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I have found lots of guides for ignoring lines with comments or matching for one string but not another, but I have not found what I need. I want to grep recursively for files containing the string "indexes" (case insensitive i think, it's apache conf) but not a "#" BEFORE it.

It should match this:

Options Indexes
Options +Indexes
Options Indexes MultiViews
Options Indexes # Comment
Options Indexes # Indexes

But not this:

Options MultiViews # Indexes
# Indexes yadayada Indexes

I'm using it in a script on the form:

if grep -re "[^#]*ndexes" $DIR1/httpd.conf $DIR2/http; then
    echo Do not use Indexes
fi

The above is one of my efforts, but I cannot get it to work.

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  • 2
    why it should match this Options Indexes # Indexes but not this Options MultiViews # Indexes ? Commented Jun 20, 2017 at 15:21
  • It is a comment but it is also a valid config line Commented Jun 20, 2017 at 15:26
  • grep -E '^[^#]*Indexes' should do the trick. Commented Jun 20, 2017 at 15:27
  • But it doesn't, and it's pretty much exactly what my not-working-example looks like. Commented Jun 20, 2017 at 15:31
  • Ah, it works after your edit. Commented Jun 20, 2017 at 15:31

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

Given this input:

Options Indexes
Options +Indexes
Options Indexes MultiViews
Options Indexes # Comment
Options Indexes # Indexes
Options MultiViews # Indexes
# Indexes yadayada Indexes

This appears to work:

$ grep '^[^#]*Indexes' input
Options Indexes
Options +Indexes
Options Indexes MultiViews
Options Indexes # Comment
Options Indexes # Indexes
$ grep -v '^[^#]*Indexes' input
Options MultiViews # Indexes
# Indexes yadayada Indexes

To dissect the regular expression:

  • ^ - Beginning of the line
  • [^#]* - Zero or more of any character that is not an octothorpe
  • Indexes - The literal string Indexes

To put it in the context of your script:

if grep -rl -- '^[^#]*Indexes' "$DIR1/httpd.conf" "$DIR2/http"; then
    echo "The above-listed files use an 'Indexes' directive."
fi
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2
  • What is -- good for? Commented Jun 20, 2017 at 15:59
  • -- signifies to many programs that there are no further arguments starting with - forthcoming, which is useful in the possible case that $DIR1 or $DIR2 happen to start with a hyphen. Commented Jun 20, 2017 at 16:10

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