Grep is a great utility in linux shell. It will search all the files for a particular word and display the files and lines. So You can check for a word or sentance using grep.
-r will option will perform a recursive search to all subdirectories for the particular word
grep -r "foo" /path/to/directory
grep -r "foo*" /path/to/directory
The * Will search for the starting of word with foo.
Search in any case:
grep -ri "letters" /home/user/data1
Use the -l switch to display only the names of files in which the text occurs:
grep -lri "foo" /data
When you add a * in the search word. It looks for all the words start with foo
grep -lri "foo*" /data
[[email protected] osakacrm]$ grep --version GNU grep 2.6.3 Copyright (C) 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
Current version is 2.6.3.
[[email protected] osakacrm]$ grep --help Usage: grep [OPTION]... PATTERN [FILE]... Search for PATTERN in each FILE or standard input. PATTERN is, by default, a basic regular expression (BRE). Example: grep -i 'hello world' menu.h main.c Regexp selection and interpretation: -E, --extended-regexp PATTERN is an extended regular expression (ERE) -F, --fixed-strings PATTERN is a set of newline-separated fixed strings -G, --basic-regexp PATTERN is a basic regular expression (BRE) -P, --perl-regexp PATTERN is a Perl regular expression -e, --regexp=PATTERN use PATTERN for matching -f, --file=FILE obtain PATTERN from FILE -i, --ignore-case ignore case distinctions -w, --word-regexp force PATTERN to match only whole words -x, --line-regexp force PATTERN to 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 print version information and exit --help display this help and exit --mmap ignored for backwards compatibility Output control: -m, --max-count=NUM stop after NUM matches -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 the filename for each match -h, --no-filename suppress the prefixing filename on output --label=LABEL print LABEL as filename for standard input -o, --only-matching show only the part of a line matching PATTERN -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, -r, --recursive equivalent to --directories=recurse --include=FILE_PATTERN search only files that match FILE_PATTERN --exclude=FILE_PATTERN skip files and directories matching FILE_PATTERN --exclude-from=FILE skip files matching any file pattern from FILE --exclude-dir=PATTERN directories that match PATTERN will be skipped. -L, --files-without-match print only names of FILEs containing no match -l, --files-with-matches print only names of FILEs containing matches -c, --count print only a count of matching 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) -u, --unix-byte-offsets report offsets as if CRs were not there (MSDOS) `egrep' means `grep -E'. `fgrep' means `grep -F'. Direct invocation as either `egrep' or `fgrep' is deprecated. With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input. If less than two FILEs are given, assume -h. Exit status is 0 if any line was selected, 1 otherwise; if any error occurs and -q was not given, the exit status is 2. Report bugs to: [email protected] GNU Grep home page: General help using GNU software:
The help command will display the whole options.