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Peter Alfvin
Peter Alfvin

Reputation: 29389

Is it possible to search for a particular filename on GitHub?

I know that the GitHub web interface lets you search all repositories for files with a particular pathname (e.g. searching for path:/app/models/user.rb yields > 109k results), but is there a way to search all repositories for filenames independent of their subdirectory location? I tried using asterisks in the path argument, and that didn't seem to work.

Upvotes: 266

Views: 193624

Answers (13)

Kamiccolo
Kamiccolo

Reputation: 8497

GitHub introduced FileFinder in 2011.

Try it out: just hit t on any repo's file or directory view.[1]

So, You're still restricted to repository.

[1]https://github.com/blog/793-introducing-the-file-finder

Another approach to Your question:

Can I use Git to search for matching filenames in a repository?

EDIT: as of 2024 GitHub do seem to provide a way to search for a filename, despite the folder structure of the repository. Please check the "advanced search" section. It do seem to boil down to something like the following: https://github.com/search?q=path%3A**%2Ftest.c&type=code&ref=advsearch

Or rather q=path:**/test.c as it's query argument.

Upvotes: 38

Penny Liu
Penny Liu

Reputation: 17408

I would like to clarify @ajain's answer regarding accessing files in a Github repository via the web UI. Here are the steps:

  1. Firstly, you need to be in the repository's directory view. Then, press the t key. The file finder is now focused.

enter image description here

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  1. Next, enter the filename of the desired file to open it.

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More shortcuts for source code browsing.

Upvotes: 21

Kyr
Kyr

Reputation: 5491

I had the same problem and I followed GH suggestion to add asterisks for a path search:

path:**/user.rb

Upvotes: -1

User15239563
User15239563

Reputation: 391

What works for me is:

path:<filename>

To search for pyproject.toml file you would use

path:pyproject.toml

Upvotes: 2

Laurent Lyaudet
Laurent Lyaudet

Reputation: 938

You can also use path:**/user.rb

Upvotes: 16

Vajk Hermecz
Vajk Hermecz

Reputation: 5702

As of recently, you should simply use path:user.rb. This will find files with the name anywhere inside repositories.

Note: The older approaches like file:user.rb and in:path user.rb seem to not work anymore.

Upvotes: 3

Nagev
Nagev

Reputation: 13207

In my case, I wanted to search for a particular file name, in all of my organization's repositories. This can be done by entering this in the search box:

org:your-organization-user-name filename:the-file-name

Of course, just do "filename:the-file-name" if you want to search the whole of GitHub.

This is now documented on Github.

Upvotes: 24

ajain
ajain

Reputation: 510

Just press T in the repository's directory view and it will let you search for a file.

Upvotes: 2

Shah Vipul
Shah Vipul

Reputation: 747

  1. In git Repo Click on "Go to file". It will show "repo/".
  2. Enter specific file name.

Upvotes: 0

kenorb
kenorb

Reputation: 166359

In search input, you can use filename parameter to search in multiple repositories, for example:

filename:my_filename.txt

If you're looking for a filename in specific repository, you can just press t and start typing the file name (see: GH keyboard shortcuts).

Upvotes: 111

Orangenhain
Orangenhain

Reputation: 4090

Does the search user.rb in:path do what you want to do? Alternatively there is also this search filename:user.rb

Found on: https://help.github.com/articles/searching-code/

Upvotes: 246

MaxChinni
MaxChinni

Reputation: 1216

I refined @andy-lester answer with intitle:, i.e. I want to find where's located the file simple_spinner_item.xml in Android's source code hosted on github, so I search on Google this string:

site:github.com intitle:simple_spinner_item.xml github.com/android

^                       ^                       ^
|                       |                       |
on github site          |                       |
                        |                       |
filename I'm searching -+                       |
                                                |
github user ------------------------------------+

Upvotes: 7

Andy Lester
Andy Lester

Reputation: 93636

You can try Google. Google for filename.txt site:github.com.

Upvotes: 10

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