grepping summary thanks responded request grepping dos environment following syntax grep r fn1 fn2 fn3 fn1 file set strings grepped fn2 database fn3 output suggestions help got literally grepped grep thanks lot got whole lot answers summarising 1 first use perl script write grep unix dos perl language easily allow create small program ask information perl including free downloads many environments gotten perl language home page http www perl com perl index html 2 second suggestion similar nature use awk lex tools job 3 unix environment three types grep proposed egrep egrep f fn1 fn2 fn3 fn1 file containing search patterns one per line want search literal strings special characters use fgrep instead egrep man grep details b fgrep fgrep f pattfile name databaseto search resultsfile work assuming pattfile name file _ strings _ regular expressions containing metacharacters allowed fgrep say man fgrep get details one hitch however match strings regular expressions c sgrep sgrep utility standard unix permits complex nested patterns searched 4 dos gnu tools available dos gnu one grep lets according manual grep f f1 f2 f3 works used success thanks andreas mengel incidentally egrep sgrep fgrep versions dos exist found ftp rediris es mirror simtelnet gnu gnuish grep15 zip thanks susana sotelo docio 5 another suggestion use sed sed n f file permits many patterns searched problems multiple matches occur line 6 another solution dos grep large number strings regular expression second alternative batchfile operation using present solution wanted something functional 7 commercial solution also proposed mks mortice kern canada makes commercial set unix apps commands use dos windows environments including ksh awk grep gres grep syntax grep f pattfile file output _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ many thanks martin wynne eiamjw comp lancs ac uk dowling willd spectranet ca kevin bretonnel cohen kevin cmhcsys com mark liberman myl unagi cis upenn edu john e koontz koontz boulder nist gov peter hamer p g hamer nortel co uk stuart luppescu sluppescu uchicago edu stephen p spackman stephen softguard com lee lee lancaster ac uk chris culy cculy blue weeg uiowa edu david palmer palmer linus mitre org shravan vasishth vasishth ling ohiostate edu susana sotelo doc io fesdocio usc es andreas mengel mengel babylon kgw tuberlin de prompt helpful replies query