egrep

Search file(s) for lines that match an extended expression (extended grep)

SYNTAX
      egrep [ options ] 'PATTERN' files ...

egrep is the same as `grep -E'

all other options are the same as grep 

The PATTERN is a regexp.  In typical usage, the regexp is quoted to
prevent the shell from expanding any of the special characters as file
name wildcards.  Normally, `egrep' prints the lines that matched.  If
multiple file names are provided on the command line, each output line
is preceded by the name of the file and a colon.

OPTIONS

`-c'
     Print out a count of the lines that matched the pattern, instead
     of the lines themselves.

`-s'
     Be silent.  No output is produced, and the exit value indicates
     whether or not the pattern was matched.

`-v'
     Invert the sense of the test. `egrep' prints the lines that do
     *not* match the pattern, and exits successfully if the pattern was
     not matched.

`-i'
     Ignore case distinctions in both the pattern and the input data.

`-l'
     Only print the names of the files that matched, not the lines that
     matched.

`-e PATTERN'
     Use PATTERN as the regexp to match.  The purpose of the `-e'
     option is to allow patterns that start with a `-'.

"I've never had a humble opinion in my life. If you're going to have one, why bother to be humble about it" - Joan Baez

Related Linux Bash commands:

fgrep - Search file(s) for lines that match a fixed string
gawk - Find and Replace text within file(s)
grep - Search file(s) for lines that match a given pattern

Equivalent Windows XP commands:

FIND - Search for a text string in a file
FINDSTR - Search for strings in files
MUNGE - Find and Replace text within file(s)