On 06/03/11 17:42, Vic wrote: > > Hi All. > > I need some help with regexes in grep. > > I'm trying to search for a pattern along the lines of: > > foo(bar > > Note that there is no closing bracket. > > Like an eejit, I thought a regex of > > foo\(.* > > would match that - but grep barfs. It tells me > > grep: Unmatched ( or \(
Escaping the ( turns **on** it's special meaning to grep, which uses standard, not extended regex. It differs from python/awk/perl in this sense. grep 'foo\(bar' is expecting to see a closing \) later in the pattern to signify the end of a capturing group. grep 'foo(bar' treats the ( as just another character. This is likely what you want here. Stuart -- Stuart Sears RHCA etc. "It's today!" said Piglet. "My favourite day," said Pooh. -- Please post to: Hampshire@mailman.lug.org.uk Web Interface: https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/hampshire LUG URL: http://www.hantslug.org.uk --------------------------------------------------------------
