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How to search for a word in a file but also show the whole file along with the found word?

rated 0 times [ 8] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 1865 / 2 Years ago, sat, june 4, 2022, 9:02:39

I am using Ubuntu 16.04.

I want to search for a certain word, but I also want the whole file that contains the word to be outputted on the terminal so that I can see where in the file the word is located. However, when I use grep, it will only show the particular sentence that contains the word, not the whole file.

What command can I use to search for a word but also show the whole file along with the place where the word is located?

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4 Years ago

answered 2 Years ago rinstracte · Accepted Answer

With grep you can use:

$ grep -E -e 'pattern' -e '$' file

or in a simplified form:

$ grep -E 'pattern|$' file

Technically this would work too:

$ grep -E 'pattern|^' file

or even : grep -E 'pattern|' file. It says lines with pattern or no pattern at all. so everything will match.

I have grep aliased to grep --color=always, so if you don't you have to pass the color option yourself.

With less:

$ less -p 'pattern' file

So the file would pop-up in less, the desired term would be highlighted and you can use n and shift+n to jump around between matches.