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Grep to return lines not containing a character

 
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# 1  
Old 12-04-2011
Grep to return lines not containing a character
Hello , this is my first topic cause I need your little helpSmilie

I got .txt file, and I want to find lines without letter 'a', so im writing:

grep "[^a]" list.txt (list.txt is the file of course)
and i have no idea why it's not working because it shows lines with a.
# 2  
Old 12-04-2011
Hello, and welcome.

You're grepping for "not a", which means any lines containing something that is not an a will be returned. Lines which contain only one or more a's will not be returned.

Code:
$ cat file
a
b
c
dad
aa
f

$ grep "[^a]" file
b
c
dad
f

Try using grep -v a file instead.
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