grep 1 "28 Mar 1995"
Table of contents
grep 1 "28 Mar 1995"
grep - search a file for a pattern
/usr/bin/grep
[
-bchilnsvw
]
limited-regular-expression
[
filename ... ]
/usr/xpg4/bin/grep
[
-E | -F
] [
-c | -l | -q
]
[
-bhinsvwx
]
-e pattern_list...
[
-f pattern_file
] ...
[file...]
/usr/xpg4/bin/grep
[
-E | -F
] [
-c | -l | -q
]
[
-bhinsvwx
]
[
-e pattern_list...
]
-f pattern_file
...
[file...]
/usr/xpg4/bin/grep
[
-E | -F
] [
-c | -l | -q
]
[
-bhinsvwx
]
pattern
[
file...]
SUNWcsu
SUNWxcu4
The
grep
command searches files for a pattern and prints all lines that contain
that pattern. It uses a compact non-deterministic algorithm.
Be careful using the characters
$,
*,
[,
^,
\(bv,
(,
),
and
\
in the
pattern_list
because they are also meaningful to the shell.
It is safest to enclose the entire
pattern_list
in single quotes
\f3\(fm\f1...\f3\(fm\f1.
If no files are specified, \f3grep assumes standard input.
Normally, each line found is copied to standard output.
The file name is printed before each line found if there is more than one input file.
grep
uses limited regular expressions like
those described on the
regexp(5)
manual page to match the patterns.
The options
-E
and
-F
affect the way
grep
interprets
pattern_list.
If
-E
is specified,
grep
interprets
pattern_list
as a full regular expression (see
-E
for description). If
-F
is specified,
grep
interprets
pattern_list
as a fixed string.
If neither are specified,
grep
interprets
pattern_list
as a basic regular expression as described on
regex(5)
manual page.
The following options are supported:
-
-b
-
Precede each line by the block number on which it was found.
This can be useful in locating block numbers by context (first block is 0).
-
-c
-
Print only a count of the lines that contain the pattern.
-
-h
-
Prevents the name of the file containing the matching line from being appended
to that line. Used when searching multiple files.
-
-i
-
Ignore upper/lower case distinction during comparisons.
-
-l
-
Print only the names of files with matching lines, separated by
characters. Does not repeat the names of files when the pattern
is found more than once.
-
-n
-
Precede each line by its line number in the file (first line is 1).
-
-s
-
Suppress error messages about nonexistent or unreadable files
-
-v
-
Print all lines except those that contain the pattern.
-
-w
-
Search for the expression as a word as if surrounded by
\<
and
\>.
The following options are supported by
/usr/xpg4/bin/grep
only:
-
-e pattern_list
-
Specify one or more patterns to be used during the search for input.
Patterns in
pattern_list
must be separated by a
character. A null pattern can be specified by two adjacent
newline characters in
pattern_list.
Unless the
-E
or
-F
option is also specified, each pattern will be treated as a basic regular
expression. Multiple
-e
and
-f
options are accepted by
grep.
All of the specified patterns
are used when matching lines, but the order of evaluation
is unspecified.
-
-E
-
Match using full regular expressions.
Treat each pattern specified as an full regular expression.
If any entire full regular expression pattern matches an input line,
the line will be matched. A null full regular expression matches every line.
Each pattern will be interpreted as a full regular expression as described on the
regex(5)
manual page,
except for
\f3\(\f1
and
\f3\)\f1,
and including:
-
1.
-
A full regular expression followed by
\f3+\f1
that matches one or more occurrences of the full regular
expression.
-
2.
-
A full regular expression followed by
\f3?\f1
that matches 0 or 1 occurrences of the full regular expression.
-
3.
-
Full regular expressions separated by \(bv or
by a new-line that match strings that are matched by any of the expressions.
-
4.
-
A full regular expression that may be enclosed in parentheses
\f3()\f1
for grouping.
The order of precedence of operators is
[],
then
\f3\(**?+\f1,
then concatenation, then \(bv and new-line.
-
-f pattern_file
-
Read one or more patterns from the file named by the path name
pattern_file.
Patterns in
pattern_file
are terminated by a
character. A null pattern can be specified by an empty line in
pattern_file.
Unless the
-E
or
-F
option is also specified, each pattern will be treated as a
basic regular expression.
-
-F
-
Match using fixed strings.
Treat each pattern specified as a string instead of a regular expression.
If an input line contains any of the patterns as a contiguous
sequence of bytes, the line will be matched.
A null string matches every line. See
fgrep(1)
for more information.
-
-q
-
Quiet.
Do not write anything to the standard output, regardless of matching lines.
Exit with zero status if an input line is selected.
-
-x
-
Consider only input lines that use all characters in
the line to match an entire fixed string or
regular expression to be matching lines.
The following operands are supported:
-
file
-
A path name of a file to be searched for the patterns.
If no
file
operands are specified,
the standard input will be used.
-
pattern
-
Specify a pattern to be used during the
search for input.
-
pattern
-
Specify one or more patterns to be used during the
search for input.
This operand is treated as if it were specified as
-e pattern_list\f1.
The
-e pattern_list
option has the same effect as the
pattern_list
operand, but is useful when
pattern_list
begins with the hyphen delimiter.
It is also useful when it is more
convenient to provide multiple patterns as separate arguments.
Multiple
-e
and
-f
options are accepted and
grep
will use all of the patterns
it is given while matching input text lines.
(Note that the order of evaluation is not specified.
If an implementation
finds a null string as a pattern, it is allowed to use that
pattern first, matching every line, and effectively ignore
any other patterns.)
The
-q
option provides a means of easily determining whether or not
a pattern (or string) exists in a group of files.
When searching several files, it provides a performance improvement
(because it can quit as soon as it finds the first match) and
requires less care by the user in choosing the set of files to
supply as arguments (because it will exit zero if it finds a
match even if
grep
detected an access or read error on earlier file operands).
To find all uses of the word
\*(lq\f3Posix\f1\*(rq
(in any case) in the file
text.mm,
and write with line numbers:
example% /usr/bin/grep -i -n posix text.mm
To find all empty lines in the standard input:
example%
or
example%
Both of the following commands print all lines containing strings
abc
or
def
or both:
example%
def'
example%
def'
Both of the following commands print all lines matching exactly
abc
or
def:
example%
^def$'
example%
def'
See
environ(5)
for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the
execution of
grep:
LC_COLLATE\f1,
LC_CTYPE\f1,
LC_MESSAGES\f1,
and
NLSPATH\f1.
The following exit values are returned:
-
0
-
one or more matches were found
-
1
-
no matches were found
-
2
-
syntax errors or inaccessible files (even if
matches were found).
egrep(1),
fgrep(1),
sed(1),
sh(1),
environ(5),
regex(5),
regexp(5)
Lines
are limited to
characters;
longer lines are truncated.
is defined in
\f3/usr/include/stdio.h\f1.
If there is a line with embedded nulls,
\f3grep
will only match up to the first null;
if it matches, it will print the entire line.