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UNIX Support: Recursively GREP

I've always had two major problems with the UNIX "grep" command. First, the "grep" command will gladly read a non-text file, and thus produce garbage if the grep pattern was found. Second, the "grep" command can be used to search in all the files in a single directory, but the command will not recursively search all sub-directories. As a result, I wrote a Perl script, called recursive grep or "regrep.pl", to resolve these issues.

Here is the syntax to run this script.

*$ regrep.pl* <WORD> [PATH1] [PATH2] ...**

The first argument is the only required argument for the value to search or grep for. All the remaining arguments are the directories where to start to recursively search for text file to grep. The default path is the current directory.

You can download this Perl script here, or you can copy-n-paste from here:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
 
 
 # This script was written for www.philforhumanity.com.
 # If you have any questions, issues, or enhancement requests, please contact us via the website. 
 # Use this script at your own risk.
 
 
 # Check the number of arguments
 my $number_of_arguments = scalar(@ARGV);
 if ($number_of_arguments == 0)
 {
   print "ERROR: Incorrect number of arguments entered.\n";
   print "USAGE: regrep.pl \<word\> [path1] [path2] ...\n\tThe default path is the current directory.\n";
   exit 1;
 }
 
 
 # Define query word
 my $grep_query = $ARGV[0];
 
 
 # If more than one argument, then collect the paths to search in
 my @paths_to_search = (".");  # Default is the current directory
 if ($number_of_arguments > 1)
 {
   # Remove first argument, since it is not a path and we collected that data already.
   shift @ARGV; 
     
   # Save paths to a meaningful variable name, and overwrite default value
   @paths_to_search = @ARGV;
 }  
 
 
 # Query each path for files only
 my @list_of_files = ();
 my $path;
 foreach $path (@paths_to_search)
 {
   @list_of_files = (@list_of_files, `/bin/find $path -type f  -name '*' -print`);  
 }
 
 
 # For each file found, find which files are text files and then grep only text files
 my $file;
 my $find_output;
 my $found = 0;
 my @grep_output;
 my $line;
 foreach $file (@list_of_files)
 {
   # Remove EOLN at the end of each file
   chomp $file;
 
   # Determine the type of each file using the file command in UNIX
   @grep_output = `/bin/file $file`;
   $find_output = @grep_output[0];
   
   # If the file type is text, then grep this file, else do not get this file
   #   NOTE: Oddly, zip files are text files too.
   if ($find_output =~ /text/)
   {
     # Grep for data (-n is for line numbers)
     @grep_output = `/bin/grep -n $grep_query "$file"`;
 
     # Output data if grep found something
     if (@grep_output)
     {
      print "==================================================================\n";
      print "File: $file\n";
      foreach $line (@grep_output)
      {
        print $line;
      }
      $found = 1;
     }
   }
 }
 
 
 # Print ending delimiter if anything was found
 if ($found == 1)
 {
   print "==================================================================\n";
 }
 
 
 # Exit
 exit 0;

by Phil B.

Related Articles » Generate Random Numbers » ClearCase Support: How to Find Checked Out Elements » ClearCase Support: Common ClearCase Labeling Error Message

A Guide for the Survival of Humankind, and Improving the World, Society, and Yourself!

UNIX Support: Recursively GREP

Related Articles » Generate Random Numbers » ClearCase Support: How to Find Checked Out Elements » ClearCase Support: Common ClearCase Labeling Error Message

Related Articles
» Generate Random Numbers
» ClearCase Support: How to Find Checked Out Elements
» ClearCase Support: Common ClearCase Labeling Error Message