Scripting rgrep

Dan Bacus returns again as a speaker. If you were there for his last presentation, you know you won't want to miss this.

Have you ever thought or said something like – “I know the config file is in /etc somewhere, but what was that subdirectory again?”

The grep command works wonders when you know what file(s) or directory to look in, but what do you do when you aren’t exactly sure where the file is located? The find command is great for locating files, but not for telling you what is in them. Wouldn’t it be great if you could combine grep and find to help locate the files that you have lost somewhere in your system? That is where rgrep (recursive grep) comes in…

Years ago, Before Google (BG), I developed a script that I called rgrep to do just that. Recursively look through a directory hierarchy with find, to grep through regular files looking for a specific pattern contained within the text.

Come see how my crappy code works (it is OK to laugh at it, I swear!), learn a bit about shell scripting, and maybe even some UNIX/Linux tips and tricks along the way. I’ll even provide handouts with commented code!!! Please register so that I know how many packets to bring!

Oh, and get enough free beer in me, and I may even give y’all the answer to my favorite interview question:

What is the ONE thing that you HAVE to do when scripting a program in UNIX/Linux?

Just so you know going into it, there is one correct answer, and two other answers that are acceptable… The answer that you provide during the interview helps me to know what your personal level of understanding truly is with UNIX/Linux…