Subba Rao allegedly 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? You might try this: ls -1 > filelist cat filelist | sed 's/^/grep a_string_of_importance /' > filelist chmod 700 filelist filelist Yes, it makes a big file. No, you will not need to worry about the dread "File argument list too long" message. And finally, yes, there is probably a smarter way to do this. HTH. Adios, Chris -- C.S. Cornuelle School of Mathematics/MCIM, University of Minnesota 206 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (612) 626-8930v, (612) 624-2333f, bob at math.umn.edu Ferventer Vestite --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: tclug-list-unsubscribe at mn-linux.org For additional commands, e-mail: tclug-list-help at mn-linux.org