grep.py(1)¶

Name¶

grep.py - print lines matching a pattern

SYNOPSIS¶

grep.py [OPTIONS] PATTERN [FILE...]

DESCRIPTION¶

grep.py searches the named input FILEs for lines containing a match to the given PATTERN. If no files are specified, or if the file “-” is given, grep.py searches standard input. By default, grep.py prints the matching lines.

This is a simplified clone of the well-known grep command. Not all options for the original will be available for this command. In addition, regular expressions are handled differently by grep.py than by grep. Particularly only one flavor of regular expressions are supported, this is because Python’s regular expression is used for ease and speed of development.

OPTIONS¶

Generic Program Information¶

--help
    Output a usage message and exits.
-V, --version
    Output the version number of grep.py and exit

Matching Control¶

-i, --ignore-case
    Ignore case distinctions in both the PATTERN and the input files.
-v, --invert-match
    Invert the sense of matching, to select non-matching lines

General Output Control¶

--color[=WHEN]
    WHEN can be "never", "always" or "auto".  On *nix systems, ANSI escape
    sequences are used to achieve terminal coloring. On Windows systems,
    these ANSI escape sequences are intercepted and the appropriate system
    API calls are made to color the text. No environment variables are
    interpreted to control the color.

Output Line Prefix Control¶

-H, --with-filename
    Print the filename for each match.
-n, --line-number
    Prefix each line of output with a 1-based line number within
    its input file.

EXAMPLES¶

OVERVIEW¶

This is a work-in-progress, we aim to become feature-compatible with grep as released by the Free Software Foundation with the exception of the multiple regular expression engines. We will stick to Python’s native regular expression engine as we believe that writing regular expression engines is beyond the scopeof this project.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES¶

No environment variables affect the behavior of this software

EXIT STATUS¶

We aim to take advantage of exit status, but currently do not. The exit status will be 0 unless an error occurs in which case it will be non-zero.

COPYRIGHT¶

This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

BUGS¶

Bugs can be reported in our issue tracker. This is also the correct place for feature requests.

NOTES¶

None yet