Find all files containing specific text #CLI #UNIX

Find all files containing specific text

$ grep -rnw '/path/to/somewhere/' -e "pattern"

# (path/ must absolute!)
# -r or -R is recursive,
# -n is line number, and
# -w stands for match the whole word.
# -l (lower-case L) can be added to just give the file name of matching files.

# along with these, --exclude, --include, --exclude-dir or --include-dir flags could be used for efficient searching:

# this will only search through those files which have .c or .h extensions:
$ grep --include=\*.{c,h} -rnw '/path/to/somewhere/' -e "pattern"

# this will exclude searching all the files ending with .o extension:
$ grep --exclude=*.o -rnw '/path/to/somewhere/' -e "pattern"

# just like exclude files, it's possible to exclude/include directories through --exclude-dir and --include-dir parameter. For example, this will exclude the dirs dir1/, dir2/ and all of them matching *.dst/:
$ grep --exclude-dir={dir1,dir2,*.dst} -rnw '/path/to/somewhere/' -e "pattern"

# this works very well for me, to achieve almost the same purpose like yours.

For more options check man grep.