FGREP(1)                             SysV                             FGREP(1)



NAME
     fgrep - search a file for a character string

SYNOPSIS
     fgrep [options] string [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
     fgrep (fast grep) searches files for a character string and prints all
     lines that contain that string.  fgrep is different from grep(1) and
     egrep(1) because it searches for a string, instead of searching for a
     pattern that matches an expression.  It uses a fast and compact
     algorithm.

     The characters $, *, [, ^, |, (, ), and \ are interpreted literally by
     fgrep, that is, fgrep does not recognize full regular expressions like
     egrep does.  Since these characters have special meaning to the shell, it
     is safest to enclose the entire string in single quotes '...'.

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

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

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

     -i        Ignores upper/lower case distinction during comparisons.

     -l        Prints the names of files with matching lines once, separated
               by new-lines.  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).

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

     -x        Prints only lines matched entirely.

     -e special_string
               Searches for a special string (string begins with a -).

     -f file   Takes the list of strings from file.

BUGS
     Ideally there should be only one fgrep command, but there is not a single
     algorithm that spans a wide enough range of space-time tradeoffs. Lines
     are limited to BUFSIZ characters; longer lines are truncated. BUFSIZ is
     defined in /usr/include/stdio.h.

DIAGNOSTICS
     Exit status is 0 if any matches are found, 1 if none, 2 for syntax errors
     or inaccessible files (even if matches were found).

SEE ALSO
     ed(1), egrep(1), grep(1), sed(1), sh(1).