Junio C Hamano <gitster@xxxxxxxxx> writes: > But diff.<driver>.textconv is to mangle blob contents in preparation > for comparing with another. and also in preparation for "blame". In both cases (diff and blame), we're preparing to show the file content to the user, and showing the binary makes no sense. Grepping through the binary, on the other hand, can very well make sense, like: $ git grep foo file.txt: some instance of foo binary file bar.bin matches One reason not to run the filter is performance: "git grep" is fast, and it's cool. My textconv filters are usually slow, and it's not a big problem because the diff machinery will only invoke the textconv filter when the files are modified (i.e. hopefully not often for tracked binary files). OTOH, "git grep" would need to run the textconv filters for each binary files being searched for. I tend to agree with Junio that it makes sense to keep it disabled by default. Perhaps a grep.textconv config option? -- Matthieu Moy http://www-verimag.imag.fr/~moy/ -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html