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Name

fgrep - search a file for a character string

Synopsis

/usr/bin/fgrep [ -bchilnsvx ] [ -e pattern_list ] [ -f file ] [ pattern ] [ file ... ]

/usr/xpg4/bin/fgrep [ -bchilnsvx ] [ -e pattern_list ] [ -f file ] [ pattern ] [ file ... ]

Availability

/usr/bin/fgrep

SUNWcsu

/usr/xpg4/bin/fgrep

SUNWxcu4

Description

fgrep (fast grep) searches files for a character string and prints all lines that contain that string. fgrep is different from grep(1) and egrep(1) because it searches for a string, instead of searching for a pattern that matches an expression. It uses a fast and compact algorithm.

The characters $, *, [, ^, |, (, ), and \ are interpreted literally by fgrep, that is, fgrep does not recognize full regular expressions as does egrep. Since these characters have special meaning to the shell, it is safest to enclose the entire string in single quotes fm...fm.

If no files are specified, fgrep assumes standard input. Normally, each line found is copied to the standard output. The file name is printed before each line found if there is more than one input file.

Options

The following options are supported:
-b
Precede each line by the block number on which it was found. This can be useful in locating block numbers by context (first block is 0).
-c
Print only a count of the lines that contain the pattern.
-e pattern_list
Search for a special string (string begins with a -).
-f files
Take the list of patterns from file.
-h
Suppress printing of files when searching multiple files.
-i
Ignore upper/lower case distinction during comparisons.
-l
Print the names of files with matching lines once, separated by new-lines. Does not repeat the names of files when the pattern is found more than once.
-n
Precede each line by its line number in the file (first line is 1).
-s
Work silently, that is, display nothing except error messages. This is useful for checking the error status.
-v
Print all lines except those that contain the pattern.
-x
Print only lines matched entirely.

Operands

The following operands are supported:
file
A path name of a file to be searched for the patterns. If no file operands are specified, the standard input will be used.

/usr/bin/fgrep

pattern
Specify a pattern to be used during the search for input.

/usr/xpg4/bin/fgrep

pattern
Specify one or more patterns to be used during the search for input. This operand is treated as if it were specified as -e pattern_list.

Environment

See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables that affect the execution of fgrep: LC_COLLATE , LC_CTYPE , LC_MESSAGES , and NLSPATH .

Exit Status

The following exit values are returned:
  1. if any matches are found
  2. if no matches are found
  3. for syntax errors or inaccessible files (even if matches were found).

See Also

ed(1) , egrep(1) , grep(1) , sed(1) , sh(1) , environ(5)

Notes

Ideally there should be only one grep command, but there is not a single algorithm that spans a wide enough range of space-time tradeoffs. Lines are limited to BUFSIZ characters; longer lines are truncated. BUFSIZ is defined in <stdio.h>.

/usr/xpg4/bin/fgrep

/usr/xpg4/bin/fgrep is identical to /usr/xpg4/bin/grep -F (see grep(1) ). Portable applications should use /usr/xpg4/bin/grep -F.

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