Grep

Usage

grep [OPTION]... PATTERNS [FILE]...

Flags

Search for PATTERNS in each FILE.
Example: grep -i 'hello world' menu.h main.c
PATTERNS can contain multiple patterns separated by newlines.

Pattern selection and interpretation:
  -E, --extended-regexp     PATTERNS are extended regular expressions
  -F, --fixed-strings       PATTERNS are strings
  -G, --basic-regexp        PATTERNS are basic regular expressions
  -P, --perl-regexp         PATTERNS are Perl regular expressions
  -e, --regexp=PATTERNS     use PATTERNS for matching
  -f, --file=FILE           take PATTERNS from FILE
  -i, --ignore-case         ignore case distinctions in patterns and data
      --no-ignore-case      do not ignore case distinctions (default)
  -w, --word-regexp         match only whole words
  -x, --line-regexp         match only whole lines
  -z, --null-data           a data line ends in 0 byte, not newline

Miscellaneous:
  -s, --no-messages         suppress error messages
  -v, --invert-match        select non-matching lines
  -V, --version             display version information and exit
      --help                display this help text and exit

Output control:
  -m, --max-count=NUM       stop after NUM selected lines
  -b, --byte-offset         print the byte offset with output lines
  -n, --line-number         print line number with output lines
      --line-buffered       flush output on every line
  -H, --with-filename       print file name with output lines
  -h, --no-filename         suppress the file name prefix on output
      --label=LABEL         use LABEL as the standard input file name prefix
  -o, --only-matching       show only nonempty parts of lines that match
  -q, --quiet, --silent     suppress all normal output
      --binary-files=TYPE   assume that binary files are TYPE;
                            TYPE is 'binary', 'text', or 'without-match'
  -a, --text                equivalent to --binary-files=text
  -I                        equivalent to --binary-files=without-match
  -d, --directories=ACTION  how to handle directories;
                            ACTION is 'read', 'recurse', or 'skip'
  -D, --devices=ACTION      how to handle devices, FIFOs and sockets;
                            ACTION is 'read' or 'skip'
  -r, --recursive           like --directories=recurse
  -R, --dereference-recursive  likewise, but follow all symlinks
      --include=GLOB        search only files that match GLOB (a file pattern)
      --exclude=GLOB        skip files that match GLOB
      --exclude-from=FILE   skip files that match any file pattern from FILE
      --exclude-dir=GLOB    skip directories that match GLOB
  -L, --files-without-match  print only names of FILEs with no selected lines
  -l, --files-with-matches  print only names of FILEs with selected lines
  -c, --count               print only a count of selected lines per FILE
  -T, --initial-tab         make tabs line up (if needed)
  -Z, --null                print 0 byte after FILE name

Context control:
  -B, --before-context=NUM  print NUM lines of leading context
  -A, --after-context=NUM   print NUM lines of trailing context
  -C, --context=NUM         print NUM lines of output context
  -NUM                      same as --context=NUM
      --color[=WHEN],
      --colour[=WHEN]       use markers to highlight the matching strings;
                            WHEN is 'always', 'never', or 'auto'
  -U, --binary              do not strip CR characters at EOL (MSDOS/Windows)

When FILE is '-', read standard input.  With no FILE, read '.' if
recursive, '-' otherwise.  With fewer than two FILEs, assume -h.
Exit status is 0 if any line (or file if -L) is selected, 1 otherwise;
if any error occurs and -q is not given, the exit status is 2.

Report bugs to: bug-grep@gnu.org
GNU grep home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/grep/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>

Examples

Compare content of files to find matches

$ grep -f 1 2

This is the first test centence.
This is the second centence.
This is the third centence.

Find lines that contain specific string

Number in front of the centences are the file names

$ grep 'the' *

1:This is the first test centence.
1:This is the second centence.
1:This is the third centence.
2:This is the first test Centence.
2:This is the second Centence.
2:This is the third Centence.
3:This is the first test centence.
3:This is the second centence.
3:This is the third centence.

Ignore case

$ grep -i 'centence' *

1:This is the first test centence.
1:This is the second centence.
1:This is the third centence.
2:This is the first test CeNtEncE.
2:This is the second CEnTeNCe.
2:This is the third CenTEnCE.
3:This is the first test centence.
3:This is the second centence.
3:This is the third centence.

Find IP-addresses

grep -oE "\b([0-9]{1,3}\.){3}[0-9]{1,3}\b" <file>

Find email addresses

grep -E -o "\b[A-Za-z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,6}\b" <file>

Exact matching

grep -w -Ff file1.txt file2.txt

Exact matching non matching lines

For example remove lines from file 1 that are found in file 2.

grep -w -v -Ff file1.txt file2.txt

Exact matching amount of chars per line

grep -E "^.{3}$" file.txt

Escape special characters

grep -v '\$' file.txt

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