find

“find” is a unix command-line tool for locating files (and directories). The results can be displayed, passed to another command (e.g. grep, ls etc, see more below), or the find command has its own limited set of actions that can be performed too, such as delete.

Find allows you to specify all manner of search criteria such as name, location, size, permissions, modify date etc. Using regex expressions with those criteria makes it more flexible still.

See the full find manual here.

(more…)

Tags: bash, find, grep, tools, unix

awk

I think of awk as a tool for searching, manipulating and reporting on text files, but it is in fact an entire programming language. Its basic function is to search files for lines that contain certain patterns, and perform specified actions on that line.

The name awk comes simply from the initials of its designers Aho, Weinberger and Kernighan.

The basic format of an awk command is:

awk pattern { action } file

Every line in ‘file’ matching the ‘pattern’ will have the ‘action’ performed.  Either the pattern or action are optional, but not both.
No pattern means every line is actioned.
No action defaults to print.

(more…)

Tags: awk, bash, grep, tools, unix

grep

“grep” is a unix command line tool to search a file (or files) for lines containing a match to the given pattern (often a regular expression). Its name comes from the ed command g/re/p for globally search a regular expression and print (1). See the grep manual.

The basic syntax is:

grep [options] pattern [files]

Example:

grep -rl --include=*.java "MySearchString" .

(more…)

Tags: bash, grep, tools, unix