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<html>
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<head>
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<title>pcregrep specification</title>
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</head>
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<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#00005A" link="#0066FF" alink="#3399FF" vlink="#2222BB">
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<h1>pcregrep man page</h1>
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<p>
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Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
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</p>
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<p>
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This page is part of the PCRE HTML documentation. It was generated automatically
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from the original man page. If there is any nonsense in it, please consult the
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man page, in case the conversion went wrong.
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<br>
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<ul>
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<li><a name="TOC1" href="#SEC1">SYNOPSIS</a>
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<li><a name="TOC2" href="#SEC2">DESCRIPTION</a>
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<li><a name="TOC3" href="#SEC3">OPTIONS</a>
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<li><a name="TOC4" href="#SEC4">LONG OPTIONS</a>
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<li><a name="TOC5" href="#SEC5">OPTIONS WITH DATA</a>
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<li><a name="TOC6" href="#SEC6">DIAGNOSTICS</a>
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<li><a name="TOC7" href="#SEC7">AUTHOR</a>
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</ul>
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<br><a name="SEC1" href="#TOC1">SYNOPSIS</a><br>
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<P>
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<b>pcregrep [options] [long options] [pattern] [file1 file2 ...]</b>
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</P>
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<br><a name="SEC2" href="#TOC1">DESCRIPTION</a><br>
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<P>
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<b>pcregrep</b> searches files for character patterns, in the same way as other
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grep commands do, but it uses the PCRE regular expression library to support
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patterns that are compatible with the regular expressions of Perl 5. See
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<a href="pcrepattern.html"><b>pcrepattern</b></a>
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for a full description of syntax and semantics of the regular expressions that
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PCRE supports.
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</P>
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<P>
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A pattern must be specified on the command line unless the <b>-f</b> option is
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used (see below).
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</P>
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<P>
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If no files are specified, <b>pcregrep</b> reads the standard input. The
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standard input can also be referenced by a name consisting of a single hyphen.
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For example:
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<pre>
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pcregrep some-pattern /file1 - /file3
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</pre>
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By default, each line that matches the pattern is copied to the standard
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output, and if there is more than one file, the file name is printed before
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each line of output. However, there are options that can change how
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<b>pcregrep</b> behaves. In particular, the <b>-M</b> option makes it possible to
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search for patterns that span line boundaries.
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</P>
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<P>
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Patterns are limited to 8K or BUFSIZ characters, whichever is the greater.
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BUFSIZ is defined in <b><stdio.h></b>.
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</P>
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<br><a name="SEC3" href="#TOC1">OPTIONS</a><br>
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<P>
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<b>--</b>
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This terminate the list of options. It is useful if the next item on the
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command line starts with a hyphen, but is not an option.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>-A</b> <i>number</i>
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Print <i>number</i> lines of context after each matching line. If file names
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and/or line numbers are being printed, a hyphen separator is used instead of a
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colon for the context lines. A line containing "--" is printed between each
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group of lines, unless they are in fact contiguous in the input file. The value
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of <i>number</i> is expected to be relatively small. However, <b>pcregrep</b>
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guarantees to have up to 8K of following text available for context printing.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>-B</b> <i>number</i>
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Print <i>number</i> lines of context before each matching line. If file names
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and/or line numbers are being printed, a hyphen separator is used instead of a
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colon for the context lines. A line containing "--" is printed between each
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group of lines, unless they are in fact contiguous in the input file. The value
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of <i>number</i> is expected to be relatively small. However, <b>pcregrep</b>
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guarantees to have up to 8K of preceding text available for context printing.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>-C</b> <i>number</i>
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Print <i>number</i> lines of context both before and after each matching line.
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This is equivalent to setting both <b>-A</b> and <b>-B</b> to the same value.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>-c</b>
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Do not print individual lines; instead just print a count of the number of
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lines that would otherwise have been printed. If several files are given, a
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count is printed for each of them.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>--exclude</b>=<i>pattern</i>
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When <b>pcregrep</b> is searching the files in a directory as a consequence of
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the <b>-r</b> (recursive search) option, any files whose names match the pattern
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are excluded. The pattern is a PCRE regular expression. If a file name matches
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both <b>--include</b> and <b>--exclude</b>, it is excluded. There is no short
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form for this option.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>-f</b><i>filename</i>
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Read a number of patterns from the file, one per line, and match all of them
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against each line of input. A line is output if any of the patterns match it.
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When <b>-f</b> is used, no pattern is taken from the command line; all arguments
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are treated as file names. There is a maximum of 100 patterns. Trailing white
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space is removed, and blank lines are ignored. An empty file contains no
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patterns and therefore matches nothing.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>-h</b>
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Suppress printing of filenames when searching multiple files.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>-i</b>
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Ignore upper/lower case distinctions during comparisons.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>--include</b>=<i>pattern</i>
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When <b>pcregrep</b> is searching the files in a directory as a consequence of
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the <b>-r</b> (recursive search) option, only files whose names match the
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pattern are included. The pattern is a PCRE regular expression. If a file name
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matches both <b>--include</b> and <b>--exclude</b>, it is excluded. There is no
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short form for this option.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>-L</b>
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Instead of printing lines from the files, just print the names of the files
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that do not contain any lines that would have been printed. Each file name is
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printed once, on a separate line.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>-l</b>
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Instead of printing lines from the files, just print the names of the files
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containing lines that would have been printed. Each file name is printed
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once, on a separate line.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>--label</b>=<i>name</i>
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This option supplies a name to be used for the standard input when file names
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are being printed. If not supplied, "(standard input)" is used. There is no
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short form for this option.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>-M</b>
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Allow patterns to match more than one line. When this option is given, patterns
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may usefully contain literal newline characters and internal occurrences of ^
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and $ characters. The output for any one match may consist of more than one
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line. When this option is set, the PCRE library is called in "multiline" mode.
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There is a limit to the number of lines that can be matched, imposed by the way
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that <b>pcregrep</b> buffers the input file as it scans it. However,
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<b>pcregrep</b> ensures that at least 8K characters or the rest of the document
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(whichever is the shorter) are available for forward matching, and similarly
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the previous 8K characters (or all the previous characters, if fewer than 8K)
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are guaranteed to be available for lookbehind assertions.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>-n</b>
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Precede each line by its line number in the file.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>-q</b>
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Work quietly, that is, display nothing except error messages.
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The exit status indicates whether or not any matches were found.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>-r</b>
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If any given path is a directory, recursively scan the files it contains,
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taking note of any <b>--include</b> and <b>--exclude</b> settings. Without
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<b>-r</b> a directory is scanned as a normal file.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>-s</b>
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Suppress error messages about non-existent or unreadable files. Such files are
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quietly skipped. However, the return code is still 2, even if matches were
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found in other files.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>-u</b>
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Operate in UTF-8 mode. This option is available only if PCRE has been compiled
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with UTF-8 support. Both the pattern and each subject line must be valid
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strings of UTF-8 characters.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>-V</b>
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Write the version numbers of <b>pcregrep</b> and the PCRE library that is being
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used to the standard error stream.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>-v</b>
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Invert the sense of the match, so that lines which do <i>not</i> match the
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pattern are the ones that are found.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>-w</b>
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Force the pattern to match only whole words. This is equivalent to having \b
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at the start and end of the pattern.
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>-x</b>
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Force the pattern to be anchored (it must start matching at the beginning of
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the line) and in addition, require it to match the entire line. This is
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equivalent to having ^ and $ characters at the start and end of each
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alternative branch in the regular expression.
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</P>
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<br><a name="SEC4" href="#TOC1">LONG OPTIONS</a><br>
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<P>
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Long forms of all the options are available, as in GNU grep. They are shown in
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the following table:
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<pre>
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-A --after-context
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-B --before-context
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-C --context
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-c --count
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--exclude (no short form)
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-f --file
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-h --no-filename
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--help (no short form)
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-i --ignore-case
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--include (no short form)
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-L --files-without-match
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-l --files-with-matches
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--label (no short form)
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-n --line-number
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-r --recursive
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-q --quiet
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-s --no-messages
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-u --utf-8
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-V --version
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-v --invert-match
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-x --line-regex
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-x --line-regexp
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</PRE>
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</P>
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<br><a name="SEC5" href="#TOC1">OPTIONS WITH DATA</a><br>
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<P>
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There are four different ways in which an option with data can be specified.
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If a short form option is used, the data may follow immediately, or in the next
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command line item. For example:
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<pre>
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-f/some/file
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-f /some/file
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</pre>
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If a long form option is used, the data may appear in the same command line
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item, separated by an = character, or it may appear in the next command line
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item. For example:
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<pre>
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--file=/some/file
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--file /some/file
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</PRE>
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</P>
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<br><a name="SEC6" href="#TOC1">DIAGNOSTICS</a><br>
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<P>
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Exit status is 0 if any matches were found, 1 if no matches were found, and 2
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for syntax errors and non-existent or inacessible files (even if matches were
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found in other files). Using the <b>-s</b> option to suppress error messages
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about inaccessble files does not affect the return code.
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</P>
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<br><a name="SEC7" href="#TOC1">AUTHOR</a><br>
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<P>
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Philip Hazel
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<br>
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University Computing Service
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<br>
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Cambridge CB2 3QG, England.
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</P>
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<P>
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Last updated: 16 May 2005
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<br>
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Copyright © 1997-2005 University of Cambridge.
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<p>
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Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
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</p>
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