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I want to grep for a function call 'init()' in all JavaScript files in a directory. How do I do this using grep?
Particularly, how do I escape parenthesis, ()?
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Since parentheses are also used for capturing and non-capturing groups, we have to escape the opening parenthesis with a backslash.
Whenever you use a grep regular expression at the command prompt, surround it with quotes, or escape metacharacters (such as & ! . * $ ? and \ ) with a backslash ( \ ).
To search all files in the current directory, use an asterisk instead of a filename at the end of a grep command. The output shows the name of the file with nix and returns the entire line.
It depends. If you use regular grep, you don't escape:
echo '(foo)' | grep '(fo*)' You actually have to escape if you want to use the parentheses as grouping.
If you use extended regular expressions, you do escape:
echo '(foo)' | grep -E '\(fo*\)' If you want to search for exactly the string "init()" then use fgrep "init()" or grep -F "init()".
Both of these will do fixed string matching, i.e. will treat the pattern as a plain string to search for and not as a regex. I believe it is also faster than doing a regex search.
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