Get line number while using grep

Question

I am using grep recursive to search files for a string, and all the matched files and the lines containing that string are print on the terminal. But is it possible to get the line numbers of those lines too??

ex: presently what I get is /var/www/file.php: $options = "this.target", but what I am trying to get is /var/www/file.php: 1142 $options = "this.target";, well where 1142 would be the line number containing that string.

Syntax I am using to grep recursively is sudo grep -r 'pattern' '/var/www/file.php'

One more question is, how do we get results for not equal to a pattern. Like all the files but not the ones having a certain string?

The -v flag will show lines that do not match ( grep -v myText MyFile.txt ) — bcarroll, Apr 24 '14 at 13:08

score 677 · Accepted Answer · edited May 10 '20 at 14:10

677

grep -n SEARCHTERM file1 file2 ...

edited May 10 '20 at 14:10

Dominykas Mostauskis

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answered Jul 09 '10 at 14:52

Miro A.

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I had another quick question, how do we get results for not equal to a pattern. Like all the files but not the ones having a certain string? – sai Jul 09 '10 at 15:23
5

that would be command line switch -v. If you run 'grep --help' it will display all options – Miro A. Jul 09 '10 at 16:05
58

You don't need `-r` if you specify multiple files. You only need `-r` if you specify directories. – Sparhawk Oct 21 '15 at 10:10
@JeanPaul - I see same result for both -nr and -n -r. What version of grep are you using ? $ grep -n -r name * | wc -l 1984 $ grep -nr name * | wc -l 1984 $ grep -V grep (BSD grep) 2.5.1-FreeBSD – Miro A. Mar 09 '18 at 10:47
Code only answer, no explanation. :S – Itération 122442 Apr 02 '20 at 09:35

carlodef · Answer 2 · 2014-02-06T18:36:58.343

181

Line numbers are printed with grep -n:

grep -n pattern file.txt

To get only the line number (without the matching line), one may use cut:

grep -n pattern file.txt | cut -d : -f 1

Lines not containing a pattern are printed with grep -v:

grep -v pattern file.txt

edited Feb 06 '14 at 18:36

answered Jan 28 '14 at 17:20

carlodef

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And last matching line number: `grep -n pattern file.txt | cut -d : -f 1 | tail -1` (you can save this to a variable and use it to e.g tail file from it) – Nux May 07 '14 at 14:08
And to remove the number/colon at the beginning of each string you can use something like: `grep -n pattern file.txt | sed 's/^[0-9][0-9]*://'` – leetbacoon Aug 05 '19 at 00:02

score 31 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 15 '21 at 07:09

31

If you want only the line number do this:

grep -n Pattern file.ext | gawk '{print $1}' FS=":"

Example:

$ grep -n 9780545460262 EXT20130410.txt | gawk '{print $1}' FS=":" 
48793
52285
54023

edited Jan 15 '21 at 07:09

quotesBro

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answered Aug 14 '13 at 22:10

Cloud Falls

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`awk -F: '{print $1}'` also works & you don't need `-r` in `grep` when used on files (only directories can be searched recursively) – Stuart Cardall Sep 19 '17 at 22:49
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How to separate `awk '{print $1}' FS=":"` results and save them in a variable for future manipulations? – Yohan W. Dunon Aug 02 '21 at 13:31

score 13 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 30 '14 at 08:09

13

grep -A20 -B20 pattern file.txt

Search pattern and show 20 lines after and before pattern

edited Apr 30 '14 at 08:09

fedorqui

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answered Apr 30 '14 at 08:08

emilio

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This is not at all what was asked for. – Jonathon Reinhart Jul 27 '15 at 12:25
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Also, `-C20` is a shorter version if that's what was wanted – Marty Neal Oct 03 '17 at 23:36
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Lets face it tough - it's an excelent answer for many of us, who google in here while sifting through log files :) – Igand Sep 14 '20 at 13:09
@JonathonReinhart That may not have been exactly what the OP asked for, but *I* found it quite useful, and I would encourage folks who answer this type of question to continue adding that sort of tidbit. – Howard Lee Harkness May 04 '22 at 12:47

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited Jul 11 '17 at 09:17

2

grep -nr "search string" directory

This gives you the line with the line number.

edited Jul 11 '17 at 09:17

gorkem

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answered Jul 10 '17 at 19:39

randomguy

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Fuad Fouad · Answer 6 · 2019-05-15T21:48:22.693

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In order to display the results with the line numbers, you might try this

grep -nr "word to search for" /path/to/file/file

The result should be something like this:

linenumber: other data "word to search for" other data

edited May 15 '19 at 21:48

answered May 28 '18 at 16:40

Fuad Fouad

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Nov 25 '21 at 17:06

When working with vim you can place

function grepn() {
    grep -n $@ /dev/null | awk -F $':' '{t = $1; $1 = $2; $2 = t; print; }' OFS=$':' | sed 's/^/vim +/' | sed '/:/s// /' | sed '/:/s// : /'
}

in your .bashrc and then

grepn SEARCHTERM file1 file2 ...

results in

vim +123 file1 : xxxxxxSEARCHTERMxxxxxxxxxx
vim +234 file2 : xxxxxxSEARCHTERMxxxxxxxxxx

Now, you can open vim on the correspondending line (for example line 123) by simply copying vim +123 file1 to your shell.

Get line number while using grep

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