grep Programs (GNU Grep 3.7)

2.4 grep Programs

grep searches the named input files for lines containing a match to the given patterns. By default, grep prints the matching lines. A file named - stands for standard input. If no input is specified, grep searches the working directory . if given a command-line option specifying recursion; otherwise, grep searches standard input. There are four major variants of grep, controlled by the following options.

-G ¶ --basic-regexp

Interpret patterns as basic regular expressions (BREs). This is the default.

-E ¶ --extended-regexp

Interpret patterns as extended regular expressions (EREs). (-E is specified by POSIX.)

-F ¶ --fixed-strings

Interpret patterns as fixed strings, not regular expressions. (-F is specified by POSIX.)

-P ¶ --perl-regexp

Interpret patterns as Perl-compatible regular expressions (PCREs). PCRE support is here to stay, but consider this option experimental when combined with the -z (--null-data) option, and note that ‘grep -P’ may warn of unimplemented features. See Other Options.

In addition, two variant programs egrep and fgrep are available. egrep is the same as ‘grep -E’. fgrep is the same as ‘grep -F’. Direct invocation as either egrep or fgrep is deprecated, but is provided to allow historical applications that rely on them to run unmodified.