CODEWITHSUNDEEP
regexlinuxgrep
3logy
3logy

Reputation: 2712

How to find all files in a Directory with grep and regex?

I have a Directory(Linux/Unix) on a Apache Server with a lot of subdirectory containing lot of files like this:

- Dir  
  - 2010_01/
    - 142_78596_101_322.pdf
    - 12_10.pdf
    - ...
  - 2010_02/   
    - ...

How can i find all files with filesnames looking like: *_*_*_*.pdf ? where * is always a digit!!

I try to solve it like this: 

ls -1Rl 2010-01 | grep -i '\(\d)+[_](\d)+[_](\d)+[_](\d)+[.](pdf)$' | wc -l

But the regular expression \(\d)+[_](\d)+[_](\d)+[_](\d)+[.](pdf)$ doesn't work with grep.

Edit 1: Trying ls -l 2010-03 | grep -E '(\d+_){3}\d+\.pdf' | wc -l for example just return null. So it's dont work perfectly

Upvotes: 5

Views: 2868

Answers (3)

3logy
3logy

Reputation: 2712

Thanks to gbchaosmaster and the wolf I find a way which work for me:

Into a Directory:

find . | grep -P "(\d+_){3}\d+\.pdf" | wc -l

At the Root Directory:

find 20*/ | grep -P "(\d+_){3}\d+\.pdf" | wc -l

Upvotes: 0

the wolf
the wolf

Reputation: 35512

First, you should be using egrep vs grep or call grep with -E for extended patterns.

So this works for me:

$ cat test2.txt
- Dir  
  - 2010_01/
    - 142_78596_101_322.pdf
    - 12_10.pdf
    - ...
  - 2010_02/   
    - ...

Now egrep that file:

cat test2.txt | egrep '((?:\d+_){3}(?:\d+)\.pdf$)'
- 142_78596_101_322.pdf

Since there are parenthesis around the whole pattern, the entire file name will be captured.

Note that the pattern does NOT work with grep in traditional mode:

$ cat test2.txt | grep '((?:\d+_){3}(?:\d+)\.pdf$)'
... no return

But DOES work if you use the extend pattern switch (the same as calling egrep):

$ cat test2.txt | grep -E '((?:\d+_){3}(?:\d+)\.pdf$)'
- 142_78596_101_322.pdf

Upvotes: 1

vinnydiehl
vinnydiehl

Reputation: 1704

Try using find.

The command that satisfies your specification __*_*.pdf where * is always a digit:

find 2010_10/ -regex '__\d+_\d+\.pdf'

You seem to be wanting a sequence of 4 numbers separated by underscores, however, based on the regex that you tried.

(\d+_){3}\d+\.pdf

Or do you want to match all names containing solely numbers/underscores?

[\d_]+\.pdf

Upvotes: 3

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