grep, but only certain file extensions

Question

I am working on writing some scripts to grep certain directories, but these directories contain all sorts of file types.

I want to grep jus

Answer 1

ag (the silver searcher) has pretty simple syntax for this

       -G --file-search-regex PATTERN
          Only search files whose names match PATTERN.

so

ag -G *.h -G *.cpp CP_Image <path>

Answer 2

Should write "-exec grep " for each "-o -name "

find . -name '*.h' -exec grep -Hn "CP_Image" {} \; -o -name '*.cpp' -exec grep -Hn "CP_Image" {} \;

Or group them by ( )

find . \( -name '*.h' -o -name '*.cpp' \) -exec grep -Hn "CP_Image" {} \;

option '-Hn' show the file name and line.

Answer 3

Just use the --include parameter, like this:

grep -inr --include \*.h --include \*.cpp CP_Image ~/path[12345] | mailx -s GREP email@domain.com

that should do what you want.

To take the explanation from HoldOffHunger's answer below:

• grep: command

• -r: recursively

• -i: ignore-case

• -n: each output line is preceded by its relative line number in the file

• --include \*.cpp: all *.cpp: C++ files (escape with \ just in case you have a directory with asterisks in the filenames)

• ./: Start at current directory.

Answer 4

Some of these answers seemed too syntax-heavy, or they produced issues on my Debian Server. This worked perfectly for me:

grep -r --include=\*.txt 'searchterm' ./

...or case-insensitive version...

grep -r -i --include=\*.txt 'searchterm' ./

• grep: command

• -r: recursively

• -i: ignore-case

• --include: all *.txt: text files (escape with \ just in case you have a directory with asterisks in the filenames)

• 'searchterm': What to search

• ./: Start at current directory.

Source: PHP Revolution: How to Grep files in Linux, but only certain file extensions?

Answer 5

How about:

find . -name '*.h' -o -name '*.cpp' -exec grep "CP_Image" {} \; -print

Answer 6

The easiest way is

find . -type  f -name '*.extension' | xargs grep -i string