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GREP(1)								       GREP(1)

NAME
       grep, egrep, fgrep, rgrep - print lines matching a pattern

SYNOPSIS
       grep [OPTIONS] PATTERN [FILE...]
       grep [OPTIONS] [-e PATTERN | -f FILE] [FILE...]

DESCRIPTION
       grep  searches the named input FILEs (or standard input if no files are
       named, or if a single hyphen-minus (-) is given as file name) for lines
       containing  a  match to the given PATTERN.  By default, grep prints the
       matching lines.

       In  addition,  three  variant  programs	egrep,	fgrep  and  rgrep  are
       available.   egrep  is  the  same  as  grep -E.	 fgrep	is the same as
       grep -F.	 rgrep is the same as grep -r.	Direct	invocation  as	either
       egrep  or  fgrep	 is  deprecated,  but  is provided to allow historical
       applications that rely on them to run unmodified.

OPTIONS
   Generic Program Information
       --help Print a usage message  briefly  summarizing  these  command-line
	      options and the bug-reporting address, then exit.

       -V, --version
	      Print  the version number of grep to the standard output stream.
	      This version number should be included in all bug	 reports  (see
	      below).

   Matcher Selection
       -E, --extended-regexp
	      Interpret	 PATTERN  as  an extended regular expression (ERE, see
	      below).  (-E is specified by POSIX.)

       -F, --fixed-strings
	      Interpret PATTERN as a  list  of	fixed  strings,	 separated  by
	      newlines,	 any  of  which is to be matched.  (-F is specified by
	      POSIX.)

       -G, --basic-regexp
	      Interpret PATTERN	 as  a	basic  regular	expression  (BRE,  see
	      below).  This is the default.

       -P, --perl-regexp
	      Interpret	 PATTERN as a Perl regular expression.	This is highly
	      experimental and grep -P may warn of unimplemented features.

   Matching Control
       -e PATTERN, --regexp=PATTERN
	      Use PATTERN as  the  pattern.   This  can	 be  used  to  specify
	      multiple search patterns, or to protect a pattern beginning with
	      a hyphen (-).  (-e is specified by POSIX.)

       -f FILE, --file=FILE
	      Obtain patterns  from  FILE,  one	 per  line.   The  empty  file
	      contains	zero  patterns, and therefore matches nothing.	(-f is
	      specified by POSIX.)

       -i, --ignore-case
	      Ignore case distinctions in  both	 the  PATTERN  and  the	 input
	      files.  (-i is specified by POSIX.)

       -v, --invert-match
	      Invert the sense of matching, to select non-matching lines.  (-v
	      is specified by POSIX.)

       -w, --word-regexp
	      Select only those	 lines	containing  matches  that  form	 whole
	      words.   The  test is that the matching substring must either be
	      at the  beginning	 of  the  line,	 or  preceded  by  a  non-word
	      constituent  character.  Similarly, it must be either at the end
	      of the line or followed by  a  non-word  constituent  character.
	      Word-constituent	 characters   are  letters,  digits,  and  the
	      underscore.

       -x, --line-regexp
	      Select only those matches that exactly  match  the  whole	 line.
	      (-x is specified by POSIX.)

       -y     Obsolete synonym for -i.

   General Output Control
       -c, --count
	      Suppress	normal output; instead print a count of matching lines
	      for each input file.  With the -v,  --invert-match  option  (see
	      below), count non-matching lines.	 (-c is specified by POSIX.)

       --color[=WHEN], --colour[=WHEN]
	      Surround	 the  matched  (non-empty)  strings,  matching	lines,
	      context lines, file  names,  line	 numbers,  byte	 offsets,  and
	      separators  (for fields and groups of context lines) with escape
	      sequences to display them in color on the terminal.  The	colors
	      are  defined  by	the  environment  variable  GREP_COLORS.   The
	      deprecated environment variable GREP_COLOR is  still  supported,
	      but  its setting does not have priority.	WHEN is never, always,
	      or auto.

       -L, --files-without-match
	      Suppress normal output; instead print the	 name  of  each	 input
	      file from which no output would normally have been printed.  The
	      scanning will stop on the first match.

       -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.)

       -m NUM, --max-count=NUM
	      Stop  reading  a file after NUM matching lines.  If the input is
	      standard input from a regular file, and NUM matching  lines  are
	      output,  grep  ensures  that the standard input is positioned to
	      just after the last matching line before exiting, regardless  of
	      the  presence of trailing context lines.	This enables a calling
	      process to resume a search.  When grep stops after NUM  matching
	      lines,  it  outputs  any trailing context lines.	When the -c or
	      --count option is also  used,  grep  does	 not  output  a	 count
	      greater  than NUM.  When the -v or --invert-match option is also
	      used, grep stops after outputting NUM non-matching lines.

       -o, --only-matching
	      Print only the matched (non-empty) parts	of  a  matching	 line,
	      with each such part on a separate output line.

       -q, --quiet, --silent
	      Quiet;   do   not	 write	anything  to  standard	output.	  Exit
	      immediately with zero status if any match is found, even	if  an
	      error  was  detected.   Also see the -s or --no-messages option.
	      (-q is specified by POSIX.)

       -s, --no-messages
	      Suppress error messages about nonexistent or  unreadable	files.
	      Portability note: unlike GNU grep, 7th Edition Unix grep did not
	      conform to POSIX, because it lacked -q and its -s option behaved
	      like  GNU	 grep's	 -q option.  USG-style grep also lacked -q but
	      its -s option behaved like GNU  grep.   Portable	shell  scripts
	      should  avoid  both  -q  and -s and should redirect standard and
	      error output to /dev/null instead.  (-s is specified by POSIX.)

   Output Line Prefix Control
       -b, --byte-offset
	      Print the 0-based byte offset within the input file before  each
	      line of output.  If -o (--only-matching) is specified, print the
	      offset of the matching part itself.

       -H, --with-filename
	      Print the file name for each match.  This is  the	 default  when
	      there is more than one file to search.

       -h, --no-filename
	      Suppress	the  prefixing	of  file names on output.  This is the
	      default when there is only one file (or only standard input)  to
	      search.

       --label=LABEL
	      Display  input  actually	coming	from  standard	input as input
	      coming  from  file  LABEL.   This	 is  especially	 useful	  when
	      implementing  tools  like	 zgrep,	 e.g.,	gzip -cd foo.gz | grep
	      --label=foo -H something.	 See also the -H option.

       -n, --line-number
	      Prefix each line of output with the 1-based line	number	within
	      its input file.  (-n is specified by POSIX.)

       -T, --initial-tab
	      Make  sure  that the first character of actual line content lies
	      on a tab stop, so that the alignment of tabs looks normal.  This
	      is  useful  with	options that prefix their output to the actual
	      content: -H,-n, and -b.  In order	 to  improve  the  probability
	      that lines from a single file will all start at the same column,
	      this also causes the line number and byte offset (if present) to
	      be printed in a minimum size field width.

       -u, --unix-byte-offsets
	      Report  Unix-style  byte	offsets.   This	 switch causes grep to
	      report byte offsets as if the file were a Unix-style text	 file,
	      i.e.,  with  CR  characters  stripped  off.   This  will produce
	      results identical to running  grep  on  a	 Unix  machine.	  This
	      option  has  no  effect unless -b option is also used; it has no
	      effect on platforms other than MS-DOS and MS-Windows.

       -Z, --null
	      Output a zero byte (the ASCII  NUL  character)  instead  of  the
	      character	 that normally follows a file name.  For example, grep
	      -lZ outputs a zero byte after each  file	name  instead  of  the
	      usual  newline.	This option makes the output unambiguous, even
	      in the presence of file names containing unusual characters like
	      newlines.	  This	option	can  be	 used  with commands like find
	      -print0, perl -0, sort -z, and xargs  -0	to  process  arbitrary
	      file names, even those that contain newline characters.

   Context Line Control
       -A NUM, --after-context=NUM
	      Print  NUM  lines	 of  trailing  context	after  matching lines.
	      Places  a	 line  containing  a  group  separator	(--)   between
	      contiguous  groups  of  matches.	With the -o or --only-matching
	      option, this has no effect and a warning is given.

       -B NUM, --before-context=NUM
	      Print NUM	 lines	of  leading  context  before  matching	lines.
	      Places   a  line	containing  a  group  separator	 (--)  between
	      contiguous groups of matches.  With the  -o  or  --only-matching
	      option, this has no effect and a warning is given.

       -C NUM, -NUM, --context=NUM
	      Print  NUM  lines of output context.  Places a line containing a
	      group separator (--) between contiguous groups of matches.  With
	      the  -o  or  --only-matching  option,  this  has no effect and a
	      warning is given.

   File and Directory Selection
       -a, --text
	      Process a binary file as if it were text; this is equivalent  to
	      the --binary-files=text option.

       --binary-files=TYPE
	      If the first few bytes of a file indicate that the file contains
	      binary data, assume that the file is of type TYPE.  By  default,
	      TYPE  is	binary,	 and  grep  normally outputs either a one-line
	      message saying that a binary file	 matches,  or  no  message  if
	      there  is no match.  If TYPE is without-match, grep assumes that
	      a binary file does not match;  this  is  equivalent  to  the  -I
	      option.	If TYPE is text, grep processes a binary file as if it
	      were text; this is equivalent to the -a option.	Warning:  grep
	      --binary-files=text  might output binary garbage, which can have
	      nasty side effects if the	 output	 is  a	terminal  and  if  the
	      terminal driver interprets some of it as commands.

       -D ACTION, --devices=ACTION
	      If  an  input  file  is  a device, FIFO or socket, use ACTION to
	      process it.  By  default,	 ACTION	 is  read,  which  means  that
	      devices are read just as if they were ordinary files.  If ACTION
	      is skip, devices are silently skipped.

       -d ACTION, --directories=ACTION
	      If an input file is a directory, use ACTION to process  it.   By
	      default,	ACTION	is read, which means that directories are read
	      just as if  they	were  ordinary	files.	 If  ACTION  is	 skip,
	      directories  are	silently  skipped.  If ACTION is recurse, grep
	      reads all files  under  each  directory,	recursively;  this  is
	      equivalent to the -r option.

       --exclude=GLOB
	      Skip   files  whose  base	 name  matches	GLOB  (using  wildcard
	      matching).  A file-name  glob  can  use  *,  ?,  and  [...]   as
	      wildcards,  and  \  to  quote  a wildcard or backslash character
	      literally.

       --exclude-from=FILE
	      Skip files whose base name matches any of	 the  file-name	 globs
	      read  from  FILE	(using	wildcard  matching  as described under
	      --exclude).

       --exclude-dir=DIR
	      Exclude directories matching  the	 pattern  DIR  from  recursive
	      searches.

       -I     Process  a  binary  file as if it did not contain matching data;
	      this is equivalent to the --binary-files=without-match option.

       --include=GLOB
	      Search only files whose base name matches GLOB  (using  wildcard
	      matching as described under --exclude).

       -R, -r, --recursive
	      Read  all	 files	under  each  directory,	 recursively;  this is
	      equivalent to the -d recurse option.

   Other Options
       --line-buffered
	      Use line buffering on output.   This  can	 cause	a  performance
	      penalty.

       --mmap If  possible, use the mmap(2) system call to read input, instead
	      of the default read(2) system call.  In some situations,	--mmap
	      yields  better performance.  However, --mmap can cause undefined
	      behavior (including core dumps) if an input file	shrinks	 while
	      grep is operating, or if an I/O error occurs.

       -U, --binary
	      Treat  the  file(s) as binary.  By default, under MS-DOS and MS-
	      Windows, grep guesses the file type by looking at	 the  contents
	      of  the first 32KB read from the file.  If grep decides the file
	      is a text file, it strips the CR characters  from	 the  original
	      file  contents  (to  make	 regular expressions with ^ and $ work
	      correctly).  Specifying -U overrules this guesswork, causing all
	      files  to be read and passed to the matching mechanism verbatim;
	      if the file is a text file with CR/LF pairs at the end  of  each
	      line,  this  will	 cause some regular expressions to fail.  This
	      option has no effect on platforms	 other	than  MS-DOS  and  MS-
	      Windows.

       -z, --null-data
	      Treat  the  input	 as  a set of lines, each terminated by a zero
	      byte (the ASCII NUL character) instead of a newline.   Like  the
	      -Z  or --null option, this option can be used with commands like
	      sort -z to process arbitrary file names.

REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
       A regular expression is a pattern that  describes  a  set  of  strings.
       Regular	 expressions   are   constructed   analogously	to  arithmetic
       expressions, by using various operators to combine smaller expressions.

       grep understands three different versions of regular expression syntax:
       “basic,”	 “extended” and “perl.” In GNU grep, there is no difference in
       available functionality between basic and extended syntaxes.  In	 other
       implementations,	 basic	regular	 expressions  are  less powerful.  The
       following  description  applies	to   extended	regular	  expressions;
       differences  for	 basic	regular expressions are summarized afterwards.
       Perl  regular  expressions  give	 additional  functionality,  and   are
       documented   in	pcresyntax(3)  and  pcrepattern(3),  but  may  not  be
       available on every system.

       The fundamental building blocks are the regular expressions that	 match
       a single character.  Most characters, including all letters and digits,
       are regular expressions that match themselves.  Any meta-character with
       special meaning may be quoted by preceding it with a backslash.

       The period . matches any single character.

   Character Classes and Bracket Expressions
       A  bracket  expression is a list of characters enclosed by [ and ].  It
       matches any single character in that list; if the  first	 character  of
       the  list is the caret ^ then it matches any character not in the list.
       For example, the regular expression  [0123456789]  matches  any	single
       digit.

       Within  a  bracket  expression,	a  range  expression  consists	of two
       characters separated by a hyphen.  It matches any single character that
       sorts  between  the  two	 characters,  inclusive,  using	 the  locale's
       collating sequence and character set.  For example, in  the  default  C
       locale, [a-d] is equivalent to [abcd].  Many locales sort characters in
       dictionary  order,  and	in  these  locales  [a-d]  is  typically   not
       equivalent to [abcd]; it might be equivalent to [aBbCcDd], for example.
       To obtain the traditional interpretation of  bracket  expressions,  you
       can  use the C locale by setting the LC_ALL environment variable to the
       value C.

       Finally, certain named classes  of  characters  are  predefined	within
       bracket expressions, as follows.	 Their names are self explanatory, and
       they  are  [:alnum:],  [:alpha:],  [:cntrl:],   [:digit:],   [:graph:],
       [:lower:],  [:print:], [:punct:], [:space:], [:upper:], and [:xdigit:].
       For example, [[:alnum:]] means  [0-9A-Za-z],  except  the  latter  form
       depends upon the C locale and the ASCII character encoding, whereas the
       former is independent of locale and  character  set.   (Note  that  the
       brackets	 in these class names are part of the symbolic names, and must
       be  included  in	 addition  to  the  brackets  delimiting  the  bracket
       expression.)   Most  meta-characters  lose their special meaning inside
       bracket expressions.  To include a literal ]  place  it	first  in  the
       list.   Similarly,  to include a literal ^ place it anywhere but first.
       Finally, to include a literal - place it last.

   Anchoring
       The caret ^ and the dollar sign $ are meta-characters that respectively
       match the empty string at the beginning and end of a line.

   The Backslash Character and Special Expressions
       The  symbols  \<	 and  \>  respectively	match  the empty string at the
       beginning and end of a word.  The symbol \b matches the empty string at
       the  edge  of a word, and \B matches the empty string provided it's not
       at the edge of a word.  The symbol \w is a synonym for [[:alnum:]]  and
       \W is a synonym for [^[:alnum:]].

   Repetition
       A  regular  expression  may  be	followed  by one of several repetition
       operators:
       ?      The preceding item is optional and matched at most once.
       *      The preceding item will be matched zero or more times.
       +      The preceding item will be matched one or more times.
       {n}    The preceding item is matched exactly n times.
       {n,}   The preceding item is matched n or more times.
       {,m}   The preceding item is matched at most m times.
       {n,m}  The preceding item is matched at least n	times,	but  not  more
	      than m times.

   Concatenation
       Two  regular  expressions  may  be  concatenated; the resulting regular
       expression matches any string formed by	concatenating  two  substrings
       that respectively match the concatenated expressions.

   Alternation
       Two  regular  expressions  may  be  joined by the infix operator |; the
       resulting  regular  expression  matches	any  string  matching	either
       alternate expression.

   Precedence
       Repetition  takes  precedence  over  concatenation, which in turn takes
       precedence over alternation.  A whole expression	 may  be  enclosed  in
       parentheses   to	  override   these   precedence	  rules	  and  form  a
       subexpression.

   Back References and Subexpressions
       The back-reference \n, where n is a single digit, matches the substring
       previously  matched  by	the  nth  parenthesized	 subexpression	of the
       regular expression.

   Basic vs Extended Regular Expressions
       In basic regular expressions the meta-characters ?, +, {, |, (,	and  )
       lose  their  special  meaning; instead use the backslashed versions \?,
       \+, \{, \|, \(, and \).

       Traditional egrep did not support the { meta-character, and some	 egrep
       implementations	support \{ instead, so portable scripts should avoid {
       in grep -E patterns and should use [{] to match a literal {.

       GNU grep -E attempts to support traditional usage by assuming that { is
       not   special  if  it  would  be	 the  start  of	 an  invalid  interval
       specification.  For example, the command grep -E '{1' searches for  the
       two-character  string  {1  instead  of  reporting a syntax error in the
       regular expression.  POSIX.2 allows this behavior as an extension,  but
       portable scripts should avoid it.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The   behavior  of  grep	 is  affected  by  the	following  environment
       variables.

       The locale for category LC_foo is  specified  by	 examining  the	 three
       environment  variables  LC_ALL, LC_foo, LANG, in that order.  The first
       of these variables that is set specifies the locale.  For  example,  if
       LC_ALL  is not set, but LC_MESSAGES is set to pt_BR, then the Brazilian
       Portuguese locale is used for the LC_MESSAGES category.	The  C	locale
       is  used	 if none of these environment variables are set, if the locale
       catalog is not installed, or if grep was	 not  compiled	with  national
       language support (NLS).

       GREP_OPTIONS
	      This variable specifies default options to be placed in front of
	      any  explicit  options.	For  example,	if   GREP_OPTIONS   is
	      '--binary-files=without-match  --directories=skip', grep behaves
	      as  if  the   two	  options   --binary-files=without-match   and
	      --directories=skip   had	been  specified	 before	 any  explicit
	      options.	Option specifications are separated by whitespace.   A
	      backslash	 escapes  the  next  character,	 so  it can be used to
	      specify an option containing whitespace or a backslash.

       GREP_COLOR
	      This variable specifies the  color  used	to  highlight  matched
	      (non-empty) text.	 It is deprecated in favor of GREP_COLORS, but
	      still supported.	The mt, ms, and mc capabilities of GREP_COLORS
	      have  priority  over  it.	 It can only specify the color used to
	      highlight the matching non-empty text in any  matching  line  (a
	      selected	line  when the -v command-line option is omitted, or a
	      context line when -v is specified).  The default is 01;31, which
	      means  a	bold  red  foreground  text  on the terminal's default
	      background.

       GREP_COLORS
	      Specifies the colors and	other  attributes  used	 to  highlight
	      various  parts  of  the  output.	Its value is a colon-separated
	      list	of	capabilities	  that	     defaults	    to
	      ms=01;31:mc=01;31:sl=:cx=:fn=35:ln=32:bn=32:se=36	 with  the  rv
	      and ne boolean capabilities omitted  (i.e.,  false).   Supported
	      capabilities are as follows.

	      sl=    SGR  substring  for  whole selected lines (i.e., matching
		     lines when the -v command-line option is omitted, or non-
		     matching  lines  when  -v	is specified).	If however the
		     boolean rv capability and the -v command-line option  are
		     both  specified,  it  applies  to	context matching lines
		     instead.  The default  is	empty  (i.e.,  the  terminal's
		     default color pair).

	      cx=    SGR substring for whole context lines (i.e., non-matching
		     lines when the -v	command-line  option  is  omitted,  or
		     matching  lines  when  -v	is specified).	If however the
		     boolean rv capability and the -v command-line option  are
		     both specified, it applies to selected non-matching lines
		     instead.  The default  is	empty  (i.e.,  the  terminal's
		     default color pair).

	      rv     Boolean  value  that reverses (swaps) the meanings of the
		     sl= and cx= capabilities when the -v command-line	option
		     is specified.  The default is false (i.e., the capability
		     is omitted).

	      mt=01;31
		     SGR substring for matching non-empty text in any matching
		     line  (i.e.,  a  selected	line  when the -v command-line
		     option  is	 omitted,  or  a  context  line	 when  -v   is
		     specified).   Setting  this is equivalent to setting both
		     ms= and mc= at once to the same value.  The default is  a
		     bold   red	  text	 foreground   over  the	 current  line
		     background.

	      ms=01;31
		     SGR substring for matching non-empty text in  a  selected
		     line.  (This is only used when the -v command-line option
		     is omitted.)  The effect  of  the	sl=  (or  cx=  if  rv)
		     capability	 remains  active  when	this  kicks  in.   The
		     default is a bold red text foreground  over  the  current
		     line background.

	      mc=01;31
		     SGR  substring  for  matching non-empty text in a context
		     line.  (This is only used when the -v command-line option
		     is	 specified.)   The  effect  of	the cx= (or sl= if rv)
		     capability	 remains  active  when	this  kicks  in.   The
		     default  is  a  bold red text foreground over the current
		     line background.

	      fn=35  SGR substring for file names prefixing any content	 line.
		     The  default  is  a  magenta  text	 foreground  over  the
		     terminal's default background.

	      ln=32  SGR substring for	line  numbers  prefixing  any  content
		     line.   The  default  is a green text foreground over the
		     terminal's default background.

	      bn=32  SGR substring for	byte  offsets  prefixing  any  content
		     line.   The  default  is a green text foreground over the
		     terminal's default background.

	      se=36  SGR substring for separators that	are  inserted  between
		     selected  line  fields  (:), between context line fields,
		     (-), and between groups of adjacent  lines	 when  nonzero
		     context  is  specified  (--).  The default is a cyan text
		     foreground over the terminal's default background.

	      ne     Boolean value that prevents clearing to the end  of  line
		     using  Erase  in  Line  (EL) to Right (\33[K) each time a
		     colorized item ends.  This	 is  needed  on	 terminals  on
		     which  EL	is  not	 supported.  It is otherwise useful on
		     terminals for which the  back_color_erase	(bce)  boolean
		     terminfo  capability  does	 not  apply,  when  the chosen
		     highlight colors do not affect the background, or when EL
		     is	 too  slow or causes too much flicker.	The default is
		     false (i.e., the capability is omitted).

	      Note that boolean capabilities have no  =...   part.   They  are
	      omitted (i.e., false) by default and become true when specified.

	      See   the	  Select   Graphic  Rendition  (SGR)  section  in  the
	      documentation of the text terminal that is  used	for  permitted
	      values   and  their  meaning  as	character  attributes.	 These
	      substring values are integers in decimal representation and  can
	      be  concatenated with semicolons.	 grep takes care of assembling
	      the result into a	 complete  SGR	sequence  (\33[...m).	Common
	      values to concatenate include 1 for bold, 4 for underline, 5 for
	      blink, 7 for inverse, 39 for default foreground color, 30 to  37
	      for  foreground  colors,	90  to 97 for 16-color mode foreground
	      colors, 38;5;0 to 38;5;255  for  88-color	 and  256-color	 modes
	      foreground colors, 49 for default background color, 40 to 47 for
	      background colors, 100  to  107  for  16-color  mode  background
	      colors,  and 48;5;0 to 48;5;255 for 88-color and 256-color modes
	      background colors.

       LC_ALL, LC_COLLATE, LANG
	      These variables specify the locale for the LC_COLLATE  category,
	      which  determines the collating sequence used to interpret range
	      expressions like [a-z].

       LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LANG
	      These variables specify the locale for  the  LC_CTYPE  category,
	      which  determines the type of characters, e.g., which characters
	      are whitespace.

       LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES, LANG
	      These variables specify the locale for the LC_MESSAGES category,
	      which  determines the language that grep uses for messages.  The
	      default C locale uses American English messages.

       POSIXLY_CORRECT
	      If set,  grep  behaves  as  POSIX.2  requires;  otherwise,  grep
	      behaves  more  like  other  GNU programs.	 POSIX.2 requires that
	      options that follow file names must be treated as file names; by
	      default,	such  options are permuted to the front of the operand
	      list and are treated as options.	Also,  POSIX.2	requires  that
	      unrecognized  options  be diagnosed as “illegal”, but since they
	      are not really against the law the default is to	diagnose  them
	      as      “invalid”.       POSIXLY_CORRECT	    also      disables
	      _N_GNU_nonoption_argv_flags_, described below.

       _N_GNU_nonoption_argv_flags_
	      (Here N is grep's numeric process ID.)  If the ith character  of
	      this  environment variable's value is 1, do not consider the ith
	      operand of grep to be an option, even if it appears to  be  one.
	      A	 shell	can  put  this	variable  in  the environment for each
	      command it runs, specifying which operands are  the  results  of
	      file name wildcard expansion and therefore should not be treated
	      as options.  This behavior is available  only  with  the	GNU  C
	      library, and only when POSIXLY_CORRECT is not set.

EXIT STATUS
       The  exit  status is 0 if selected lines are found, and 1 if not found.
       If an error occurred the exit status is 2.  (Note: POSIX error handling
       code should check for '2' or greater.)

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright 1998-2000, 2002, 2005-2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

       This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is
       NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR	 A  PARTICULAR
       PURPOSE.

BUGS
   Reporting Bugs
       Email  bug reports to <bug-grep@gnu.org>, a mailing list whose web page
       is <http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-grep>.   grep's  Savannah
       bug tracker is located at <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=grep>.

   Known Bugs
       Large  repetition  counts  in the {n,m} construct may cause grep to use
       lots of memory.	In addition, certain other obscure regular expressions
       require	exponential  time  and space, and may cause grep to run out of
       memory.

       Back-references are very slow, and may require exponential time.

SEE ALSO
   Regular Manual Pages
       awk(1), cmp(1), diff(1), find(1), gzip(1),  perl(1),  sed(1),  sort(1),
       xargs(1),   zgrep(1),   mmap(2),	  read(2),   pcre(3),	pcresyntax(3),
       pcrepattern(3), terminfo(5), glob(7), regex(7).

   POSIX Programmer's Manual Page
       grep(1p).

   TeXinfo Documentation
       The full documentation for grep is maintained as a TeXinfo manual.   If
       the  info  and  grep  programs are properly installed at your site, the
       command

	      info grep

       should give you access to the complete manual.

NOTES
       GNU's not Unix, but Unix is a beast; its plural form is Unixen.

User Commands			GNU grep 2.6.3			       GREP(1)
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