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Question

command-line grep for a string with '$' in it?

Answer 1

+2 A:

Put it in single quotes, with the escaping slash:

grep -lire '\$DATA_PATH . \$AWARDS_YEAR' *

Also note, that the dot (.) is a regex character. If you don't want it to be, escape it, too (or don't use the -e option).

Here's a nice reference with more general info.

Michael Haren 2009-11-02 23:53:44

Actually, using `'\$VAR'` will produce a string with a real backslash in it in every shell I'm aware of, including tcsh, which is the default on his Freebsd system. The backslash won't prevent his grep from working but I have to think it was not intended..

DigitalRoss 2009-11-02 23:59:12

I think that's what we want here--an actual backslash with an actual dollar sign to be passed as a regex

Michael Haren 2009-11-03 00:02:52

Ok, if that's really what you meant. I removed the downvote. (Had to edit your answer to do it.) But remember that `$` is not magic to grep except at the end of the pattern.

DigitalRoss 2009-11-03 00:07:15

@DigitalRoss- I think in this case you want `grep` to see the backslash. Otherwise `$` might gets interpreted as a metacharacter instead of a character in the text of the file.

mobrule 2009-11-03 00:07:54

It's only magic at the end of a pattern...anyway it seems clear to me that the OP just wanted to prevent shell variable expansion...

DigitalRoss 2009-11-03 00:13:14

Answer 2

+6 A:

Tcsh is a little different about variables than the usual shells, and it's the default on FreeBSD.

So, just use single quotes, '$VAR', or escape the $ outside of the quotes: \$"VAR"

DigitalRoss 2009-11-02 23:56:20

Using single quotes is the most nearly portable solution-it works across most shells on Unix-like systems. (Windows is a separate discussion.)

Jonathan Leffler 2009-11-03 00:08:19

that did the trick - thanks

HorusKol 2009-11-03 10:32:38

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