No Michael, you don 'get it' yet. And you won't for a while. In the context of what you are talking, '^', '$' and '*' are components of a 'regular expression' A 'regular expression' is a language that allows you to describe strings and it can be *VERY* complex. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression ET Michael Havens writes: > oh. so '*' searches the first string in the lines.... I understand that > now. > and $ matches the end string of lines. I get it now! > > :-)~MIKE~(-: > > On Sat, Mar 7, 2015 at 8:43 AM, sean wrote: > >> $ matches the end of line. You don't get any output because that file >> doesn't have any lines ending in 'bmike1'. That's why it was recommended >> that you grep for a shell. >> >> You are getting the same output with and without the ^ because it happens >> to be that bmike1 always appears at the beginning of the line in that file. >> Create a new file with these two lines: >> >> My name is bmike1 >> bmike1 is my name >> >> Then do grep ^bmike1, grep bmike1 and just grep bmike1 (no -E necessary). >> On Mar 7, 2015 8:34 AM, "Michael Havens" wrote: >> >>> Okay, I tried to grep my passwd file with and without the '^' and it >>> seems both are the same. What's the difference between the commands and why >>> should I bother to type the '^'? As to the '$' if all it does is produces a >>> blank linr what is it's use? >>> >>> bmike1@c521 ~ $ grep -E '^bmike1:' /etc/passwd >>> bmike1:x:1000:1000:Michael Havens,,,:/home/bmike1:/bin/bash >>> bmike1@c521 ~ $ grep -E 'bmike1:' /etc/passwd >>> bmike1:x:1000:1000:Michael Havens,,,:/home/bmike1:/bin/bash >>> bmike1@c521 ~ $ grep -E 'bmike1$:' /etc/passwd >>> bmike1@c521 ~ $ grep -E 'bmike1$' /etc/passwd >>> bmike1@c521 ~ $ >>> >>> >>> :-)~MIKE~(-: >>> >>> On Fri, Mar 6, 2015 at 11:39 PM, der.hans wrote: >>> >>>> Am 06. Mär, 2015 schwätzte Michael Havens so: >>>> >>>> moin moin Mike, >>>> >>>> when using regular expressions '$' matches the end of the line and '^' >>>> matcheѕ the beginning of the line. So, '^$' matches a blank line. >>>> >>>> grep -E '^fred:' /etc/passwd # shows the entry for fred's account >>>> >>>> grep -E ':/bin/bash$' /etc/passwd # shows all of the accounts that have >>>> bash as their shell >>>> >>>> ciao, >>>> >>>> der.hans >>>> >>>> >>>> I'm going through the BASH manual at The Linux Documentation Project and >>>>> was going over special characters. They say that 'a "$" addresses the >>>>> end >>>>> of a line bash'. Huh; what does that mean? You see on my blog that I had >>>>> another special character I was wondering about but my web search >>>>> revealed >>>>> to me what was hidden. My web search in this case turns up a lot of >>>>> stuff >>>>> too. None of it relevant though. Could you wonderful people of Plug >>>>> remove >>>>> the scales from my eyes? >>>>> :-)~MIKE~(-: >>>>> >>>>> >>>> -- >>>> # http://www.LuftHans.com/ http://www.PhxLinux.org/ >>>> # "Metrosexuals notwithstanding, quiche still lacks something." -- >>>> David Brin >>>> --------------------------------------------------- >>>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org >>>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >>>> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >>>> >>> >>> >>> --------------------------------------------------- >>> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org >>> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >>> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >>> >> >> --------------------------------------------------- >> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >> http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >> --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss