NAME

fgrep − search a file for a character string

SYNOPSIS

fgrep [options] string [file ...]

DESCRIPTION

fgrep (fast grep) seaches 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 ′...′. 

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. 

Command line options are:

−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. 

−h Suppress printing of filenames 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). 

−v Print all lines except those that contain the pattern. 

−x Print only lines matched entirely. 

−e special_string
Search for a special string (string begins with a −). 

−f file
Take the list of strings from file.

SEE ALSO

ed(1), egrep(1), grep(1), sed(1), sh(1). 

DIAGNOSTICS

Exit status is 0 if any matches are found, 1 if none, 2 for syntax errors or inaccessible files (even if matches were found). 

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 /usr/include/stdio.h. 

CX/UX User’s Reference Manual