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Accepted
Justin
Asked: 2014-10-12 13:26:40 +0800 CST

Grep printing a line that doesn't contain a set of numbers

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I'm trying to get Grep to print all lines in a txt file that do not contain the numbers 834. When I try "grep [^834] file.txt" it still prints all the lines containing 834 but just doesn't highlight them.

grep

2 Answers

  1. Try

    grep -v '[834]' file

    From man grep 

       -v, --invert-match
          Invert the sense of matching, to select non-matching lines.  (-v
          is specified by POSIX.)
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  2. Best Answer

    You ask grep to print all lines that contain a pattern consisting of a character that is not a 8, 3 or 4. Depending on what your file consists of, this will probably find almost anything. To show "everything but" grep has the -v switch. E.g. something like grep -v "8\|3\|4" should work. Or if you specifically want to throw out the number 834: grep -v 834

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