[SOLVED] Grep command

prasunjit · 12-15-2012, 08:48 AM

Hello all,
I have a file named output.txt which contains line linux.when i tried with the below command (i included the regex within single and double quotes by mistake)my shell showd the below
$ grep '^li" output.txt
>

could any one please explain why shell is behaving in this way?

grail · 12-15-2012, 08:55 AM

You started a single quote and until the shell sees another it assumes you are simply entering a multi-line string

shivaa · 12-15-2012, 09:31 AM

As @grail pointed out, you're doing a typo in command. Else you can search strings starting with "li" in all ways, as:-

Code:

grep ^li output.txt
OR
grep "^li" output.txt
OR
grep '^li' output.txt

prasunjit · 12-16-2012, 06:55 AM

Thaks a lot @grail,shivaa

David the H. · 12-16-2012, 10:30 AM

It's vital in scripting to understand how the shell handles arguments, whitespace, and quotes. Please check out these links.

http://mywiki.wooledge.org/Arguments
http://mywiki.wooledge.org/WordSplitting
http://mywiki.wooledge.org/Quotes