Return first occurrence of GREP only

[Petemush]

I'm pretty sure there isn't an option on grep but can anyone think of a way to only return the first matching line that grep finds?

Cheers

 

[Petemush]

I've just noticed that the option -m might be what I'm after but I don't seem to have it with my version of grep. Bugger!

 

[PHV]

Something like this ?
grep 'pattern' /path/to/file | head -1
You may also consider this:
awk '/pattern/{print;exit}' /path/to/file

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ222-2244

 

[guggach]

the fastest way ...

on cmd line (note the syntax):

sed -n '/pattern/{;p;q;}' filename

using files, put in sed-cmd:

#n
/pattern/{
p
q
}

then enter: sed -f sed-cmd filename


guggach