grep command ??

[MikeL_4]

I am using grep command to look through a file for certain entries, like say the word test, but my problem is there are other entries in the file that begin with have test in them that I don't want returned..
ie:

test
test_107
tup_test
etc.....

the grep for tet would return all three entries when I only want the 1st entry returned...

any ways to get around this ??

Thanks
Mike

[Ralph Grothe]

if you're after an exact match try fgrep or the -F switch of grep (see manpage),
for more involved parsings use Perl (where amongst other things) you can set anchors in form of word boundaries.

[Ian Dennison_1]

To return just lines that have the word 'test' (and only the word 'test'),...

grep "^test$"

^ = anchor to start of line
$ = anchor to end of line

To get complete word test takes a little more effort.

Share and Enjoy! Ian

[Rodney Hills]

Try-

grep "^test$" file

^ matches beginning of line
$ matches end of line

HTH

-- Rod Hills

[Ralph Grothe]

sorry -F alone wouldn't help I suppose,
append a [[:space:]] to you're regex while using egrep or -E switch (which stands for extended grep)
but that said, nothing compares to Perl's regex capabilities

[H.Merijn Brand (procura]

GNU grep knows -w option, which `anchors' the word to search for

# grep -w test file

GNU grep available on http://www.cmve.net/~merijn or https://www.beepz.com/personal/merijn

Enjoy, have FUN! H.Merijn

[Tom Jackson]

Hi Mike:

Try this:

grep test filename|head -n 1

Tom

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Mike:

# grep -E -e " test " -e " test$" -e "^test " -e "^test$"

...would limit the selection to the word "test".

Regards!

...JRF...

[Hai Nguyen_1]

Mike,

Try this:

# grep -x test input_file

Hai