[_nmk]

Hi all,

I am currently looking for string in file usng the following command:

find (dir) -exec grep -l 'string' {} \;

This, however, also tries to look (and succeeds, I must say) into binary files. Is there a way to make this command only look into text files?

I am thinking along filtering what find finds through 'file' and then grepping for text, but lining the commands and pipes is beyond me at this point.

Any ideas?

Many thanks in advance,
_nmk

[Zim]

Not a bullet-proof suggestion, but *often* non-binary files end in .pl, .txt, etc...

grep -i foo *.*

would only search files of the format xxxx.yyy and skip most compiled binaries (which generally have no extension). The -i makes the search case insensitive.

Mike

[lars-man]

Originally posted by _nmk:
Hi all,

I am currently looking for string in file usng the following command:

find (dir) -exec grep -l 'string' {} \;

This, however, also tries to look (and succeeds, I must say) into binary files. Is there a way to make this command only look into text files?

I am thinking along filtering what find finds through 'file' and then grepping for text, but lining the commands and pipes is beyond me at this point.

Any ideas?

Many thanks in advance,
_nmk

Perhaps the option '-type' for the find command fits to your needs. Also the command file might be useful.

Kind regards, Lars

[johnMG]

You could use 'find' with 'file' and write a short script, but here's a simple one-liner:

find dir -type f \( -name '*.txt' -o -name '*.cpp' -o -name '*.hpp' \) -exec grep -l 'string' {} \;

[VEGAN]

Originally posted by _nmk:
Hi all,

I am currently looking for string in file usng the following command:

find (dir) -exec grep -l 'string' {} \;

This, however, also tries to look (and succeeds, I must say) into binary files. Is there a way to make this command only look into text files?

I am thinking along filtering what find finds through 'file' and then grepping for text, but lining the commands and pipes is beyond me at this point.

Any ideas?

Many thanks in advance,
_nmk

According to `grep' man page `grep -I' treats binary files as if they contained no match... so... I'm not quite sure why you are having problems? Or what exactly is your problem