Subba Rao <subb3 at attglobal.net> done wrote: > I have a directory of 10000+ text files and would like to search for > some strings in these files. When I tried using "grep" command with an > asterisk, I get the error message somthing to the effect, > > "File argument list too long" > > What is the file argument limit for grep? I guess you need the grep source > for this. I did not find any information in the man page. This message is from the shell; grep is fine with the big lists. There are a couple ways around it that I'm aware of. Maybe someone on the list can contribute a better answer, but these get the job done: 1. whip up a short perl or shell script to break up the list 2. use find + xargs to break up the list Hope one of these works for you. J --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: tclug-list-unsubscribe at mn-linux.org For additional commands, e-mail: tclug-list-help at mn-linux.org