Ytdyklly

I have a log file, which contains the following data:

2019-02-11 00:05:58.241 [exec-178] Start request

2019-02-11 00:05:58.242 [exec-178] customer_name

2019-02-11 00:05:58.243 [exec-178] other process

2019-02-11 00:05:58.244 [exec-178] other process

2019-02-11 00:05:58.245 [exec-178] results

2019-02-11 00:05:58.246 [exec-178] End request (13ms)

I want to use a single grep command to capture 'customer_name' and 'End request'. I have been trying to use grep -E "[0-9]{2,4}ms but it does not provide the expected output.

Expected output:

2019-02-11 00:05:58.242 [exec-178] customer_name 

2019-02-11 00:05:58.246 [exec-178] End request (13ms)

To get everything between and including your search lines, use awk:

awk 'BEGIN {found=0}; /customer_name/ {found=1}; found {print}; /End request/ {found=0}' logfile

And if your "customer_name" is not a static string, but different values, try using -v, eg.:

awk -v "name=sally" 'BEGIN {found=0}; index($0, name) {found=1}; found {print}; /End request/ {found=0}' logfile

or with nicer formatting and explanation but harder to copy and paste:

awk -v "name=sally" 'BEGIN {

        # good style, but optional... nonexistent variables are already 0

        found=0;

    };

    index($0, name) {

        # remember that we found the first line

        found=1;

    }; 

    found {

        # since we print after the found=1, we print that line

        # and also the lines between

        # and since we set found=0 after already printing the end line, we are printing that too

        print;

    }; 

    /End request/ {

        # mark that we stop printing

        found=0;

    };' logfile

Searching for fixed strings with grep is really straightforward. You can pass multiple patterns to grep using the -e option:

$ cat testfile

2019-02-11 00:05:58.241 [exec-178] Start request

2019-02-11 00:05:58.242 [exec-178] customer_name

2019-02-11 00:05:58.243 [exec-178] other process

2019-02-11 00:05:58.244 [exec-178] other process

2019-02-11 00:05:58.245 [exec-178] results

2019-02-11 00:05:58.246 [exec-178] End request (13ms)



$ grep -F -e 'customer_name' -e 'End request' testfile

2019-02-11 00:05:58.242 [exec-178] customer_name

2019-02-11 00:05:58.246 [exec-178] End request (13ms)

The -F option is used to specify that you are searching for fixed strings. It is not quite necessary, but it helps to make the command more explicit.

You could also simply the command a bit using an extended regular expression. The expression A|B is used to search for 'A' or 'B'.

$ grep -E 'customer_name|End request' testfile

2019-02-11 00:05:58.242 [exec-178] customer_name

2019-02-11 00:05:58.246 [exec-178] End request (13ms)

If you just want it to return those exact strings which are on separate lines:

egrep -o "customer_name|End request" logfile

Output:

customer_name

End request

If you want it to return the entire lines:

egrep "customer_name|End request" logfile

Output

2019-02-11 00:05:58.242 [exec-178] customer_name

2019-02-11 00:05:58.246 [exec-178] End request (13ms)

It's possible with grep -E and the patterns that you grep for are sepearted by a pipe sign.

[root@server ~]# grep -Ei "customer_name|end request" file 

2019-02-11 00:05:58.242 [exec-178] customer_name

2019-02-11 00:05:58.246 [exec-178] End request (13ms)

[root@server ~]# 

Extracted from man grep:

-E, --extended-regexp
Interpret PATTERN as an extended regular expression (ERE, see below).

-i, --ignore-case
Ignore case distinctions in both the PATTERN and the input files.