Can no longer search code without being logged in. · community · Discussion #77046
github.com
Select Topic Area Product Feedback Body This is revolting and an anathema to the open source movement. A movement, I might add, Microsoft is abusing here. We're told that this is for security... Bu...

Edit:

Since theres been some confusion with dates

In 2016 github made site side searching login only and hid the search bar if you werent logged in. This didnt include searching within a repository so that could still be done, just not all repositories

This year was the change being referred to in this link which made repository level searching require logging in

Blog post: https://github.blog/changelog/2023-06-07-code-search-now-requires-login/

  • lysdexic@programming.devEnglish
    3612·
    1 year ago

    The biggest news to me is that GitHub allows users to search code. Every single time I tried to search something in GitHub, search results were next to completely useless, and always a sure-fire waste of time and effort.

    There’s hope, I guess.

      • lysdexic@programming.devEnglish
        166·
        1 year ago

        must have been a half ass attempt

        How hard do you need to try to use a feature for it to be considered decent? Do you expect something as basic as a search to put up a fight?

          • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
            4·
            1 year ago

            GitHub search simply won’t find search terms that I know are there (because I can grep them in my local repo). It also fails to search all branches. There’s also insufficient filtering for filetypes or paths.

            Maybe I’m just spoiled from having used OpenGrok, as well as knowing how to use basic tools like find and grep, all of which I find substantially more useful.

        • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
          61·
          1 year ago

          Do you expect something as basic as a search to put up a fight?

          Increasingly, you should be. Search algorithms from Amazon to Google are getting deliberately enshittified in order to force you to see what they want you to see instead of finding what you were actually looking for. For example, things like quotation marks and the minus operator no longer work. I would be supremely unsurprised to learn of Microsoft following suit.

          • nous@programming.devEnglish
            102·
            1 year ago

            Just use the search bar… the only one they have that is on every page at the top right. That takes you to the results which defaults to code, but you can change it on the side to show repos, issues, prs, etc. You can even limit it to single repos or whole organisations.

              • Kuinox@lemmy.world
                62·
                1 year ago

                You used the wrong search bar, you just used the one for the file list.
                There is a search icon on the top right.

                • lysdexic@programming.devEnglish
                  31·
                  1 year ago

                  You used the wrong search bar, you just used the one for the file list.

                  The fact that one of the excuses for GitHub search results being subpar is that there is a right and a wrong search bar is already telling.

                  • Kuinox@lemmy.world
                    22·
                    1 year ago

                    The fact you call it “search results being subpar” tell me you never used the big top search bar labeled “Type / to search”.
                    You can’t make an interface that everyone will understand, there will always be a percentage of user who will be lost.

                  • Kuinox@lemmy.world
                    71·
                    1 year ago

                    I mean what view do you even get in this case ?
                    The code tab, shows… code ?

        • MajorHavoc@lemmy.world
          2·
          1 year ago

          This is news to me. I’ve been cloning and searching for years because web search was useless. And by useless I mean - I know the word I’m looking for appears in exactly four places, formatted and capitalized exactly this way - and GitHub web search still doesn’t find it.

          It wouldn’t surprise me if it’s gotten massively better - but only in the way that choosing to ride a bicycle to work is a massive improvement over sitting on a random rock.

      • NotSteve_@lemmy.ca
        51·
        1 year ago

        I don’t find the search too bad but what does make it difficult is digging through a million forks of a library. Sometimes I want to find how other people used an obscure library method and I end up having to wade through endless forks with the same repeated bit of code.

        This is more a complaint of people using forking as a like button but I do wish there was an option to exclude them from search.