Grep Regex Pattern Matching in Linux

The grep command combines with regular expressions to create powerful search capabilities. System administrators and developers rely on grep regex for filtering log files, searching codebases, and processing text data.

This guide demonstrates grep pattern matching with practical examples.

Grep Regular Expression

The syntax for grep with regular expressions follows this format:

grep [regex] [file]

Regular expressions filter data through pattern matching. Commands like awk and sed also use regex for text manipulation.

Regex statements contain two character types:

• Literals match standard text characters
• Metacharacters have special meaning unless escaped with backslash

Grep supports three regex syntax options:

• Basic Regular Expression (BRE)
• Extended Regular Expressions (ERE)
• Pearl Compatible Regular Expressions (PCRE)

Grep uses BRE syntax by default.

Grep Regex Example

Run this command to test pattern matching:

grep if .bashrc

The pattern searches for the character string. Results show all instances where letter i appears followed by f. The output highlights if, elif, notify, and identifying.

The command returns only matching lines.

How to Use Regex With Grep

Regex provides multiple methods to refine grep searches. These examples explain basic syntax and logic. Combine patterns to create complex statements.

Literal Matches

Literal matches find exact character strings. The previous if example demonstrates literal matching.

Searches are case-sensitive. Run this command for different results:

grep If .bashrc

Search for multiple words using quotation marks:

grep "if the" .bashrc

Omitting quotes treats the second word as a file location.

Anchor Matches

Anchors define line position for matches. Two anchor types exist:

• Caret sign (^) searches for lines starting with the expression
• Dollar sign ($) searches for lines ending with the expression

Match lines starting with alias:

grep ^alias .bashrc

The search ignores lines with tabs or spaces before the word.

Match lines ending with then:

grep then$ .bashrc

Use both anchors for single word matches:

grep ^esac$ .bashrc

Find empty lines using only anchors. Add -n to show line numbers:

grep -n ^$ .bashrc

Match Any Character

The period (.) metacharacter matches any single character. Example:

grep r.o .bashrc

Output shows letter r, followed by any character, followed by o. The period represents letters, numbers, signs, or spaces.

Add multiple periods for multiple placeholders:

grep r..t .bashrc

Combine with anchors for complex patterns:

grep ..t$ .bashrc

This finds lines with any two characters followed by t at the end.

Bracket Expressions

Bracket expressions match multiple characters at one position. Match lines containing and or end:

grep [ae]nd .bashrc

Exclude characters by adding caret inside brackets. Match everything except and or end:

grep [^ae]nd .bashrc

Specify character ranges using hyphens. Search for capital letters:

grep [A-Z] .bashrc

Combine brackets with anchors to find words starting with capitals:

grep ^[A-Z] .bashrc

Use multiple ranges. Match non-letter characters:

grep [^a-zA-Z] .bashrc

Output highlights numbers and characters while ignoring letters.

Character Classes

Grep provides predefined character classes to simplify bracket expressions.

Syntax	Description	Equivalent
[[:alnum:]]	All letters and numbers	[0-9a-zA-Z]
[[:alpha:]]	All letters	[a-zA-Z]
[[:blank:]]	Spaces and tabs
[[:digit:]]	Digits 0 to 9	[0-9]
[[:lower:]]	Lowercase letters	[a-z]
[[:punct:]]	Punctuation characters	[^a-zA-Z0-9]
[[:upper:]]	Uppercase letters	[A-Z]
[[:xdigit:]]	Hexadecimal digits	[0-9a-fA-F]

Quantifiers

Quantifiers specify appearance frequency. The table shows each syntax with descriptions.

Syntax	Description
*	Zero or more matches
?	Zero or one match
+	One or more matches
{n}	Exactly n matches
{n,}	n or more matches
{,m}	Up to m matches
{n,m}	From n up to m matches

The asterisk matches patterns zero or more times:

grep m*and .bashrc

This matches and, mand, mmand because m repeats any number of times.

Match zero or exactly one occurrence using question mark. Encase in quotes and escape the character:

grep 'm\?and' .bashrc

Use extended regex to avoid escaping:

grep -E 'm?and' .bashrc

Output highlights instances of and or mand.

Specify exact repetitions using range quantifiers. Search for strings with two vowels:

grep '[aeiouAEIOU]\{2\}' .bashrc

Or use extended syntax:

grep -E '[aeiouAEIOU]{2}' .bashrc

Alternation

Alternation defines alternative matches. Encase alternatives in single quotes and separate with escaped pipe:

grep 'bash\|alias' .bashrc

Use extended regex to omit escape characters:

grep -E 'bash|alias' .bashrc

Output highlights both string instances.

Grouping

Group patterns into single items using escaped parentheses for regular regex or extended syntax.

Search for bashrc with optional rc characters:

grep 'bash\(rc\)\?' .bashrc

Extended syntax version:

grep -E 'bash(rc)?' .bashrc

Output highlights bashrc instances. Since rc is optional, bash also matches.

Special Backslash Expressions

Grep offers unique backslash expressions for word boundary matching.

Syntax	Example	Description
\b	'\band\b'	Word boundaries
\B	'\Band'	Non-word boundaries
\<	'\<and'	Start of word
\>	'and\>'	End of word
\w	'\wand'	Word characters
\W	'\Wand'	Non-word characters
\s	'\sand'	Whitespace characters
\S	'\Sand'	Non-whitespace characters

Use \b boundaries to locate isolated words:

grep '\bse[et]\b' .bashrc

The expression locates see and set. Boundaries ensure word isolation.

Escaping Meta-Characters

Escape metacharacters to treat special characters as literals. Search for a period at line end:

grep '\.$' .bashrc

Preventing character interpretation helps when searching source code or configuration files.