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 >