Grep From Files and Display the File Name On Linux or Unix System

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 the match found by the grep:

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

How to display filename before matching line in grep

By default grep display filename if you provide multiple filenames. For example:
grep 'foo' file1 file2
grep '192.168.2.254' /etc/hosts /etc/resolv.conf
grep -n '192.168.2.254' /etc/hosts /etc/resolv.conf
####################################################
## Always show filename headers with output lines.##
## Works with BSD/macOS/GNU/Linux grep version ##
####################################################
grep -H 'search-word' filename1 filename2
grep '192.168.2.254' /etc/hosts /dev/null
##########################
### gnu/Linux grep only ##
##########################
grep --with-filename 'foo' file1 file2
grep --with-filename '192.168.2.253' /etc/{hosts,resolv.conf}


Linux grep display filename before matching line

grep show filename before matching line

In this example, I need to search for ‘http://www.cyberciti.biz’ in all files and display matched filenames only, run:
grep -l -R 'http://www.cyberciti.biz'
Now replace all occurrences of ‘http://www.cyberciti.biz’ with ‘https://www.cyberciti.biz’ using the sed command:

## get filenames ##
files=$(grep -l -R 'http://www.cyberciti.biz' . )
echo "$files"
## replace using sed ##
for f in $files
do
   sed -i 's+http://www.cyberciti.biz+https://www.cyberciti.biz+g' "$f"
done

Conclusion – Grep from files and display the file name

Let us summaries all the grep command option in Linux or Unix:

1. grep -l 'word' file1 file2 : Display the file name on Linux and Unix instead of normal output
2. grep -L 'string' file1 file2 : Suppress normal output and show filenames from which no output would normally have been printed
3. grep -n 'string' filename : Force grep to add prefix each line of output with the line number within its input file
4. grep --with-filename 'word' file OR grep -H 'bar' file1 file2 file3: Print the file name for each match