Windows PowerShell command on Get-command pcregrep

Manual Pages for UNIX Operating System command usage for man pcregrep

User Commands PCREGREP(1)

NAME

pcregrep - a grep with Perl-compatible regular expressions.

SYNOPSIS

pcregrep [options] [long options] [pattern] [path1

DESCRIPTION

pcregrep searches files for character patterns, in the same

way as other grep commands do, but it uses the PCRE regular expression library to support patterns that are compatible with the regular expressions of Perl 5. See pcrepattern(3)

for a full description of syntax and semantics of the regu-

lar expressions that PCRE supports. Patterns, whether supplied on the command line or in a separate file, are given without delimiters. For example:

pcregrep Thursday /etc/motd

If you attempt to use delimiters (for example, by surround-

ing a pattern with slashes, as is common in Perl scripts), they are interpreted as part of the pattern. Quotes can of course be used to delimit patterns on the command line because they are interpreted by the shell, and indeed they are required if a pattern contains white space or shell metacharacters. The first argument that follows any option settings is

treated as the single pattern to be matched when neither -e

nor -f is present. Conversely, when one or both of these

options are used to specify patterns, all arguments are

treated as path names. At least one of -e, -f, or an argu-

ment pattern must be provided.

If no files are specified, pcregrep reads the standard

input. The standard input can also be referenced by a name consisting of a single hyphen. For example:

pcregrep some-pattern /file1 - /file3

By default, each line that matches a pattern is copied to the standard output, and if there is more than one file, the file name is output at the start of each line, followed by a

colon. However, there are options that can change how pcre-

grep behaves. In particular, the -M option makes it possible

to search for patterns that span line boundaries. What

defines a line boundary is controlled by the -N (--newline)

option. Patterns are limited to 8K or BUFSIZ characters, whichever is the greater. BUFSIZ is defined in . When there SunOS 5.10 Last change: 1 User Commands PCREGREP(1)

is more than one pattern (specified by the use of -e and/or

-f), each pattern is applied to each line in the order in

which they are defined, except that all the -e patterns are

tried before the -f patterns. As soon as one pattern matches

(or fails to match when -v is used), no further patterns are

considered.

When --only-matching, --file-offsets, or --line-offsets is

used, the output is the part of the line that matched (either shown literally, or as an offset). In this case, scanning resumes immediately following the match, so that further matches on the same line can be found. If there are multiple patterns, they are all tried on the remainder of the line. However, patterns that follow the one that matched are not tried on the earlier part of the line.

If the LC_ALL or LC_CTYPE environment variable is set, pcre-

grep uses the value to set a locale when calling the PCRE

library. The --locale option can be used to override this.

SUPPORT FOR COMPRESSED FILES

It is possible to compile pcregrep so that it uses libz or

libbz2 to read files whose names end in .gz or .bz2, respec-

tively. You can find out whether your binary has support for

one or both of these file types by running it with the --

help option. If the appropriate support is not present, files are treated as plain text. The standard input is always so treated. OPTIONS

-- This terminate the list of options. It is useful

if the next item on the command line starts with a hyphen but is not an option. This allows for the processing of patterns and filenames that start with hyphens.

-A number, --after-context=number

Output number lines of context after each matching line. If filenames and/or line numbers are being output, a hyphen separator is used instead of a

colon for the context lines. A line containing "-

-" is output between each group of lines, unless

they are in fact contiguous in the input file. The value of number is expected to be relatively

small. However, pcregrep guarantees to have up to

8K of following text available for context output.

-B number, --before-context=number

Output number lines of context before each match-

ing line. If filenames and/or line numbers are SunOS 5.10 Last change: 2 User Commands PCREGREP(1) being output, a hyphen separator is used instead

of a colon for the context lines. A line contain-

ing "--" is output between each group of lines,

unless they are in fact contiguous in the input

file. The value of number is expected to be rela-

tively small. However, pcregrep guarantees to have

up to 8K of preceding text available for context output.

-C number, --context=number

Output number lines of context both before and after each matching line. This is equivalent to

setting both -A and -B to the same value.

-c, --count

Do not output individual lines; instead just out-

put a count of the number of lines that would oth-

erwise have been output. If several files are given, a count is output for each of them. In this

mode, the -A, -B, and -C options are ignored.

--colour, --color

If this option is given without any data, it is

equivalent to "--colour=auto". If data is

required, it must be given in the same shell item, separated by an equals sign.

--colour=value, --color=value

This option specifies under what circumstances the part of a line that matched a pattern should be coloured in the output. The value may be "never" (the default), "always", or "auto". In the latter

case, colouring happens only if the standard out-

put is connected to a terminal. The colour can be specified by setting the environment variable

PCREGREP_COLOUR or PCREGREP_COLOR. The value of

this variable should be a string of two numbers, separated by a semicolon. They are copied directly into the control string for setting colour on a terminal, so it is your responsibility to ensure that they make sense. If neither of the environment variables is set, the default is "1;31", which gives red.

-D action, --devices=action

If an input path is not a regular file or a direc-

tory, "action" specifies how it is to be pro-

cessed. Valid values are "read" (the default) or "skip" (silently skip the path).

-d action, --directories=action

If an input path is a directory, "action" SunOS 5.10 Last change: 3 User Commands PCREGREP(1) specifies how it is to be processed. Valid values are "read" (the default), "recurse" (equivalent to

the -r option), or "skip" (silently skip the

path). In the default case, directories are read as if they were ordinary files. In some operating systems the effect of reading a directory like

this is an immediate end-of-file.

-e pattern, --regex=pattern, --regexp=pattern

Specify a pattern to be matched. This option can be used multiple times in order to specify several

patterns. It can also be used as a way of specify-

ing a single pattern that starts with a hyphen.

When -e is used, no argument pattern is taken from

the command line; all arguments are treated as file names. There is an overall maximum of 100 patterns. They are applied to each line in the order in which they are defined until one matches

(or fails to match if -v is used). If -f is used

with -e, the command line patterns are matched

first, followed by the patterns from the file, independent of the order in which these options

are specified. Note that multiple use of -e is not

the same as a single pattern with alternatives. For example, X|Y finds the first character in a line that is X or Y, whereas if the two patterns

are given separately, pcregrep finds X if it is

present, even if it follows Y in the line. It finds Y only if there is no X in the line. This

really matters only if you are using -o to show

the part(s) of the line that matched.

--exclude=pattern

When pcregrep is searching the files in a direc-

tory as a consequence of the -r (recursive search)

option, any regular files whose names match the pattern are excluded. Subdirectories are not

excluded by this option; they are searched recur-

sively, subject to the --exclude_dir and --

include_dir options. The pattern is a PCRE regular

expression, and is matched against the final com-

ponent of the file name (not the entire path). If

a file name matches both --include and --exclude,

it is excluded. There is no short form for this option.

--exclude_dir=pattern

When pcregrep is searching the contents of a

directory as a consequence of the -r (recursive

search) option, any subdirectories whose names

match the pattern are excluded. (Note that the --

exclude option does not affect subdirectories.) SunOS 5.10 Last change: 4 User Commands PCREGREP(1) The pattern is a PCRE regular expression, and is matched against the final component of the name (not the entire path). If a subdirectory name

matches both --include_dir and --exclude_dir, it

is excluded. There is no short form for this option.

-F, --fixed-strings

Interpret each pattern as a list of fixed strings, separated by newlines, instead of as a regular

expression. The -w (match as a word) and -x (match

whole line) options can be used with -F. They

apply to each of the fixed strings. A line is selected if any of the fixed strings are found in

it (subject to -w or -x, if present).

-f filename, --file=filename

Read a number of patterns from the file, one per line, and match them against each line of input. A data line is output if any of the patterns match

it. The filename can be given as "-" to refer to

the standard input. When -f is used, patterns

specified on the command line using -e may also be

present; they are tested before the file's pat-

terns. However, no other pattern is taken from the command line; all arguments are treated as file

names. There is an overall maximum of 100 pat-

terns. Trailing white space is removed from each line, and blank lines are ignored. An empty file

contains no patterns and therefore matches noth-

ing. See also the comments about multiple patterns versus a single pattern with alternatives in the

description of -e above.

--file-offsets

Instead of showing lines or parts of lines that match, show each match as an offset from the start of the file and a length, separated by a comma. In

this mode, no context is shown. That is, the -A,

-B, and -C options are ignored. If there is more

than one match in a line, each of them is shown separately. This option is mutually exclusive with

--line-offsets and --only-matching.

-H, --with-filename

Force the inclusion of the filename at the start of output lines when searching a single file. By default, the filename is not shown in this case. For matching lines, the filename is followed by a colon and a space; for context lines, a hyphen separator is used. If a line number is also being output, it follows the file name without a space. SunOS 5.10 Last change: 5 User Commands PCREGREP(1)

-h, --no-filename

Suppress the output filenames when searching mul-

tiple files. By default, filenames are shown when multiple files are searched. For matching lines, the filename is followed by a colon and a space; for context lines, a hyphen separator is used. If a line number is also being output, it follows the file name without a space.

--help Output a help message, giving brief details of the

command options and file type support, and then exit.

-i, --ignore-case

Ignore upper/lower case distinctions during com-

parisons.

--include=pattern

When pcregrep is searching the files in a direc-

tory as a consequence of the -r (recursive search)

option, only those regular files whose names match the pattern are included. Subdirectories are always included and searched recursively, subject

to the --include_dir and --exclude_dir options.

The pattern is a PCRE regular expression, and is matched against the final component of the file name (not the entire path). If a file name matches

both --include and --exclude, it is excluded.

There is no short form for this option.

--include_dir=pattern

When pcregrep is searching the contents of a

directory as a consequence of the -r (recursive

search) option, only those subdirectories whose names match the pattern are included. (Note that

the --include option does not affect subdirec-

tories.) The pattern is a PCRE regular expression, and is matched against the final component of the name (not the entire path). If a subdirectory name

matches both --include_dir and --exclude_dir, it

is excluded. There is no short form for this option.

-L, --files-without-match

Instead of outputting lines from the files, just output the names of the files that do not contain any lines that would have been output. Each file name is output once, on a separate line.

-l, --files-with-matches

Instead of outputting lines from the files, just output the names of the files containing lines SunOS 5.10 Last change: 6 User Commands PCREGREP(1) that would have been output. Each file name is output once, on a separate line. Searching stops as soon as a matching line is found in a file.

--label=name

This option supplies a name to be used for the standard input when file names are being output. If not supplied, "(standard input)" is used. There is no short form for this option.

--line-offsets

Instead of showing lines or parts of lines that match, show each match as a line number, the offset from the start of the line, and a length. The line number is terminated by a colon (as

usual; see the -n option), and the offset and

length are separated by a comma. In this mode, no

context is shown. That is, the -A, -B, and -C

options are ignored. If there is more than one match in a line, each of them is shown separately.

This option is mutually exclusive with --file-

offsets and --only-matching.

--locale=locale-name

This option specifies a locale to be used for pat-

tern matching. It overrides the value in the

LC_ALL or LC_CTYPE environment variables. If no

locale is specified, the PCRE library's default (usually the "C" locale) is used. There is no short form for this option.

-M, --multiline

Allow patterns to match more than one line. When

this option is given, patterns may usefully con-

tain literal newline characters and internal

occurrences of ^ and $ characters. The output for

any one match may consist of more than one line. When this option is set, the PCRE library is called in "multiline" mode. There is a limit to the number of lines that can be matched, imposed

by the way that pcregrep buffers the input file as

it scans it. However, pcregrep ensures that at

least 8K characters or the rest of the document

(whichever is the shorter) are available for for-

ward matching, and similarly the previous 8K char-

acters (or all the previous characters, if fewer

than 8K) are guaranteed to be available for look-

behind assertions.

-N newline-type, --newline=newline-type

The PCRE library supports five different conven-

tions for indicating the ends of lines. They are SunOS 5.10 Last change: 7 User Commands PCREGREP(1)

the single-character sequences CR (carriage

return) and LF (linefeed), the two-character

sequence CRLF, an "anycrlf" convention, which recognizes any of the preceding three types, and an "any" convention, in which any Unicode line ending sequence is assumed to end a line. The Unicode sequences are the three just mentioned, plus VT (vertical tab, U+000B), FF (formfeed,

U+000C), NEL (next line, U+0085), LS (line separa-

tor, U+2028), and PS (paragraph separator, U+2029).

When the PCRE library is built, a default line-

ending sequence is specified. This is normally the standard sequence for the operating system.

Unless otherwise specified by this option, pcre-

grep uses the library's default. The possible values for this option are CR, LF, CRLF, ANYCRLF,

or ANY. This makes it possible to use pcregrep on

files that have come from other environments without having to modify their line endings. If the data that is being scanned does not agree with

the convention set by this option, pcregrep may

behave in strange ways.

-n, --line-number

Precede each output line by its line number in the file, followed by a colon and a space for matching lines or a hyphen and a space for context lines. If the filename is also being output, it precedes

the line number. This option is forced if --line-

offsets is used.

-o, --only-matching

Show only the part of the line that matched a pat-

tern. In this mode, no context is shown. That is,

the -A, -B, and -C options are ignored. If there

is more than one match in a line, each of them is

shown separately. If -o is combined with -v

(invert the sense of the match to find non-

matching lines), no output is generated, but the return code is set appropriately. This option is

mutually exclusive with --file-offsets and --

line-offsets.

-q, --quiet

Work quietly, that is, display nothing except error messages. The exit status indicates whether or not any matches were found.

-r, --recursive

If any given path is a directory, recursively scan SunOS 5.10 Last change: 8 User Commands PCREGREP(1)

the files it contains, taking note of any --

include and --exclude settings. By default, a

directory is read as a normal file; in some

operating systems this gives an immediate end-of-

file. This option is a shorthand for setting the

-d option to "recurse".

-s, --no-messages

Suppress error messages about non-existent or

unreadable files. Such files are quietly skipped. However, the return code is still 2, even if matches were found in other files.

-u, --utf-8

Operate in UTF-8 mode. This option is available

only if PCRE has been compiled with UTF-8 support.

Both patterns and subject lines must be valid

strings of UTF-8 characters.

-V, --version

Write the version numbers of pcregrep and the PCRE

library that is being used to the standard error stream.

-v, --invert-match

Invert the sense of the match, so that lines which do not match any of the patterns are the ones that are found.

-w, --word-regex, --word-regexp

Force the patterns to match only whole words. This is equivalent to having \b at the start and end of the pattern.

-x, --line-regex, --line-regexp

Force the patterns to be anchored (each must start

matching at the beginning of a line) and in addi-

tion, require them to match entire lines. This is

equivalent to having ^ and $ characters at the

start and end of each alternative branch in every pattern. ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

The environment variables LC_ALL and LC_CTYPE are examined,

in that order, for a locale. The first one that is set is

used. This can be overridden by the --locale option. If no

locale is set, the PCRE library's default (usually the "C" locale) is used. NEWLINES SunOS 5.10 Last change: 9 User Commands PCREGREP(1)

The -N (--newline) option allows pcregrep to scan files with

different newline conventions from the default. However, the setting of this option does not affect the way in which

pcregrep writes information to the standard error and output

streams. It uses the string "\n" in C printf() calls to

indicate newlines, relying on the C I/O library to convert this to an appropriate sequence if the output is sent to a file. OPTIONS COMPATIBILITY

The majority of short and long forms of pcregrep's options

are the same as in the GNU grep program. Any long option of

the form --xxx-regexp (GNU terminology) is also available as

--xxx-regex (PCRE terminology). However, the --locale, -M,

--multiline, -u, and --utf-8 options are specific to pcre-

grep. OPTIONS WITH DATA There are four different ways in which an option with data can be specified. If a short form option is used, the data may follow immediately, or in the next command line item. For example:

-f/some/file

-f /some/file

If a long form option is used, the data may appear in the same command line item, separated by an equals character, or (with one exception) it may appear in the next command line item. For example:

--file=/some/file

--file /some/file

Note, however, that if you want to supply a file name begin-

ning with ~ as data in a shell command, and have the shell expand ~ to a home directory, you must separate the file name from the option, because the shell does not treat ~ specially unless it is at the start of an item.

The exception to the above is the --colour (or --color)

option, for which the data is optional. If this option does have data, it must be given in the first form, using an equals character. Otherwise it will be assumed that it has no data.

MATCHING ERRORS

It is possible to supply a regular expression that takes a very long time to fail to match certain lines. Such patterns SunOS 5.10 Last change: 10 User Commands PCREGREP(1) normally involve nested indefinite repeats, for example: (a+)*\d when matched against a line of a's with no final digit. The PCRE matching function has a resource limit that causes it to abort in these circumstances. If this happens,

pcregrep outputs an error message and the line that caused

the problem to the standard error stream. If there are more

than 20 such errors, pcregrep gives up.

DIAGNOSTICS Exit status is 0 if any matches were found, 1 if no matches

were found, and 2 for syntax errors and non-existent or ina-

cessible files (even if matches were found in other files)

or too many matching errors. Using the -s option to suppress

error messages about inaccessble files does not affect the return code.

ATTRIBUTES

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-

butes:

_______________________________________

| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE|

|____________________|__________________|_

| Availability | library/pcre |

|____________________|__________________|_

| Interface Stability| Uncommitted |

|____________________|_________________|

NOTES Source for PCRE is available on http://opensolaris.org. SunOS 5.10 Last change: 11

Manual Pages for UNIX Operating System command usage for man pcregrep

NAME

pcregrep - a grep with Perl-compatible regular expressions.

SYNOPSIS

pcregrep [options] [long options] [pattern] [path1

DESCRIPTION

pcregrep searches files for character patterns, in the same

pcregrep Thursday /etc/motd

If no files are specified, pcregrep reads the standard

pcregrep some-pattern /file1 - /file3

It is possible to compile pcregrep so that it uses libz or

small. However, pcregrep guarantees to have up to

tively small. However, pcregrep guarantees to have

are given separately, pcregrep finds X if it is

When pcregrep is searching the files in a direc-

When pcregrep is searching the contents of a

When pcregrep is searching the files in a direc-

When pcregrep is searching the contents of a

by the way that pcregrep buffers the input file as

it scans it. However, pcregrep ensures that at

or ANY. This makes it possible to use pcregrep on

the convention set by this option, pcregrep may

Write the version numbers of pcregrep and the PCRE

The -N (--newline) option allows pcregrep to scan files with

pcregrep writes information to the standard error and output

The majority of short and long forms of pcregrep's options

MATCHING ERRORS

pcregrep outputs an error message and the line that caused

than 20 such errors, pcregrep gives up.

SEE ALSO

ATTRIBUTES

| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE|