grep - Revision history

Woozle: /* Notes */ integrated most of these with the file-masks subpage

2022-06-21T15:13:08Z

Notes: integrated most of these with the file-masks subpage

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:13, 21 June 2022
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	: '''A:''' apparently "" by itself; see examples above		: '''A:''' apparently "" by itself; see examples above
	==Notes==		==Notes==
	~~If ''file'' is specified using wildcards~~ (e.g. .log or )~~, apparently~~ the command-~~line parser expands this into~~ a ~~listing of all matching files before passing~~ it to ~~grep. This unfortunately can lead to the error~~ "~~bash: /bin/grep: Argument list too long~~". Putting a backslash before the wildcard will prevent the parser from expanding it before passing to grep, but grep doesn't seem to have any wildcard-handling abilities. So as far as I can tell, there is no way to grep a really large directory (~~the one I'm looking at has 5014 files~~).		The backtick character ("`") seems to mean "insert the output of this command here" -- so if you're trying to search for a literal backtick, it needs to be escaped with "\" ("\`"). This comes up sometimes when searching for [[SQL]] phrases.

	The -r option doesn't seem to work if a file extension is specified (e.g. ".log" in the example above), though it does work with "". There may be some syntax which needs to surround ".log -- or maybe this simply is not doable using the inline-expansion method of handling wildcards?

	The backtick character ("`") seems to mean "insert the output of this command here" -- so if you're trying to search for a literal backtick, it needs to be escaped with "\" ("\`"). This comes up sometimes when searching for [[SQL]] phrases.
	==Links==		==Links==
	* [http://www.gnu.org/software/grep/manual/ official documentation]: more current than the manpage on this server		* [http://www.gnu.org/software/grep/manual/ official documentation]: more current than the manpage on this server
	* {{wikipedia}}		* {{wikipedia}}

Woozle at 16:44, 5 February 2020

2020-02-05T16:44:03Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:44, 5 February 2020
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	; grep -r ''text_to_find'' *:find ''[text_to_find]'' by checking all files in the current folder or under it		; grep -r ''text_to_find'' *:find ''[text_to_find]'' by checking all files in the current folder or under it

	Note that you can't do e.g. <code>grep -r ''[text_to_find]'' *.log</code> because that will only search in folders named <code>''[something]''.log</code>		Note that you can't do e.g. <code>grep -r ''[text_to_find]'' *.log</code> because that will only search in folders named <code>''[something]''.log</code>. [[/file masks\|The reasons for this are complicated.]]

	==Questions==		==Questions==
	* So, how do you grep for a string which contains spaces and quote characters? This is probably some standard feature of Linux Shell syntax which everyone knows, but I don't, and that's why this page needs examples.		* So, how do you grep for a string which contains spaces and quote characters? This is probably some standard feature of Linux Shell syntax which everyone knows, but I don't, and that's why this page needs examples.

Woozle: /* Examples */

2019-03-24T18:17:03Z

Examples

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:17, 24 March 2019
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	* [[/manpage]] - a nicely-formatted but old version of the grep manpage		* [[/manpage]] - a nicely-formatted but old version of the grep manpage
	==Examples==		==Examples==
	; grep ''text_to_find'' *.log:find ''text_to_find'' by checking all the logfiles in the current folder		; grep ''text_to_find'' *.log:find ''[text_to_find]'' by checking all the logfiles in the current folder
	; grep -r ''text_to_find'' *:find ''text_to_find'' by checking all files in the current folder or under it		; grep -r ''text_to_find'' *:find ''[text_to_find]'' by checking all files in the current folder or under it

	Note that you can't do e.g. <code>grep -r ''text_to_find'' *.log</code> because that will only search in folders named <code>[something].log</code>		Note that you can't do e.g. <code>grep -r ''[text_to_find]'' *.log</code> because that will only search in folders named <code>''[something]''.log</code>

	==Questions==		==Questions==

Woozle: /* Examples */ um, I meant...

2019-03-24T18:15:42Z

Examples: um, I meant...

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:15, 24 March 2019
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	; grep -r ''text_to_find'' *:find ''text_to_find'' by checking all files in the current folder or under it		; grep -r ''text_to_find'' *:find ''text_to_find'' by checking all files in the current folder or under it

	Note that you can't do e.g. <code>grep -r ''text_to_find'' *.log</code> because that will only search in folders named [something].~~php~~		Note that you can't do e.g. <code>grep -r ''text_to_find'' *.log</code> because that will only search in folders named <code>[something].log</code>

	==Questions==		==Questions==

Woozle: /* Examples */

2019-03-24T17:12:32Z

Examples

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:12, 24 March 2019
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	; grep ''text_to_find'' *.log:find ''text_to_find'' by checking all the logfiles in the current folder		; grep ''text_to_find'' *.log:find ''text_to_find'' by checking all the logfiles in the current folder
	; grep -r ''text_to_find'' *:find ''text_to_find'' by checking all files in the current folder or under it		; grep -r ''text_to_find'' *:find ''text_to_find'' by checking all files in the current folder or under it

			Note that you can't do e.g. <code>grep -r ''text_to_find'' *.log</code> because that will only search in folders named [something].php

	==Questions==		==Questions==
	* So, how do you grep for a string which contains spaces and quote characters? This is probably some standard feature of Linux Shell syntax which everyone knows, but I don't, and that's why this page needs examples.		* So, how do you grep for a string which contains spaces and quote characters? This is probably some standard feature of Linux Shell syntax which everyone knows, but I don't, and that's why this page needs examples.

Woozle: more notes

2017-04-08T15:41:20Z

more notes

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:41, 8 April 2017
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			<hide>
			[[page type::manual]]
			[[thing type::command]]
			[[platform::Linux]]
			</hide>
	==Pages==		==Pages==
	* {{l/manpage}} - the current [[manpage]]		* {{l/manpage}} - the current [[manpage]]
	* [[/manpage]] - a nicely-formatted but old version of the grep manpage		* [[/manpage]] - a nicely-formatted but old version of the grep manpage
			==Examples==
			; grep ''text_to_find'' *.log:find ''text_to_find'' by checking all the logfiles in the current folder
			; grep -r ''text_to_find'' *:find ''text_to_find'' by checking all files in the current folder or under it
	==Questions==		==Questions==
	* So, how do you grep for a string which contains spaces and quote characters? This is probably some standard feature of Linux Shell syntax which everyone knows, but I don't, and that's why this page needs examples.		* So, how do you grep for a string which contains spaces and quote characters? This is probably some standard feature of Linux Shell syntax which everyone knows, but I don't, and that's why this page needs examples.
			*: '''A''': Tentatively, you can surround a string with double-quotes and escape any quotes in the search-string with the backslash character. (Single quotes do not seem to work.)
	* Likewise, how do you search a group of files? Using "." for FILE doesn't seem to work, and leaving the FILE argument blank tells grep to expect input from STDIN.		* Likewise, how do you search a group of files? Using "." for FILE doesn't seem to work, and leaving the FILE argument blank tells grep to expect input from STDIN.
	: '''A:''' apparently "" by itself; see examples ~~below~~		: '''A:''' apparently "" by itself; see examples above
			==Notes==
			If ''file'' is specified using wildcards (e.g. .log or ), apparently the command-line parser expands this into a listing of all matching files before passing it to grep. This unfortunately can lead to the error "bash: /bin/grep: Argument list too long". Putting a backslash before the wildcard will prevent the parser from expanding it before passing to grep, but grep doesn't seem to have any wildcard-handling abilities. So as far as I can tell, there is no way to grep a really large directory (the one I'm looking at has 5014 files).

	~~==Examples==~~		The -r option doesn't seem to work if a file extension is specified (e.g. ".log" in the example above), though it does work with "". There may be some syntax which needs to surround ".log -- or maybe this simply is not doable using the inline-expansion method of handling wildcards?
	~~; grep ''text_to_find'~~' *.log~~:find ''text_to_find'' by checking all the logfiles~~ in the ~~current folder~~
	~~; grep~~ -~~r ''text_to_find'' *:find ''text_to_find'' by checking all files in~~ the ~~current folder or under it~~

	~~==Notes==~~		The backtick character ("`") seems to mean "insert the output of this command here" -- so if you're trying to search for a literal backtick, it needs to be escaped with "\" ("\`"). This comes up sometimes when searching for [[SQL]] phrases.
	~~If ''file'' is specified using wildcards~~ (e.g. .log or .*)~~, apparently~~ the command-~~line parser expands this into~~ a ~~listing of all matching files before passing~~ it to ~~grep. This unfortunately can lead to the error~~ "~~bash: /bin/grep: Argument list too long~~". Putting a backslash before the wildcard will prevent the parser from expanding it before passing to grep, but grep doesn't seem to have any wildcard-handling abilities. So as far as I can tell, there is no way to grep a really large directory (~~the one I'm looking at has 5014 files~~).
	==Links==		==Links==
	* [http://www.gnu.org/software/grep/manual/ official documentation]: more current than the manpage		* [http://www.gnu.org/software/grep/manual/ official documentation]: more current than the manpage on this server
	* {{wikipedia}}		* {{wikipedia}}

Woozle: extracted manpage transcrip to a subpage; reference links

2015-05-17T16:11:27Z

extracted manpage transcrip to a subpage; reference links

Show changes

Woozle: /* Questions */ an answer

2012-03-18T16:45:05Z

Questions: an answer

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:45, 18 March 2012
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	==Questions==		==Questions==
	*So, how do you grep for a string which contains spaces and quote characters? This is probably some standard feature of Linux Shell syntax which everyone knows, but I don't, and that's why this page needs examples.		* So, how do you grep for a string which contains spaces and quote characters? This is probably some standard feature of Linux Shell syntax which everyone knows, but I don't, and that's why this page needs examples.
	Likewise, how do you search a group of files? Using ".*" for FILE doesn't seem to work, and leaving the FILE argument blank tells grep to expect input from STDIN.		* Likewise, how do you search a group of files? Using "." for FILE doesn't seem to work, and leaving the FILE argument blank tells grep to expect input from STDIN.
			: '''A:''' apparently "" by itself; see examples below

	==Examples==		==Examples==
	; grep ''text_to_find'' *.log:find ''text_to_find'' by checking all the logfiles in the current folder		; grep ''text_to_find'' *.log:find ''text_to_find'' by checking all the logfiles in the current folder

Woozle: /* Examples */ search a folder tree

2012-03-18T16:40:05Z

Examples: search a folder tree

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:40, 18 March 2012
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	Likewise, how do you search a group of files? Using ".*" for FILE doesn't seem to work, and leaving the FILE argument blank tells grep to expect input from STDIN.		Likewise, how do you search a group of files? Using ".*" for FILE doesn't seem to work, and leaving the FILE argument blank tells grep to expect input from STDIN.
	==Examples==		==Examples==
	grep ''text_to_find'' *.log		; grep ''text_to_find'' *.log:find ''text_to_find'' by checking all the logfiles in the current folder
			; grep -r ''text_to_find'' *:find ''text_to_find'' by checking all files in the current folder or under it

	==Notes==		==Notes==
	If ''file'' is specified using wildcards (e.g. .log or .*), apparently the command-line parser expands this into a listing of all matching files before passing it to grep. This unfortunately can lead to the error "bash: /bin/grep: Argument list too long". Putting a backslash before the wildcard will prevent the parser from expanding it before passing to grep, but grep doesn't seem to have any wildcard-handling abilities. So as far as I can tell, there is no way to grep a really large directory (the one I'm looking at has 5014 files).		If ''file'' is specified using wildcards (e.g. .log or .*), apparently the command-line parser expands this into a listing of all matching files before passing it to grep. This unfortunately can lead to the error "bash: /bin/grep: Argument list too long". Putting a backslash before the wildcard will prevent the parser from expanding it before passing to grep, but grep doesn't seem to have any wildcard-handling abilities. So as far as I can tell, there is no way to grep a really large directory (the one I'm looking at has 5014 files).

Woozle: moved grep (Linux command) to grep: there is no other grep

2012-03-18T16:23:15Z

moved grep (Linux command) to grep: there is no other grep

← Older revision	Revision as of 16:23, 18 March 2012
(No difference)