fgrep command in Linux with examples

The fgrep filter is used to search for the fixed-character strings in a file. There can be multiple files also to be searched. This command is useful when you need to search for strings which contain lots of regular expression metacharacters, such as “^”, “$”, etc.

Syntax:

fgrep [options] [ -e pattern_list] [pattern] [file]

Options with Description:

• -c : It is used to print only a count of the lines which contain the pattern.
• -h : Used to display the matched lines.
• -i : During comparisons, it will ignore upper/lower case distinction.
• -l : Used to print the names of files with matching lines once, separated by new-lines. It will not repeat the names of files when the pattern is found more than once.
• -n : It is used precede each line by its line number in the file (first line is 1).
• -s : It will only display the error messages.
• -v : Print all lines except those contain the pattern.
• -x : Print only lines matched entirely.
• -e pattern_list : Search for a string in pattern-list (useful when the string begins with a “-“).
• -f pattern-file : Take the list of patterns from pattern-file.
• pattern : Specify a pattern to be used during the search for input.
• file : A path name of a file to be searched for the patterns. If no file operands are specified, the standard input will be used.

Below are the examples with options to illustrate the fgrep command:

Consider below file as input. Here it is create using cat command and “name of the file is para”.

Hi, @re you usin.g geeks*forgeeks for learni\ng computer science con/cepts.
Geeks*forgeeks is best for learni\ng.

-c option: Displaying the count of number of matches. We can find the number of lines that match the given string.

Example:

$fgrep -c "usin.g" para

Output:

1

-h option: To display the matched lines.

Example:

 fgrep -h "usin.g" para

Output:

Hi, @re you usin.g geeks*forgeeks for learni\ng computer science con/cepts.

-i option: Used in case insensitive search. It ignore upper/lower case distinction during comparisons. It matches words like : “geeks*forgeeks”, “Geeks*forgeeks”.

Example:

 fgrep -i "geeks*forgeeks" para

Output:

Hi, @re you usin.g geeks*forgeeks for learni\ng computer science con/cepts.
Geeks*forgeeks is best for learni\ng.

-l option: It will display the file names that match the pattern. We can just display the files that contains the given string/pattern.

Example:

fgrep -l "geeks*forgeeks" para para2

Output:

para

-n option: Precede each line by its line number in the file. It shows line number of file with the line matched.

Example:

$ fgrep -n "learni\ng" para

Output:

1:Hi, @re you usin.g geeks*forgeeks for learni\ng computer science con/cepts.
2:Geeks*forgeeks is best for learni\ng.

-v option: It is used to display all lines except those that contain the pattern. It will print all lines except those that contain the pattern.

Example:

fgrep -v "@re" para

Output:

Geeks*forgeeks is best for learni\ng.

-x option: It will display only lines matched entirely.

Example 1:

fgrep -x "@re" para

Output:

Example 2:

fgrep -x "Geeks*forgeeks is best for learni\ng." para

Output:

Geeks*forgeeks is best for learni\ng.