topic Re: How to grep using "*" in Operating System - Linux

How to grep using "*"

Pactiv Development — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 14:51:37 GMT

I have a file called filelist with following lines in them:

/cdrom
/usr/local/bin
/oracle/ABC/sapdata
/oracle/DEF/sapdata
/oracle/ABC/archlog

I want to grep out /oracle/*/sapdata and am using the following command which is not working:

# grep -v /oracle/*/sapdata filelist

I get the following output:
/cdrom
/usr/local/bin
/oracle/ABC/sapdata
/oracle/DEF/sapdata
/oracle/ABC/archlog

I am expecting /oracle/ABC/sapdata and /oracle/DEF/sapdata to be excluded.

Please help, thanks.

Re: How to grep using "*"

Patrick Wallek — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 14:58:16 GMT

Do you have other lines with 'sapdata' in them?

Could you do:

grep -v sapdata filelist

Re: How to grep using "*"

Marvin Strong — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 15:07:40 GMT

grep -v "/oracle/.*/sapdata" filelist

I think that will exclude anything that starts with oracle and ends with sapdata.

* in regex means match 0 or more of the preceding character.

Re: How to grep using "*"

Alan Meyer_4 — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 15:09:53 GMT

try this

grep '^/oracle/' filelist |grep '/sapdata$'

Re: How to grep using "*"

Torsten. — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 15:10:22 GMT

Hi,

have a look at this page, it gives a good idea how to use wildcard with grep.
(You'll have more fun than reading a man page)
Many examples for beginners!

http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/unix/grep.html#wildcards

Re: How to grep using "*"

Alan Meyer_4 — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 15:11:00 GMT

oops, sorry I miss read your request... never mind

Re: How to grep using "*"

Alan Meyer_4 — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 15:11:57 GMT

revised...

grep -v '^/oracle/' test.dat |grep -v '/sapdata$'

Re: How to grep using "*"

Rodney Hills — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 15:56:51 GMT

I think you only need to put quotes around your search text.

# grep -v "/oracle/*/sapdata" filelist

Otherwise the shell will try to expand the file paths.

HTH

-- Rod Hills

Re: How to grep using "*"

Sandman! — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 17:41:49 GMT

I agree with Marvin and Rodney's solution i.e.

# grep -v '/oracle/.*/sapdata'

should do the trick...regards!

Re: How to grep using "*"

John E.Ophious — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 19:30:29 GMT

Pactiv Development,

grep with a combination of -v and some quotations around your search string just might do the trick.

Peace and Chicken Grease,

John E. Ophious

Re: How to grep using "*"

Pactiv Development — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 09:36:52 GMT

grep -v "/oracle/.*/sapdata" filelist from Marvin Strong did the trick, thanks.