Grep From Files and Display the File Name

by nixCraft on September 13, 2010 · 12 comments· last updated at February 18, 2011

How do I grep from a number of files and display the file name only?

When there is more than one file to search it will display file name by default:

grep "word" filename
grep root /etc/*

Sample outputs:

/etc/bash.bashrc:       See "man sudo_root" for details.
/etc/crontab:17 *       * * *   root    cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly
/etc/crontab:25 6       * * *   root    test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily )
/etc/crontab:47 6       * * 7   root    test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.weekly )
/etc/crontab:52 6       1 * *   root    test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.monthly )
/etc/group:root:x:0:
grep: /etc/gshadow: Permission denied
/etc/logrotate.conf:    create 0664 root utmp
/etc/logrotate.conf:    create 0660 root utmp

The first name is file name (e.g., /etc/crontab, /etc/group). The -l option will only print filename if th

grep -l "string" filename
grep -l root /etc/*

Sample outputs:

/etc/aliases
/etc/arpwatch.conf
grep: /etc/at.deny: Permission denied
/etc/bash.bashrc
/etc/bash_completion
/etc/ca-certificates.conf
/etc/crontab
/etc/group

You can suppress normal output; instead print the name of each input file from which no output would normally have been printed:

grep -L "word" filename
grep -L root /etc/*

Sample outputs:

/etc/apm
/etc/apparmor
/etc/apparmor.d
/etc/apport
/etc/apt
/etc/avahi
/etc/bash_completion.d
/etc/bindresvport.blacklist
/etc/blkid.conf
/etc/bluetooth
/etc/bogofilter.cf
/etc/bonobo-activation
/etc/brlapi.key

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This FAQ entry is 5 of 7 in the "Linux / UNIX grep Command Tutorial" series. Keep reading the rest of the series:

Table of Contents:

How To Use grep Command In Linux / UNIX
Regular Expressions In grep
Search Multiple Words / String Pattern Using grep Command
Grep Count Lines If a String / Word Matches
Grep From Files and Display the File Name
How To Find Files by Content Under UNIX
grep command: View Only Configuration File Directives

{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Josh Keife September 30, 2010 at 5:35 pm

for i in `ls` ; do
grep -q “whatever” $i && echo $i
done

2 Vivek Gite October 1, 2010 at 5:42 am

Why ls? It will fail when you have file names with white spaces. A better way is to use wild cards:

for i in * ; do
grep -q “whatever” $i && echo $i
done

3 lUser February 20, 2011 at 8:19 pm: what about
grep -rI “whatever” ./ | cut -d: -f1 | sort -u
nb it will fail on file containing “:” such as some perl man pages but…
…Or just add some proper form
for i in `ls` ; do
grep -q “whatever” “$i” && echo “$i”
done
Reply

4 Josh Keife September 30, 2010 at 5:41 pm

or if you need to search all file and subdirs within a dir you can run the commands above. Just replace `ls` with `find . -type f`.

5 mlathe October 2, 2010 at 12:45 am

Or better yet, use xargs.
find . -type f | xargs grep html

If you want to deal with spaces etc…
find . -type f | xargs -I {} grep -H foo "{}"

6 yoander (sedlav) October 13, 2010 at 5:36 pm: Dealing with space with a shorter form
find . -type f -print0 | xargs -0 grep foo
Reply

7 layman October 19, 2010 at 7:46 am

I agree, find is working great for me.

find -name *.log -uid 1000

You can find files only owned by uid. Nifty feature.

8 Becky Gawat March 19, 2012 at 6:55 pm

How do I grep if i am looking for a specfic percentage?
grep -w “68%-100% /usr/local/stage”

thanks in advance

9 willywonker May 3, 2012 at 8:44 pm

ls | while read FILE; do echo “$FILE” done;

This handles whitespace and other nasties nicely.

10 avinash June 7, 2012 at 5:22 pm

how can i grep
CA
from filename AUZ_CA_EL.txt

11 BrianBlaze November 27, 2012 at 5:09 pm: cat AUZ_CA_EL.txt | grep “CA”
Reply

12 Özzesh December 5, 2012 at 7:45 am

how do I know the location and file name form the result that grep shows?
I use command like cat * | grep
Now what I need is the location of the file name along withe the grep result.

Help anyone

Grep From Files and Display the File Name

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