Hi

i am trying to grep a specific word out of a file but it is bring up every instance of the word even if it is part of another word.

For example i am trying to grep the word ist, now there should be only one instance of this in the file i am grepping but it is bring up a whole list as it is finding it as part of other words.

I have tried the -E, -F, -x parameters infront of grep but nothing seems to work. Can anybody help please.

Hi,

if your are grepping for the word 'ist', I think the word will be leaded by a space, right ? So try following ..

# ... grep " ist"

OR

# ... grep " ist "

This is the way how I usually do it, it's fast and it's working ...

Regards
Malcom

try grep -w ist

The problem has now been solved thank you for your help.

if you are trying to grep an instnace of a word that is a whole word by itself but may be in combination with other words try this too...
grep '\<word\>' Filename
and that should give you the exact word you're looking for every time without interfering with other whole words..
syntax..... '\<word\>'
moxxx68

__________________
moxxx68
http://www.estarinformado.com.ar/apicmaxmiel/bee-diez.gif

So what was the solution to the problem. I have a similar issue and the version of grep doesn't support the -x option and it appears to ignore the -w option as well.

Try to use "fgrep". That would have the "-x" option.