CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bash
Peter P.
Peter P.

Reputation: 17

Bash script - search for files whose name matches a pattern

I am trying to compile a simple bash script. It should search for files whose name matches a supplied pattern (pattern is supplied as an argument) and list a few first lines of the file. All the files will be in one directory.

I know I should use head -n 3 for listing the first few lines of the file, but I have no idea how to search for that supplied pattern and how to put it together.

Thank you very much for all the answers.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 241

Answers (3)

cforbish
cforbish

Reputation: 8829

Bash has a globstar option that when set will enable you to use ** to search subdirectories:

head -3 **/mypattern*.txt

To set globstar you can add the following to your .bashrc:

shopt -s globstar

Upvotes: 2

Mark Setchell
Mark Setchell

Reputation: 208052

No need really, the shell will do patterns for you:

head -3 *.c
==> it.c <==
#include<stdio.h>
int main()
{

==> sem.c <==
#include <stdio.h>          /* printf()                 */
#include <stdlib.h>         /* exit(), malloc(), free() */
#include <sys/types.h>      /* key_t, sem_t, pid_t      */

==> usbtest.c <==

Another example:

head -3 file[0-9]
==> file1 <==
file1 line 1
file1 line 2
file1 line 3

==> file2 <==
file2 line 1
file2 line 2
file2 line 3

==> file9 <==
file9 line 1
file9 line 2
file9 line 3

Upvotes: 2

Alfe
Alfe

Reputation: 59596

find . -type f -name 'mypattern*.txt' -exec head -n 3 {} \;

Add a -maxdepth 0 before the -exec if you do not want to descend into subdirectories.

Upvotes: 1

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