doc/html/pcregrep.html

<html>
<head>
<title>pcregrep specification</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#00005A" link="#0066FF" alink="#3399FF" vlink="#2222BB">
<h1>pcregrep man page</h1>
<p>
Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
</p>
<p>
This page is part of the PCRE HTML documentation. It was generated automatically
from the original man page. If there is any nonsense in it, please consult the
man page, in case the conversion went wrong.
<br>
<ul>
<li><a name="TOC1" href="#SEC1">SYNOPSIS</a>
<li><a name="TOC2" href="#SEC2">DESCRIPTION</a>
<li><a name="TOC3" href="#SEC3">OPTIONS</a>
<li><a name="TOC4" href="#SEC4">LONG OPTIONS</a>
<li><a name="TOC5" href="#SEC5">DIAGNOSTICS</a>
<li><a name="TOC6" href="#SEC6">AUTHOR</a>
</ul>
<br><a name="SEC1" href="#TOC1">SYNOPSIS</a><br>
<P>
<b>pcregrep [-Vcfhilnrsuvx] [long options] [pattern] [file1 file2 ...]</b>
</P>
<br><a name="SEC2" href="#TOC1">DESCRIPTION</a><br>
<P>
<b>pcregrep</b> searches files for character patterns, in the same way as other
grep commands do, but it uses the PCRE regular expression library to support
patterns that are compatible with the regular expressions of Perl 5. See
<a href="pcrepattern.html"><b>pcrepattern</b></a>
for a full description of syntax and semantics of the regular expressions that
PCRE supports.
</P>
<P>
A pattern must be specified on the command line unless the <b>-f</b> option is
used (see below).
</P>
<P>
If no files are specified, <b>pcregrep</b> reads the standard input. By default,
each line that matches the pattern is copied to the standard output, and if
there is more than one file, the file name is printed before each line of
output. However, there are options that can change how <b>pcregrep</b> behaves.
</P>
<P>
Lines are limited to BUFSIZ characters. BUFSIZ is defined in <b>&#60;stdio.h&#62;</b>.
The newline character is removed from the end of each line before it is matched
against the pattern.
</P>
<br><a name="SEC3" href="#TOC1">OPTIONS</a><br>
<P>
<b>-V</b>
Write the version number of the PCRE library being used to the standard error
stream.
</P>
<P>
<b>-c</b>
Do not print individual lines; instead just print a count of the number of
lines that would otherwise have been printed. If several files are given, a
count is printed for each of them.
</P>
<P>
<b>-f</b><i>filename</i>
Read a number of patterns from the file, one per line, and match all of them
against each line of input. A line is output if any of the patterns match it.
When <b>-f</b> is used, no pattern is taken from the command line; all arguments
are treated as file names. There is a maximum of 100 patterns. Trailing white
space is removed, and blank lines are ignored. An empty file contains no
patterns and therefore matches nothing.
</P>
<P>
<b>-h</b>
Suppress printing of filenames when searching multiple files.
</P>
<P>
<b>-i</b>
Ignore upper/lower case distinctions during comparisons.
</P>
<P>
<b>-l</b>
Instead of printing lines from the files, just print the names of the files
containing lines that would have been printed. Each file name is printed
once, on a separate line.
</P>
<P>
<b>-n</b>
Precede each line by its line number in the file.
</P>
<P>
<b>-r</b>
If any file is a directory, recursively scan the files it contains. Without
<b>-r</b> a directory is scanned as a normal file.
</P>
<P>
<b>-s</b>
Work silently, that is, display nothing except error messages.
The exit status indicates whether any matches were found.
</P>
<P>
<b>-u</b>
Operate in UTF-8 mode. This option is available only if PCRE has been compiled
with UTF-8 support. Both the pattern and each subject line must be valid
strings of UTF-8 characters.
</P>
<P>
<b>-v</b>
Invert the sense of the match, so that lines which do <i>not</i> match the
pattern are now the ones that are found.
</P>
<P>
<b>-x</b>
Force the pattern to be anchored (it must start matching at the beginning of
the line) and in addition, require it to match the entire line. This is
equivalent to having ^ and $ characters at the start and end of each
alternative branch in the regular expression.
</P>
<br><a name="SEC4" href="#TOC1">LONG OPTIONS</a><br>
<P>
Long forms of all the options are available, as in GNU grep. They are shown in
the following table:
<pre>
  -c   --count
  -h   --no-filename
  -i   --ignore-case
  -l   --files-with-matches
  -n   --line-number
  -r   --recursive
  -s   --no-messages
  -u   --utf-8
  -V   --version
  -v   --invert-match
  -x   --line-regex
  -x   --line-regexp
</pre>
In addition, --file=<i>filename</i> is equivalent to -f<i>filename</i>, and
--help shows the list of options and then exits.
</P>
<br><a name="SEC5" href="#TOC1">DIAGNOSTICS</a><br>
<P>
Exit status is 0 if any matches were found, 1 if no matches were found, and 2
for syntax errors or inacessible files (even if matches were found).
</P>
<br><a name="SEC6" href="#TOC1">AUTHOR</a><br>
<P>
Philip Hazel &#60;ph10@cam.ac.uk&#62;
<br>
University Computing Service
<br>
Cambridge CB2 3QG, England.
</P>
<P>
Last updated: 09 September 2004
<br>
Copyright &copy; 1997-2004 University of Cambridge.
<p>
Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
</p>
1	nigel	63	<html>
2			<head>
3			<title>pcregrep specification</title>
4			</head>
5			<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#00005A" link="#0066FF" alink="#3399FF" vlink="#2222BB">
6	nigel	75	<h1>pcregrep man page</h1>
7			<p>
8			Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
9			</p>
10			<p>
11			This page is part of the PCRE HTML documentation. It was generated automatically
12			from the original man page. If there is any nonsense in it, please consult the
13			man page, in case the conversion went wrong.
14			<br>
15	nigel	63	<ul>
16			<li><a name="TOC1" href="#SEC1">SYNOPSIS</a>
17			<li><a name="TOC2" href="#SEC2">DESCRIPTION</a>
18			<li><a name="TOC3" href="#SEC3">OPTIONS</a>
19			<li><a name="TOC4" href="#SEC4">LONG OPTIONS</a>
20			<li><a name="TOC5" href="#SEC5">DIAGNOSTICS</a>
21			<li><a name="TOC6" href="#SEC6">AUTHOR</a>
22			</ul>
23			<br><a name="SEC1" href="#TOC1">SYNOPSIS</a><br>
24			<P>
25			<b>pcregrep [-Vcfhilnrsuvx] [long options] [pattern] [file1 file2 ...]</b>
26			</P>
27			<br><a name="SEC2" href="#TOC1">DESCRIPTION</a><br>
28			<P>
29			<b>pcregrep</b> searches files for character patterns, in the same way as other
30			grep commands do, but it uses the PCRE regular expression library to support
31			patterns that are compatible with the regular expressions of Perl 5. See
32			<a href="pcrepattern.html"><b>pcrepattern</b></a>
33			for a full description of syntax and semantics of the regular expressions that
34			PCRE supports.
35			</P>
36			<P>
37			A pattern must be specified on the command line unless the <b>-f</b> option is
38			used (see below).
39			</P>
40			<P>
41			If no files are specified, <b>pcregrep</b> reads the standard input. By default,
42			each line that matches the pattern is copied to the standard output, and if
43			there is more than one file, the file name is printed before each line of
44			output. However, there are options that can change how <b>pcregrep</b> behaves.
45			</P>
46			<P>
47			Lines are limited to BUFSIZ characters. BUFSIZ is defined in <b><stdio.h></b>.
48			The newline character is removed from the end of each line before it is matched
49			against the pattern.
50			</P>
51			<br><a name="SEC3" href="#TOC1">OPTIONS</a><br>
52			<P>
53			<b>-V</b>
54			Write the version number of the PCRE library being used to the standard error
55			stream.
56			</P>
57			<P>
58			<b>-c</b>
59			Do not print individual lines; instead just print a count of the number of
60			lines that would otherwise have been printed. If several files are given, a
61			count is printed for each of them.
62			</P>
63			<P>
64			<b>-f</b><i>filename</i>
65			Read a number of patterns from the file, one per line, and match all of them
66			against each line of input. A line is output if any of the patterns match it.
67			When <b>-f</b> is used, no pattern is taken from the command line; all arguments
68			are treated as file names. There is a maximum of 100 patterns. Trailing white
69			space is removed, and blank lines are ignored. An empty file contains no
70			patterns and therefore matches nothing.
71			</P>
72			<P>
73			<b>-h</b>
74			Suppress printing of filenames when searching multiple files.
75			</P>
76			<P>
77			<b>-i</b>
78			Ignore upper/lower case distinctions during comparisons.
79			</P>
80			<P>
81			<b>-l</b>
82			Instead of printing lines from the files, just print the names of the files
83			containing lines that would have been printed. Each file name is printed
84			once, on a separate line.
85			</P>
86			<P>
87			<b>-n</b>
88			Precede each line by its line number in the file.
89			</P>
90			<P>
91			<b>-r</b>
92			If any file is a directory, recursively scan the files it contains. Without
93			<b>-r</b> a directory is scanned as a normal file.
94			</P>
95			<P>
96			<b>-s</b>
97			Work silently, that is, display nothing except error messages.
98			The exit status indicates whether any matches were found.
99			</P>
100			<P>
101			<b>-u</b>
102			Operate in UTF-8 mode. This option is available only if PCRE has been compiled
103	nigel	75	with UTF-8 support. Both the pattern and each subject line must be valid
104			strings of UTF-8 characters.
105	nigel	63	</P>
106			<P>
107			<b>-v</b>
108			Invert the sense of the match, so that lines which do <i>not</i> match the
109			pattern are now the ones that are found.
110			</P>
111			<P>
112			<b>-x</b>
113			Force the pattern to be anchored (it must start matching at the beginning of
114			the line) and in addition, require it to match the entire line. This is
115			equivalent to having ^ and $ characters at the start and end of each
116			alternative branch in the regular expression.
117			</P>
118			<br><a name="SEC4" href="#TOC1">LONG OPTIONS</a><br>
119			<P>
120			Long forms of all the options are available, as in GNU grep. They are shown in
121			the following table:
122			<pre>
123			-c --count
124			-h --no-filename
125			-i --ignore-case
126			-l --files-with-matches
127			-n --line-number
128			-r --recursive
129			-s --no-messages
130			-u --utf-8
131			-V --version
132			-v --invert-match
133			-x --line-regex
134			-x --line-regexp
135	nigel	75	</pre>
136	nigel	63	In addition, --file=<i>filename</i> is equivalent to -f<i>filename</i>, and
137			--help shows the list of options and then exits.
138			</P>
139			<br><a name="SEC5" href="#TOC1">DIAGNOSTICS</a><br>
140			<P>
141			Exit status is 0 if any matches were found, 1 if no matches were found, and 2
142			for syntax errors or inacessible files (even if matches were found).
143			</P>
144			<br><a name="SEC6" href="#TOC1">AUTHOR</a><br>
145			<P>
146			Philip Hazel <ph10@cam.ac.uk>
147			<br>
148			University Computing Service
149			<br>
150			Cambridge CB2 3QG, England.
151			</P>
152			<P>
153	nigel	75	Last updated: 09 September 2004
154	nigel	63	<br>
155	nigel	75	Copyright © 1997-2004 University of Cambridge.
156			<p>
157			Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
158			</p>