NAME

fgrep − search a file for a pattern

SYNOPSIS

fgrep [ option ] ...  [ strings ] [ file ]

DESCRIPTION

Commands of the grep family search the input files (standard input default) for lines matching a pattern.  Normally, each line found is copied to the standard output.  Fgrep patterns are fixed strings; it is fast and compact.  The following options are recognized. 

−v All lines but those matching are printed. 

−x (Exact) only lines matched in their entirety are printed. 

−c Only a count of matching lines is printed. 

−l The names of files with matching lines are listed (once) separated by newlines. 

−n Each line is preceded by its relative line number in the file. 

−b Each line is preceded by the block number on which it was found.  This is sometimes useful in locating disk block numbers by context. 

−s Silent mode.  Nothing is printed (except error messages).  This is useful for checking the error status. 

−e expression
Same as a simple expression argument, but useful when the expression begins with a −. 

−f file The string list (fgrep) is taken from the file. 

In all cases the file name is shown if there is more than one input file.  Care should be taken when using the characters $ * [ ^ | ( ) and \ in the expression as they are also meaningful to the Shell.  It is safest to enclose the entire expression argument in single quotes ´ ´. 

Fgrep searches for lines that contain one of the (newline-separated) strings. 

Regular expressions given to fgrep must be enclosed in single quotes and a backslash (\) must immediately precede the newline between strings.  The newline or carriage return itself is not considered to be a character.  Fgrep searches only for fixed strings that match exactly and will not accept metacharacter matching, as will egrep (q.v.). 

The order of precedence of operators at the same parenthesis level is [] then *+? then concatenation then | and newline.

EXAMPLE

fgrep -n ’ string1\
string2\
string3\ ’ file1 file2 file3

reports the lines and line numbers from each of the three files that contain the specified strings.  Note that the string list is enclosed in both single quotes and blanks.  Do not put a space between the backslash and the newline (carriage return). 

SEE ALSO

egrep(1), ex(1), grep(1), sed(1), sh(1)

DIAGNOSTICS

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

BUGS

Ideally there should be only one grep, but we don’t know a single algorithm that spans a wide enough range of space-time tradeoffs. 

Lines are limited to 256 characters; longer lines are truncated. 

7th Edition  —  1/9/82