How can I search for a multiline pattern in a file?

Question

I needed to find all the files that contained a specific string pattern. The first solution that comes to mind is using find piped with xargs grep:

Answer 1

Using ex/vi editor and globstar option (syntax similar to awk and sed):

ex +"/string1/,/string3/p" -R -scq! file.txt

where aaa is your starting point, and bbb is your ending text.

To search recursively, try:

ex +"/aaa/,/bbb/p" -scq! **/*.py

^{Note: To enable ** syntax, run shopt -s globstar (Bash 4 or zsh).}