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NAME

       match - searches for patterns in files

SYNOPSIS

       match [ -option ] pattern [ file ...  ]

DESCRIPTION

       Match  searches  the named files or standard input (if no filenames are
       given) for the occurrences of the given  pattern  on  each  line.   The
       program   accepts   literal  characters  or  special  pattern  matching
       characters.  All lines that match the pattern are  output  on  standard
       output.   You  can  only  specify  one  pattern  string for each match,
       however, you can construct an arbitrarily complex string.  When you  do
       not  specify  a  file, match can be used as a filter to display desired
       lines.  Standard in is used if no files are specified.

OPTIONS

       -not, -v
              Prints all lines that do not match.

       -i     Ignore the case of letters

       -m     Force not to use the magic mode

       -w     Search for pattern as a word

       -x     Display only those lines which match exactly

       -c     Display matching count for each file

       -l     Display name of each file which matches

       -s     Be silent indicate match in exit code

       -h     Do not display filenames

       -n     Precede matching lines with line number  (with  respect  to  the
              input file)

       -b     Precede matching lines with block number

REGULAR EXPRESSIONS

       The following is a table of all the pattern matching characters:

       c      An  ordinary  character  (not  one  of  the  special  characters
              discussed below) is a  one  character  regular  expression  that
              matches that character.

       \c     A  backslash  (\)  followed  by  any  special character is a one
              character regular expression that matches the special  character
              itself. The special characters are:

              ! # % * { } [ ] \ ? ^ $

       !      Logical OR as in match this!that!the_other.  You may have to use
              ‘{}’ for precedence grouping.

       #      A hash mark followed  by  any  regular  expression  matches  any
              number (including zero) occurrences of the regular expression.

       ?      Matches  exactly any one character.  W?  matches Wa, Wb, Wc, W1,
              W2, W3 ...

       *      Matches any number of any character.

       %      Matches exactly nothing. It  can  be  used  in  groups  of  ored
              patterns to specify that an empty alternative is possible.

       {}     Curly  brackets  may  be  used  to enclose patterns to specify a
              precedence  grouping,  and  may  be  nested.   {%!{test}}version
              matches the strings testversion and version.

       [string]
              A  non empty string of characters enclosed in square brackets is
              a  one  character  regular  expression  that  matches  any   one
              character in that string.  If however the first character of the
              string is a circumflex (^), the one character expression matches
              any character which is not in the string. The ^ has this special
              meaning only if it occurs first in the string. The minus (-) may
              be used to indicate a range of consecutive ASCII characters; for
              example, [0-9] is equivalent to any one of the  digits.   The  -
              loses  it’s special meaning if it occurs first (after an initial
              ^, if any) or last in the string.  The right square bracket  (])
              and  the  backslash  (\)  must be quoted with a backslash if you
              want to use it within the string.

       ^      Matches the beginning of a line.

       $      Matches the end of a line. (^*$ matches any entire line)

EXAMPLES

FILES

       None.

SEE ALSO

       grep(1), fgrep(1), egrep(1)

DIAGNOSTICS

NOTES

       Even if a match occurs more than once per line, the line is output only
       once.

       Quote  special  pattern  matching characters to prevent them from being
       expanded by the Command Interpreter.

BUGS

       The length of the pattern is currently limited to 100 characters.

       This limit is reduced by 38 if the -w option is used.