How to locate words in a file

[joey41]

Hallo!I am using Oracle Enterprise Linux version 4 update 7.

Sometimes I have to access large files with thousands of lines in them and I would like to locate a particultar word. e.g.

vi /etc/passwd.

The contents of file passwd are displayed.I want to find a username of joe assuming the passwd file is 2000 lines long.

I would like to use a linux command that will locate joe and highlight in the passwd file as to where word joe is.

Is there a linux command that can do this?

Thanks.

[Irithori]

grep can do it.

man grep

[Lakshmipathi]

In case if you searching from within vi editor - follow these steps

vi filename.txt

and then type

:set hls is

Now

/searchtext

will highlight the occurance of searchtext in filename.txt.
Press n to move to next occurance of the word.

[skjbalaji]

Hi Joey41,
if you are sure about the file and parameter you are searching then you can search simply by using grep.

Ex :
#grep /etc/passwd | grep joe
#cat /etc/passwd | grep joe

if you want some more interaction then use,

#grep --color joe /etc/passwd

otherwise you can open a file using vim,
vim /etc/passwd and
you can search the specify string by / notation in the file.

I hope this will solve your things,if you are ok with this just mark this post as solved.

[tueglee]

I'd do something like Lakshmipathi stated, but just use:

/set ic is

the ic is to ignore case so you can find Joe or joe

[Mudgen]

In case you haven't turned in your homework yet, given the syntax of /etc/passwd, to find an account named "joe" in vi you'd use:
/^joe: