grep in files contaning multiple hyphen ( dash ) in name

Ladowny · 11-15-2013, 06:56 AM

HI

I have log files generated by 3rd party application that are named like this

acct-2013-11-14-0000.csv.gz
acct-2013-11-14-0001.csv.gz
acct-2013-11-15-0000.csv.gz
acct-2013-11-15-0001.csv.gz
acct-2013-11-15-0002.csv.gz

I need to find lines containing a string, so when I do

Code:

$ zgrep mystring ./acct*

I get the result, bu when I try narrowing the search to a particular month like this

Code:

$ zgrep mystring ./acct-2013-11*

I get nothing

When googling the issue I found that hyphen (-) is a special character and that's where my problem comes from. I tried escaping it ( ./acct\-2013\-11* ), but no luck. Any idea how to grep in files containing hyphens ?

Firerat · 11-15-2013, 07:05 AM

try using --

Code:

zgrep -- mystring ./acct-2013-11*

Valery Reznic · 11-17-2013, 12:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Firerat

try using --

Code:

zgrep -- mystring ./acct-2013-11*

Using '--' help only when filename begin with '-', otherwise, while harmless it make no good

sycamorex · 11-17-2013, 03:12 AM

Try the following:

Code:

zgrep mystring ./acct[-]2013[-]11*

Firerat · 11-17-2013, 03:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valery Reznic

Using '--' help only when filename begin with '-', otherwise, while harmless it make no good

it _*should*_ work,

it tells zgrep ( and many other ) programs to treat - as a 'normal' char. ( stop processing -X args )

but you are right, in it is normally useful for things that start - , and makes no difference here

just tested on debian/jessie

I get no problems,

Code:

for i in {0..9};do
    echo "mystring${i}" > acct-2013-11-15-000${i}.cvs
    gzip acct-2013-11-15-000${i}.cvs
done
zgrep mystring acct-2013-11*
zgrep -- mystring acct-2013-11*
zgrep mystring -- acct-2013-11*

all 'work'

@Ladowny

what do you get from this

Code:

zgrep mystring acct-2013-11* ; echo $?

sycamorex · 11-18-2013, 01:01 PM

It looks like the OP has not seen any of the answers (or hasn't seen them being logged in).