findstr.exe is not working

Question

My system has findstr.exe but when I try to execute it, it gives me the following error

FINDSTR: Bad command line

Tried so many things but unable to fix. I need to use regex in my batch script.

Any other suggestion?

Answer 1

You need to at least give it some strings to look for. That error message is the one you get if it doesn't think you've provided a search string (everything else is optional):

C:\Documents and Settings\Pax> findstr /?
Searches for strings in files.

FINDSTR [/B] [/E] [/L] [/R] [/S] [/I] [/X] [/V] [/N] [/M] [/O] [/P] [/F:file]
        [/C:string] [/G:file] [/D:dir list] [/A:color attributes] [/OFF[LINE]]
        strings [[drive:][path]filename[ ...]]

  /B         Matches pattern if at the beginning of a line.
  /E         Matches pattern if at the end of a line.
  /L         Uses search strings literally.
  /R         Uses search strings as regular expressions.
  /S         Searches for matching files in the current directory and all
             subdirectories.
  /I         Specifies that the search is not to be case-sensitive.
  /X         Prints lines that match exactly.
  /V         Prints only lines that do not contain a match.
  /N         Prints the line number before each line that matches.
  /M         Prints only the filename if a file contains a match.
  /O         Prints character offset before each matching line.
  /P         Skip files with non-printable characters.
  /OFF[LINE] Do not skip files with offline attribute set.
  /A:attr    Specifies color attribute with two hex digits. See "color /?"
  /F:file    Reads file list from the specified file(/ stands for console).
  /C:string  Uses specified string as a literal search string.
  /G:file    Gets search strings from the specified file(/ stands for console).
  /D:dir     Search a semicolon delimited list of directories
  strings    Text to be searched for.
  [drive:][path]filename
             Specifies a file or files to search.

Use spaces to separate multiple search strings unless the argument is prefixed
with /C.  For example, 'FINDSTR "hello there" x.y' searches for "hello" or
"there" in file x.y.  'FINDSTR /C:"hello there" x.y' searches for
"hello there" in file x.y.

Regular expression quick reference:
  .        Wildcard: any character
  *        Repeat: zero or more occurances of previous character or class
  ^        Line position: beginning of line
  $        Line position: end of line
  [class]  Character class: any one character in set
  [^class] Inverse class: any one character not in set
  [x-y]    Range: any characters within the specified range
  \x       Escape: literal use of metacharacter x
  \    Word position: end of word

For full information on FINDSTR regular expressions refer to the online Command
Reference.

---

For example, this shows how you can use regular expressions:

C:\Documents and Settings\Pax> type qq.cmd
        @setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion
        @echo off
        set startdir=%cd%
        set temp=%startdir%
        set folder=
    :loop
        if not "x%temp:~-1%"=="x/" (
            set folder=!temp:~-1!!folder!
            set temp=!temp:~1,-1!
            goto :loop
        )
        echo.startdir = %startdir%
        echo.folder   = %folder%
        endlocal

C:\Documents and Settings\Pax> findstr d.r% qq.cmd
        set temp=%startdir%
        echo.startdir = %startdir%
        echo.folder   = %folder%

C:\Documents and Settings\Pax> findstr
FINDSTR: Bad command line

Answer 2

For anyone else who is struggling with this, try this simple syntax for a start:

findstr /s /i hello *.*

(ignore case, search all subdirectories in current folder)

Answer 3

Of course, you didn't specify any command after FINDSTR command. Type FINDSTR /? for help.

This an example how to use FINDSTR command:

FINDSTR /R /C:"your_regex" filename.txt