piping find to grep - syntax problem

[santrix]

Noob alert...

I'm trying to filter out files that match certain criteria...

e.g. I want to list all files that contain the character sequences "pol" and "rim",

find . -type file | grep "pol"

shows all files containing pol in their name...

find . -type file | grep "(pol|rim)"

shows nothing... how can I grep for various character sequences in this manner, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Cheers

Steve

[cheapscotchron]

This will find any file on your root drive that has pol in the filename
# find / -name *pol* -print 2>/dev/null

[santrix]

This will find any file on your root drive that has pol in the filename
# find / -name *pol* -print 2>/dev/null

Yep... I know that much... What I'm trying to do is find files that match multiple criteria - thus the pipe to grep...

Any more ideas?

[vsemaska]

Using just find

find . -type f \( -name "*pol*" -o -name "*rim*" \)

Using grep basic regular expresions

find . -type f | grep -e pol -e rim

Using grep extended regular expressions

find . -type f | grep -E  '(pol|rim)'

[santrix]

That's great thanks!!!

Now I have had time to sit down and read the man page for find and grep, your replies are making more sense to me.

The -E option for grep... I can read this that is needed when extended regex evaluations are required... I'm just not sure what the diffeerence is between the abilities of basic and extended expressions. More reading required.

Anyway - your answer has also helped me to use grep to greater effect in general searching of my server logs now

Thanks!

[ghostdog74]

if you are not recursing directories, just use shell wild cards

ls *rim* && ls *pol*

[vsemaska]

ghostdog74,

Your example won't produce the desired results. He wants filenames with rim OR pol in them. Your command will execute 'ls *pol*' only if 'ls *rim*' is successful. If there are no files with rim in their names then the 'ls *pol*' won't execute.

If he wants find to stay within the current directory then he can use the '-maxdepth 1' option