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I want to see all TODO comments that only I wrote and that exist in the current code base that is git managed.

What I've got so far is printing all TODO comments that I've ever created or modified during the complete git history: git log -p --author="My name" -S TODO | grep "\+.*TODO"

But this tool chain lists all TODO comments ever written, even those that I've already resolved and thus removed again from code.

What’s a suitable tool chain that can search the current code base line-by-line, check if it contains "TODO" and if this line was authored by me print those lines?

Lars Blumberg
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5 Answers5

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You can combine git blame with grep.

Like this (not the best one, but should work)

git grep -l TODO | xargs -n1 git blame | grep 'Your name' | grep TODO

Improved versions might combine line numbers found by first grep with git blame's ability to show only given lines.

aragaer
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    I improved this a bit: `git grep -l TODO | xargs -n1 git blame | grep $(git config user.name) | grep TODO`. Now i can use the [same alias on every machine](https://github.com/DerZyklop/dotfiles/blob/master/.aliases#L39). Because i have different usernames for work and private stuff. /cc @lars-blumberg – DerZyklop Sep 13 '14 at 12:47
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    using `git blame` this way will get any TODOs that were reformatted by you (say by changing an indent), not just the ones you started. What you really want to do is some combination of the git pickaxe (`git log -S`) and `blame`. – C S Jun 17 '18 at 17:49
  • lol why does git not have a less insane way to do this – ScipioAfricanus Jan 17 '23 at 16:14
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I want do add on aragaer's and Kyle's solution:

  • use grep config to get your name
  • displaying the file name and the line number of the TODO comment
  • removing the commit SHA, the author's name and the commit timestamp
git grep -l TODO | xargs -n1 git blame -f -n -w | grep "$(git config user.name)" | grep TODO | sed "s/.\{9\}//" | sed "s/(.*)[[:space:]]*//"

This prints:

Cpp/CoolClass.cpp 123 //TODO: Do we really need this?
Cpp/AnotherClass.cpp 42 //TODO: Do we miss something?
Java/MyListener.java 23 //TODO: Optimize
Lars Blumberg
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    this is great except it does show files that does not exist. (same as @aragaer solution) – confiq Aug 09 '15 at 16:31
  • To search for FIXME as well `git grep -lE 'TODO|FIXME' | xargs -n1 git blame -f -n -w | grep "Maya" | grep -iE 'TODO|FIXME' | sed "s/.\{9\}//" | sed "s/(.*)[[:space:]]*//"` – Ahmed Hegazy Apr 13 '17 at 13:08
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I found that the user name can have spaces, so it's easier to filter by email address. Also, the @todo (lowercase) is my way of adding notes in docblocks, so I added the "ignore lower/upper case" flag. This is my solution:

git grep -il TODO | xargs -n1 git blame -M  -f -e | grep -i TODO | grep $(git config user.email)
StR
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4

Small suggestion here that I just ran across, larger repo and some binary files. The xargs -ni git blame section was causing an unexpected term with signal 13. I got around this by adding a -I switch on the initial git grep.

FWIW here's full error (go go google)

xargs: git: terminated by signal 13

Here's an example I used (also removed grep for my mine as wanted to see all)

git grep -I -l TODO | xargs -n1 git blame -f -n -w | grep TODO | sed "s/.\{9\}//" | sed "s/(.*)[[:space:]]*//"
dedricF
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2

Complete with using git config to get your name:

git grep -l TODO | xargs -n1 git blame | grep "$(git config user.name)" | grep TODO
Kyle Kelley
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