How to search for a string throughout the whole system?

vous · 02-04-2004, 05:38 AM

I want to search for a string throughout my whole system, but I tried it with:

grep "XXXXXX" /*

and

grep "XXXXXX" /*.*

Anybody that can help me out with the command format?

jim mcnamara · 02-04-2004, 06:02 AM

One way:

Code:

find / -name \* -exec grep "XXXXXX" {} \;

Strike · 02-04-2004, 07:50 AM

Code:

grep -R "XXXXXX" /*

Should work. You have to specify that it needs to recurse through all directories. But if you want to avoid some nastiness that may happen with devices, then using an extension of jim's find command would help:

Code:

find / -type f -exec grep "XXXXXX" {} \;

At least, I think that'll avoid trying to grep devices...

whansard · 02-04-2004, 07:59 AM

and that'll keep it from searching /proc too, which is good, unless you're cracking.

grepping a FIFO (like /dev/mouse) can take a while. as long as you're willing to wait actually. that's why you don't want to grep devices. if you want to search empty file space for text, you may actually want to grep a device, like the hard drive, or a floppy.

vous · 02-04-2004, 09:34 AM

Well...it actually didn't keep it from /proc or other binary files. I let it run for a while, and then all of a sudden my DNS got screwed up?!?!! I couldn't resolve any names anymore?!??! I don't know what happend, I just know the last message I saw on screen was something like...

.
.
.
Binary file /proc/XXX
.
.
.

and that was the end of my system. I rebooted and everything worked again, but it was scary!

Anyways, I ran it again, but not from / but to /usr/local/joe and it found the string and it returned it on screen, but it didn't say in which file? So it basically spat back what I put in the search string.

Any other ideas?

Strike · 02-04-2004, 09:49 AM

add a --with-filename after grep and before the pattern, and it'll print:

Code:

filename:line that matches the pattern

vous · 02-04-2004, 09:57 AM

Right on!

Thank you guys!

whansard · 02-04-2004, 12:03 PM

me big dum dum.
the -mount option would keep find in the same filesystem.

find / -type f -mount -exec grep -H -n pooperscooper {} \;

the -H is the same as the --with-filename and
the -n prints the line number to make it easier to find the match.

vous · 02-04-2004, 12:38 PM

whansard, I have to ask it....

What you have here on your side profile:

"Distribution: RH 6.2, Gen2, Knoppix, Pnut, Mand 8, Suse 8.1, Win3.1,95,98,2000,NT4,+ on 1 drive"

Are you really running all those O.S.s in ONE drive?!?!

whansard · 02-04-2004, 11:11 PM

i had more than that on here, but i recently archived and repartitioned a bunch of stuff to make some free space. i just dumped netbsd, freebsd, and openbsd. i used to have more than 50 OS's spread over 2 drives, but after a bunch of other people started doing it, so it wasn't a big deal anymore, i cut back.
i had to keep stuff written down on a pad to keep track of what was where.
even back in 1992 i had 2 versions of dos and linux on a 40 meg hard drive.
all i could do in linux was ls, cat, and textris, and i couldn't get out of vi if started it, if i remember correctly.

there is a multiple linux for development howto that shows how to put many copies
of linux on 1 partition, and after i started doing that, i didn't need all the partitions.
The multiple bsd's was the hardest thing. and solaris screwed up my partition table, but i fixed it, and solaris would still boot.

i really only use redhat 6.2. well, it used to be redhat 6.2. the only thing it has in common with redhat 6.2 is that the login screen says it is. anyway, it was just a little bragging.