On 3/26/25 3:17 PM, Jerry James wrote:
On Wed, Mar 26, 2025 at 3:01 PM home user via users
<users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Good afternoon,
I'm trying to search a directory sub-tree for a specific string. I use this:
find . -type f -print | xargs grep -l [string] /dev/null
(but without the brackets). This often works. But it sometimes fails when the search string contains "printable" characters other than letters and digits. Examples of both:
bash.32[.Organ]: find . -type f -print | xargs grep -l D-_qS_3KXBA /dev/null
./organ_dir.txt
bash.33[.Organ]: find . -type f -print | xargs grep -l -ob9LHPEaKY /dev/null
grep: conflicting matchers specified
bash.34[.Organ]: find . -type f -print | xargs grep -l "-ob9LHPEaKY" /dev/null
grep: conflicting matchers specified
bash.35[.Organ]:
bash.35[.Organ]:
bash.35[.Organ]:
bash.36[.Organ]: find . -type f -print | xargs grep -l '-ob9LHPEaKY' /dev/null
grep: conflicting matchers specified
bash.37[.Organ]:
How do I get this to work even when the search string includes (especially starts with) printable characters other than digits and letters?
The problem is that those strings start with a '-', so grep thinks you
are specifying more option. Add -e before your search string:
find . -type f -print | xargs grep -l -e -ob9LHPEaKY [dir]
Also, you're working kind of hard here. You might find grep's
recursive search option a little easier to use:
grep -rle -ob9LHPEaKY [dir]
Thank-you, Jerry. That works.
A co-worker back in the late 1980's gave that "find" line. I'm curious: did "grep" have the -r option back then?
Part 2
The sub-tree I'm searching is loaded with huge binary files along with some ".txt" files. The searches take several minutes each. How do I restrict the search to ".txt" files? ...
-----
bash.43[ShiPin]: grep -rle -ob9LHPEaKY *.txt
bash.44[ShiPin]: man grep
bash.45[ShiPin]: grep -rle -ob9LHPEaKY *\.txt
bash.46[ShiPin]:
-----
The above should result in one hit. The man page is confusing me on this.
--
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