pcregrep matching stop at 1st occurrence

Question

I am implementing a multiline search in UNIX using 'pcregrep'. I want the matching to stop at the 1st occurrence.

e.g. if i have below text in a file:

mynameishin
hahahain
internetin
fdhsufsdhuiain
djbssdvbsbsduiain
sduigsyubsuvasdyivsyifvasin

I want to print till the 1st occurrence of 'ain' after 'name'. So i need to print only:

mynameishin
hahahain

I am executing:

pcregrep -M 'name.*ain' *.txt

However I am getting the output as:

mynameishin
hahahain
internetin
fdhsufsdhuiain
djbssdvbsbsduiain

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 09 '14 at 15:20

6

pcregrep -M 'name.*?ain' *.txt

Make it non greedy!!!!!!!!!!!.* is greedy.it will consume all and stop at end.

answered Oct 09 '14 at 15:20

vks

1

@user3921984 do not forget to mark this correct if it workd for you. – vks Oct 09 '14 at 15:41

1 Answers1