H ow do I recursively search all text files for a string such as foo under UNIX / Linux / *BSD / Mac OS X shell prompt? You can use grep command or find command as follows. Grep command: Recursively Search All Files For A String. The syntax is: cd /path/to/dir grep -r 'word'. Grep -r 'string'. To ignore case distinctions: grep -ri 'word'.

It's fast, it's powerful, and its very name suggests that it does something technical: grep. With this workhorse of the command line, you can quickly find text hidden in your files. Understanding grep is the first step in joining the guild of command-line wizards.

Why Not Use the Finder? It's easy to find files with the Finder when you know their names. But the grep command is a time-saver when you're trying to find what's inside files.

You can use grep easily from the command line to search for specific text, and you'll get results in seconds. (You can also use grep within.) The Finder offers a similar function: the Find By Content search. (Press Command-F in the Finder, select Content in the Search For Items Whose pop-up menu, and enter a search string in the text field.) But the Finder searches only inside files it has indexed, and it ignores hidden system files unless you expressly choose to search for visible and invisible files and add your System folder to the search. The Finder also lacks grep's flexibility: while it's good for searching for a specific word (for example, Walden ), it becomes less useful when you want to find a longer string.

Search for Walden Pond, and it returns all files that contain either Walden or Pond. Using grep also gives you access to regular expressions. These combinations of letters, numbers, wild cards, and other special characters let you find much more than mere words. You can search for just about any string of characters: IP addresses in log files; phone numbers in contact lists; or specific strings containing a series of numbers, letters, or other characters.

Using regular expressions, you're limited only by your imagination. Get a Grip on Grep The grep command looks inside one or several files for the string, or text, you specify.

Its syntax is: grep options search_string file. At its most basic, you tell grep what to look for and where: grep AppleTalk /etc/services, for example. Here, you tell grep to look for AppleTalk in the services file located in the /etc directory.

(This useful file contains a list of network port numbers for commonly used services.) The command displays each line that contains your search string: echo 4/ddp # AppleTalk Echo Protocol at-rtmp 201/udp # AppleTalk Routing Maintenance at-rtmp 201/tcp # AppleTalk Routing Maintenance And so on. You can use the familiar asterisk ( *) wild card to have grep search a group of files in the current working directory, as in grep Walden *.

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