Is there a 'git sed' or equivalent? - linux

Question

Let's say I want to rename a method in source code contained in a git repository. I could do this by hand, but the method name might be in multiple places (e.g., unit test, documentation, actual method). To check where the method is used, I use 'git grep'. I get 'git grep' to show only lines that I want to change, and then I don't have a workflow to automatically change those lines.
I'm looking for an automated way (hopefully using git tools) to do this last step. I was hoping there was some sort of 'git sed' or equivalent, but I can't find any.
The interface I'm thinking would be nice: git sed 's/old-method-name/new-method-name/g'

Answer 1

You could use git ls-files in combination with xargs and sed:
git ls-files -z | xargs -0 sed -i -e 's/old-method-name/new-method-name/g'

Answer 2

Thanks to both Noufal and Greg for their posts. I combined their solutions, and found one that uses git grep (more robust than git ls-files for my repo, as it seems to list only the files that have actual src code in them - not submodule folders for example), and also has the old method name and new method name in only one place:
In the [alias] block of my ~/.gitconfig file:
sed = ! git grep -z --full-name -l '.' | xargs -0 sed -i -e
To use:
git sed 's/old-method-name/new-method-name/ig'

Answer 3

You could do a
for i in $(git grep --full-name -l old_method_name)
do
perl -p -i -e 's/old_method_name/new_method_name/g' $i
done
stick that in a file somewhere and then alias it as git sed in your config.
Update: The comment by tchrist below is a much better solution since it prevents perl from spawning repeatedly.

Answer 4

Here's a solution that combines those of of Noufal and claytontstanley and avoids touching files that won't change.
In the [alias] block of my ~/.gitconfig file:
psed = !sh -c 'git grep --null --full-name --name-only --perl-regexp -e \"$1\" | xargs -0 perl -i -p -e \"s/$1/$2/g\"' -
To use:
git psed old_method_name new_method_name

Answer 5

Yes, there's. In Ubuntu the package git-extras provides the command. Install it:
$ sudo apt-get install git-extras
Use it like bellow e.g. to correct a spelling issue quickly:
$ git sed 'qoute' 'quote'
Unfortunately it doesn't support file filters like what git grep does:
$ git grep -e 'class' -- '*.py'
The same functionality also exists on Mac and other operating systems. Checkout its installation page.

Answer 6

Unhappy with most other solutions provided (which is basically just a string-replace on git tracked files) I wrote my own script: git-sed.
It supports any expression sed supports (e.g git sed '1{/^$/d}')
Can run on a subset of paths in the repo (git sed 's/foo/bar' src tests)
Multiple expressions (git sed -e 's/foo/bar' -e '/bar/d').
etc...
Just drop it anywhere in PATH to use it or add an alias pointing to the full path.

Answer 7

Note that starting git 2.1 (Q3 2014), you can set "full-name" by default for git grep.
(See commit 6453f7b by Andreas Schwab)
"git grep" learned grep.fullname configuration variable to force "--full-name" to be default.
This may cause regressions on scripted users that do not expect this new behaviour.
That means the previous solutions can benefit from:
git config grep.full-name true
And use:
psed = !sh -c 'git grep --null --name-only --perl-regexp -e \"$1\" | xargs -0 perl -i -p -e \"s/$1/$2/g\"' -

Answer 8

See git-search-replace on github - it's designed for this exactly.

Answer 9

I have written a git sed which supports file filtering:
#!/bin/bash
split=$(($# + 1))
for i in $(seq 1 $#); do
if [[ "${!i}" = "--" ]]; then
split=$i
fi
done
git ls-files -z "${#:$split:$#}" | xargs -0 sed -b -i "${#:1:$(($split - 1))}"
(You probably don't want the -b parameter on non-Windows platforms; it's necessary on Windows to preserve Windows-style newlines.)
You can then add an alias in your .gitconfig:
[alias]
sed = ! <path to git-sed>
so that you can use it like git sed -e <your expression> -- <path filter>.