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">ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES</a>
<li><a name="TOC5" href="#SEC5">OPTIONS COMPATIBILITY</a>
<li><a name="TOC6" href="#SEC6">OPTIONS WITH DATA</a>
<li><a name="TOC7" href="#SEC7">MATCHING ERRORS</a>
<li><a name="TOC8" href="#SEC8">DIAGNOSTICS</a>
<li><a name="TOC9" href="#SEC9">AUTHOR</a>
</ul>
<br><a name="SEC1" href="#TOC1">SYNOPSIS</a><br>
<P>
<b>pcregrep [options] [long options] [pattern] [path1 path2 ...]</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>
Patterns, whether supplied on the command line or in a separate file, are given
without delimiters. For example:
<pre>
  pcregrep Thursday /etc/motd
</pre>
If you attempt to use delimiters (for example, by surrounding a pattern with
slashes, as is common in Perl scripts), they are interpreted as part of the
pattern. Quotes can of course be used on the command line because they are
interpreted by the shell, and indeed they are required if a pattern contains
white space or shell metacharacters.
</P>
<P>
The first argument that follows any option settings is treated as the single
pattern to be matched when neither <b>-e</b> nor <b>-f</b> is present.
Conversely, when one or both of these options are used to specify patterns, all
arguments are treated as path names. At least one of <b>-e</b>, <b>-f</b>, or an
argument pattern must be provided.
</P>
<P>
If no files are specified, <b>pcregrep</b> reads the standard input. The
standard input can also be referenced by a name consisting of a single hyphen.
For example:
<pre>
  pcregrep some-pattern /file1 - /file3
</pre>
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 output at the
start of each line. However, there are options that can change how
<b>pcregrep</b> behaves. In particular, the <b>-M</b> option makes it possible to
search for patterns that span line boundaries.
</P>
<P>
Patterns are limited to 8K or BUFSIZ characters, whichever is the greater.
BUFSIZ is defined in <b>&#60;stdio.h&#62;</b>.
</P>
<P>
If the <b>LC_ALL</b> or <b>LC_CTYPE</b> environment variable is set,
<b>pcregrep</b> uses the value to set a locale when calling the PCRE library.
The <b>--locale</b> option can be used to override this.
</P>
<br><a name="SEC3" href="#TOC1">OPTIONS</a><br>
<P>
<b>--</b>
This terminate the list of options. It is useful if the next item on the
command line starts with a hyphen but is not an option. This allows for the
processing of patterns and filenames that start with hyphens.
</P>
<P>
<b>-A</b> <i>number</i>, <b>--after-context=</b><i>number</i>
Output <i>number</i> lines of context after each matching line. If filenames
and/or line numbers are being output, a hyphen separator is used instead of a
colon for the context lines. A line containing "--" is output between each
group of lines, unless they are in fact contiguous in the input file. The value
of <i>number</i> is expected to be relatively small. However, <b>pcregrep</b>
guarantees to have up to 8K of following text available for context output.
</P>
<P>
<b>-B</b> <i>number</i>, <b>--before-context=</b><i>number</i>
Output <i>number</i> lines of context before each matching line. If filenames
and/or line numbers are being output, a hyphen separator is used instead of a
colon for the context lines. A line containing "--" is output between each
group of lines, unless they are in fact contiguous in the input file. The value
of <i>number</i> is expected to be relatively small. However, <b>pcregrep</b>
guarantees to have up to 8K of preceding text available for context output.
</P>
<P>
<b>-C</b> <i>number</i>, <b>--context=</b><i>number</i>
Output <i>number</i> lines of context both before and after each matching line.
This is equivalent to setting both <b>-A</b> and <b>-B</b> to the same value.
</P>
<P>
<b>-c</b>, <b>--count</b>
Do not output individual lines; instead just output a count of the number of
lines that would otherwise have been output. If several files are given, a
count is output for each of them. In this mode, the <b>-A</b>, <b>-B</b>, and
<b>-C</b> options are ignored.
</P>
<P>
<b>--colour</b>, <b>--color</b>
If this option is given without any data, it is equivalent to "--colour=auto".
If data is required, it must be given in the same shell item, separated by an
equals sign.
</P>
<P>
<b>--colour=</b><i>value</i>, <b>--color=</b><i>value</i>
This option specifies under what circumstances the part of a line that matched
a pattern should be coloured in the output. The value may be "never" (the
default), "always", or "auto". In the latter case, colouring happens only if
the standard output is connected to a terminal. The colour can be specified by
setting the environment variable PCREGREP_COLOUR or PCREGREP_COLOR. The value
of this variable should be a string of two numbers, separated by a semicolon.
They are copied directly into the control string for setting colour on a
terminal, so it is your responsibility to ensure that they make sense. If
neither of the environment variables is set, the default is "1;31", which gives
red.
</P>
<P>
<b>-D</b> <i>action</i>, <b>--devices=</b><i>action</i>
If an input path is not a regular file or a directory, "action" specifies how
it is to be processed. Valid values are "read" (the default) or "skip"
(silently skip the path).
</P>
<P>
<b>-d</b> <i>action</i>, <b>--directories=</b><i>action</i>
If an input path is a directory, "action" specifies how it is to be processed.
Valid values are "read" (the default), "recurse" (equivalent to the <b>-r</b>
option), or "skip" (silently skip the path). In the default case, directories
are read as if they were ordinary files. In some operating systems the effect
of reading a directory like this is an immediate end-of-file.
</P>
<P>
<b>-e</b> <i>pattern</i>, <b>--regex=</b><i>pattern</i>,
<b>--regexp=</b><i>pattern</i> Specify a pattern to be matched. This option can
be used multiple times in order to specify several patterns. It can also be
used as a way of specifying a single pattern that starts with a hyphen. When
<b>-e</b> is used, no argument pattern is taken from the command line; all
arguments are treated as file names. There is an overall maximum of 100
patterns. They are applied to each line in the order in which they are defined
until one matches (or fails to match if <b>-v</b> is used). If <b>-f</b> is used
with <b>-e</b>, the command line patterns are matched first, followed by the
patterns from the file, independent of the order in which these options are
specified. Note that multiple use of <b>-e</b> is not the same as a single
pattern with alternatives. For example, X|Y finds the first character in a line
that is X or Y, whereas if the two patterns are given separately,
<b>pcregrep</b> finds X if it is present, even if it follows Y in the line. It
finds Y only if there is no X in the line. This really matters only if you are
using <b>-o</b> to show the portion of the line that matched.
</P>
<P>
<b>--exclude</b>=<i>pattern</i>
When <b>pcregrep</b> is searching the files in a directory as a consequence of
the <b>-r</b> (recursive search) option, any files whose names match the pattern
are excluded. The pattern is a PCRE regular expression. If a file name matches
both <b>--include</b> and <b>--exclude</b>, it is excluded. There is no short
form for this option.
</P>
<P>
<b>-F</b>, <b>--fixed-strings</b>
Interpret each pattern as a list of fixed strings, separated by newlines,
instead of as a regular expression. The <b>-w</b> (match as a word) and <b>-x</b>
(match whole line) options can be used with <b>-F</b>. They apply to each of the
fixed strings. A line is selected if any of the fixed strings are found in it
(subject to <b>-w</b> or <b>-x</b>, if present).
</P>
<P>
<b>-f</b> <i>filename</i>, <b>--file=</b><i>filename</i>
Read a number of patterns from the file, one per line, and match them against
each line of input. A data line is output if any of the patterns match it. The
filename can be given as "-" to refer to the standard input. When <b>-f</b> is
used, patterns specified on the command line using <b>-e</b> may also be
present; they are tested before the file's patterns. However, no other pattern
is taken from the command line; all arguments are treated as file names. There
is an overall maximum of 100 patterns. Trailing white space is removed from
each line, and blank lines are ignored. An empty file contains no patterns and
therefore matches nothing.
</P>
<P>
<b>-H</b>, <b>--with-filename</b>
Force the inclusion of the filename at the start of output lines when searching
a single file. By default, the filename is not shown in this case. For matching
lines, the filename is followed by a colon and a space; for context lines, a
hyphen separator is used. If a line number is also being output, it follows the
file name without a space.
</P>
<P>
<b>-h</b>, <b>--no-filename</b>
Suppress the output filenames when searching multiple files. By default,
filenames are shown when multiple files are searched. For matching lines, the
filename is followed by a colon and a space; for context lines, a hyphen
separator is used. If a line number is also being output, it follows the file
name without a space.
</P>
<P>
<b>--help</b>
Output a brief help message and exit.
</P>
<P>
<b>-i</b>, <b>--ignore-case</b>
Ignore upper/lower case distinctions during comparisons.
</P>
<P>
<b>--include</b>=<i>pattern</i>
When <b>pcregrep</b> is searching the files in a directory as a consequence of
the <b>-r</b> (recursive search) option, only those files whose names match the
pattern are included. The pattern is a PCRE regular expression. If a file name
matches both <b>--include</b> and <b>--exclude</b>, it is excluded. There is no
short form for this option.
</P>
<P>
<b>-L</b>, <b>--files-without-match</b>
Instead of outputting lines from the files, just output the names of the files
that do not contain any lines that would have been output. Each file name is
output once, on a separate line.
</P>
<P>
<b>-l</b>, <b>--files-with-matches</b>
Instead of outputting lines from the files, just output the names of the files
containing lines that would have been output. Each file name is output
once, on a separate line. Searching stops as soon as a matching line is found
in a file.
</P>
<P>
<b>--label</b>=<i>name</i>
This option supplies a name to be used for the standard input when file names
are being output. If not supplied, "(standard input)" is used. There is no
short form for this option.
</P>
<P>
<b>--locale</b>=<i>locale-name</i>
This option specifies a locale to be used for pattern matching. It overrides
the value in the <b>LC_ALL</b> or <b>LC_CTYPE</b> environment variables. If no
locale is specified, the PCRE library's default (usually the "C" locale) is
used. There is no short form for this option.
</P>
<P>
<b>-M</b>, <b>--multiline</b>
Allow patterns to match more than one line. When this option is given, patterns
may usefully contain literal newline characters and internal occurrences of ^
and $ characters. The output for any one match may consist of more than one
line. When this option is set, the PCRE library is called in "multiline" mode.
There is a limit to the number of lines that can be matched, imposed by the way
that <b>pcregrep</b> buffers the input file as it scans it. However,
<b>pcregrep</b> ensures that at least 8K characters or the rest of the document
(whichever is the shorter) are available for forward matching, and similarly
the previous 8K characters (or all the previous characters, if fewer than 8K)
are guaranteed to be available for lookbehind assertions.
</P>
<P>
<b>-n</b>, <b>--line-number</b>
Precede each output line by its line number in the file, followed by a colon
and a space for matching lines or a hyphen and a space for context lines. If
the filename is also being output, it precedes the line number.
</P>
<P>
<b>-o</b>, <b>--only-matching</b>
Show only the part of the line that matched a pattern. In this mode, no
context is shown. That is, the <b>-A</b>, <b>-B</b>, and <b>-C</b> options are
ignored.
</P>
<P>
<b>-q</b>, <b>--quiet</b>
Work quietly, that is, display nothing except error messages. The exit
status indicates whether or not any matches were found.
</P>
<P>
<b>-r</b>, <b>--recursive</b>
If any given path is a directory, recursively scan the files it contains,
taking note of any <b>--include</b> and <b>--exclude</b> settings. By default, a
directory is read as a normal file; in some operating systems this gives an
immediate end-of-file. This option is a shorthand for setting the <b>-d</b>
option to "recurse".
</P>
<P>
<b>-s</b>, <b>--no-messages</b>
Suppress error messages about non-existent or unreadable files. Such files are
quietly skipped. However, the return code is still 2, even if matches were
found in other files.
</P>
<P>
<b>-u</b>, <b>--utf-8</b>
Operate in UTF-8 mode. This option is available only if PCRE has been compiled
with UTF-8 support. Both patterns and subject lines must be valid strings of
UTF-8 characters.
</P>
<P>
<b>-V</b>, <b>--version</b>
Write the version numbers of <b>pcregrep</b> and the PCRE library that is being
used to the standard error stream.
</P>
<P>
<b>-v</b>, <b>--invert-match</b>
Invert the sense of the match, so that lines which do <i>not</i> match any of
the patterns are the ones that are found.
</P>
<P>
<b>-w</b>, <b>--word-regex</b>, <b>--word-regexp</b>
Force the patterns to match only whole words. This is equivalent to having \b
at the start and end of the pattern.
</P>
<P>
<b>-x</b>, <b>--line-regex</b>, \fP--line-regexp\fP
Force the patterns to be anchored (each must start matching at the beginning of
a line) and in addition, require them to match entire lines. This is
equivalent to having ^ and $ characters at the start and end of each
alternative branch in every pattern.
</P>
<br><a name="SEC4" href="#TOC1">ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES</a><br>
<P>
The environment variables <b>LC_ALL</b> and <b>LC_CTYPE</b> are examined, in that
order, for a locale. The first one that is set is used. This can be overridden
by the <b>--locale</b> option. If no locale is set, the PCRE library's default
(usually the "C" locale) is used.
</P>
<br><a name="SEC5" href="#TOC1">OPTIONS COMPATIBILITY</a><br>
<P>
The majority of short and long forms of <b>pcregrep</b>'s options are the same
as in the GNU <b>grep</b> program. Any long option of the form
<b>--xxx-regexp</b> (GNU terminology) is also available as <b>--xxx-regex</b>
(PCRE terminology). However, the <b>--locale</b>, <b>-M</b>, <b>--multiline</b>,
<b>-u</b>, and <b>--utf-8</b> options are specific to <b>pcregrep</b>.
</P>
<br><a name="SEC6" href="#TOC1">OPTIONS WITH DATA</a><br>
<P>
There are four different ways in which an option with data can be specified.
If a short form option is used, the data may follow immediately, or in the next
command line item. For example:
<pre>
  -f/some/file
  -f /some/file
</pre>
If a long form option is used, the data may appear in the same command line
item, separated by an equals character, or (with one exception) it may appear
in the next command line item. For example:
<pre>
  --file=/some/file
  --file /some/file
</pre>
Note, however, that if you want to supply a file name beginning with ~ as data
in a shell command, and have the shell expand ~ to a home directory, you must
separate the file name from the option, because the shell does not treat ~
specially unless it is at the start of an item.
</P>
<P>
The exception to the above is the <b>--colour</b> (or <b>--color</b>) option,
for which the data is optional. If this option does have data, it must be given
in the first form, using an equals character. Otherwise it will be assumed that
it has no data.
</P>
<br><a name="SEC7" href="#TOC1">MATCHING ERRORS</a><br>
<P>
It is possible to supply a regular expression that takes a very long time to
fail to match certain lines. Such patterns normally involve nested indefinite
repeats, for example: (a+)*\d when matched against a line of a's with no final
digit. The PCRE matching function has a resource limit that causes it to abort
in these circumstances. If this happens, <b>pcregrep</b> outputs an error
message and the line that caused the problem to the standard error stream. If
there are more than 20 such errors, <b>pcregrep</b> gives up.
</P>
<br><a name="SEC8" 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 and non-existent or inacessible files (even if matches were
found in other files) or too many matching errors. Using the <b>-s</b> option to
suppress error messages about inaccessble files does not affect the return
code.
</P>
<br><a name="SEC9" href="#TOC1">AUTHOR</a><br>
<P>
Philip Hazel
<br>
University Computing Service
<br>
Cambridge CB2 3QG, England.
</P>
<P>
Last updated: 23 January 2006
<br>
Copyright &copy; 1997-2006 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	nigel	87	<li><a name="TOC4" href="#SEC4">ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES</a>
20			<li><a name="TOC5" href="#SEC5">OPTIONS COMPATIBILITY</a>
21			<li><a name="TOC6" href="#SEC6">OPTIONS WITH DATA</a>
22			<li><a name="TOC7" href="#SEC7">MATCHING ERRORS</a>
23			<li><a name="TOC8" href="#SEC8">DIAGNOSTICS</a>
24			<li><a name="TOC9" href="#SEC9">AUTHOR</a>
25	nigel	63	</ul>
26			<br><a name="SEC1" href="#TOC1">SYNOPSIS</a><br>
27			<P>
28	nigel	87	<b>pcregrep [options] [long options] [pattern] [path1 path2 ...]</b>
29	nigel	63	</P>
30			<br><a name="SEC2" href="#TOC1">DESCRIPTION</a><br>
31			<P>
32			<b>pcregrep</b> searches files for character patterns, in the same way as other
33			grep commands do, but it uses the PCRE regular expression library to support
34			patterns that are compatible with the regular expressions of Perl 5. See
35			<a href="pcrepattern.html"><b>pcrepattern</b></a>
36			for a full description of syntax and semantics of the regular expressions that
37			PCRE supports.
38			</P>
39			<P>
40	nigel	87	Patterns, whether supplied on the command line or in a separate file, are given
41			without delimiters. For example:
42			<pre>
43			pcregrep Thursday /etc/motd
44			</pre>
45			If you attempt to use delimiters (for example, by surrounding a pattern with
46			slashes, as is common in Perl scripts), they are interpreted as part of the
47			pattern. Quotes can of course be used on the command line because they are
48			interpreted by the shell, and indeed they are required if a pattern contains
49			white space or shell metacharacters.
50	nigel	63	</P>
51			<P>
52	nigel	87	The first argument that follows any option settings is treated as the single
53			pattern to be matched when neither <b>-e</b> nor <b>-f</b> is present.
54			Conversely, when one or both of these options are used to specify patterns, all
55			arguments are treated as path names. At least one of <b>-e</b>, <b>-f</b>, or an
56			argument pattern must be provided.
57			</P>
58			<P>
59	nigel	77	If no files are specified, <b>pcregrep</b> reads the standard input. The
60			standard input can also be referenced by a name consisting of a single hyphen.
61			For example:
62			<pre>
63			pcregrep some-pattern /file1 - /file3
64			</pre>
65			By default, each line that matches the pattern is copied to the standard
66	nigel	87	output, and if there is more than one file, the file name is output at the
67			start of each line. However, there are options that can change how
68	nigel	77	<b>pcregrep</b> behaves. In particular, the <b>-M</b> option makes it possible to
69			search for patterns that span line boundaries.
70	nigel	63	</P>
71			<P>
72	nigel	77	Patterns are limited to 8K or BUFSIZ characters, whichever is the greater.
73			BUFSIZ is defined in <b><stdio.h></b>.
74	nigel	63	</P>
75	nigel	87	<P>
76			If the <b>LC_ALL</b> or <b>LC_CTYPE</b> environment variable is set,
77			<b>pcregrep</b> uses the value to set a locale when calling the PCRE library.
78			The <b>--locale</b> option can be used to override this.
79			</P>
80	nigel	63	<br><a name="SEC3" href="#TOC1">OPTIONS</a><br>
81			<P>
82	nigel	77	<b>--</b>
83			This terminate the list of options. It is useful if the next item on the
84	nigel	87	command line starts with a hyphen but is not an option. This allows for the
85			processing of patterns and filenames that start with hyphens.
86	nigel	63	</P>
87			<P>
88	nigel	87	<b>-A</b> <i>number</i>, <b>--after-context=</b><i>number</i>
89			Output <i>number</i> lines of context after each matching line. If filenames
90			and/or line numbers are being output, a hyphen separator is used instead of a
91			colon for the context lines. A line containing "--" is output between each
92	nigel	77	group of lines, unless they are in fact contiguous in the input file. The value
93			of <i>number</i> is expected to be relatively small. However, <b>pcregrep</b>
94	nigel	87	guarantees to have up to 8K of following text available for context output.
95	nigel	77	</P>
96			<P>
97	nigel	87	<b>-B</b> <i>number</i>, <b>--before-context=</b><i>number</i>
98			Output <i>number</i> lines of context before each matching line. If filenames
99			and/or line numbers are being output, a hyphen separator is used instead of a
100			colon for the context lines. A line containing "--" is output between each
101	nigel	77	group of lines, unless they are in fact contiguous in the input file. The value
102			of <i>number</i> is expected to be relatively small. However, <b>pcregrep</b>
103	nigel	87	guarantees to have up to 8K of preceding text available for context output.
104	nigel	77	</P>
105			<P>
106	nigel	87	<b>-C</b> <i>number</i>, <b>--context=</b><i>number</i>
107			Output <i>number</i> lines of context both before and after each matching line.
108	nigel	77	This is equivalent to setting both <b>-A</b> and <b>-B</b> to the same value.
109			</P>
110			<P>
111	nigel	87	<b>-c</b>, <b>--count</b>
112			Do not output individual lines; instead just output a count of the number of
113			lines that would otherwise have been output. If several files are given, a
114			count is output for each of them. In this mode, the <b>-A</b>, <b>-B</b>, and
115			<b>-C</b> options are ignored.
116	nigel	63	</P>
117			<P>
118	nigel	87	<b>--colour</b>, <b>--color</b>
119			If this option is given without any data, it is equivalent to "--colour=auto".
120			If data is required, it must be given in the same shell item, separated by an
121			equals sign.
122			</P>
123			<P>
124			<b>--colour=</b><i>value</i>, <b>--color=</b><i>value</i>
125			This option specifies under what circumstances the part of a line that matched
126			a pattern should be coloured in the output. The value may be "never" (the
127			default), "always", or "auto". In the latter case, colouring happens only if
128			the standard output is connected to a terminal. The colour can be specified by
129			setting the environment variable PCREGREP_COLOUR or PCREGREP_COLOR. The value
130			of this variable should be a string of two numbers, separated by a semicolon.
131			They are copied directly into the control string for setting colour on a
132			terminal, so it is your responsibility to ensure that they make sense. If
133			neither of the environment variables is set, the default is "1;31", which gives
134			red.
135			</P>
136			<P>
137			<b>-D</b> <i>action</i>, <b>--devices=</b><i>action</i>
138			If an input path is not a regular file or a directory, "action" specifies how
139			it is to be processed. Valid values are "read" (the default) or "skip"
140			(silently skip the path).
141			</P>
142			<P>
143			<b>-d</b> <i>action</i>, <b>--directories=</b><i>action</i>
144			If an input path is a directory, "action" specifies how it is to be processed.
145			Valid values are "read" (the default), "recurse" (equivalent to the <b>-r</b>
146			option), or "skip" (silently skip the path). In the default case, directories
147			are read as if they were ordinary files. In some operating systems the effect
148			of reading a directory like this is an immediate end-of-file.
149			</P>
150			<P>
151			<b>-e</b> <i>pattern</i>, <b>--regex=</b><i>pattern</i>,
152			<b>--regexp=</b><i>pattern</i> Specify a pattern to be matched. This option can
153			be used multiple times in order to specify several patterns. It can also be
154			used as a way of specifying a single pattern that starts with a hyphen. When
155			<b>-e</b> is used, no argument pattern is taken from the command line; all
156			arguments are treated as file names. There is an overall maximum of 100
157			patterns. They are applied to each line in the order in which they are defined
158			until one matches (or fails to match if <b>-v</b> is used). If <b>-f</b> is used
159			with <b>-e</b>, the command line patterns are matched first, followed by the
160			patterns from the file, independent of the order in which these options are
161			specified. Note that multiple use of <b>-e</b> is not the same as a single
162			pattern with alternatives. For example, X\|Y finds the first character in a line
163			that is X or Y, whereas if the two patterns are given separately,
164			<b>pcregrep</b> finds X if it is present, even if it follows Y in the line. It
165			finds Y only if there is no X in the line. This really matters only if you are
166			using <b>-o</b> to show the portion of the line that matched.
167			</P>
168			<P>
169	nigel	77	<b>--exclude</b>=<i>pattern</i>
170			When <b>pcregrep</b> is searching the files in a directory as a consequence of
171			the <b>-r</b> (recursive search) option, any files whose names match the pattern
172			are excluded. The pattern is a PCRE regular expression. If a file name matches
173			both <b>--include</b> and <b>--exclude</b>, it is excluded. There is no short
174			form for this option.
175			</P>
176			<P>
177	nigel	87	<b>-F</b>, <b>--fixed-strings</b>
178			Interpret each pattern as a list of fixed strings, separated by newlines,
179			instead of as a regular expression. The <b>-w</b> (match as a word) and <b>-x</b>
180			(match whole line) options can be used with <b>-F</b>. They apply to each of the
181			fixed strings. A line is selected if any of the fixed strings are found in it
182			(subject to <b>-w</b> or <b>-x</b>, if present).
183	nigel	63	</P>
184			<P>
185	nigel	87	<b>-f</b> <i>filename</i>, <b>--file=</b><i>filename</i>
186			Read a number of patterns from the file, one per line, and match them against
187			each line of input. A data line is output if any of the patterns match it. The
188			filename can be given as "-" to refer to the standard input. When <b>-f</b> is
189			used, patterns specified on the command line using <b>-e</b> may also be
190			present; they are tested before the file's patterns. However, no other pattern
191			is taken from the command line; all arguments are treated as file names. There
192			is an overall maximum of 100 patterns. Trailing white space is removed from
193			each line, and blank lines are ignored. An empty file contains no patterns and
194			therefore matches nothing.
195	nigel	63	</P>
196			<P>
197	nigel	87	<b>-H</b>, <b>--with-filename</b>
198			Force the inclusion of the filename at the start of output lines when searching
199			a single file. By default, the filename is not shown in this case. For matching
200			lines, the filename is followed by a colon and a space; for context lines, a
201			hyphen separator is used. If a line number is also being output, it follows the
202			file name without a space.
203			</P>
204			<P>
205			<b>-h</b>, <b>--no-filename</b>
206			Suppress the output filenames when searching multiple files. By default,
207			filenames are shown when multiple files are searched. For matching lines, the
208			filename is followed by a colon and a space; for context lines, a hyphen
209			separator is used. If a line number is also being output, it follows the file
210			name without a space.
211			</P>
212			<P>
213			<b>--help</b>
214			Output a brief help message and exit.
215			</P>
216			<P>
217			<b>-i</b>, <b>--ignore-case</b>
218	nigel	63	Ignore upper/lower case distinctions during comparisons.
219			</P>
220			<P>
221	nigel	77	<b>--include</b>=<i>pattern</i>
222			When <b>pcregrep</b> is searching the files in a directory as a consequence of
223	nigel	87	the <b>-r</b> (recursive search) option, only those files whose names match the
224	nigel	77	pattern are included. The pattern is a PCRE regular expression. If a file name
225			matches both <b>--include</b> and <b>--exclude</b>, it is excluded. There is no
226			short form for this option.
227			</P>
228			<P>
229	nigel	87	<b>-L</b>, <b>--files-without-match</b>
230			Instead of outputting lines from the files, just output the names of the files
231			that do not contain any lines that would have been output. Each file name is
232			output once, on a separate line.
233	nigel	77	</P>
234			<P>
235	nigel	87	<b>-l</b>, <b>--files-with-matches</b>
236			Instead of outputting lines from the files, just output the names of the files
237			containing lines that would have been output. Each file name is output
238			once, on a separate line. Searching stops as soon as a matching line is found
239			in a file.
240	nigel	63	</P>
241			<P>
242	nigel	77	<b>--label</b>=<i>name</i>
243			This option supplies a name to be used for the standard input when file names
244	nigel	87	are being output. If not supplied, "(standard input)" is used. There is no
245	nigel	77	short form for this option.
246			</P>
247			<P>
248	nigel	87	<b>--locale</b>=<i>locale-name</i>
249			This option specifies a locale to be used for pattern matching. It overrides
250			the value in the <b>LC_ALL</b> or <b>LC_CTYPE</b> environment variables. If no
251			locale is specified, the PCRE library's default (usually the "C" locale) is
252			used. There is no short form for this option.
253			</P>
254			<P>
255			<b>-M</b>, <b>--multiline</b>
256	nigel	77	Allow patterns to match more than one line. When this option is given, patterns
257			may usefully contain literal newline characters and internal occurrences of ^
258			and $ characters. The output for any one match may consist of more than one
259			line. When this option is set, the PCRE library is called in "multiline" mode.
260			There is a limit to the number of lines that can be matched, imposed by the way
261			that <b>pcregrep</b> buffers the input file as it scans it. However,
262			<b>pcregrep</b> ensures that at least 8K characters or the rest of the document
263			(whichever is the shorter) are available for forward matching, and similarly
264			the previous 8K characters (or all the previous characters, if fewer than 8K)
265			are guaranteed to be available for lookbehind assertions.
266			</P>
267			<P>
268	nigel	87	<b>-n</b>, <b>--line-number</b>
269			Precede each output line by its line number in the file, followed by a colon
270			and a space for matching lines or a hyphen and a space for context lines. If
271			the filename is also being output, it precedes the line number.
272	nigel	63	</P>
273			<P>
274	nigel	87	<b>-o</b>, <b>--only-matching</b>
275			Show only the part of the line that matched a pattern. In this mode, no
276			context is shown. That is, the <b>-A</b>, <b>-B</b>, and <b>-C</b> options are
277			ignored.
278	nigel	77	</P>
279			<P>
280	nigel	87	<b>-q</b>, <b>--quiet</b>
281			Work quietly, that is, display nothing except error messages. The exit
282			status indicates whether or not any matches were found.
283			</P>
284			<P>
285			<b>-r</b>, <b>--recursive</b>
286	nigel	77	If any given path is a directory, recursively scan the files it contains,
287	nigel	87	taking note of any <b>--include</b> and <b>--exclude</b> settings. By default, a
288			directory is read as a normal file; in some operating systems this gives an
289			immediate end-of-file. This option is a shorthand for setting the <b>-d</b>
290			option to "recurse".
291	nigel	63	</P>
292			<P>
293	nigel	87	<b>-s</b>, <b>--no-messages</b>
294	nigel	77	Suppress error messages about non-existent or unreadable files. Such files are
295			quietly skipped. However, the return code is still 2, even if matches were
296			found in other files.
297	nigel	63	</P>
298			<P>
299	nigel	87	<b>-u</b>, <b>--utf-8</b>
300	nigel	63	Operate in UTF-8 mode. This option is available only if PCRE has been compiled
301	nigel	87	with UTF-8 support. Both patterns and subject lines must be valid strings of
302			UTF-8 characters.
303	nigel	63	</P>
304			<P>
305	nigel	87	<b>-V</b>, <b>--version</b>
306	nigel	77	Write the version numbers of <b>pcregrep</b> and the PCRE library that is being
307			used to the standard error stream.
308			</P>
309			<P>
310	nigel	87	<b>-v</b>, <b>--invert-match</b>
311			Invert the sense of the match, so that lines which do <i>not</i> match any of
312			the patterns are the ones that are found.
313	nigel	63	</P>
314			<P>
315	nigel	87	<b>-w</b>, <b>--word-regex</b>, <b>--word-regexp</b>
316			Force the patterns to match only whole words. This is equivalent to having \b
317	nigel	77	at the start and end of the pattern.
318			</P>
319			<P>
320	nigel	87	<b>-x</b>, <b>--line-regex</b>, \fP--line-regexp\fP
321			Force the patterns to be anchored (each must start matching at the beginning of
322			a line) and in addition, require them to match entire lines. This is
323	nigel	63	equivalent to having ^ and $ characters at the start and end of each
324	nigel	87	alternative branch in every pattern.
325	nigel	63	</P>
326	nigel	87	<br><a name="SEC4" href="#TOC1">ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES</a><br>
327	nigel	63	<P>
328	nigel	87	The environment variables <b>LC_ALL</b> and <b>LC_CTYPE</b> are examined, in that
329			order, for a locale. The first one that is set is used. This can be overridden
330			by the <b>--locale</b> option. If no locale is set, the PCRE library's default
331			(usually the "C" locale) is used.
332	nigel	77	</P>
333	nigel	87	<br><a name="SEC5" href="#TOC1">OPTIONS COMPATIBILITY</a><br>
334	nigel	77	<P>
335	nigel	87	The majority of short and long forms of <b>pcregrep</b>'s options are the same
336			as in the GNU <b>grep</b> program. Any long option of the form
337			<b>--xxx-regexp</b> (GNU terminology) is also available as <b>--xxx-regex</b>
338			(PCRE terminology). However, the <b>--locale</b>, <b>-M</b>, <b>--multiline</b>,
339			<b>-u</b>, and <b>--utf-8</b> options are specific to <b>pcregrep</b>.
340			</P>
341			<br><a name="SEC6" href="#TOC1">OPTIONS WITH DATA</a><br>
342			<P>
343	nigel	77	There are four different ways in which an option with data can be specified.
344			If a short form option is used, the data may follow immediately, or in the next
345			command line item. For example:
346			<pre>
347			-f/some/file
348			-f /some/file
349	nigel	75	</pre>
350	nigel	77	If a long form option is used, the data may appear in the same command line
351	nigel	87	item, separated by an equals character, or (with one exception) it may appear
352			in the next command line item. For example:
353	nigel	77	<pre>
354			--file=/some/file
355			--file /some/file
356	nigel	87	</pre>
357			Note, however, that if you want to supply a file name beginning with ~ as data
358			in a shell command, and have the shell expand ~ to a home directory, you must
359			separate the file name from the option, because the shell does not treat ~
360			specially unless it is at the start of an item.
361	nigel	63	</P>
362			<P>
363	nigel	87	The exception to the above is the <b>--colour</b> (or <b>--color</b>) option,
364			for which the data is optional. If this option does have data, it must be given
365			in the first form, using an equals character. Otherwise it will be assumed that
366			it has no data.
367			</P>
368			<br><a name="SEC7" href="#TOC1">MATCHING ERRORS</a><br>
369			<P>
370			It is possible to supply a regular expression that takes a very long time to
371			fail to match certain lines. Such patterns normally involve nested indefinite
372			repeats, for example: (a+)*\d when matched against a line of a's with no final
373			digit. The PCRE matching function has a resource limit that causes it to abort
374			in these circumstances. If this happens, <b>pcregrep</b> outputs an error
375			message and the line that caused the problem to the standard error stream. If
376			there are more than 20 such errors, <b>pcregrep</b> gives up.
377			</P>
378			<br><a name="SEC8" href="#TOC1">DIAGNOSTICS</a><br>
379			<P>
380	nigel	63	Exit status is 0 if any matches were found, 1 if no matches were found, and 2
381	nigel	77	for syntax errors and non-existent or inacessible files (even if matches were
382	nigel	87	found in other files) or too many matching errors. Using the <b>-s</b> option to
383			suppress error messages about inaccessble files does not affect the return
384			code.
385	nigel	63	</P>
386	nigel	87	<br><a name="SEC9" href="#TOC1">AUTHOR</a><br>
387	nigel	63	<P>
388	nigel	77	Philip Hazel
389	nigel	63	<br>
390			University Computing Service
391			<br>
392			Cambridge CB2 3QG, England.
393			</P>
394			<P>
395	nigel	87	Last updated: 23 January 2006
396	nigel	63	<br>
397	nigel	87	Copyright © 1997-2006 University of Cambridge.
398	nigel	75	<p>
399			Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
400			</p>