Copy lines starting and ending with specific pattern from multiple files to a file

ssn · 07-27-2011, 01:22 AM

Hi,

A function by name abc is called in many files. I want to copy all the lines with the function call to an output file.
A simple grep on function name doesn't help me as the function call is spanning across multiple lines as follows:

abc(parameter1,
parameter2,
parameter3);

So I want to copy all the three lines (till semicolon) to the output file.

The problem is because there are more than 200 calls for the same function and I cannot do it manually

Thanks in advance.

druuna · 07-27-2011, 03:43 AM

Hi,

It is not clear from your post if the function(s) you are looking for always span 3 lines.

Maybe one of these will do what you want:

Code:

always 3 lines
grep "^.*(" -A2 infile > outfile

Varying lines
sed -n '/.*(/,/);/p' infile > outfile

Hope this helps.

grail · 07-27-2011, 10:44 AM

So how about:

Code:

awk 'BEGIN{ORS=RS=";"}/abc\(/' file