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Regular expressions & Filters in Linux: Simple filters viz. more, wc, diff, sort, uniq, grep;
Introducing regular expressions. notes
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Regular Expressions & Filters in Linux
#### Introduction to Filters in Linux Filters in Linux are command-line utilities that process text
data. They can read input from files or standard input, perform operations on the data, and
then output the results. Some common simple filters include:
1. more: Displays the content of a file one screen at a time.
- Usage: more filename
2. wc (word count): Counts lines, words, and characters in a file.
- Usage: wc filename - Options: - -l : Count lines - -w : Count words - -c : Count characters
3. diff: Compares two files line by line and shows the differences.
- Usage: diff file1 file2
4. sort: Sorts lines of text files.
- Usage: sort filename - Options: - -r : Reverse the sort order - -n : Sort numerically
5. uniq: Filters out repeated lines in a file.
- Usage: uniq filename - Options: - -c : Count occurrences of each line
6. grep: Searches for patterns in files using regular expressions.
- Usage: grep 'pattern' filename - Options: - -i : Ignore case - -v : Invert match (show lines
that do not match) - -r : Recursively search directories
#### Introducing Regular Expressions Regular expressions (regex) are sequences of
characters that define a search pattern. They are used for string matching and manipulation.
Here are some basic components of regular expressions:
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1. Literal Characters: Matches the exact characters.
- Example: cat matches "cat".
2. Metacharacters: Special characters that have specific meanings.
- . : Matches any single character. - ^ : Matches the start of a line. - $ : Matches the end of a
line. - : Matches zero or more occurrences of the preceding element. - + : Matches one or
more occurrences of the preceding element. - ? : Matches zero or one occurrence of the
preceding element. - [] : Matches any one of the enclosed characters. - | : Acts as a logical
OR.
3. Escaping Metacharacters: Use a backslash ( ) to escape metacharacters if you want to
match them literally.
- Example: . matches a literal dot.
4. Quantifiers: Specify the number of occurrences.
- {n} : Exactly n occurrences. - {n,} : At least n occurrences. - {n,m} : Between n and m
occurrences.
5. Groups and Ranges:
- Parentheses () are used to group expressions. - {} is used to specify a range of
occurrences.
#### Examples of Regular Expressions
^a : Matches any line that starts with 'a'.
b$ : Matches any line that ends with 'b'.
c.d : Matches any line containing 'c' followed by any characters and then 'd'.
[0-9] : Matches any single digit.
[^a-z] : Matches any character that is not a lowercase letter.
#### Using Regular Expressions with grep You can use regular expressions with grep to
search for patterns in files. Here are some examples:
To find lines that start with "Error":
bash
grep '^Error' logfile.txt
To find lines that contain either "cat" or "dog":
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bash
grep 'cat|dog' animals.txt
To find lines that have a digit:
bash
grep '[0-9]' file.txt
Conclusion
Regular expressions are a powerful tool for text processing in Linux. Combined with filters like
grep , they allow for efficient searching and manipulation of text data. Understanding how to
use these tools can greatly enhance your productivity in handling text files and data streams.
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