grep(1) 							   User Commands							   grep(1)

NAME

       grep - search a file for a pattern

SYNOPSIS

       /usr/bin/grep [-bchilnsvw] limited-regular-expression
	    [filename]...

       /usr/xpg4/bin/grep [-E | -F] [-c | -l | -q] [-bhinsvwx] -e pattern_list...
	    [-f pattern_file]... [file]...

       /usr/xpg4/bin/grep [-E | -F] [-c | -l | -q] [-bhinsvwx]
	    [-e pattern_list]... -f pattern_file... [file]...

       /usr/xpg4/bin/grep [-E | -F] [-c | -l | -q] [-bhinsvwx] pattern
	    [file]...

DESCRIPTION

       The  grep  utility  searches  text files for a pattern and prints all lines that contain that pattern.  It uses a compact non-deterministic
       algorithm.

       Be careful using the characters $, *, [, ^, |, (, ), and  in the pattern_list because they are also meaningful to the shell. It is  safest
       to enclose the entire pattern_list in single quotes a'...a'.

       If  no  files  are specified, grep assumes standard input. Normally, each line found is copied to standard output. The file name is printed
       before each line found if there is more than one input file.

   /usr/bin/grep
       The /usr/bin/grep utility uses limited regular expressions like those described on the regexp(5) manual page to match the patterns.

   /usr/xpg4/bin/grep
       The options -E and -F affect the way /usr/xpg4/bin/grep interprets pattern_list. If -E is  specified,  /usr/xpg4/bin/grep  interprets  pat-
       tern_list  as  a  full regular expression (see -E for description).  If -F is specified, grep interprets pattern_list as a fixed string. If
       neither are specified, grep interprets pattern_list as a basic regular expression as described on regex(5) manual page.

OPTIONS

       The following options are supported for both /usr/bin/grep and /usr/xpg4/bin/grep:

       -b    Precedes each line by the block number on which it was found. This can be useful in locating block numbers by context (first block is
	     0).

       -c    Prints only a count of the lines that contain the pattern.

       -h    Prevents the name of the file containing the matching line from being prepended to that line.  Used when searching multiple files.

       -i    Ignores upper/lower case distinction during comparisons.

       -l    Prints  only  the	names  of files with matching lines, separated by NEWLINE characters.  Does not repeat the names of files when the
	     pattern is found more than once.

       -n    Precedes each line by its line number in the file (first line is 1).

       -s    Suppresses error messages about nonexistent or unreadable files.

       -v    Prints all lines except those that contain the pattern.

       -w    Searches for the expression as a word as if surrounded by < and >.

   /usr/xpg4/bin/grep
       The following options are supported for /usr/xpg4/bin/grep only:

       -e pattern_list	  Specifies one or more patterns to be used during the search for input. Patterns in pattern_list must be separated  by  a
			  NEWLINE  character. A null pattern can be specified by two adjacent newline characters in pattern_list. Unless the -E or
			  -F option is also specified, each pattern is treated as a basic regular expression.  Multiple  -e  and  -f  options  are
			  accepted  by	grep.  All of the specified patterns are used when matching lines, but the order of evaluation is unspeci-
			  fied.

       -E		  Matches using full regular expressions. Treats each pattern specified as a full regular expression. If any  entire  full
			  regular  expression  pattern	matches  an  input line, the line is matched. A null full regular expression matches every
			  line. Each pattern is interpreted as a full regular expression as described on the regex(5) manual page, except  for	(
			  and ), and including:

			      1.     A full regular expression followed by + that matches one or more occurrences of the full regular expression.

			      2.     A full regular expression followed by ? that matches 0 or 1 occurrences of the full regular expression.

			      3.     Full  regular  expressions  separated by | or by a new-line that match strings that are matched by any of the
				     expressions.

			      4.     A full regular expression that is enclosed in parentheses () for grouping.
			  The order of precedence of operators is [], then *?+, then concatenation, then | and new-line.

       -f pattern_file	  Reads one or more patterns from the file named by the path name pattern_file. Patterns in pattern_file are terminated by
			  a  NEWLINE  character.  A  null pattern can be specified by an empty line in pattern_file. Unless the -E or -F option is
			  also specified, each pattern is treated as a basic regular expression.

       -F		  Matches using fixed strings. Treats each pattern specified as a string instead of a regular expression. If an input line
			  contains  any  of the patterns as a contiguous sequence of bytes, the line is matched. A null string matches every line.
			  See fgrep(1) for more information.

       -q		  Quiet. Does not write anything to the standard output, regardless of matching lines. Exits with zero status if an  input
			  line is selected.

       -x		  Considers  only input lines that use all characters in the line to match an entire fixed string or regular expression to
			  be matching lines.

OPERANDS

       The following operands are supported:

       file    A path name of a file to be searched for the patterns. If no file operands are specified, the standard input is used.

   /usr/bin/grep
       pattern	  Specifies a pattern to be used during the search for input.

   /usr/xpg4/bin/grep
       pattern	  Specifies one or more patterns to be used during the search for input. This operand is treated as if it  were  specified  as	-e
		  pattern_list.

USAGE

       The  -e	pattern_list option has the same effect as the pattern_list operand, but is useful when pattern_list begins with the hyphen delim-
       iter. It is also useful when it is more convenient to provide multiple patterns as separate arguments.

       Multiple -e and -f options are accepted and grep uses all of the patterns it is given while matching input  text  lines.  Notice  that  the
       order  of  evaluation  is  not  specified.  If an implementation finds a null string as a pattern, it is allowed to use that pattern first,
       matching every line, and effectively ignore any other patterns.

       The -q option provides a means of easily determining whether or not a pattern (or string) exists in a group of files. When  searching  sev-
       eral  files,  it provides a performance improvement (because it can quit as soon as it finds the first match) and requires less care by the
       user in choosing the set of files to supply as arguments (because it exits zero if it finds a match even if grep detected an access or read
       error on earlier file operands).

   Large File Behavior
       See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of grep when encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).

EXAMPLES

       Example 1 Finding All Uses of a Word

       To find all uses of the word "Posix" (in any case) in the file text.mm, and write with line numbers:

	 example% /usr/bin/grep -i -n posix text.mm

       Example 2 Finding All Empty Lines

       To find all empty lines in the standard input:

	 example% /usr/bin/grep ^$

       or

	 example% /usr/bin/grep -v .

       Example 3 Finding Lines Containing Strings

       All of the following commands print all lines containing strings abc or def or both:

	 example% /usr/xpg4/bin/grep 'abc
	 def'
	 example% /usr/xpg4/bin/grep -e 'abc
	 def'
	 example% /usr/xpg4/bin/grep -e 'abc' -e 'def'
	 example% /usr/xpg4/bin/grep -E 'abc|def'
	 example% /usr/xpg4/bin/grep -E -e 'abc|def'
	 example% /usr/xpg4/bin/grep -E -e 'abc' -e 'def'
	 example% /usr/xpg4/bin/grep -E 'abc
	 def'
	 example% /usr/xpg4/bin/grep -E -e 'abc
	 def'
	 example% /usr/xpg4/bin/grep -F -e 'abc' -e 'def'
	 example% /usr/xpg4/bin/grep -F 'abc
	 def'
	 example% /usr/xpg4/bin/grep -F -e 'abc
	 def'

       Example 4 Finding Lines with Matching Strings

       Both of the following commands print all lines matching exactly abc or def:

	 example% /usr/xpg4/bin/grep -E '^abc$ ^def$'
	 example% /usr/xpg4/bin/grep -F -x 'abc def'

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       See  environ(5)	for  descriptions  of  the  following  environment  variables that affect the execution of grep: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_COLLATE,
       LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.

EXIT STATUS

       The following exit values are returned:

       0    One or more matches were found.

       1    No matches were found.

       2    Syntax errors or inaccessible files (even if matches were found).

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

   /usr/bin/grep
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWcsu			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |CSI			     |Not Enabled		   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

   /usr/xpg4/bin/grep
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWxcu4			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |CSI			     |Enabled			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface Stability	     |Committed 		   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Standard		     |See standards(5). 	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       egrep(1), fgrep(1), sed(1), sh(1), attributes(5), environ(5), largefile(5), regex(5), regexp(5), standards(5)

NOTES

   /usr/bin/grep
       Lines are limited only by the size of the available virtual memory. If there is a line with embedded nulls, grep only  matches  up  to  the
       first null. If the line matches, the entire line is printed.

   /usr/xpg4/bin/grep
       The  results  are  unspecified  if  input  files  contain  lines  longer than LINE_MAX bytes or contain binary data. LINE_MAX is defined in
       /usr/include/limits.h.

SunOS 5.11							    26 Feb 2008 							   grep(1)