Is there a way to find a specific word in all files/folders in Linux?

Question

I usually use grep word * while being in a folder which includes files that have that word. But in this folder i also have folders which under them there are files that have that word, what is the correct command for this matter please?

Thanks

score 6 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 26 '12 at 15:58

6

find . -type f | xargs grep -l "search-pattern"

or

grep -R "search pattern" *

edited Dec 26 '12 at 15:58

user9517

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answered Dec 26 '12 at 15:17

colealtdelete

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When used right, `grep -R` can save hours. For example, I was editing a JSP application, and needed to find the file related to a web page I was seeing. A quick copy-and-paste of one HTML line into grep, and the related file appears in the terminal. Not recommended for larger applications, or slow machines ;) – Soviero Dec 26 '12 at 15:35

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 26 '12 at 15:32

5

There's a recursive option to grep:

grep -R word *

You can replace "*" with a full path to a directory that you want to look at as using a wildcard will search for the word "word" in current directory.

edited Dec 26 '12 at 15:32

Ernestas

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answered Dec 26 '12 at 15:18

John

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i feel so lame for not trying -R :( thanks dude – Itai Ganot Dec 26 '12 at 17:16

Is there a way to find a specific word in all files/folders in Linux?

2 Answers2