Need unix command file HELP!

[Michael Wescott]

In article <587 at smeagol.UUCP> earle at smeagol.UUCP (Greg Earle) writes:
>> We are looking for a utility that can, when given a arbitrary string,
>> can locate all occurences of that string anywhere on the system.
>
>find / -exec fgrep this-is-the-string '{}' \; (UGGGHHH!)
>
>Warning! Only execute during hours when no one else is in building!!
>Guaranteed to tie up CPU for indefinite periods! :@)
>
>If you only want the file names, this *might* work, I'm not sure ...
>
>find / -exec "fgrep this-is-the-string '{}' | awk -F: '{print $1}'" \;
>(DOUBLE UGGGHHH)

I agree, UGGHHH.  I know its not on most BSD systems, but it has its
uses.  I'm talking about `xargs'.  For much less cpu usage try:

find / -type f -print | grep -v outfile | xargs grep 'pattern'  > outfile

or some reasonable variation with your favorite grep (or bm).
Xargs accumulates arguments from stdin and execs the command and args
given for a reasonable number of collected arguments.  Hence grep
gets executed once per ten or twenty files rather than once per file.

I think it's reasonable to expect to search only regular files, hence
"-type f" and you better exclude "outfile" unless you use "grep -l".

	-Mike Wescott
	ncrcae!wescott