grep for special characters in Unix

Question

I have a log file (application.log) which might contain the following string of normal & special characters on multiple lines:

*^%Q&$*&^@$&*!         


        

Answer 1

grep -n "\*\^\%\Q\&\$\&\^\@\$\&\!\^\@\$\&\^\&\^\&\^\&" test.log
1:*^%Q&$&^@$&!^@$&^&^&^&
8:*^%Q&$&^@$&!^@$&^&^&^&
14:*^%Q&$&^@$&!^@$&^&^&^&