Find deleted content in a Git repository; I only know surrounding context

Question

I want to get back some code that I deleted in some commit some time ago. I don't remember what the code was at all, but I remembered that it did something very useful, but I deleted it because I thought I wouldn't need it. However, I now need that code back, but I only remember what function it was in.

Other information: the file containing that function also contains 500 lines of code total. There is a 30 commit range I know that the code appeared in at one point.

This question is a high level problem. How can I use the information I know to get the information I want?

Answer 1

1. The best you can do is with search keywords. If you know a function name

   git log -Sfunction
   

   would be perfect.

2. If you have a pattern you can look for in each commit's changes:

   git log --grep=pattern 
   

   Will list commits containing that pattern. Add -i for case insensitive match. Add --regex for regular expression match

3. Otherwise

   git log -p FIRST...LAST | less
   

   will give you full text. You could search, or just scroll and visually scan...

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Oh. PS. Since you mention it is a long function, you could just do

    git log --stat FIRST...LAST

And watch for files with many deletions (----) in the diff stats.