Is there a Pattern Matching Utility like GREP in Windows?

Question

Is there a similar utility to grep available from the Windows Command Prompt, or is there a third party tool for it?

Answer 1

I'll add my $0.02 to this thread. dnGREP is a great open source grep tool for windows that supports undo, windows explorer integration, search inside PDFs, zips, DOCs and bunch of other stuff...

Answer 2

If you have to use bare Windows, then in addition to the Powershell option noted above, you can use VBScript, which has decent RegEx support.

MS also has a decent scripting area on Technet with a ton of examples for administrators.

Answer 3

On Windows I use Far Manager for file search. BSD licensed, works in console, saves time on typing cmdline parameters. Here is its search dialog invoked by Alt-F7.

Answer 4

Yes there is only one program for Windows PC which have solid GUI and it is essential util for me. I work as a developer and on every computer I've had, first thing install XFind program. It is created in 1997 and till now version is 1.0 and till now works and it is the best. Frequently I need to search some string in a ".cs", ".aspx", ".sct" (Visual FoxPro form code file) or just ".*" and XFind scans all files and show me files and another great thing is that you can look where string is in the file. XFind has also some kind of editor. If it binary file it will show you string finded. Try it and use it forever if you are developer like me.

Answer 5

Bare Grep is nice if you want a GUI. Gnu grep is good for CLI

Answer 6

UnxUtils is a great set of Unix utilites that run on Windows. It has grep, sed, gawk, etc.