Linux – Find string in files.

find . | xargs grep 'string' -sl

The -s is for summary and won’t display warning messages such as grep: ./directory-name: Is a directory

The -l is for list, so we get just the filename and not all instances of the match displayed in the results.

Performing the search on the current directory I get:

./javascript_open_new_window_form.php./excel_large_number_error.php./linux_vi_string_substitution.php./email_reformat.php./online_email_reformat.php./excel_find_question_mark.php./linux_find_string_in_files.php./excel_keyboard_shortcuts.php./linux_grep.php./md5_unique_sub_string.php./email_reformat_token.php./excel_password_protect.php./mysql_date_calulation.php./md5_string.php./php_javascript_passing_values_to_new_window_in_url.php./php_math_on_string/math_on_string_form.php./guide.php./excel_large_number_paste.php./piping_commands_find_grep_sed.php./google-search-for-seo-research.php./filename_conversion_form.php./linux_find_string_files.php

I find this useful for just quickly seeing which files contain a
search time. I would normally limit the files searched with a command
such as :


find . -iname '*php' | xargs grep 'string' -sl


Another common search for me, is to just look at the recently updated files:


find . -iname '*php' -mtime -1 | xargs grep 'string' -sl


would find only files edited today, whilst the following finds the files older than today:


find . -iname '*php' -mtime +1 | xargs grep 'string' -sl


Tagged as: -, files, find, in, Linux, string