There are two issues with your attempt:

1. your array construction has an erroneous comma, which makes the first pattern token_a, instead of token_a

   
   



2. <(printf '%s
' "${grep_ignore[@]}") is being passed to grep -v as a file to be searched a pattern consisting of the process substitution's file descriptor string like /dev/fd/63¹, rather than as a list of patterns - to have patterns read from a file (or process substitution) you need to make it an argument to the -f option

   
   

Correcting for these:

grep_ignore=("token_a" "token_b")

then

$ grep -rnw . -e "token2" | grep -vFf <(printf '%s

' "${grep_ignore[@]}")

./file_token_c.txt:1:token2 token3

(the -F says to treat the array elements as fixed strings rather than regular expressions).

Alternatively, at least in GNU grep, you can use --exclude (and --include) to limit the match to specific file subsets to avoid the second grep altogether. So using your example above:

$ grep -rnw . -e "token2"

./file_token_a.txt:1:token1 token2

./file_token_c.txt:1:token2 token3

but given an array of filename patterns (note the elements are separated by whitespace not commas):

grep_ignore=("*token_a*" "*token_b*")

then

$ grep -rnw . -e "token2" "${grep_ignore[@]/#/--exclude=}"

./file_token_c.txt:1:token2 token3

where the array parameter expansion ${grep_ignore/#/--exclude=} expands as follows:

$ printf '%s

' "${grep_ignore[@]/#/--exclude=}"

--exclude=*token_a*

--exclude=*token_b*

Alternatively you could use a brace expansion instead of an array:

grep -rnw . -e "token2" --exclude={"*token_a*","*token_b*"}

1. try it with set -x for example:

   
   

    $ grep -rnw . -e "token2" | grep -v <(printf '%s
   
   ' "${grep_ignore[@]}")
   
    + grep --color=auto -rnw . -e token2
   
    + grep --color=auto -v /dev/fd/63
   
    ++ printf '%s
   
   '
   
    ./file_token_a.txt:1:token1 token2
   
    ./file_token_c.txt:1:token2 token3
   
   

   
   

   Note how the grep command has become grep --color=auto -v /dev/fd/63? You can further confirm that it's treating /dev/fd/63 as a pattern rather than a pseudo-file as follows:

   
   

    printf '%s
   
   ' /dev/fd/{61..65} | 
   
      grep -v <(printf '%s
   
   ' "${grep_ignore[@]}")
   
   

   
   

   (you'll see that /dev/fd/63 gets filtered out).