command linesearch
In MS Windows XP, in DOS, is it possible to do a content search(for a line or a word) in a file using command prompt.?
If so can we search a directory as well.? i.e it should search all the files in the directory for a specific word or phrase.
Thanks.
Findstr may fit if you are familiar with Windows command line, findstr is some kind of grep for Windows, and it comes with Windows starting version XP. Personally Im using bash for windows, and grep inside of that, but this is third party software, and do not comes with Windows by default. Example of findstr:
\s searches for matching files in the current directory and all subdirectories
2>nul is to get rid of errors for files that you cannot open
Windows PowerShell can do this easily.
Get-ChildItem C:\Users\*\AppData\Local\*.txt
If you want to include subfolders:
Get-ChildItem C:\Users\*\AppData\Local\*.txt -recurse
Regarding Hidden (etc.) files, Powershell's help Get-ChildItem says:
By default, Get-ChildItem gets non-hidden items, but you can use the Directory, File, Hidden, ReadOnly, and System parameters to get only items with these attributes. To create a complex attribute search, use the Attributes parameter. If you use these parameters, Get-ChildItem gets only the items that meet all search conditions, as though the parameters were connected by an AND operator.
Best Answer
There are two options:
FINDorFINDSTR, both of which are built-in to the Windows Command Prompt.You can use
FINDto search for a simple string in a file:You can also use it to search all files in the current directory:
FINDSTRhas a few more options: you can do searches with regular expressions, and you can search recursively into subdirectories:In all cases, these commands print each line that matches the string to be searched, along with the file they were found in.