Find all files containg text string - Linux

gistfile1.md

Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16956810/finding-all-files-containing-a-text-string-in-linux

Do the following:

grep -rnw 'directory' -e "pattern"

-r is recursive, -n is line number and -w stands match the whole word. Along with these, --exclude or --include parameter could be used for efficient searching. Something like below:

grep --include={*.c,*.h} -rnw 'directory' -e "pattern"

This will only search through the files which have .c or .h extensions. Similarly a sample use of --exclude:

grep --exclude=*.o -rnw 'directory' -e "pattern"

Above will exclude searching all the files ending with .o extension.

This works for me very well, to achieve almost the same purpose like yours.