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See: http://linuxcommand.org/lc3_man_pages/grep1.html

File and Path Selection

-a, --text
Process all files as text. Beware of binary output interp­reted as commands.
--exclude=GLOB
Skip files whose base names match glob.
--exclude-
from=FILE
Same as --exc­lude but get list of globs from file
--exclude-
dir=DIR
Skip direct­ories that match. Direct­ories will also not be recursed.
-I
Don't match binary files
--include=GLOB
Search only for files matching glob.
-R, -r
Recurse direct­ories
Globs can use *, ?, and [...] as wildcards. Use \ as escape. Enclose multiples in curly braces, e.g. --exclude={*.xml,*.xsf} or --exclude-dir={.git,.vs,my\ dir}.

Other Options

--line-buffered
Use line buffering on output. Can reduce perfor­mance.
-U
Treat file(s) as binary.
-z
Treat lines as zero byte terminated instead of newline

Exit Status

0 - Selected lines are found
1 - Selected lines are not found
2 - Error occurred (unless a match is found and errors are ignored with the -q option)

Other

ls -rt * | xargs grep -e 'searchtext'
Searches through files in chronological order.
 

Matching Control

-e PATTERN
Used to specify multiple patterns or protect patterns starting with "­-"
-f FILE
Input file for patterns, one per line
-i
Ignore case
-v
Invert match
-w
Whole word matches only
-x
Match whole line only

Matcher Selection

-E
Extended regular expres­sions (ERE)
-F
Fixed strings
-G
Basic regular expres­sions (BRE)
-P
Perl regular expression (exper­ime­ntal?)

Regular Expres­sions

.
Match any character
[ ... ]
Match character list.
Use ^ to invert match.
Specify ranges with hyphen (-).
Ranges can also be specified using a character class, e.g. numbe­r[[­:di­git­:]]. Valid character classes are: [:alnum:], [:alpha:], [:cntrl:], [:digit:], [:graph:], [:lower:], [:print:], [:punct:], [:space:], [:upper:], and [:xdigit:]
?, *, +
Repetition operators indicating at most once, zero or more, or at least once, respec­tively.
{n}
Match exactly n times.
{n,}
Match at least n times.
{,m}
Match 0 to m times.
{n,m}
Match n to m times.
\<, \>
Match beginning or end of a word, respec­tively.
\b
Match both beginning and end of the word. \B matches the opposite.
\w
Match word character, aka [[:alnum:]]. \W matches the opposite.
\n
Backre­ference to previously matched group where n is a single digit.
The above represents extended regular expression syntax. For basic syntax, you must escape ?, +, {, |, (, and ).
 

Output Prefix

-b
Print 0-based byte offset of match within file
-H
Print the file name for each match (default)
-h
Hide filename from output
-n
Prefix output with line number
-T
Ensure first line of content is tab-al­igned for readab­ility
-Z
Output a zero byte after file names

Output Options

-c
Count number of lines
--color
[=WHEN]
With no WHEN it will show colors when it's the final command in the pipe. WHEN is never, always, or auto.
-L
Show only names of files that do NOT match
-l
Show only names of matching files
-m
Max number of lines to read from any file
-o
Output only the matching text
-q
Quiet, no output
-s
Suppress error messages for missing or unreadable files

Context Lines

-A NUM
Print NUM lines of trailing context after match
-B NUM
Print NUM lines of lead context before match
-C NUM
Print NUM lines of context

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Metadata

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  • Published: 7th January, 2020
  • Last Updated: 5th February, 2020

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