zgrep

search possibly compressed files for a regular expression

TLDR

Grep a pattern in a compressed file (case-sensitive)

$ zgrep [pattern] [path/to/compressed/file]

Grep a pattern in a compressed file (case-insensitive)

$ zgrep -i [pattern] [path/to/compressed/file]

Output count of lines containing matched pattern in a compressed file

$ zgrep -c [pattern] [path/to/compressed/file]

Display the lines which don’t have the pattern present (Invert the search function)

$ zgrep -v [pattern] [path/to/compressed/file]

Grep a compressed file for multiple patterns

$ zgrep -e "[pattern_1]" -e "[pattern_2]" [path/to/compressed/file]

Use extended regular expressions (supporting ?, +, {}, () and |)

$ zgrep -E [regular_expression] [path/to/file]

Print 3 lines of [C]ontext around, [B]efore, or [A]fter each match

$ zgrep -[C|B|A] [3] [pattern] [path/to/compressed/file]

SYNOPSIS

zgrep [ grep_options ] [ -e ] pattern filename. . .

The zgrep command invokes grep on compressed or gzipped files. All options specified are passed directly to grep. If no file is specified, then the standard input is decompressed if necessary and fed to grep. Otherwise the given files are uncompressed if necessary and fed to grep.

If the GREP environment variable is set, zgrep uses it as the grep program to be invoked.

EXIT STATUS

Exit status is 0 for a match, 1 for no matches, and 2 if trouble.

BUGS

The following grep options are not supported: --dereference-recursive (-R), --directories (-d), --exclude, --exclude-from, --exclude-dir, --include, --null (-Z), --null-data (-z), and --recursive (-r).

AUTHOR

Charles Levert (charles@comm.polymtl.ca)