NAME

       grep, g - search a file for a pattern

SYNOPSIS

       grep [ option ...  ] pattern [ file ...  ]

       g [ option ...  ] pattern [ file ...  ]

DESCRIPTION

       Grep searches the input files (standard input default) for lines that match the pattern, a
       regular expression as defined in regexp(7) with the addition of a newline character as  an
       alternative  (substitute  for |) with lowest precedence.  Normally, each line matching the
       pattern is `selected', and each selected line is  copied  to  the  standard  output.   The
       options are

       -c     Print only a count of matching lines.
       -h     Do not print file name tags (headers) with output lines.
       -e     The following argument is taken as a pattern.  This option makes it easy to specify
              patterns that might confuse argument parsing, such as -n.
       -i     Ignore alphabetic case distinctions.  The implementation folds into lower case  all
              letters  in the pattern and input before interpretation.  Matched lines are printed
              in their original form.
       -l     (ell) Print the names of files with selected lines; don't print the lines.
       -L     Print the names of files with no selected lines; the converse of -l.
       -n     Mark each printed line with its line number counted in its file.
       -s     Produce no output, but return status.
       -v     Reverse: print lines that do not match the pattern.
       -f     The pattern argument is the name of a file containing regular expressions  one  per
              line.
       -b     Don't buffer the output: write each output line as soon as it is discovered.

       Output  lines  are  tagged by file name when there is more than one input file.  (To force
       this tagging, include /dev/null as a file name argument.)

       Care should be taken when using the shell metacharacters $*[^|()=\ and newline in pattern;
       it  is  safest  to  enclose  the  entire expression in single quotes '...'.  An expression
       starting with '*' will treat the rest of the expression as literal characters.

       G invokes grep with -n and forces tagging of output lines by file name.  If no  files  are
       listed, it searches all files matching

              *.C *.b *.c *.h *.m *.cc *.java *.cgi *.pl *.py *.tex *.ms

SOURCE

       /src/cmd/grep
       /bin/g

SEE ALSO

       ed(1), awk(1), sed(1), sam(1), regexp(7)

DIAGNOSTICS

       Exit  status  is null if any lines are selected, or non-null when no lines are selected or
       an error occurs.

                                                                                     GREP(1plan9)