | cut -d ' ' -f 2- 

Breaking it down:

• git grep -c '' prints the names and line counts of each file in the repository. Adding the -I option makes the command ignore binary files.
• diff <(cmd1) <(cmd2) uses process substitution to provide diff with named pipes through which the output of cmd1 and cmd2 are sent.
• The grep and cut commands are used to extract the filenames from the output of diff.

Answer 2

A simplified solution based on the answer of @jangler (https://stackoverflow.com/a/30690662/808101)

comm -13 <(git grep -Il '' | sort -u) <(git grep -al '' | sort -u) 

Explanation:

1. git grep

   • -l Ask to only print the filename of file matching the pattern '' (which should match with every line of every file)
   • -I This option makes the command ignore binary files
   • -a This option force to process binary files as if they were text

2. sort -u Sort the result of the grep, since comm only process sorted files

3. comm -13 List the files that are unique to the 2nd list (the git grep list with all files including the binary ones)