How to use `git grep --not`

Question

I would like to run a git grep command for a <pattern>, but exclude lines which are over 200 characters.

I have managed to achieve this with the command:

git grep <pattern> | grep -Ev '.{200}'

If possible, I would like to run this as one command (without a pipe). I thought I would be able to make use of the git grep --not flag for this, but am running into difficulty.

Here is my attempt:

git grep -e <pattern> --not -e '.{200}'

I have tried different combinations of the above command, but haven't gotten the desired output.

Any pointers on what I should try next would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance for the help.

---

Solution:

(thanks to @torek)

git grep -E -e one --and --not -e '.{200}'

Answer 1

The description of the boolean operators for git grep reads:

--and
--or
--not
( …​ )
Specify how multiple patterns are combined using Boolean expressions. --or is the default operator. --and has higher precedence than --or. -e has to be used for all patterns.

You used:

git grep -e <pattern> --not -e '.{200}'

so you did write -e for each pattern; but you did not pick one of --and or --or, so you got the default. Which one is the default? (Read the quoted text above.) If you ask for things that match some pattern or are not at least 200 characters, will something that's 12 characters long be selected? It's not at least 200, so yes, it will be selected. What about something that's both 234 characters and matches? Well, it matches, so yes, it will be selected. The only things that will be rejected are those that both don't match and are 200 characters or longer.

Note that git grep itself also defaults to basic regular expressions, unless you use a command line option or configure it to use extended or Perl regular expressions. So you probably want -E -e <pattern> --and --not -e '.{200}' here. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression

Answer 2

You can also use awk for this problem.

awk '/<pattern>/ && length($2) < 200'