Grep is very good a useful tool.It's most important use is string compare,and the put the correct contest line by line.It's also often be used with the pipe order.Let's see about this.
Usage:
grep [-arguments] 'string' filename
arguments includes:
default : output the lines that include the string.
-a : search a binary file as a text file.
-c : count the number of times that match the 'string'
-i : ingore the case.
-n : output the line number.
-v : output the contest that doesnot include the string.
For example , if you say " grep 'root' /var/log/secure ",the lines of file secure that include the word 'root' will be print on the screen.But if you put a ' -v ' after grep , the lines without 'root' will be print.Interesting,right?you may want to learn more about it.
Of coure it can be used with other orders.For example," last | grep root ",since we now 'last' can show us the users' logging status,with " grep root ",it only show the root's log.
There are also some very very useful characters when using grep.
'[]' : when you use [],no matter how many characters in it, they will all be treated as one.but when a '^' is put before the characters ,it means none of them will be chosen.
'^': when you use it before the string(not in []),it means you want to find lines that starts with that string.
'$':as '^',you want to find lines that end with that string,but $ is put behind string.'^$' is often used to find empty lines.
'.':it means that the is one character,and it can be any.
'*':when using a '*',the word that before it will be repeat from zero to any. '.*' often be used to express any word.