CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linuxunixgrep
David542
David542

Reputation: 110312

grep limitation on text returned

I have a sitemap that I'm trying to search through. The issue is if I do a grep, it returns the entire file, since there are no spaces in it:

rl><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5564</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5560</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5559</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5548</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5547</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5544</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5532</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5531</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5530</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5529</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5528</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5527</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5526</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5525</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5417</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5416</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5415</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5414</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5263</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5262</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5261</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5136</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><loc>http://www.hulu.com/watch/5135</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url><url><l

Is there a way to do grep such that it only extract a certain number of characters before/after the search match?

I'm currently doing:

$ grep -r '/23407' ./

Upvotes: 0

Views: 35

Answers (2)

der.Softwerker
der.Softwerker

Reputation: 31

The option -o prints only the matched pattern. Try grep -o <pattern> <file>

Upvotes: 0

Benjamin W.
Benjamin W.

Reputation: 52211

With the -o option, you get only the match itself; to get some characters before and after your match, you can just match any characters – for example for 10 characters before and after, for your example string, with a match that exists:

$ grep -o '.\{10\}/5135.\{10\}' <<< "$string"
.com/watch/5135</loc><cha

Upvotes: 1

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