CODEWITHSUNDEEP
grepgawkgnuwin32
Lucy Beale
Lucy Beale

Reputation: 89

Grep - Input File is also the output file

I'm using command line

grep -rI "TEXTSEARCH" . > output.txt

and I get the error/prompt

grep: input file ‘./output.txt’ is also the output

Seems to work successfully but don't want to make extensive searching if this is something to worry about or is that just a regular response?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 6031

Answers (1)

olikaf
olikaf

Reputation: 601

-I and . means "all files in the current directory".

As output.txt is created as soon as the command starts

grep -rI "TEXTSEARCH" output.txt > output.txt

happens. So it makes sense.

if "output.txt" is not in the same folder, no issue.

grep -rI "TEXTSEARCH" . > /tmp/output.txt;mv /tmp/output.txt .

Upvotes: 4

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