Grep ignoring spaces or tabs

ohijames · 06-29-2010, 01:57 PM

I writing a script to go through multiple reports. I want to grep daemon.debug @10.10.10.10 on all reports to make sure it is pointing to the right IP address. the problems is the space between debug and @10 are different on all the reports, some have one space some have two and some have tabs how do I ignore the tabs or spaces and grep daemon.debug @10.10.10.10

daemon.debug /var/log/ftp rotate size 20m files 4 compress
daemon.debug @10.10.10.10
authpriv.* /var/log/secure rotate size 20m files 4 compress
authpriv.* @10.10.10.10

zirias · 06-29-2010, 02:04 PM

Use \s for matching any whitespace character (like space or tab).

e.g. grep -E "daemon\.debug\s+@10\.10\.10\.10"

pixellany · 06-29-2010, 02:05 PM

Code:

egrep 'daemon.debug[[:blank:]]*@10\.10\.10\.10' filename

troop · 06-29-2010, 02:07 PM

or just

Code:

grep "daemon.debug @10.10.10.1"

or

Code:

grep daemon.debug\ @10.10.10.1

pixellany · 06-29-2010, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zirias

Use \s for matching any whitespace character (like space or tab).

e.g. grep -E "daemon.debug\s+@10\.10\.10\.10"

Matches one or more "whitespace characters", whereas mine matches zero or more.

<<you fixed 2nd comment while I was typing>>

ohijames · 06-29-2010, 02:49 PM

@ Pixellany

that worked but do you know why the command below doesn't work the same
grep "daemon.debug[[:blank:]]/var/log/ftp" newfile.txt

zirias · 06-29-2010, 02:52 PM

that matches EXACTLY one whitespace character (btw, \s is just shorthand for [[:blank:]]). If you want to match one or more, append a + (and a * for zero or more)

btw, you are using grep. for regular expression matching, you must use "grep -E" (or egrep, which is shorthand for grep -E)