how to search the exact word using grep in hpux

[senthil_kumar_1]

Hi

Normally we use below command to find the line containing exact word in linux.

Ex: #grep -w ze4egi /etc/passwd.

But it is not working in hp-ux.

how to solve this?

[Kenan Erdey]

hi,

grep -w also works in hp-ux. what's the problem ?

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

What version of HP-UX? The '-w' switch to 'grep' works as "...the matching substring must either be at the beginning of the line, or preceded by a non-word constituent character. Similarly, it must be either at the end of the line or followed by a non-word constituent character. Word-constituent characters are letters, digits, and the underscore."

You can roll-your-own matches with 'grep' with your own regular expresssions and/or extended ones.

Regards!

...JRF...

[senthil_kumar_1]

My HP unix version is 10.20, 11.00 and 11.11.


I am getting following error when running this command.


root@lgapps:/root > grep -w ze4egi /etc/passwd
grep: illegal option -- w
usage: grep [-E|-F] [-c|-l|-q] [-bhinsvx] -e pattern_list...
[-f pattern_file...] [file...]
usage: grep [-E|-F] [-c|-l|-q] [-bhinsvx] [-e pattern_list...]
-f pattern_file... [file...]
usage: grep [-E|-F] [-c|-l|-q] [-bhinsvx] pattern [file...]

[Ganesan R]

Hi,

What is the output you are getting?

Above command syntax suppose to work.

try this if that doesn't work.

#grep -i /etc/passwd

[Sunny123_1]

Hello

Try this


grep -i ze4egi /etc/passwd.

Regards
Sunny

[Ganesan R]

Hi,

-w switch is available with grep in 11.X. Not sure why you are getting illegal option message.

Can you check man grep to find if you have that option or not?

[senthil_kumar_1]

Hi

If use the command

"grep -i ze4egi /etc/passwd"

If getting all the words in output like

wze4egi, ze4egiqwe,

But here i want to search exact word only.

[Sunny123_1]

Hi

Can you try this???

more /etc/passwd |grep "ze4egi"

Regards
Sunny

[johnsonpk · Accepted solution]

Hi Senthil ,

This wont be the answer you asked for ,but if you are dealing with the /etc/password it may help u

if you want to extract by username
grep ^"usename:" /etc/passwd

if you are grepping any other field other than the login shell then

grep ":password:" /etc/passwd

grep ":1021:" /etc/passwd


thanks!!
Johnson