Hack The Sec-Leading Resource Of Linux Tutorial: Linux_Find

How to find files containing specific text in Linux

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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><u>Find files containing specific text in Linux</u></span></div>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><u><br /></u></span></span>
<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><u>Find files containing specific text using grep command</u></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">grep is a command-line utility for searching plain-text data sets for lines that match a regular expression. Its name comes from the ed command g/re/p (globally search a regular expression and print), which has the same effect: doing a global search with the regular expression and printing all matching lines. Grep was originally developed for the Unix operating system, but later available for all Unix-like systems.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><u><b>grep command syntax</b></u></span></span><br />
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<pre style="background: rgb(68, 67, 65); border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgb(227, 227, 227); box-sizing: border-box; clear: none !important; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-top: 10px !important; overflow: auto; padding: 10px !important; width: auto !important; word-break: break-all;"><span style="color: white; font-family: monospace, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">grep "text string to search” directory-path</span></span></pre>
<pre style="background: rgb(68, 67, 65); border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgb(227, 227, 227); box-sizing: border-box; clear: none !important; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-top: 10px !important; overflow: auto; padding: 10px !important; width: auto !important; word-break: break-all;"><span style="color: white; font-family: monospace, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">grep [option] "text string to search” directory-path</span></span></pre>
<pre style="background: rgb(68, 67, 65); border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgb(227, 227, 227); box-sizing: border-box; clear: none !important; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-top: 10px !important; overflow: auto; padding: 10px !important; width: auto !important; word-break: break-all;"><span style="color: white; font-family: monospace, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">grep -r "text string to search” directory-path</span></span></pre>
<pre style="background: rgb(68, 67, 65); border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgb(227, 227, 227); box-sizing: border-box; clear: none !important; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-top: 10px !important; overflow: auto; padding: 10px !important; width: auto !important; word-break: break-all;"><span style="color: white; font-family: monospace, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">grep -r -H "text string to search” directory-path</span></span></pre>
<pre style="background: rgb(68, 67, 65); border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgb(227, 227, 227); box-sizing: border-box; clear: none !important; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-top: 10px !important; overflow: auto; padding: 10px !important; width: auto !important; word-break: break-all;"><span style="color: white; font-family: monospace, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">egrep -R "word-1|word-2” directory-path</span></span></pre>
<pre style="background: rgb(68, 67, 65); border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgb(227, 227, 227); box-sizing: border-box; clear: none !important; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-top: 10px !important; overflow: auto; padding: 10px !important; width: auto !important; word-break: break-all;"><span style="color: white; font-family: monospace, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">egrep -w -R "word-1|word-2” directory-path</span></span></pre>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><u>Find files containing specific text using grep command examples</u></span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #993300; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 15px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">In this example, we will search for 'PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START' in all configuration files located in /etc directory.</span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 15px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">Now there's a small problem, depending on your Linux distro, Find command Syntax can be slightly different.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 15px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">*If you know the exact location and directory you're after, then use</span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><pre style="background: rgb(68, 67, 65); border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgb(227, 227, 227); box-sizing: border-box; clear: none !important; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-top: 10px !important; overflow: auto; padding: 10px !important; width: auto !important; word-break: break-all;"><span style="color: white; font-family: monospace, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">root@hackthesec:~# grep "PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START" /etc/default/pulseaudio 
PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START=1</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: normal;">
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">*If you know the exact directory with the files containing that specific text, then use</span></span></div>
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<pre style="background: rgb(68, 67, 65); border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgb(227, 227, 227); box-sizing: border-box; clear: none !important; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-top: 10px !important; overflow: auto; padding: 10px !important; width: auto !important; word-break: break-all;"><span style="color: white; font-family: monospace, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">root@hackthesec:~# grep "PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START" /etc/default/*
grep: /etc/default/kdm.d: Is a directory
/etc/default/pulseaudio:PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START=1
root@hackthesec:~#</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space: normal;">
</span></span></pre>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">If you don't know the exact location of the file that contains the specific text you’re looking for, then you need to search all sub-directories recursively.</span></span></div>
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<pre style="background: rgb(68, 67, 65); border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgb(227, 227, 227); box-sizing: border-box; clear: none !important; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-top: 10px !important; overflow: auto; padding: 10px !important; width: auto !important; word-break: break-all;"><span style="color: white; font-family: monospace, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">root@hackthesec:~# grep -r "PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START" /etc/default/*
/etc/default/pulseaudio:PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START=1
root@hackthesec:~#</span></span></pre>
<pre style="background: rgb(68, 67, 65); border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgb(227, 227, 227); box-sizing: border-box; clear: none !important; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-top: 10px !important; overflow: auto; padding: 10px !important; width: auto !important; word-break: break-all;"><span style="color: white; font-family: monospace, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">root@hackthesec:~# grep -R "PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START" /etc/default/*
/etc/default/pulseaudio:PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START=1
root@hackthesec:~#</span></span></pre>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="color: #333333;">Now what if you are searching through a massive file and there might be many outputs similar to what you’re looking for.. you might want to use </span><span style="color: red;">--col</span><span style="color: #333333;"> flag to color code your output which searching files containing specific strings.</span></span></span></div>
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<pre style="background: rgb(68, 67, 65); border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgb(227, 227, 227); box-sizing: border-box; clear: none !important; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-top: 10px !important; overflow: auto; padding: 10px !important; width: auto !important; word-break: break-all;"><span style="color: white; font-family: monospace, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">root@hackthesec:~# grep --col 'usb 1-1.4' /var/log/messages
Apr 4 09:14:25 kali kernel: [1191164.780496] usb 1-1.4: new low-speed USB device number 21 using ehci-pci
root@hackthesec:~#</span></span></pre>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">Now I want to display all files with colorer output with containing specific text and instead of showing the whole content of the files</span></span></div>
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<pre style="background: rgb(68, 67, 65); border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgb(227, 227, 227); box-sizing: border-box; clear: none !important; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-top: 10px !important; overflow: auto; padding: 10px !important; width: auto !important; word-break: break-all;"><span style="color: white; font-family: monospace, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">root@hackthesec:~# grep --col -r 'Linux version 3.14-kali1' /var/log/* | cut -d: -f1
/var/log/dmesg
/var/log/dmesg.0
/var/log/installer/syslog
root@hackthesec:~#</span></span></pre>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">When you're using grep, depending on the commands used and permission you have on the system, you might see any of the following errors.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">* Input/output error</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">* recursive directory loop</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">* No such file or directory</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">* No such device or address</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #351c75; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">* Permission denied</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="color: #333333;">If you want to hide all errors or warning message spamming your output window(specifically useful when you're trying to use grep on a script) generated by the grep command, </span><span style="color: red;">append 2>/dev/null</span><span style="color: #333333;"> to grep command. This will send and hide unwanted output to </span><span style="color: red;">/dev/null</span><span style="color: #333333;"> device:</span></span></span></div>
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<pre style="background: rgb(68, 67, 65); border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgb(227, 227, 227); box-sizing: border-box; clear: none !important; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-top: 10px !important; overflow: auto; padding: 10px !important; width: auto !important; word-break: break-all;"><span style="color: white; font-family: monospace, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">root@hackthesec:~# grep -R "PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START" /etc/* 2>/dev/null 
/etc/default/pulseaudio:PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START=1
/etc/init.d/pulseaudio:PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START=0
/etc/init.d/pulseaudio:if [ "$PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START" != "1" ]; then
/etc/rc0.d/K01pulseaudio:PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START=0
/etc/rc0.d/K01pulseaudio:if [ "$PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START" != "1" ]; then
/etc/rc1.d/K01pulseaudio:PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START=0
/etc/rc1.d/K01pulseaudio:if [ "$PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START" != "1" ]; then
/etc/rc2.d/S20pulseaudio:PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START=0
/etc/rc2.d/S20pulseaudio:if [ "$PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START" != "1" ]; then
/etc/rc3.d/S20pulseaudio:PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START=0
/etc/rc3.d/S20pulseaudio:if [ "$PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START" != "1" ]; then
/etc/rc4.d/S20pulseaudio:PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START=0
/etc/rc4.d/S20pulseaudio:if [ "$PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START" != "1" ]; then
/etc/rc5.d/S20pulseaudio:PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START=0
/etc/rc5.d/S20pulseaudio:if [ "$PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START" != "1" ]; then
/etc/rc6.d/K01pulseaudio:PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START=0
/etc/rc6.d/K01pulseaudio:if [ "$PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START" != "1" ]; then
root@hackthesec:~#</span></span></pre>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><div>
What if you're not sure about the case of the text you're after? You can use -i to ignore case.</div>
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Below example shows the difference between -i flag. First command didn’t find the text, second command did as we used -i flag to ignore case.</div>
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<pre style="background: rgb(68, 67, 65); border-radius: 6px; border: 1px solid rgb(227, 227, 227); box-sizing: border-box; clear: none !important; margin-bottom: 10px !important; margin-top: 10px !important; overflow: auto; padding: 10px !important; width: auto !important; word-break: break-all;"><span style="color: white; font-family: monospace, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">root@hackthesec:~# grep -r "pulseaudio_system_start" /etc/default/*
root@hackthesec:~# 
root@hackthesec:~# grep -i  -r "pulseaudio_system_start" /etc/default/*
/etc/default/pulseaudio:PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM_START=1
root@hackthesec:~#</span></span></pre>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><span style="color: #333333;">I always prefer using grep command </span><span style="color: red;">with -r and --col flag in Debian Linux as -r complains less about permissions</span><span style="color: #333333;">, files, directory etc. and of course some color helps on the eyes when you’re browsing through many lines.</span></span></span></div>
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How to find files containing specific text in Linux

Find files containing specific text in Linux Find files containing specific text using grep command grep is a command-line utility for ...

How to Delete Files Older than X Number of Days in Linux

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<u><span style="color: #990000;">Delete Files Older than X Number of Days in Linux</span></u></h2>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;">How to keep limited amount of backup files or how to delete backup files or any file than older then x number of Days.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1XyDsm5bthyO-_-OqpH89oK8Sw-efgEPeY_inf32JcMAXIYo2vTx-PBhzPdnMbUz0aJXJSiqDm9USNl0cM4lj24WhhGm858N8_Wl43zO7AKVMzSdgXeLDYmhRyHQraYf_12AoDqRPhk4Z/s1600/delete_x_number_files_hackthesec.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1XyDsm5bthyO-_-OqpH89oK8Sw-efgEPeY_inf32JcMAXIYo2vTx-PBhzPdnMbUz0aJXJSiqDm9USNl0cM4lj24WhhGm858N8_Wl43zO7AKVMzSdgXeLDYmhRyHQraYf_12AoDqRPhk4Z/s1600/delete_x_number_files_hackthesec.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<div style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;">
Using find utility we can easily figure out files older than x number of days and then use the rm command to delete them.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;">
Here is combination of find and rm command to find and delete older files using some interesting arguments.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;"><b><u><span style="color: #0b5394;">Find All Files Inside Directory and Delete Files which is Older Than 10 Days</span></u></b></span></div>
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<pre style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #363636; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-radius: 7px; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); font-stretch: inherit; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; overflow-x: auto; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 18px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Monaco, Courier New, DejaVu Sans Mono, Bitstream Vera Sans Mono, monospace;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;">find /location/to/find/files/* -mtime +10 -exec rm {} \;</span></span></pre>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;"><b><u>Command Explanation:</u></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">1) </span><span style="color: red;">find /location/to/find/files/*</span></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;">=This command use to find files in Linux operating system. Next part of this command is /locatin/to/find/files/ which means find files inside this directory suppose I have directory on root named backup so my command will be "find /backup/*".</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;"><div>
<b><span style="color: #333333;">2) </span><span style="color: red;">mtime +10</span></b></div>
<div style="color: #333333;">
=The next argument -mtime, is used to specify the number of days. In our example we uses -mtime +10 so it will find files older than 10 days.</div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;"><b><span style="color: #333333;">3) </span><span style="color: red;">-exec rm {} \;</span></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;">=The last argument contains two parts, "-exec" allows you to pass an other command such as rm, and the second part "{} \; " is required to end the command.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;"><b><u>Delete Files which is Older Than 5 Days With .tar File Extension.</u></b></span></span></div>
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<pre style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #363636; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-radius: 7px; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); font-stretch: inherit; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; overflow-x: auto; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 18px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Monaco, Courier New, DejaVu Sans Mono, Bitstream Vera Sans Mono, monospace;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;">find /backup -name "*.tar" -type f -mtime +5 -exec rm -fr {} \;</span></span></pre>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;"><b>Very Important:</b> Be VERY careful to supply an absolute path while using "rm" commands!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;"><b><u>Find and Delete Files using Find Command.</u></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;">Same task you can perform using find command only. See below example:</span></span></div>
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<pre style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #363636; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-radius: 7px; border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); font-stretch: inherit; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; overflow-x: auto; overflow-y: hidden; padding: 18px 20px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Monaco, Courier New, DejaVu Sans Mono, Bitstream Vera Sans Mono, monospace;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;">find /location/to/find/files/* -mtime +10 -type f -delete</span></span></pre>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;">Tip:- you can add this command in bash script and automate this process using <a href="http://www.hackthesec.co.in/2016/03/how-to-setup-linux-crontab.html" target="_blank">cron job utility</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px;">
<a href="http://www.hackthesec.co.in/">www.hackthesec.co.in</a></div>
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How to Delete Files Older than X Number of Days in Linux

Delete Files Older than X Number of Days in Linux How to keep limited amount of backup files or how to delete backup files or any file t...

Finding a File Containing a Particular Text String In Linux Server

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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><u>Finding a File Containing a Particular Text String In Linux Server</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px;">I have been using Linux for a while on my server and have a large collection of the text file everywhere. I'm interested in learning about searching a text string. Can you tell me - how do I find a file containing a particular text string on my Linux server?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;" /><span id="more-520" style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px;">I have to admit that there are tens and thousands of text files on any Linux or Unix based server. Finding and locating those files can be done with the find command. Unfortunately find command cannot look inside a text file for a string.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px;">You need to use the </span>grep command<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px;">. The grep command searches the given input FILEs for lines containing a match or a text string.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 32px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 32px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">grep command syntax</span></span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The syntax is:</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<kbd style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">grep "<span style="color: #996633; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">text string to search</span>” directory-path</span></kbd></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">OR</span></div>
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<kbd style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">grep [option] "<span style="color: #996633; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">text string to search</span>” directory-path</span></kbd></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">OR</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<kbd style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">grep -r "<span style="color: #996633; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">text string to search</span>” directory-path</span></kbd></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">OR</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<kbd style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">grep -r -H "<span style="color: #996633; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">text string to search</span>” directory-path</span></kbd></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">OR</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<kbd style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">egrep -R "<span style="color: #996633; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">word-1|word-2</span>” directory-path</span></kbd></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">OR</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<kbd style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">egrep -w -R "<span style="color: #996633; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">word-1|word-2</span>” directory-path</span></kbd></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Examples</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In this example, search for a string called 'redeem reward' in all text (*.txt) files located in /home/tom/ directory, use:</span><code style="background-color: #fafbfc; border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); clear: both; color: #666666; display: block; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; overflow: auto; padding: 21px; word-wrap: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">$ grep "redeem reward" /home/tom/*.txt</span></code><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;" />OR</span><code style="background-color: #fafbfc; border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); clear: both; color: #666666; display: block; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; overflow: auto; padding: 21px; word-wrap: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">$ grep "redeem reward" ~/*.txt</span></code></div>
<h4 style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Task: Search all subdirectories recursively</span></h4>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You can search for a text string all files under each directory, recursively with <span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><kbd style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">-r</kbd></span> option:</span><code style="background-color: #fafbfc; border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); clear: both; color: #666666; display: block; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; overflow: auto; padding: 21px; word-wrap: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">$ grep -r "redeem reward" /home/tom/</span></code><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;" />OR</span><code style="background-color: #fafbfc; border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); clear: both; color: #666666; display: block; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; overflow: auto; padding: 21px; word-wrap: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">$ grep -R "redeem reward" /home/tom/</span></code></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Task: Only display filenames</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">By default, the grep command prints the matching lines. You can pass <span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;"><kbd style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">-H</kbd></span> option to print the filename for each match:</span><code style="background-color: #fafbfc; border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); clear: both; color: #666666; display: block; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; overflow: auto; padding: 21px; word-wrap: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">$ grep -H -r "redeem reward" /home/tom</span></code><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;" />Sample outputs:</span></div>
<pre style="background-color: #fafbfc; clear: both; color: #666666; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; overflow: auto; padding: 14px; tab-size: 4; word-wrap: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">filename.txt: redeem reward
foobar.txt: redeem reward
...</span></pre>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To just display the filename use the cut command as follows:</span><code style="background-color: #fafbfc; border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); clear: both; color: #666666; display: block; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; overflow: auto; padding: 21px; word-wrap: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">$ grep -H -R vivek /etc/* | cut -d: -f1</span></code><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;" />Sample outputs:</span></div>
<pre style="background-color: #fafbfc; clear: both; color: #666666; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; overflow: auto; padding: 14px; tab-size: 4; word-wrap: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">filename.txt
foobar.txt
...</span></pre>
<h4 style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Task: Suppress file names</span></h4>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The grep command shows output on a separate line, and it is preceded by the name of the file in which it was found in the case of multiple files. You can pass the <kbd style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">-h</kbd> option to suppress inclusion of the file names in the output:</span><code style="background-color: #fafbfc; border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); clear: both; color: #666666; display: block; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; overflow: auto; padding: 21px; word-wrap: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">$ grep -h -R 'main()' ~/projects/*.c</span></code></div>
<h4 style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Task: Display only words</span></h4>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You can select only those lines containing matches that form whole words using the <kbd style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">-w</kbd>option. In this example, search for word 'getMyData()' only in ~/projects/ dirctory:</span><code style="background-color: #fafbfc; border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); clear: both; color: #666666; display: block; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; overflow: auto; padding: 21px; word-wrap: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">$ grep -w -R 'getMyData()' ~/projects/</span></code></div>
<h4 style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Task: Search for two or more words</span></h4>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Use the egrep command as follows:</span><code style="background-color: #fafbfc; border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); clear: both; color: #666666; display: block; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; overflow: auto; padding: 21px; word-wrap: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">$ egrep -w -R 'word1|word2' ~/projects/</span></code></div>
<h4 style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Task: Hide warning spam</span></h4>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">grep command generate error message as follows due to permission and other issues:</span></div>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; border-left-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; color: #888888; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px 0px 27px 14px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 14px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 27px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">No such file or directory<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;" />No such device or address<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;" />Permission denied</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To hide all errors or warning message spam generated by the grep command, append2>/dev/null to grep command. This will send and hide unwanted output to /dev/null device:</span><code style="background-color: #fafbfc; border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); clear: both; color: #666666; display: block; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; overflow: auto; padding: 21px; word-wrap: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">$ grep -w -R 'getMyData()' ~/projects/ 2>/dev/null</span></code></div>
<h4 style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Task: Display matched text in color</span></h4>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Pass the <kbd style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">--color</kbd> option to the grep command display matched text/words in color on the terminal:</span></div>
<pre class="bash" style="background-color: #fafbfc; clear: both; color: #666666; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; overflow: auto; padding: 14px; tab-size: 4; word-wrap: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> 
<span style="color: #c20cb9; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">grep</span> --color <span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">'word'</span> <span style="color: #c20cb9; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">file</span>
<span style="color: #c20cb9; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">grep</span> --color -R <span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">'word'</span> /path/to/<span style="color: #c20cb9; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">dir</span>
<span style="color: #c20cb9; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">grep</span> --color -R <span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">"192.168.1.5"</span> /etc/
<span style="color: #c20cb9; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">grep</span> --color -R -h <span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">"192.168.1.5"</span> /etc/
<span style="color: #c20cb9; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">grep</span> --color -R -h <span style="color: red; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">"192.168.1.5"</span> /etc/ <span style="color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">2</span>>/dev/null
 </span></pre>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sample outputs:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJg5Kvvh80_Os3Oy4MrXsIoelk8S3A9gqlrYwOfDXl26Ou76cgDwOUVpAyIvjFEWVFynBF-WSaoNi9T-Yek0CU5AfO5MtL1np2cQ3NZdyUhCArpvMa3XFxQyJrJ_Tyxhh8CyPd1uFe7yA/s1600/grep-color-hide-spam_www.hackthesec.co.in.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJg5Kvvh80_Os3Oy4MrXsIoelk8S3A9gqlrYwOfDXl26Ou76cgDwOUVpAyIvjFEWVFynBF-WSaoNi9T-Yek0CU5AfO5MtL1np2cQ3NZdyUhCArpvMa3XFxQyJrJ_Tyxhh8CyPd1uFe7yA/s1600/grep-color-hide-spam_www.hackthesec.co.in.png" /></a></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Task: Ignore case</span></h4>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 27px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our final example ignore case distinctions in both the search PATTERN and the input files:</span><code style="background-color: #fafbfc; border: 1px solid rgb(222, 222, 222); clear: both; color: #666666; display: block; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; overflow: auto; padding: 21px; word-wrap: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">grep -i -R 'word' /path/to/dir<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word;" />grep -i -r 'income tax' ~/accounting/</span></code></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 27px;"><br /></span></div>