radoulov, isn't "fgrep ERROR file|fgrep -v foo "-the same as doing "grep ERROR file | grep -v foo", except it uses fgrep instead of grep? Is there some advantage for fgrep in this case?

The awk thing is pretty cool - I tried it and it works great. I'll have to look into awk more - I know nothing about it (yet!).

sanjustudy, I don't understand how grep -r "ERROR" * will do what I want. I thought "-r" was for searching directories recursively. Also, I don't see how it searches for "foo".