grep-find-in-files.md

Grep Find In Files

Category: Linux

You can search for a specific string in files recursively using grep.

Example 1

Search files in the current directory for the word "array". Match whole words. Print out the line number and filename where a match is found.

grep -nw "array" *

Note: You can omit the double quotes if the string literal you are searching for is one word.

Example 2

Recursively search files from a specific directory for the word "array". Match whole words. Print out the line number and filename where a match is found.

grep -rnw "array" /path/to/somewhere/

Note: You can omit the double quotes if the string literal you are searching for is one word.

Example 3

Search recursively files from the current directory for the word "array" in all files which have the extension .js. Match whole words. Print out the line number and filename where a match is found.

grep --include=\*.js -rnw "array" ./ 

Exclude specific files by using the --exclude= argument. For example: --exclude=\*.js

In the above examples:

• -r searches recursively
• -n prints the line number
• -w matches the whole word