The shell expands the *, not grep. You want to use either xargs or a script: for file in `ls -1` do grep "string" $file done xargs is really the solution though, check the manual. Adam Maloney Systems Administrator Sihope Communications On Tue, 26 Sep 2000, Subba Rao wrote: > Hi > > I have a directory of 10000+ text files and would like to search for > some strings in these files. When I tried using "grep" command with an > asterisk, I get the error message somthing to the effect, > > "File argument list too long" > > What is the file argument limit for grep? I guess you need the grep source > for this. I did not find any information in the man page. > > Are there any other recommended tools to search through such large list of > files? > > Thank you in advance. > > Subba Rao > subb3 at attglobal.net > http://pws.prserv.net/truemax/ > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: tclug-list-unsubscribe at mn-linux.org > For additional commands, e-mail: tclug-list-help at mn-linux.org > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: tclug-list-unsubscribe at mn-linux.org For additional commands, e-mail: tclug-list-help at mn-linux.org