This is the proper way to use grep. You do not need to use cat at all. This method works well and is one command, not two piping together.
jason@jason-desktop:~/Documents$ grep apt-get ../.bash_history sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install me-tv sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install xvst apt-get moo apt-get moo |
This is how to count the occurrences of the search string in a file.
jason@jason-desktop:~$ grep -c "ssh" .bash_history 10 |
It does not even matter if the user is not sure if the search string desired is upper case or lower case. The -i parameter allows searching for a string that is any combination of upper or lower case letters.
jason@jason-desktop:~$ grep -i "APT-GET" .bash_history sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install me-tv sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install xvst apt-get moo apt-get moo |
This is how to only return the search string you were looking for. Use the -o parameter to only show the search result string.
jason@jason-desktop:~$ grep -o -i "Snowbox" magik-1.txt SnowBox SnowBox |
Does the user want to know which line of the file the search result is on? Then use the -n parameter. This prepends line numbers on to the results.
jason@jason-desktop:~$ grep -o -n -i "Snowbox" magik-1.txt 735:SnowBox 736:SnowBox |
This is very useful for finding an entry in a very long text file.