Searching a specific version/label of a package

[nigellh]

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I am regularly trying to search specific versions of a package for example:

https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/

but only version/label v1.11.0

If I go to

https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/tree/v0.11.0

and enter / it takes me to the search page and populates it with

repo:cert-manager/cert-manager

searching the whole repo is not what I want. I need it to be very specifically this version.

I have tried label: and path: but a bit stumped. Read the Github search guide and not sure if this is possible.

Fingers crossed someone has the answer!

Thanks in advance

(Tried searching for an answer, but sooo many hits. Went through a number of the pages and not seen anything obviously matching)

[neeraj2019041078]

Clone the repo and checkout the tag locally:
git clone https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager.git
cd cert-manager
git checkout tags/v0.11.0
grep -r "yourSearchTerm" .
Alternatively, browse the tag via:
https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/tree/v0.11.0
and use Ctrl+F in your browser.

[nigellh]

Hi Neeraj. Yup I know I can download them, but it is painfully slow when I have thousands of these to do each month. At the moment, that is effectively what I am doing, but downloading the zip of the code as that is the only alternative I have. If I cloned them, I would immediately have to delete them after being done. So the zip is quicker.

But if Github Search can 'refine' what is being looked at, it will be sooooooooooo much quicker.

The ctl-f is not a solution as it does not search within the files, but thank you.

[Harshhdhankhar]

1. Using the ref: Search Qualifier

GitHub's search syntax supports searching within specific references (branches or tags):

repo:cert-manager/cert-manager ref:v1.11.0 your_search_term

Example:

repo:cert-manager/cert-manager ref:v1.11.0 "Certificate"

2. Using the GitHub URL Syntax

You can construct a direct URL to search within a specific tag:

https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/search?q=your_query&type=code&ref=v1.11.0

3. Using Git Locally (More Powerful Option)

If you need more advanced searching within a specific version:

git clone https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager.git
cd cert-manager
git checkout v1.11.0
git grep "your_search_term"

4. Using GitHub Advanced Search

1. Go to https://github.com/search/advanced
2. Fill in:
   • Repository name: cert-manager/cert-manager
   • Branch/tag name: v1.11.0
   • Your search terms

Alternative Approach: GitHub API

You can use the GitHub API to search within a specific reference:

curl -s "https://api.github.com/search/code?q=your_query+repo:cert-manager/cert-manager+ref:v1.11.0"

Limitations

1. GitHub's search doesn't index every possible version - it primarily indexes the default branch
2. For older versions, you might need to check out the code locally
3. The ref: qualifier works best with branch names rather than tags

Would you like me to explain any of these solutions in more detail?

[nigellh]

@Harshhdhankhar Thanks for the suggestions, but ref: is an unrecognised qualifier. So does not work.

I have already said that the cloning option is too slow and too much of an overhead.

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