For BSD or GNU grep
you can use -B num
to set how many lines before the match and -A num
for the number of lines after the match.
grep -B 3 -A 2 foo README.txt
If you want the same number of lines before and after you can use -C num
.
grep -C 3 foo README.txt
This will show 3 lines before and 3 lines after.
To check if a directory exists in a shell script, you can use the following:
if [ -d "$DIRECTORY" ]; then
# Control will enter here if $DIRECTORY exists.
fi
Or to check if a directory doesn't exist:
if [ ! -d "$DIRECTORY" ]; then
# Control will enter here if $DIRECTORY doesn't exist.
fi
However, as Jon Ericson points out, subsequent commands may not work as intended if you do not take into account that a symbolic link to a directory will also pass this check.
E.g. running this:
ln -s "$ACTUAL_DIR" "$SYMLINK"
if [ -d "$SYMLINK" ]; then
rmdir "$SYMLINK"
fi
Will produce the error message:
rmdir: failed to remove `symlink': Not a directory
So symbolic links may have to be treated differently, if subsequent commands expect directories:
if [ -d "$LINK_OR_DIR" ]; then
if [ -L "$LINK_OR_DIR" ]; then
# It is a symlink!
# Symbolic link specific commands go here.
rm "$LINK_OR_DIR"
else
# It's a directory!
# Directory command goes here.
rmdir "$LINK_OR_DIR"
fi
fi
Take particular note of the double-quotes used to wrap the variables. The reason for this is explained by 8jean in another answer.
If the variables contain spaces or other unusual characters it will probably cause the script to fail.
Best Answer
Recent versions of GNU Grep (>= 2.5.2) provide:
which excludes directories matching the pattern
dir
from recursive directory searches.So you can do:
For a bit more information regarding syntax and usage see
For older GNU Greps and POSIX Grep, use
find
as suggested in other answers.Or just use
ack
(Edit: or The Silver Searcher) and be done with it!