Github search sucks (and how it could be better)

[RenaudWasTaken]

Hi !

I'm reporting this as I've noticed for quite a while that github search feature is not the
feature needed by a developer.

I often find myself cloning the repository and using grep recursively or on a specific directory.
Advanced search is just plain confusing and takes too many steps to access.

Example:
1) When searching from the /src directory the search is launched on the whole repo
2) When searching for a common term only 10 results are displayed

Expected behavior:
1) The search is launched on the /src directory
2) The search displays more results with less code around the search term (see first post)

A few suggestions:

• Enable search on specific directories from the search bar ("This repository" button)
• Replace the search feature with a UI version of grep ?
• Display more results and less code around search term (maybe an expand button)
• Advanced search terms on the search result page

Thanks!

Note, Upvote this on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13935370 :)

[FabianKoestring]

👍

[MaxymVlasov]

+1

[davidfurlong]

Also it seems silly not to be able to search using syntax like (,).; etc - sometimes you need to be able to narrow down results drastically from 1000 to say 10 by using non alphabetic characters

[hbt]

@RenaudWasTaken
what about

https://github.com/rails/rails/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=filepath%3Aactiverecord+%22def+create%22&type=

specify the directory in filepath: and the search term in quotes

[k1dbl4ck]

+1

[javadba]

perfect title : github code search sucks. I have opened a stackoverflow issue on this. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/43096264/github-code-search-on-any-branch

[Mottie]

There are around 60 search filters available. Even more if you count filter negation; e.g. -user:Mottie would exclude me in your searches. So to make it easier, I created a GitHub Search Autocomplete userscript which makes these filters easier to use and even includes a few examples in a secondary dropdown.

[leocaseiro]

I was looking for a way to search a code that starts with, for example, instead of angular2, if I search for angular, it should find angularjs, angular2, angular4 and not just angular as it's working atm.

Something like: angular* would be nice, or maybe angular% like SQL.

Perhaps this is the right issue.

[Mottie]

Perhaps this is the right issue.

You should use https://github.com/contact to directly contact GitHub with your request. This repo is for us to share and vent our frustrations, I don't think GitHub reads it.

[pakirby1]

even a basic grep based search would be better.

[benjamin-rood]

@pakirby1 It should just be a web interface for git grep in the first instance.

[y2k-shubham]

Their current implementation is so pathetic that even an integrated Google Custom Search might outpass them

[plasticalligator]

good thing they focused on adding emojis to posts before fixing their broken-by-design search bar