Windows recursive grep command-line
WindowsCommand LineGrepWindows Problem Overview
I need to do a recursive grep in Windows, something like this in Unix/Linux:
grep -i 'string' `find . -print`
or the more-preferred method:
find . -print | xargs grep -i 'string'
I'm stuck with just cmd.exe, so I only have Windows built-in commands. I can't install Cygwin, or any 3rd party tools like UnxUtils on this server unfortunately. I'm not even sure I can install PowerShell. Any suggestions using only cmd.exe built-ins (Windows 2003 Server)?
Windows Solutions
Solution 1 - Windows
findstr can do recursive searches (/S) and supports some variant of regex syntax (/R).
C:\>findstr /?
Searches for strings in files.
FINDSTR [/B] [/E] [/L] [/R] [/S] [/I] [/X] [/V] [/N] [/M] [/O] [/P] [/F:file]
[/C:string] [/G:file] [/D:dir list] [/A:color attributes] [/OFF[LINE]]
strings [[drive:][path]filename[ ...]]
/B Matches pattern if at the beginning of a line.
/E Matches pattern if at the end of a line.
/L Uses search strings literally.
/R Uses search strings as regular expressions.
/S Searches for matching files in the current directory and all
subdirectories.
/I Specifies that the search is not to be case-sensitive.
/X Prints lines that match exactly.
/V Prints only lines that do not contain a match.
/N Prints the line number before each line that matches.
/M Prints only the filename if a file contains a match.
/O Prints character offset before each matching line.
/P Skip files with non-printable characters.
/OFF[LINE] Do not skip files with offline attribute set.
/A:attr Specifies color attribute with two hex digits. See "color /?"
/F:file Reads file list from the specified file(/ stands for console).
/C:string Uses specified string as a literal search string.
/G:file Gets search strings from the specified file(/ stands for console).
/D:dir Search a semicolon delimited list of directories
strings Text to be searched for.
[drive:][path]filename
Specifies a file or files to search.
Use spaces to separate multiple search strings unless the argument is prefixed
with /C. For example, 'FINDSTR "hello there" x.y' searches for "hello" or
"there" in file x.y. 'FINDSTR /C:"hello there" x.y' searches for
"hello there" in file x.y.
Regular expression quick reference:
. Wildcard: any character
* Repeat: zero or more occurrences of previous character or class
^ Line position: beginning of line
$ Line position: end of line
[class] Character class: any one character in set
[^class] Inverse class: any one character not in set
[x-y] Range: any characters within the specified range
\x Escape: literal use of metacharacter x
\<xyz Word position: beginning of word
xyz\> Word position: end of word
For full information on FINDSTR regular expressions refer to the online Command
Reference.
Solution 2 - Windows
findstr /spin /c:"string" [files]
The parameters have the following meanings:
s= recursivep= skip non-printable charactersi= case insensitiven= print line numbers
And the string to search for is the bit you put in quotes after /c:
Solution 3 - Windows
I just searched a text with following command which listed me all the file names containing my specified 'search text'.
C:\Users\ak47\Desktop\trunk>findstr /S /I /M /C:"search text" *.*
Solution 4 - Windows
Recursive search for import word inside src folder:
> findstr /s import .\src\*
Solution 5 - Windows
I recommend a really great tool:
native unix utils:
Just unpack them and put that folder into your PATH environment variable and voila! :)
Works like a charm, and there are much more then just grep ;)
Solution 6 - Windows
for /f %G in ('dir *.cpp *.h /s/b') do ( find /i "what you search" "%G") >> out_file.txt
Solution 7 - Windows
Select-String worked best for me. All the other options listed here, such as findstr, didn't work with large files.
Here's an example:
select-string -pattern "<pattern>" -path "<path>"
note: This requires Powershell
Solution 8 - Windows
If you have Perl installed, you could use ack, available at http://beyondgrep.com/.