Grep Simple Command Example, Learn To Filter Results In Linux Terminal

Grep is one of the most used command line utilities in either Linux, Windows or Mac OS. Grep is used for searching a specific text from the command line output, we combine grep with other commands, grep is basically to find and filter the output of the command we executed.

So understanding Grep command is a must for a back end developer or server admin, because it can be very useful for managing our server.

You don’t need to know all the available, only some basic grep options is probably enough to do most of basic terminal operation, usually filtering large results.

Here’s example of a simple grep command in Linux to filter list of files using LS command inside folder /etc:

ls - a | grep -i 'php'

Normally we use LS to list all files, but if inside directory there's too many files, we can use grep to filter the output

LS with grep filter word 'PHP'

But if you want to know more on how you can do advanced filtering using grep, just type grep --help, and then it will give you all the available options to use grep.

Here are the syntax of how you can use Grep command in Linux, grep usage:

grep [OPTION]... PATTERN [FILE]...

Search for PATTERN in each FILE or standard input.
PATTERN is, by default, a basic regular expression (BRE).
Example: grep -i 'hello world' menu.h main.c

Regexp selection and interpretation:
  -E, --extended-regexp     PATTERN is an extended regular expression (ERE)
  -F, --fixed-strings       PATTERN is a set of newline-separated strings
  -G, --basic-regexp        PATTERN is a basic regular expression (BRE)
  -P, --perl-regexp         PATTERN is a Perl regular expression
  -e, --regexp=PATTERN      use PATTERN for matching
  -f, --file=FILE           obtain PATTERN from FILE
  -i, --ignore-case         ignore case distinctions
  -w, --word-regexp         force PATTERN to match only whole words
  -x, --line-regexp         force PATTERN to match only whole lines
  -z, --null-data           a data line ends in 0 byte, not newline

Miscellaneous:
  -s, --no-messages         suppress error messages
  -v, --invert-match        select non-matching lines
  -V, --version             display version information and exit
      --help                display this help text and exit

Output control:
  -m, --max-count=NUM       stop after NUM matches
  -b, --byte-offset         print the byte offset with output lines
  -n, --line-number         print line number with output lines
      --line-buffered       flush output on every line
  -H, --with-filename       print the file name for each match
  -h, --no-filename         suppress the file name prefix on output
      --label=LABEL         use LABEL as the standard input file name prefix
  -o, --only-matching       show only the part of a line matching PATTERN
  -q, --quiet, --silent     suppress all normal output
      --binary-files=TYPE   assume that binary files are TYPE;
                            TYPE is 'binary', 'text', or 'without-match'
  -a, --text                equivalent to --binary-files=text
  -I                        equivalent to --binary-files=without-match
  -d, --directories=ACTION  how to handle directories;
                            ACTION is 'read', 'recurse', or 'skip'
  -D, --devices=ACTION      how to handle devices, FIFOs and sockets;
                            ACTION is 'read' or 'skip'
  -r, --recursive           like --directories=recurse
  -R, --dereference-recursive  likewise, but follow all symlinks
      --include=FILE_PATTERN  search only files that match FILE_PATTERN
      --exclude=FILE_PATTERN  skip files and directories matching FILE_PATTERN
      --exclude-from=FILE   skip files matching any file pattern from FILE
      --exclude-dir=PATTERN  directories that match PATTERN will be skipped.
  -L, --files-without-match  print only names of FILEs containing no match
  -l, --files-with-matches  print only names of FILEs containing matches
  -c, --count               print only a count of matching lines per FILE
  -T, --initial-tab         make tabs line up (if needed)
  -Z, --null                print 0 byte after FILE name

Context control:
  -B, --before-context=NUM  print NUM lines of leading context
  -A, --after-context=NUM   print NUM lines of trailing context
  -C, --context=NUM         print NUM lines of output context
  -NUM                      same as --context=NUM
      --color[=WHEN],
      --colour[=WHEN]       use markers to highlight the matching strings;
                            WHEN is 'always', 'never', or 'auto'
  -U, --binary              do not strip CR characters at EOL (MSDOS/Windows)
  -u, --unix-byte-offsets   report offsets as if CRs were not there
                            (MSDOS/Windows)