consult-git-grep and pathspec

[ErnestKz]

Summary and extracts of the discussion at: https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/1crl9tr/consultgitgrep_doesnt_honor_pathspec/

Currently, the way consult--git-grep-make-builder constructs the command, it appends paths to-be-searched to end end of it.

This interferes with the user-provided pathspec which filters what files should be matched.

For example: #hello -- -- :*.txt turns into git grep "hello" -- :*.txt ., notice the . at the end.

The work-around is to pass nil as the paths.

(advice-add
'consult--git-grep-make-builder :around
(lambda (fn &rest args) (apply fn '(nil))))

The only downside AFIK is that you will not be able to specify multiple worktrees to do the git-grep on. But for those use-cases, I guess they can be somewhat covered with a consult-grep.

Chances are, if you want this consult-git-grep workaround, then you might want to be aware of consult-greps --include behaviour:

• `consult-grep` and the `--include` flag #1018 (comment)
• the takeaway being, add (setq grep-find-ignored-files nil) in order for grep to have the more expected --include behavoiur.

[minad]

Couldn't we quite easily detect if a pathspec is present and then construct the command line differently? Or would this break other things or maybe it is not robust?

[ErnestKz]

That's a nice suggestion. I think the command builder could detect the second --, ,and insert the [<tree> ...] to precede it:

git grep [-a | --text] [-I] [--textconv] [-i | --ignore-case] [-w | --word-regexp]
	   [-v | --invert-match] [-h|-H] [--full-name]
	   [-E | --extended-regexp] [-G | --basic-regexp]
	   [-P | --perl-regexp]
	   [-F | --fixed-strings] [-n | --line-number] [--column]
	   [-l | --files-with-matches] [-L | --files-without-match]
	   [(-O | --open-files-in-pager) [<pager>]]
	   [-z | --null]
	   [ -o | --only-matching ] [-c | --count] [--all-match] [-q | --quiet]
	   [--max-depth <depth>] [--[no-]recursive]
	   [--color[=<when>] | --no-color]
	   [--break] [--heading] [-p | --show-function]
	   [-A <post-context>] [-B <pre-context>] [-C <context>]
	   [-W | --function-context]
	   [(-m | --max-count) <num>]
	   [--threads <num>]
	   [-f <file>] [-e] <pattern>
	   [--and|--or|--not|(|)|-e <pattern>…​]
	   [--recurse-submodules] [--parent-basename <basename>]
	   [ [--[no-]exclude-standard] [--cached | --untracked | --no-index] | <tree>…​]
	   [--] [<pathspec>…​]

• https://git-scm.com/docs/git-grep

[ErnestKz]

Looks like, for full completeness, if there is a [--[no-]exclude-standard], then <tree>... should not be there.