Print only matching word, not entire line through grep

Question

I am familiar with shell programming in bash, but for some reason egrep -o to print only matching words is not working and displays error as below.

Environment is ksh unix console on putty and not linux or ubuntu terminal......any advice is appreciated!

Terminal input & output :

AB12 $ echo "i am a boy" | grep -w "am"
i am a boy
AB12 $ echo "i am a boy" | egrep -o "am"
egrep: illegal option -- o
usage: egrep [ -bchilnsv ] [ -e exp ] [ -f file ] [ strings ] [ file ] ...
AB12 $ echo$
ksh: echo$: not found
AB12 $ echo $SHELL
/bin/ksh
AB12 $ echo "i am a boy" | grep -o "am"
grep: illegal option -- o
Usage: grep -hblcnsviw pattern file . . .
AB12 $

PS : Similar thread but tried already : Can grep show only words that match search pattern?

You should copy/paste code/terminal output, rather than post a screenshot. Your screenshot is difficult to read, you can't copy/paste from it, and can't edit it (should this be required). — Martin Tournoij, Jul 02 '14 at 09:27
It looks like you're not using GNU grep; which OS are you using? Does `grep -V` or `grep --version` say anything about the version? — Martin Tournoij, Jul 02 '14 at 09:28
posted screen shot not visible properly. Also as 5K rep people should post question nicely. — Jayesh Bhoi, Jul 02 '14 at 09:29
@Carpetsmoker : it says : `Usage: grep -hblcnsviw pattern file . . .` — NoobEditor, Jul 02 '14 at 09:32
You need to download the GNU grep version,[from](http://www.sunfreeware.com/introduction.html) — Jayesh Bhoi, Jul 02 '14 at 09:34
@Jayesh : this is a remote server, installation is not in my hand...i need some solution through programming only! — NoobEditor, Jul 02 '14 at 09:35
if you don't have gnu grep and don't have gnu awk either. I hope you have nawk on your SunOs. There is no shortcut to print those matched part out, you have to use nawk's `match()` and get the matched position and length, extract it, print, then search next match. — Kent, Jul 02 '14 at 10:01
@Tiago : nope...but i really liked your answer, +1 to it!! :) — NoobEditor, Jul 02 '14 at 10:09

score 16 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:01

16

I am assuming this is a Solaris box you are connecting to. Solaris' version of grep does not have the -o option. So you can either

install the GNU grep on your Solaris box (it might already be installed in /usr/sfw/bin, or you might have luck with pkg install //solaris/text/gnu-grep); or
use awk instead (see this SO question)

See on my box:

$ uname
SunOS
$  echo "i am a boy" | grep -o "am"
grep: illegal option -- o
Usage: grep -hblcnsviw pattern file . . .
$  echo "i am a boy" | /usr/sfw/bin/ggrep -o "am"
am

edited May 23 '17 at 12:01

Community

1
1

answered Jul 02 '14 at 09:32

damienfrancois

52,978
9
96
110

any way to identify the *solaris box*? – NoobEditor Jul 02 '14 at 09:33
1

maybe try `uname -a`? – Nicolae Olariu Jul 02 '14 at 09:35
1

See the output of uname -a – damienfrancois Jul 02 '14 at 09:35
@NicolaeOlariu : its says `SunOS **************************************` had to *hide* server details :) – NoobEditor Jul 02 '14 at 09:39
1

Ok `SunOS` is sufficient to conclude a Solaris box. Try the alternatives proposed in my answer. – damienfrancois Jul 02 '14 at 09:41
@damienfrancois : `/usr/sfw/bin/ggrep` did the trick...what is it exactly?? Main library bin files?? – NoobEditor Jul 02 '14 at 10:18
2

`/usr/sfw/bin/` is the path where the GNU version of the UNIX utilities are installed by default on Solaris (when installed) – damienfrancois Jul 02 '14 at 12:12

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 02 '14 at 10:01

5

If you have perl :

echo "I am a boy" | perl -lne '/am/ && print $&'
am

answered Jul 02 '14 at 10:01

Tiago Lopo

7,619
1
30
51

Print only matching word, not entire line through grep

2 Answers2

Linked

Related