Grep

3 definitions found

From Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (Version 1.9, June 2002) [vera]:

  GREP
       Global Regular Expression Print (Unix)
       
       

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:



  grep /grep/ vi. [from the qed/ed editor idiom g/re/p, where re stands
     for a regular expression, to Globally search for the Regular Expression
     and Print the lines containing matches to it, via {{Unix}} `grep(1)'] To
     rapidly scan a file or set of files looking for a particular string or
     pattern (when browsing through a large set of files, one may speak of
     `grepping around'). By extension, to look for something by pattern.
     "Grep the bulletin board for the system backup schedule, would you?" See
     also {vgrep}.
  
     [It has been alleged that the source is from the title of a paper "A
     General Regular Expression Parser", but dmr confirms the g/re/p
     etymology -ESR]
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  grep
       
            A {Unix} command for
          searching files for lines matching a given {regular
          expression} (RE).  Named after the {qed}/{ed} editor
          subcommand "g/re/p", where re stands for a regular expression,
          to Globally search for the Regular Expression and Print the
          lines containing matches to it.  There are two other variants,
          fgrep which searches only for fixed strings and {egrep} which
          accepts extended REs but is usually the fastest of the three.
       
          Used by extension to mean "to look for something by pattern".
          When browsing through a large set of files, one may speak of
          "grepping around".  "Grep the bulletin board for the system
          backup schedule, would you?"  See also {vgrep}.
       
          [{Jargon File}]