See also
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Guide to Windows Commands
| Other names | qgrep |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Microsoft, ReactOS Contributors |
| Operating system | Windows, ReactOS |
| Platform | Cross-platform |
| Type | Command |
| License | Windows: Proprietary commercial software ReactOS: GNU General Public License |
| Website | docs |
In computing, findstr is a command in the command-line interpreters (shells) of Microsoft Windows [1] [2] and ReactOS. [3] It is used to search for a specific text string in computer files. [4]
The command sends the specified lines to the standard output device. [5] It is similar to the find command. However, while the find command supports UTF-16, findstr does not. On the other hand, findstr supports regular expressions, which find does not. The findstr program was first released as part of the Windows 2000 Resource Kit under the name qgrep. [6]
findstr cannot search for null bytes commonly found in Unicode computer files. [7]
FINDSTR flags strings [drive:][path]filename[...]
Arguments:
flags This can be any combination of flags described below.strings Text to be searched for.[drive:][path]filename Specifies a file or files to search.Flags:
/B Matches pattern if at the beginning of a line./E Matches pattern if at the end of a line./L Uses search strings literally./R Uses search strings as regular expressions./S Searches for matching files in the current directory and all subdirectories./I Specifies that the search is not to be case-sensitive./X Prints lines that match exactly./V Prints only lines that do not contain a match./N Prints the line number before each line that matches./M Prints only the filename if a file contains a match./O Prints character offset before each matching line./P Skip files with non-printable characters./OFF[LINE] Do not skip files with offline attribute set./A:attr Specifies color attribute with two hex digits. See "color /?"/F:file Reads file list from the specified file(/ stands for console)./C:string Uses specified string as a literal search string./G:file Gets search strings from the specified file(/ stands for console)./D:dir Search a semicolon delimited list of directoriesNote: Following command displays the detailed help about this command:
FINDSTR /?
Save your running services into file _services.txt and search in this file for lines containing word "network" - case insensitive:
@echo off setsearchstr=network net start>_services.txt FINDSTR /I "%searchstr%" _services.txt pauseoutput would be:
Network Connections Network List Service Network Location Awareness Network Store Interface Service Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service Press any key to continue . . .grep is a command-line utility for searching plaintext datasets for lines that match a regular expression. Its name comes from the ed command g/re/p, which has the same effect. grep was originally developed for the Unix operating system, but later available for all Unix-like systems and some others such as OS-9.
An 8.3 filename is one that obeys the filename convention used by old versions of DOS and versions of Microsoft Windows prior to Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.5. It is also used in modern Microsoft operating systems as an alternate filename to the long filename, to provide compatibility with legacy programs. The filename convention is limited by the FAT file system. Similar 8.3 file naming schemes have also existed on earlier CP/M, TRS-80, Atari, and some Data General and Digital Equipment Corporation minicomputer operating systems.
A filename extension, file name extension or file extension is a suffix to the name of a computer file. The extension indicates a characteristic of the file contents or its intended use. A filename extension is typically delimited from the rest of the filename with a full stop (period), but in some systems it is separated with spaces.
A path is a string of characters used to uniquely identify a location in a directory structure. It is composed by following the directory tree hierarchy in which components, separated by a delimiting character, represent each directory. The delimiting character is most commonly the slash ("/"), the backslash character ("\"), or colon (":"), though some operating systems may use a different delimiter. Paths are used extensively in computer science to represent the directory/file relationships common in modern operating systems and are essential in the construction of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs). Resources can be represented by either absolute or relative paths.
In computer programming, glob patterns specify sets of filenames with wildcard characters. For example, the Unix Bash shell command mv *.txttextfiles/ moves all files with names ending in .txt from the current directory to the directory textfiles. Here, * is a wildcard and *.txt is a glob pattern. The wildcard * stands for "any string of any length including empty, but excluding the path separator characters ".
DOSKEY is a command for DOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows, and ReactOS that adds command history, macro functionality, and improved editing features to the command-line interpreters COMMAND.COM and cmd.exe.
In computing, XCOPY is a command used on IBM PC DOS, MS-DOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows, FreeDOS, ReactOS, and related operating systems for copying multiple files or entire directory trees from one directory to another and for copying files across a network.
In Unix-like operating systems, find is a command-line utility that locates files based on some user-specified criteria and either prints the pathname of each matched object or, if another action is requested, performs that action on each matched object.
A command shell is a command-line interface to interact with and manipulate a computer's operating system.
An INI file is a configuration file for computer software that consists of a text-based content with a structure and syntax comprising key–value pairs for properties, and sections that organize the properties. The name of these configuration files comes from the filename extension INI, for initialization, used in the MS-DOS operating system which popularized this method of software configuration. The format has become an informal standard in many contexts of configuration, but many applications on other operating systems use different file name extensions, such as conf and cfg.
thinBasic is a BASIC-like computer programming language interpreter with a central core engine architecture surrounded by many specialized modules. Although originally designed mainly for computer automation, thanks to its modular structure it can be used for wide range of tasks.
In computing, more is a command to view the contents of a text file one screen at a time. It is available on Unix and Unix-like systems, DOS, Digital Research FlexOS, IBM/Toshiba 4690 OS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows and ReactOS. Programs of this sort are called pagers. more is a very basic pager, originally allowing only forward navigation through a file, though newer implementations do allow for limited backward movement.
In computing, tee is a command in command-line interpreters (shells) using standard streams which reads standard input and writes it to both standard output and one or more files, effectively duplicating its input. It is primarily used in conjunction with pipes and filters. The command is named after the T-splitter used in plumbing.
A batch file is a script file in DOS, OS/2 and Microsoft Windows. It consists of a series of commands to be executed by the command-line interpreter, stored in a plain text file. A batch file may contain any command the interpreter accepts interactively and use constructs that enable conditional branching and looping within the batch file, such as IF, FOR, and GOTO labels. The term "batch" is from batch processing, meaning "non-interactive execution", though a batch file might not process a batch of multiple data.
In computing, type is a command in various command-line interpreters (shells) such as COMMAND.COM, cmd.exe, 4DOS/4NT and Windows PowerShell used to display the contents of specified files on the computer terminal. The analogous Unix command is cat.
In computing, find is a command in the command-line interpreters (shells) of a number of operating systems. It is used to search for a specific text string in a file or files. The command sends the specified lines to the standard output device.
In computing, choice is a command that allows for batch files to prompt the user to select one item from a set of single-character choices. It is available in a number of operating system command-line shells.
In computing, title is a command in various command-line interpreters (shells) on Microsoft Windows and ReactOS that changes the title for the graphical terminal emulator window. The command is also used within DFS and ADFS to change the title of the disc in the current drive.
In computing, net is a command in IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows, ReactOS and Greentea OS used to manage and configure the operating system from the command-line. It is also part of the IBM PC Network Program for DOS.