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Grep

The document provides an overview of the grep command, a command-line tool used for searching specific patterns in files or streams. It details the basic syntax, various options available for grep, and practical examples demonstrating its usage, including case-insensitive searches, counting matches, and matching whole words. Additionally, it presents case problems with solutions to illustrate the application of grep in different scenarios.

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Pulkit singh
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4 views17 pages

Grep

The document provides an overview of the grep command, a command-line tool used for searching specific patterns in files or streams. It details the basic syntax, various options available for grep, and practical examples demonstrating its usage, including case-insensitive searches, counting matches, and matching whole words. Additionally, it presents case problems with solutions to illustrate the application of grep in different scenarios.

Uploaded by

Pulkit singh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Text processing in

bash : grep

Pulkit Singh
A270150424001
05/07/2025

INTRODUCTION
• A command-line tool to search for specific patterns in files or streams.
• The grep command lets the user find text in a given file or out-put quickly and
easily.
• By giving grep a string to search for, it will print out only lines that contain that
string and can print the corresponding line numbers for that text.
• The “simple” use of the command is well-known, but there are a variety of more
advanced uses that make grep a powerful search tool.
• grep is actually a combination of four different tools, each with its unique style of
finding text: basic regular expressions, extended regular expressions, fixed strings,
and Perl-style regular expression.

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Basic Syntax of grep


• Command structure:

• Example:

Searches for the word 'error' in testfile.txt.


• Search multiple files for lines that match a pattern:

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Options Available in grep Command


Some options for grep include:
• -i Ignores, case for matching.
• -v This prints out all the lines that do not matches the pattern.
• -c This prints only a count of the lines that match a pattern.
• -l Lists filenames containing the match.
• -L Lists filenames that do not contain the match.
• -n Display the matched lines and their line numbers.
• -e Specifies expression with this option. Can use multiple times.
• -E Treats pattern as an extended regular expression (ERE).
• -w match whole word.
• -m limits the number of matches.
• -o Print only the matched parts of a matching line, with each such part on a separate output
line.

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Practical Example of grep


Command in Linux
• Case insensitive search
o The -i option enables to search for a string case insensitively in the given file. It matches
the words like “UNIX”, “Unix”, “unix”.

Input :
Output :

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Practical Example of grep


Command in Linux
• Displaying the Count of Number of Matches Using grep
o The option –c can find the number of lines that matches the given string/pattern

• Displaying only the matched pattern Using grep


o -o option can make the grep to display only the matched string.

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Practical Example of grep


Command in Linux
• Display the File Names that Matches the Pattern Using grep
o -l option displays the files that contains the given string/pattern.

Or

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Practical Example of grep


Command in Linux
• Show Line Number While Displaying the Output Using grep -n
o To show the line number of file with the line matched.

Checking for the Whole Words in a File Using grep


The -w option to grep makes it match only the whole words.

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Practical Example of grep


Command in Linux
• Inverting the Pattern Match Using grep
o -v option displays the lines that are not matched with the specified search string pattern.

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Practical Example of grep


Command in Linux
• Matching the Lines that Start with a String Using grep
o The ^ regular expression pattern specifies the start of a line. This can be used in grep to
match the lines which start with the given string or pattern.

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Practical Example of grep


Command in Linux
• Matching the Lines that End with a String Using grep
o The $ regular expression pattern specifies the end of a line. This can be used in grep to
match the lines which end with the given string or pattern.

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Practical Example of grep


Command in Linux
• Specifies expression with -e option
o Can use multiple times :

o Output

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Case problem
• Q1. Display lines containing 'to' from the 'testfile3.txt' input file.
o Solution:

o For whole word match lines:

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Case problem
• Q2. Display only the first two matching lines containing 'he' form 'testfile2.txt'
input file.
o Solution

• Q3. Display the first 5 matching lines that do not conatin 'on' from 'testfile.txt'
input file.
o Solution

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Case problem
• Q4. Display lines from 'testfile.txt' that contain 'is' along with line number prefix.
o Solution

• Q5. For the input file sample.txt, display lines containing amigo prefixed by the
input filename as well as the line number.

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Case problem
• Q6. Count the total number of lines containing banana in the input files
sample.txt and code.txt.
• Solution

• Q7. For the input file `testfile2.txt`, match all lines that start with 'cat` or end with
`sun`.
o Solution

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Case problem
• Q8. For the input file `testfile3.txt`, match all lines containing `on` but not as a
whole word.
o Solution

• Q9. Count the total number of times the whole words `removed` or `rested` or
`received` or `replied` or `refused` or `retired` are present in the `patterns.txt`
file.
o Solution

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