Finding a string in a file on a file system using Grep

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I need to do a search on a number of files in a file system to look for a string "RUSH2112". I have completed the following command however I am not sure if this is correct. I stand in the mounted file system.

find . -type f -exec grep -i1 "Rush2112" ;

edited 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

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asked 1 hour ago

Deirdre

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1

What Unix are you on and what does the -1 option do with your grep?
â€“Â Kusalananda
1 hour ago

What would be your expected output? The lines containing the matches, or the filenames that contain the string, or ???
â€“Â Jeff Schaller
1 hour ago

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
1
down vote

favorite

find . -type f -exec grep -i1 "Rush2112" ;

edited 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

34.9k952115

asked 1 hour ago

Deirdre

315

1

What Unix are you on and what does the -1 option do with your grep?
â€“Â Kusalananda
1 hour ago

What would be your expected output? The lines containing the matches, or the filenames that contain the string, or ???
â€“Â Jeff Schaller
1 hour ago

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
1
down vote

favorite

find . -type f -exec grep -i1 "Rush2112" ;

edited 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

34.9k952115

asked 1 hour ago

Deirdre

315

find . -type f -exec grep -i1 "Rush2112" ;

grep find

edited 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

34.9k952115

asked 1 hour ago

Deirdre

315

edited 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

34.9k952115

asked 1 hour ago

Deirdre

315

edited 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

34.9k952115

edited 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

34.9k952115

edited 1 hour ago

Jeff Schaller

34.9k952115

asked 1 hour ago

Deirdre

315

asked 1 hour ago

Deirdre

315

asked 1 hour ago

Deirdre

315

1

What Unix are you on and what does the -1 option do with your grep?
â€“Â Kusalananda
1 hour ago

What would be your expected output? The lines containing the matches, or the filenames that contain the string, or ???
â€“Â Jeff Schaller
1 hour ago

add a commentÂ |Â

1

What Unix are you on and what does the -1 option do with your grep?
â€“Â Kusalananda
1 hour ago

What would be your expected output? The lines containing the matches, or the filenames that contain the string, or ???
â€“Â Jeff Schaller
1 hour ago

What Unix are you on and what does the -1 option do with your grep?
â€“Â Kusalananda
1 hour ago

What would be your expected output? The lines containing the matches, or the filenames that contain the string, or ???
â€“Â Jeff Schaller
1 hour ago

add a commentÂ |Â

1 Answer
1

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To look for a string (not a regular expression) without caring for case, use grep -iF STRING (where STRING should be the quoted string you are looking for).

To recurse over all regular files in a directory hierarchy, do

find . -type f -exec grep -iF STRING /dev/null +

The main difference between this and your command is that this will execute grep for groups of found files. Your command would run grep once for each found file which may be slower if there are many files.

The other difference is that since grep is invoked with more than one file, its output will contain the pathnames of the files where matches are found. The /dev/null is there to force this behaviour in case grep happens to be invoked with only a single file. You may use grep's -H option instead of including /dev/null if your implementation of grep has that non-standard (but common) option.

Some implementation of grep also has the option to recurse directories by itself, without the help of find. This is often done with an -R option:

grep -R -iF STRING .

Note that GNU grep also has a -r option that is slightly different from its -R option (with -r, symbolic links will not be followed, which would more closely mimic the behaviour you'd get with running grep via find . -type f).

If what you're after is to find only the pathnames of the files that contain the string and not necessarily the actual lines from those files that match, then you may do that in a number of different ways.

Use grep -q as a test on each file:

find . -type f -exec grep -qiF STRING ';' -print

Use grep -l across groups of files found by find:
```
find . -type f -exec grep -ilF STRING +
```

Use recursive grep -l:
```
grep -R -ilF STRING .
```

If you are wanting to do further processing of the files that contain the given string, then I would go with the first of these alternatives:

find . -type f -exec grep -qiF STRING ';' -exec sh -c '
 for pathname do
 # Process "$pathname" here
 done' sh +

Understanding the -exec option of `find`

edited 42 mins ago

answered 1 hour ago

Kusalananda

113k15216344

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1 Answer
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1 Answer
1

active

oldest

votes

up vote
5
down vote

accepted

To look for a string (not a regular expression) without caring for case, use grep -iF STRING (where STRING should be the quoted string you are looking for).

To recurse over all regular files in a directory hierarchy, do

find . -type f -exec grep -iF STRING /dev/null +

Some implementation of grep also has the option to recurse directories by itself, without the help of find. This is often done with an -R option:

grep -R -iF STRING .

Use grep -q as a test on each file:

find . -type f -exec grep -qiF STRING ';' -print

Use grep -l across groups of files found by find:
```
find . -type f -exec grep -ilF STRING +
```

Use recursive grep -l:
```
grep -R -ilF STRING .
```

If you are wanting to do further processing of the files that contain the given string, then I would go with the first of these alternatives:

find . -type f -exec grep -qiF STRING ';' -exec sh -c '
 for pathname do
 # Process "$pathname" here
 done' sh +

Understanding the -exec option of `find`

edited 42 mins ago

answered 1 hour ago

Kusalananda

113k15216344

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
5
down vote

accepted

To look for a string (not a regular expression) without caring for case, use grep -iF STRING (where STRING should be the quoted string you are looking for).

To recurse over all regular files in a directory hierarchy, do

find . -type f -exec grep -iF STRING /dev/null +

Some implementation of grep also has the option to recurse directories by itself, without the help of find. This is often done with an -R option:

grep -R -iF STRING .

Use grep -q as a test on each file:

find . -type f -exec grep -qiF STRING ';' -print

Use grep -l across groups of files found by find:
```
find . -type f -exec grep -ilF STRING +
```

Use recursive grep -l:
```
grep -R -ilF STRING .
```

If you are wanting to do further processing of the files that contain the given string, then I would go with the first of these alternatives:

find . -type f -exec grep -qiF STRING ';' -exec sh -c '
 for pathname do
 # Process "$pathname" here
 done' sh +

Understanding the -exec option of `find`

edited 42 mins ago

answered 1 hour ago

Kusalananda

113k15216344

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
5
down vote

accepted

To look for a string (not a regular expression) without caring for case, use grep -iF STRING (where STRING should be the quoted string you are looking for).

To recurse over all regular files in a directory hierarchy, do

find . -type f -exec grep -iF STRING /dev/null +

Some implementation of grep also has the option to recurse directories by itself, without the help of find. This is often done with an -R option:

grep -R -iF STRING .

Use grep -q as a test on each file:

find . -type f -exec grep -qiF STRING ';' -print

Use grep -l across groups of files found by find:
```
find . -type f -exec grep -ilF STRING +
```

Use recursive grep -l:
```
grep -R -ilF STRING .
```

If you are wanting to do further processing of the files that contain the given string, then I would go with the first of these alternatives:

find . -type f -exec grep -qiF STRING ';' -exec sh -c '
 for pathname do
 # Process "$pathname" here
 done' sh +

Understanding the -exec option of `find`

edited 42 mins ago

answered 1 hour ago

Kusalananda

113k15216344

To look for a string (not a regular expression) without caring for case, use grep -iF STRING (where STRING should be the quoted string you are looking for).

To recurse over all regular files in a directory hierarchy, do

find . -type f -exec grep -iF STRING /dev/null +

Some implementation of grep also has the option to recurse directories by itself, without the help of find. This is often done with an -R option:

grep -R -iF STRING .

Use grep -q as a test on each file:

find . -type f -exec grep -qiF STRING ';' -print

Use grep -l across groups of files found by find:
```
find . -type f -exec grep -ilF STRING +
```

Use recursive grep -l:
```
grep -R -ilF STRING .
```

If you are wanting to do further processing of the files that contain the given string, then I would go with the first of these alternatives:

find . -type f -exec grep -qiF STRING ';' -exec sh -c '
 for pathname do
 # Process "$pathname" here
 done' sh +

Understanding the -exec option of `find`

edited 42 mins ago

answered 1 hour ago

Kusalananda

113k15216344

edited 42 mins ago

answered 1 hour ago

Kusalananda

113k15216344

answered 1 hour ago

Kusalananda

113k15216344

answered 1 hour ago

Kusalananda

113k15216344

add a commentÂ |Â

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