grep Top n Matches Across Files

Question

I'm using grep to extract lines across a set of files:

grep somestring *.log

Is it possible to limit the maximum number of matches per file? Ideally I'd just to print out n lines from each of the *.log files.

Answer 1

To limit 11 lines per file:

grep -m11 somestring *.log

Answer 2

Here is an alternate way of simulating it with awk:

awk 'f==10{f=0; nextfile; exit} /regex/{++f; print FILENAME":"$0}' *.log

Explanation:

• f==10 : f is a flag we set and check if the value of it is equal to 10. You can configure it depending on the number of lines you wish to match.

• nextfile : Moves processing to the next file.

• exit : Breaks out of awk.

• /regex/ : You're search regex or pattern.

• {++f;print FILENAME":"$0} : We increment the flag and print the filename and line.