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How to search inside files with grep in Linux
Search file contents with grep: recursive, case-insensitive, line numbers, whole words, regex, and surrounding context.
Search for text inside files. grep prints matching lines; the common flags make it recursive and case-insensitive and add line numbers and context.
# Recursive, case-insensitive, with line numbers (skip binaries)
grep -rniI 'error' /var/log
# Whole word only
grep -rw 'oracle' /etc
# Extended regex
grep -rE 'warn|error|fatal' /var/log/messages
# 3 lines of context around each match
grep -n -C 3 'ORA-' alert.log
# Just count matches
grep -c 'ORA-' alert.logLinuxgrepSearch