grep Linux Command

grep

grep [options] pattern [files]

Search one or more files for lines that match a regular expression pattern. Regular expressions are described in Chapter 7. Exit status is 0 if any lines match, 1 if none match, and 2 for errors. See also egrep and fgrep.

Options

-a, --text
Don't suppress output lines with binary data; treat as text.

-b, --byte-offset
Print the byte offset within the input file before each line of output.

-c, --count
Print only a count of matched lines. With -v or --revert-match option, count nonmatching lines.

-d action, --directories=action
Define an action for processing directories. Possible actions are:

read
Read directories like ordinary files (default).

skip
Skip directories.

recurse
Recursively read all files under each directory. Same as -r.

-e pattern, --regexp=pattern
Search for pattern. Same as specifying a pattern as an argument, but useful in protecting patterns beginning with -.

-f file, --file=file
Take a list of patterns from file, one per line.

-h, --no-filename
Print matched lines but not filenames (inverse of -l).

-i, --ignore-case
Ignore uppercase and lowercase distinctions.

-l, --files-with-matches
List the names of files with matches but not individual matched lines; scanning per file stops on the first match.

--mmap
Try to use memory mapping (mmap) to read input in order to save time.

-n, --line-number
Print lines and their line numbers.

-q, --quiet, --silent
Suppress normal output in favor of quiet mode; scanning stops on the first match.

-r, --recursive
Recursively read all files under each directory. Same as -d recurse.

-s, --no-messages
Suppress error messages about nonexistent or unreadable files.

-v, --invert-match
Print all lines that don't match pattern.

-w, --word-regexp
Match on whole words only. Words are divided by characters that are not letters, digits, or underscores.

-x, --line-regexp
Print lines only if pattern matches the entire line.

-A num, --after-context=num
Print num lines of text that occur after the matching line.

-B num, --before-context=num
Print num lines of text that occur before the matching line.

-C[num] , --context[=num] , -num
Print num lines of leading and trailing context. Default context is 2 lines.

-E, -extended-regexp
Act like egrep, recognizing extended regular expressions such as (UN|POS)IX to find UNIX and POSIX.

-F, --fixed-strings
Act like fgrep, recognizing only fixed strings instead of regular expressions. Useful when searching for characters that grep normally recognizes as metacharacters.

-G, --basic-regexp
Expect the regular expressions traditionally recognized by grep (the default).

-H, --with-filename
Display, before each line found, the name of the file containing the line. This is done by default if multiple files are submitted to a single grep command.

-V, --version
Print the version number and then exit.

-Z, --null
When displaying filenames, follow each with a zero byte instead of a colon.

Examples

List the number of users who use tcsh:

grep -c /bin/tcsh /etc/passwd

List header files that have at least one #include directive:

grep -l '^#include' /usr/include/*

List files that don't contain pattern:

grep -c pattern files | grep :0

Linux Commands 8/26/2017 06:45:00 pm