Linux search for text in files and subdirectories

#Linux search for text in files and subdirectories how to

-n - returns the line number, but doesn't work with -l.

For example, if we search for 'html', then somehtmltext would not match. When we write -rl, this means essentially -r -l, which means search recursively, and return only the file name.Д«elow is a list of all grep options or switches, which you can add to your query to get the results you need: When we say -r, for example, we mean 'recursive' - i.e. You can string other options together, to get different results. views -e 'html' Options for grep on Linux/Mac

Recurse in directories skip file matching PATTERN.ДЄs youвЂ™ve seen, the grep -r command makes it easy to recursively search directories for all files that match the search pattern you specify, and the syntax is much shorter than the equivalent find/grep command.ДЇor more information on the find command, see my Linux find command examples, and for more information on the grep command, see my Linux grep command examples.Grep -r. Recurse in directories only searching file matching PATTERN. Read all files under each directory, recursively this is

HereвЂ™s the section of the Linux grep man page that discusses the -r flag:

As shown, you can use other normal grep flags as well, including -i to ignore case, -v to reverse the meaning of the search, etc.

If you forget to add any directories, grep will attempt to read from standard input (as usual).

DonвЂ™t forget to list one or more directories at the end of your grep command.

This flag tells grep to print the matching filenames.

This particular use of the grep command doesnвЂ™t make much sense unless you use it with the -l (lowercase 'L') argument as well.

Note that in this case, quotes are required around my search pattern.

#Linux search for text in files and subdirectories how to

Since I tend to mark comments in my code with my initials ('aja') or my name ('alvin'), this recursive egrep command shows how to search for those two patterns, again in a case-insensitive manner: You can also perform recursive searches with the egrep command, which lets you search for multiple patterns at one time.

In this example, the search is made case-insensitive by adding the -i argument to the grep command. This next example shows how to recursively search two unrelated directories for the case-insensitive string 'alvin': Your recursive grep searches donвЂ™t have to be limited to just the current directory. If you havenвЂ™t used commands like these before, to demonstrate the results of this search, in a PHP project directory IвЂ™m working in right now, this command returns a list of files like this: As youвЂ™ll see below, you can also add -i for case-insensitive searches.The -l option (lowercase letter L) says вЂњlist only filenamesвЂќ.The -r option says вЂњdo a recursive searchвЂќ.However, I was just reminded that a much easier way to perform the same recursive search is with the -r flag of the grep command:ДЄs you can see, this is a much shorter command, and it performs the same recursive search as the longer command, specifically: This command can be read as, вЂњSearch all files in all subdirectories of the current directory for the string вЂalvinвЂ™, and print the filenames that contain this pattern.вЂќ ItвЂ™s an extremely powerful approach for recursively searching files in all subdirectories that match the pattern I specify. Solution 1: Combine 'find' and 'grep'ДЇor years I always used variations of the following Linux find and grep commands to recursively search subdirectories for files that match a grep pattern:ДЇind. Two solutions are shown next, followed by some additional details which may be useful. Unix/Linux grep FAQ: How can I perform a recursive search with the grep command in Linux?