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From: wescott@sauron.UUCP (Michael Wescott)
Newsgroups: net.unix,net.unix-wizards,net.wanted
Subject: Re: Need unix command file HELP!
Message-ID: <609@sauron.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 4-Feb-86 00:41:53 EST
Article-I.D.: sauron.609
Posted: Tue Feb  4 00:41:53 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Feb-86 09:26:44 EST
References: <245@aero.ARPA> <587@smeagol.UUCP>
Reply-To: wescott@sauron.UUCP (Michael Wescott)
Organization: NCR Corp., Advanced System Development, Columbia, SC
Lines: 29
Xref: watmath net.unix:7029 net.unix-wizards:16671 net.wanted:8089

In article <587@smeagol.UUCP> earle@smeagol.UUCP (Greg Earle) writes:
>> We are looking for a utility that can, when given a arbitrary string,
>> can locate all occurences of that string anywhere on the system.
>
>find / -exec fgrep this-is-the-string '{}' \; (UGGGHHH!)
>
>Warning! Only execute during hours when no one else is in building!!
>Guaranteed to tie up CPU for indefinite periods! :@)
>
>If you only want the file names, this *might* work, I'm not sure ...
>
>find / -exec "fgrep this-is-the-string '{}' | awk -F: '{print $1}'" \;
>(DOUBLE UGGGHHH)

I agree, UGGHHH.  I know its not on most BSD systems, but it has its
uses.  I'm talking about `xargs'.  For much less cpu usage try:

find / -type f -print | grep -v outfile | xargs grep 'pattern'  > outfile

or some reasonable variation with your favorite grep (or bm).
Xargs accumulates arguments from stdin and execs the command and args
given for a reasonable number of collected arguments.  Hence grep
gets executed once per ten or twenty files rather than once per file.

I think it's reasonable to expect to search only regular files, hence
"-type f" and you better exclude "outfile" unless you use "grep -l".

	-Mike Wescott
	ncrcae!wescott