Search Git for a string of text in recently deleted files (number of files is the second paramemter, defaults to 20)

search_deleted_files.sh

#!/bin/bash

string_to_search=$1
num_commits=${2:-20}

if [ -z "$string_to_search" ]; then
  echo "Usage: $0 <string_to_search> [<num_commits>]"
  exit 1
fi

commits=$(git log -n $num_commits --format=%H)

for commit in $commits; do
  deleted_files=$(git diff --name-only --diff-filter=D $commit^..$commit)
  if [ -n "$deleted_files" ]; then
    for file in $deleted_files; do
      if git show $commit~:$file &> /dev/null; then
        if git show $commit~:$file | grep -q "$string_to_search"; then
          echo "Commit $commit: File $file contained '$string_to_search'"
        fi
      fi
    done
  fi
done