Finding files with grep

Grokking Grep

Article from Issue 139/2012
Author(s):

Once you understand the intricacies of grep, you can find just about anything.

Finding files has always been a priority in computing. Now, with hard drives of three or more terabytes becoming the norm, finding files is more important than ever. Yet, of all the commands developed to perform this task, few can match for sheer power one of the oldest solutions of all: grep and its family of related commands. For almost 40 years now, grep has been a standard command on Unixlike systems for searching text files for lines that match a certain pattern, and its usefulness shows no signs of disappearing.

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