GitHub: searching through older versions of files

I know that using GitHub I can search through all the current versions of my files in a repo. However, I would also like to search through the older versions of my repo files. For example, say, I 开发者_如何转开发used to have a function called get_info() in my code, but deleted it several versions ago, is it possible to search for get_info and find the code. If it is not possible using GitHub, is it possible from the git command line?

EDIT

Thanks to @Mark Longair for showing how this can be done from the git command line. If it's not possible in GitHub it would be a great feature to have.

Currently, I don't believe it's possible to search within the complete history of a repository's code on the github website - the closest is just searching within the current code of a repository with the "code search" option on this page.

However, from the command line, you can find any commits that introduced or removed lines mentioning get_info with the -S option to git log. e.g.:

git log -Sget_info -p

(n.b. there should be no space between -S and the search term)

(also note: to search for more than one word, surround in '):

git log -S'get info' -p

So, at a minimum that should find the commit where the function was first introduced and the one that removed it. I added the -p so you can also see the patches - if lots of commits introduced changes that mentioned the function that may be helpful. If the function was only on another branch it might also be useful to use --all to search all branches.

Jefromi points out in a comment below that git 1.7.4 will introduce the -G option as an alternative - this change is summarized in a recent blog post from Junio Hamano (git maintainer): http://gitster.livejournal.com/48191.html

git log -G'your text' -p --all

Note the following from the docs;

[...] consider a commit with the following diff in the same file:

+    return frotz(nitfol, two->ptr, 1, 0);
...
-    hit = frotz(nitfol, mf2.ptr, 1, 0);

While git log -G"frotz\(nitfol" will show this commit, git log -S"frotz\(nitfol" --pickaxe-regex will not (because the number of occurrences of that string did not change).

Kudos both Mark and Cascabel for pointing in the right direction

To answer the initial question of viewing files from your repositories history directly from the GitHub online GUI, take the following steps. In your repo:

1. View previous commits.
2. Select the branch ID for a commit that corresponds to the point in history you wish to view.
3. In the top left, select Browse Files to view all files at that point in time.