[SOLVED] Search for specific string containing "/" on remote hosts

keif · 11-26-2013, 05:39 PM

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to set up a script to search a file in several remote hosts for a specific text:

Code:

I 0 0 \ 7 \

The problem is in order to run a grep command on a remote host I need to put the command in quotations. But in order to grep the specific string I need the characters to also be in quotations.

When I do the following below it brings back all the lines from the file. I was hoping someone had a better idea how I can accomplish bring back only the lines that contain I 0 0 \ 7 \ in them on the remote hosts. Thanks.

Code:

for STORE in `cat /tmp/cbrain-only-storelist`
do
echo ====================
echo $STORE
                ping -c 1 $STORE > /dev/null 2>/dev/null
PingResult=$?
                if [ $PingResult -eq 0 ]; then
                        ssh root@$STORE grep "I 0 0 \ 7 \" /tmp/engine.log 
        else
                echo ==============
                        echo "Store down"
fi
done

suicidaleggroll · 11-26-2013, 06:05 PM

Use single quotes and delimit your slashes

Code:

grep 'I 0 0 \\ 7 \\' file

keif · 11-26-2013, 06:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suicidaleggroll

Use single quotes and delimit your slashes

Code:

grep 'I 0 0 \\ 7 \\' file

Thanks for the reply.

This works if I am logged into the host and run the command. But it doesn't work when I try and put it into a script and run it from a remote host.

When I try it with just the single quotes, it brings back a bunch of lines that aren't related to the specific string:

Code:

ssh root@$STORE grep -a 'I 0 0 \\ 7 \\' /tmp/engine.log

When I run it with quotes around the whole command it doesn't bring back anything:

Code:

ssh root@$STORE "grep -a 'I 0 0 \\ 7 \\' /tmp/engine.log"

Thanks for any information you can provide. I'm still searching around online too.

Thanks.

suicidaleggroll · 11-26-2013, 07:49 PM

In that case, you'll need to delimit the delimiter

Code:

ssh user@IP "grep -a 'I 0 0 \\\\ 7 \\\\' tempfile"

ssh will use the delimiters to pass the literal "I 0 0 \\ 7 \\" to grep, then grep will use the delimiters to search for "I 0 0 \ 7 \".

ntubski · 11-27-2013, 10:57 AM

Since you are matching a plain string and not a regexp, you can pass -F to grep and avoid one layer of escaping.

grep(1):

Quote:

-F, --fixed-strings

Interpret PATTERN as a list of fixed strings, separated by newlines, any of which is to be matched. (-F is specified by POSIX .)

keif · 11-28-2013, 07:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suicidaleggroll

In that case, you'll need to delimit the delimiter

Code:

ssh user@IP "grep -a 'I 0 0 \\\\ 7 \\\\' tempfile"

ssh will use the delimiters to pass the literal "I 0 0 \\ 7 \\" to grep, then grep will use the delimiters to search for "I 0 0 \ 7 \".

This worked great. And thank you for explaining the workings behind it so I can understand it better.