finding a string in a directory

[jadelennox]

Little trick I do all the time when I'm looking for a string in a source tree:

find . -type f -exec egrep -H "string I'm seeking" {} \;

The things that vary:

find 
     base command, doesn't change
. 
     the top directory you're seeking in.  Could put a relative or absolute path here.
-type f 
     Narrowing down the kind of files you're seeking, in this case to regular files. 
     You could narrow it down in other ways, e.g. -name "*.c"
-exec egrep -H "string I'm seeking" {} \;
     the grep command in question. 
     The only thing I have a very here is the egrep switch (and the string).
     -H lists filename and the match
     -l just lists the filename; less informative but cleaner.
     {} \; is necessary syntax for the exec argument to find.

Comments

[doldonius]

Wouldn't egrep -r "target string" * do the same thing?

[jadelennox]

look, a monkey!

(In other words, hey, I leanred a new egrep switch today. *g*)

[pauamma]

Other commands you may want to look at: hg grep (or git grep) and my favorite: less `grep -rl string dir` (to display all files that contain string, using less)