The GREP Utility (Find in files)

GREP stands for "Global Regular Expression Print". This utility searches for a character string or a regular expression in a set of files. It was first developed under the UNIX operating system and then converted for most of the operating systems in existence. This version of GREP differs from the other command line GREPs in the use of the windowed user interface to facilitate the access to the retrieved information.

You reach this dialog box by selecting ‘GREP’ in the ‘Search’ menu bar.

The expression entered can be understood either as a regular expression or as a literal character string. To use the regular expression feature, check the corresponding button at the right.

The name of the file(s) to search can be a generic expression, such as "*.c". This expression should be understood by the underlying operating system. Neither DOS nor OS2 accept true regular expressions as ambiguous file names.

The directory in which the search will be performed can be different from the current working directory.

If the 'Ignore case' button is selected, each line read will be translated into upper case, as well as the search expression.

‘Multiple’ means that you can enter several expressions separated by blanks. All the expressions you enter must be in a given line for that line to be considered a match.