egrep(1)

NAME

     egrep - search a file  for  a  pattern  using  full  regular
     expressions

SYNOPSIS

     /usr/bin/egrep   [-bchilnsv]   [-e pattern_list]   [-f file]
     [strings] [file...]

     /usr/xpg4/bin/egrep [-bchilnsvx] [-e pattern_list] [-f file]
     [strings] [file...]

DESCRIPTION

     The egrep (expression grep) utility  searches  files  for  a
     pattern of characters and prints all lines that contain that
     pattern. egrep uses full  regular  expressions  (expressions
     that   have   string   values  that  use  the  full  set  of
     alphanumeric and special characters) to match the  patterns.
     It  uses a fast deterministic algorithm that sometimes needs
     exponential space.

     If no files are specified,  egrep  assumes  standard  input.
     Normally,  each line found is copied to the standard output.
     The file name is printed before each line found if there  is
     more than one input file.

  /usr/bin/egrep
     The /usr/bin/egrep utility accepts full regular  expressions
     as described on the regexp(5) manual page, except for \( and
     \), \( and \), \{ and \}, \< and \>, and \n,  and  with  the
     addition of:

     1. A full regular expression followed by + that matches  one
        or more occurrences of the full regular expression.

     2. A full regular expression followed by ? that matches 0 or
        1 occurrences of the full regular expression.

     3. Full regular expressions separated by | or by  a  NEWLINE
        that match strings that are matched by any of the expres-
        sions.

     4. A  full  regular  expression  that  may  be  enclosed  in
        parentheses ()for grouping.

     Be careful using the characters $, *, [, ^, |, (, ),  and  \
     in full regular expression, because they are also meaningful
     to the shell. It is safest to enclose the entire full  regu-
     lar expression in single quotes  '... '.

     The order of precedence of operators is [], then  *?+,  then
     concatenation, then | and NEWLINE.

  /usr/xpg4/bin/egrep
     The /usr/xpg4/bin/egrep utility uses the regular expressions
     described  in  the  EXTENDED REGULAR EXPRESSIONS  section of
     the regex(5) manual page.

OPTIONS

     The following options are supported for both  /usr/bin/egrep
     and /usr/xpg4/bin/egrep:

     -b    Precede each line by the block number on which it  was
           found. This can be useful in locating block numbers by
           context (first block is 0).

     -c    Print only a count of the lines that contain the  pat-
           tern.

     -e pattern_list
           Search for a  pattern_list  (full  regular  expression
           that begins with a -).

     -f file
           Take the list of full regular expressions from file.

     -h    Suppress printing of filenames when searching multiple
           files.

     -i    Ignore upper/lower case distinction  during  comparis-
           ons.

     -l    Print the names of files  with  matching  lines  once,
           separated  by  NEWLINEs.  Does not repeat the names of
           files when the pattern is found more than once.

     -n    Precede each line by  its  line  number  in  the  file
           (first line is 1).

     -s    Work silently, that is, display nothing  except  error
           messages.  This  is  useful  for  checking  the  error
           status.

     -v    Print all lines except those that contain the pattern.

  /usr/xpg4/bin/egrep
     The following option is  supported  for  /usr/xpg4/bin/egrep
     only:

     -x    Consider only input lines that use all  characters  in
           the  line  to  match an entire fixed string or regular
           expression to be matching lines.

OPERANDS

     The following operands are supported:

     file  A path name of a file to be searched for the patterns.
           If  no file operands are specified, the standard input
           will be used.

  /usr/bin/egrep
     pattern
           Specify a pattern to be used  during  the  search  for
           input.

  /usr/xpg4/bin/egrep
     pattern
           Specify one or more patterns to  be  used  during  the
           search  for  input.  This  operand is treated as if it
           were specified as -epattern_list.

USAGE

     See largefile(5) for the  description  of  the  behavior  of
     egrep  when  encountering  files  greater than or equal to 2
     Gbyte ( 2**31 bytes).

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

     See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment
     variables  that  affect  the execution of egrep: LC_COLLATE,
     LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.

EXIT STATUS

     The following exit values are returned:

     0     If any matches are found.

     1     If no matches are found.

     2     For syntax  errors  or  inaccessible  files  (even  if
           matches were found).

ATTRIBUTES

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

  /usr/bin/egrep
     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Availability                | SUNWcsu                     |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | CSI                         | enabled                     |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|

  /usr/xpg4/bin/egrep
     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Availability                | SUNWxcu4                    |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | CSI                         | enabled                     |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|

SEE ALSO

     fgrep(1), grep(1), sed(1), sh(1), attributes(5), environ(5),
     largefile(5), regex(5), regexp(5), XPG4(5)

NOTES

     Ideally there should be only one grep command, but there  is
     not  a  single  algorithm  that spans a wide enough range of
     space-time tradeoffs.

     Lines are limited only by the size of the available  virtual
     memory.

  /usr/xpg4/bin/egrep
     The   /usr/xpg4/bin/egrep   utility    is    identical    to
     /usr/xpg4/bin/grep  -E  (see grep(1)). Portable applications
     should use /usr/xpg4/bin/grep -E.