UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello,

I am comparing files with for mismatches using fgrep but I've run into a problem.

fgrep -vf $file1 $file2 > mismatches.dat

file1 and file2 both contain file names on each line

file1 has filenames which are up to 92 characters long and contain the "$" char.

example file name:
A12345BBB Service ABC Test Program Sample $Performance Plan Test Document Septemper 15 2007.doc

I put quotes around the string to hand the special character but the file name is too long for the fgrep utility.


Is there another utility to search for and handle long strings with special characters?

thanks,

Are you sure you have diagnosed the problem correctly? fgrep should specifically be able to cope with fairly long strings.

Within a file, there is no need or capability to escape any special characters. fgrep just reads everything as text, dollar signs and asterisks and all.

If sorting the files is not too much of a problem, you could also try the comm utility.

I resolved my problem using the fgrep located on /usr/xpg4/bin