UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I think that will work. The live test I did locked me up.....but I think because it found the string in an executable file and tried to display it.

If I only wanted to search C source files (test.c) would I use.....

grep -i <pattern> `find . -name "*.c"`

I anticipated the solution on the first answer but for the completeness, find is mostly used this way:

Code:

find . -name "*" -exec grep -i <pattern> {} \;

Regards

Keep It Simple :-)

Code:

grep -ir 'string' *

the -ir gives me an error

[unix] mark[449]: grep -ir 'monkey' *
grep: illegal option -- r
usage: grep [-E|-F] [-c|-l|-q] [-bhinsvx] -e pattern_list...
[-f pattern_file...] [file...]
usage: grep [-E|-F] [-c|-l|-q] [-bhinsvx] [-e pattern_list...]
-f pattern_file... [file...]
usage: grep [-E|-F] [-c|-l|-q] [-bhinsvx] pattern [file...]
[unix] mark[450]:

This code did serach the sub directories and display the line in the file......BUT now does NOT include the file name containing the string

[unix] mark[24]: pwd
/home
[unix] mark[25]: find . -name "*.c" -exec grep -i 'monkey' {} \;
find: cannot open ./mark/oldetc
this line contains the word monkey.
this line contains the words monkey and turtle.
[unix] mark[26]:

Ups... sorry. I've not read carefully, that you use HPUX.

Add a /dev/null, or see if your grep has an option to force it to display the file name even if it only greps one file.

Code:

find . -name "*" -exec grep -i <pattern> /dev/null {} \;

Oh, the -name "*" part is probably redundant. Try to leave it off and see if your find chokes.

It's surprising what people will get themselves into just so they don't have to download, build, and install GNU greputils. That would be my recommended solution for your inevitable follow-up problems.