Find a file in linux that contains String "Hello CS6823"

karthik.rajashekaran · 06-07-2014, 01:14 PM

How to find a file in the Linux box that contains the string “Hello
CS6823” minus the quotes

Say we don't know which directory and which file name does it contain the String "Hello CS6823"

The below command can give output only if you know the directory

grep –H –r “Hello CS6823” /etc/

salasi · 06-07-2014, 02:23 PM

Before I start, did the man page help on this subject?

Aia · 06-07-2014, 02:24 PM

Quote:

grep –H –r “Hello CS6823” /etc/

-H is the default when doing recursive

Code:

grep -r "Hello CS6823" / 2>/dev/null

jdkaye · 06-07-2014, 02:48 PM

You can also use the Find File/Folder utility in your file manager. In KDE it's in either Dolphin or Konqueror. You just set the "Named" parameter as * (be sure to check hidden files and look in subfolders) and set the Look in: parameter as "/" and then in the contents tab you can put in whatever content you wish to look for in the files.
jdk

karthik.rajashekaran · 06-07-2014, 06:27 PM

the above code didnt give me the result

I also tried below one
find -name *.txt |grep -r "Hello CS6823"

find -name *.txt gives me all the text files in the directory .. So i could find one in /etc/findme.txt

but if i do grep along with it , it doesnt search it

allend · 06-07-2014, 09:21 PM

Code:

find -name *.txt |grep -r "Hello CS6823"

That command causes the list of file names output by find to be piped to grep. As those file names do not contain the string "Hello CS6823", then there is no output.

Perhaps this is what you want

Code:

find . -name "*.txt" -exec grep -l "Hello CS6823" '{}' \;

A more robust version that will not be tripped up by filenames containing spaces is

Code:

find . -name "*.txt" -print0 | xargs -0I '{}' grep -l "Hello CS6823" '{}'

karthik.rajashekaran · 06-07-2014, 10:16 PM

When I tried with below command . I got the output as shown in snap1 attachment

find . -name "*.txt" -exec grep -1 "Hello CS6823" '{}' 2>/dev/null \;

It doesnt show me which file contains that string "Hello CS6823"

allend · 06-07-2014, 10:18 PM

The argument to grep is lowercase 'L' not the digit '1'.

karthik.rajashekaran · 06-07-2014, 10:23 PM

amazing .. thanks a lot allend

karthik.rajashekaran · 06-07-2014, 10:26 PM

Hi

When i try to run the command from the home directory it doesn't find as below screenshot

But if i do cd / which goes to root directory and run it finds the result

allend · 06-07-2014, 10:32 PM

You can specify the top directory where the find command is to start looking.
e.g. This will start in the root directory

Code:

find / -name "*.txt" -print0 | xargs -0I '{}' grep -l "Hello CS6823" '{}'

Previously I used '.' , which is the current directory.

karthik.rajashekaran · 06-07-2014, 10:35 PM

Super thanks a ton .. its interesting tons to learn