How to search file content

[satimis]

Hi folks,


What will be an easy and effective way searching file content? E.G I need to find a WORD or a PHRASE on a file? TIA


B.R.
satimis

[hazel]

You use grep. Open a terminal and type grep word filename. It will print out the line containing the search term (if it is present).

For a phrase containing spaces, you will need to put the whole thing in quotes.

You can also search for strings with partial wildcards. Read the man page for grep for more info.

[satimis]

You use grep. Open a terminal and type grep word filename. It will print out the line containing the search term (if it is present).

For a phrase containing spaces, you will need to put the whole thing in quotes.

You can also search for strings with partial wildcards. Read the man page for grep for more info.

Hi hazel,


Thanks for your advice.


I tried to find files containing the word 'namecard' on all files /path/directory;

# grep -iR namecard /media/usbdisk/Documents_2006_2008/

/media/usbdisk/Documents_2006_2008/Fedora/Server/Gani/gani_20070326.txt:pendrive and namecard CD.  The complete OS is limited to 
50MB.

The output just repeats with the mouse pointer pending there.


Could you please shed me some light what does it means? How to proceed?

TIA


B.R.
satimis

[garry_3peace]

As far as I know, that's mean a file name gani_20070326.txt does contain word "namecard" which in the sentence "pendrive and namecard CD. The complete OS is limited to 50MB." Maybe to make grep give more clearer result you may add -n. That's for line number.

So the syntax will be like this:
grep -niR namecard /media/usbdisk/Documents_2006_2008/

[mike171562]

one could also do

cat /media/usbdisk/Documents/*.* | grep -niR 'whatever'

[vsemaska]

If you want to know just the name of the files that contain the phrase then use the -l option:

grep -liR namecard /media/usbdisk/Documents_2006_2008/

[satimis]

As far as I know, that's mean a file name gani_20070326.txt does contain word "namecard" which in the sentence "pendrive and namecard CD. The complete OS is limited to 50MB." Maybe to make grep give more clearer result you may add -n. That's for line number.

So the syntax will be like this:
grep -niR namecard /media/usbdisk/Documents_2006_2008/

Hi garry_3peace,


Your advice works. Thanks


satimis

[satimis]

If you want to know just the name of the files that contain the phrase then use the -l option:

grep -liR namecard /media/usbdisk/Documents_2006_2008/

Hi vsemaska,


Your advice works here. The output is very precise.

If I only need knowing the directory named "namecard" can I run grep to do the job instead of using "find".

Can I use wildcard *namecard* ? TIA


satimis

[satimis]

one could also do

cat /media/usbdisk/Documents/*.* | grep -niR 'whatever'

Hi mike171562,


The command does not work here. I test it. Because there are subdirectories under.


satimis

[vsemaska]

Hi vsemaska,


Your advice works here. The output is very precise.

If I only need knowing the directory named "namecard" can I run grep to do the job instead of using "find".

Can I use wildcard *namecard* ? TIA


satimis

I don't quite understand. First you were searching for the string 'namecard' in files and now you want to search a directory called namecard? If so, and that directory is a sub-directory of the previous one then the command would look like:

grep -li namecard /media/usbdisk/Documents_2006_2008/namecard/*

or 

grep -li namecard /media/usbdisk/Documents_2006_2008/*namecard*/*

Notice that I took out the -R option so as not to do recursive directory searches. This required adding an '*' to the end so it'll search all files.