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Find files containing specific text on GNU/Linux

Sometimes we need to find all files containing a specific text withing the files, not in the file name. We can achieve this with grep and a few parameters:

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grep -irnwl /path -e 'pattern'
  • -i ignore case
  • -r recursive
  • -n line number
  • -w match the whole word (Do not use if not necessary)
  • -l give the file name
  • -e searched pattern

If we want to find several words we can do it using several -e options and arguments:

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grep -irnwl /path -e 'pattern1' -e 'pattern2'

Or using the -E (extended regular expression) option and separating the words with the vertical bar:

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grep -irnwE 'pattern1|pattern2' /path

Enjoy! ;)

This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.