How can I use grep to show just filenames on Linux?

Question

How can I use grep to show just file-names (no in-line matches) on Linux?

I am usually using something like:

find . -iname "*php" -exec grep -H myString {} \;

How can I just get the file-names (with paths), but without the matches? Do I have to use xargs? I didn't see a way to do this on my grep man page.

You mean, you want the filenames that have at least one match? — leonbloy, Jul 09 '11 at 22:27
Great question. I actually started using this to open a list of files returned by grep in Vim. `vim $(grep -rl Something app/)` — David Tuite, Mar 20 '13 at 10:49
You cannot list files using grep command, it is basically used to fetch desired text from a file or a list. For instance, ps aux | grep 'apt-get' or grep 'text-to-find' /path/to/file/ — iamjayp, Mar 17 '17 at 08:09
@iamjayp Ummm, you can too list files using the grep command. `grep -lr 'text-to-find' ./*` works quite nicely! — ErikE, Nov 13 '21 at 21:58

score 2031 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 12 '17 at 19:33

2031

The standard option grep -l (that is a lowercase L) could do this.

From the Unix standard:

-l
    (The letter ell.) Write only the names of files containing selected
    lines to standard output. Pathnames are written once per file searched.
    If the standard input is searched, a pathname of (standard input) will
    be written, in the POSIX locale. In other locales, standard input may be
    replaced by something more appropriate in those locales.

You also do not need -H in this case.

edited Oct 12 '17 at 19:33

Peter Mortensen

30,030
21
100
124

answered Jul 09 '11 at 22:26

Random832

35,197
3
42
63

1

-H also shows the matches themselves. The question was for just filenames. – Hauke Apr 26 '18 at 12:42
1

@Hauke And my answer was -l. I mentioned -H only because the user's command in the question included -H and it is redundant when -l is given. – Random832 Apr 26 '18 at 15:58
6

Nice, I personally like using this with other flags `grep -nrl "some text" .` when looking for text in a set of subfolders recursively – openwonk Jun 25 '19 at 06:33
1

What's the mnemonic for ell? – JoelFan Jul 10 '20 at 18:23
"fi**L**es with matches" – Jann Poppinga Aug 18 '20 at 05:54
I thought this wasn't the answer, because it says "The scanning will stop on the first match." but I guess this means scanning *within the file* will stop, not that it stops after finding one file. – endolith Oct 20 '20 at 15:07

score 174 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 09 '11 at 22:26

174

From the grep(1) man page:

  -l, --files-with-matches
          Suppress  normal  output;  instead  print the name of each input
          file from which output would normally have  been  printed.   The
          scanning  will  stop  on  the  first match.  (-l is specified by
          POSIX.)

answered Jul 09 '11 at 22:26

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

740,318
145
1,296
1,325

5

Stopping at the first match is necessary and nature . – Thomson Nov 20 '14 at 03:18
11

the documentation makes it a bit unclear. "The scanning will stop on the first match" - indicates that all file names will be printed, but the scanning for the matching word will stop at the first occurence. – TheMonkWhoSoldHisCode May 29 '15 at 09:26
3

@VishalP: Since we don't care where the occurrences are, only that they exist, there is no point in searching each file beyond the first occurrence. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams May 29 '15 at 12:08
23

@IgnacioVazquez-Abrams Exactly. The first impression of the document makes you feel that it will only print the file name of the first file. You really need a couple of reads to understand it. – TheMonkWhoSoldHisCode May 29 '15 at 12:53
10

'The scanning of the current file will stop on the first match.' would be much clearer. – sorrymissjackson Mar 22 '16 at 09:51
1

[GNU grep man page](https://www.gnu.org/software/grep/manual/grep.html) clarifies this. – Elliptical view Mar 24 '18 at 18:56
And how about `pdfgrep`? – Erwann Feb 13 '22 at 05:04

score 62 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 31 '21 at 16:19

For a simple file search, you could use grep's -l and -r options:

grep -rl "mystring"

All the search is done by grep. Of course, if you need to select files on some other parameter, find is the correct solution:

find . -iname "*.php" -execdir grep -l "mystring" {} +

The execdir option builds each grep command per each directory, and concatenates filenames into only one command (+).

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 31 '21 at 16:20

0

My command suggestion for getting the filename with path

sudo find /home -name *.php

The output from this command on my Linux OS:

compose-sample-3/html/mail/contact_me.php

edited Mar 31 '21 at 16:20

Peter Mortensen

30,030
21
100
124

answered Apr 11 '20 at 11:50

apl

79
1
10

1

The question specifically asks how they get the file names _using grep_. – snakecharmerb Apr 11 '20 at 15:38
2

This command will actually not do what you expect. Shell expansion will first expand \*.php and then feed the result as argument 4 into find. You should always escape your file pattern with either \\*.php or "\*.php" when using find. – Spliffster Feb 24 '21 at 08:35

How can I use grep to show just filenames on Linux?

4 Answers4

My command suggestion for getting the filename with path

Linked

Related