I have a set of PDFs, and I am running
strings * | grep message
This returns the strings containing that method, is there anyway I can get grep to tell me which file it is from?
3 Answers
With GNU strings, use
strings --print-file-name -- *
to get the results prefixed by the file name (like grep).
-
1As a note, this will also cause grep to match file names that match your pattern.Chris Down– Chris Down2013-05-21 09:21:11 +00:00Commented May 21, 2013 at 9:21
-
Yes, I know. Unless one uses particularly weird file names, one can fix that by
strings --print-file-name * | grep ': message'(the file names output bystringsare terminated by:). The main question is whether the OP wants just the file names (then usinggrep -lonly is better), or whether he also wants the matched strings (thengrepwill either complain about binary garbage, or output binary garbage, and none of these is helpful).Uwe– Uwe2013-05-21 09:31:55 +00:00Commented May 21, 2013 at 9:31 -
Correction: If the pattern "message" can occur anywhere in the string,
strings --print-file-name * | grep ': .*message'is better.Uwe– Uwe2013-05-21 09:44:20 +00:00Commented May 21, 2013 at 9:44 -
(assuming there's no file named
foo: messagefor instance)Stéphane Chazelas– Stéphane Chazelas2013-05-21 10:25:46 +00:00Commented May 21, 2013 at 10:25 -
That was one of the two things I meant when I talked about "particularly weird file names". (The other one is newlines in file names.)Uwe– Uwe2013-05-21 10:30:42 +00:00Commented May 21, 2013 at 10:30
grep has no idea where the strings came from when using this method, because it never sees the filenames. If you want the filenames, use -l and pass the glob to grep directly:
grep -l message ./*
answered May 21, 2013 at 9:04
-
1Note that you need an implementation of
greplike GNUgrepthat supports reading binary files.Stéphane Chazelas– Stéphane Chazelas2013-05-21 09:59:55 +00:00Commented May 21, 2013 at 9:59 -
What implementation doesn't support
--? It would not be POSIX, and I seriously doubt any pre-POSIX implementation would support binary file.Stéphane Chazelas– Stéphane Chazelas2013-05-21 10:23:01 +00:00Commented May 21, 2013 at 10:23 -
@StephaneChazelas If I recall correctly, Plan 9.Chris Down– Chris Down2013-05-21 16:10:42 +00:00Commented May 21, 2013 at 16:10
-
@StephaneChazelas Nope, I'm mistaken, Plan 9 supports
--. I just tested.Chris Down– Chris Down2013-05-21 16:19:05 +00:00Commented May 21, 2013 at 16:19
With GNU grep, you can do:
grep -Hobae '[[:print:]]*message[[:print:]]*' -- *
That will tell you the filename and offset within the file of every printable string containing message.
answered May 21, 2013 at 10:20
