agrep(1)							      agrep(1)

NAME
       agrep - print lines approximately matching a pattern

SYNOPSIS
       agrep [OPTION]...  PATTERN [FILE]...

DESCRIPTION
       Searches	 for  approximate  matches of PATTERN in each FILE or standard
       input.	Example: `agrep -2 optimize foo.txt' outputs all lines in file
       `foo.txt'  that	match  "optimize" within two errors.  E.g. lines which
       contain "optimise", "optmise", and "opitmize" all match.

OPTIONS
   Regexp selection and interpretation:
       -e PATTERN, --regexp=PATTERN
	      Use PATTERN as a regular expression; useful to protect  patterns
	      beginning with -.

       -i, --ignore-case
	      Ignore  case  distinctions (as defined by the current locale) in
	      PATTERN and input files.

       -k, --literal
	      Treat PATTERN as a literal string, that is, a fixed string  with
	      no special characters.

       -w, --word-regexp
	      Force  PATTERN  to  match only whole words.  A "whole word" is a
	      substring which either starts at the beginning or the record  or
	      is  preceded  by	a non-word constituent character.   Similarly,
	      the substring must either end at the end of  the	record	or  be
	      followed	by a non-word constituent character.  Word-constituent
	      characters are alphanumerics (as defined by the current  locale)
	      and  the	underscore  character.	 Note  that  the non-word con‐
	      stituent characters must surround	 the  match;  they  cannot  be
	      counted as errors.

   Approximate matching settings:
       -D NUM, --delete-cost=NUM
	      Set cost of missing characters to NUM.

       -I NUM, --insert-cost=NUM
	      Set cost of extra characters to NUM.

       -S NUM, --substitute-cost=NUM
	      Set  cost	 of incorrect characters to NUM.  Note that a deletion
	      (a missing character) and	 an  insertion	(an  extra  character)
	      together	constitute  a substituted character, but the cost will
	      be the that of a	deletion  and  an  insertion  added  together.
	      Thus,  if	 the  const of a substitution is set to be larger than
	      the sum of the costs of deletion and insertion, direct substitu‐
	      tions will never be done.

       -E NUM, --max-errors=NUM
	      Select records that have at most NUM errors.

       -#     Select  records that have at most # errors (# is a digit between
	      0 and 9).

   Miscellaneous:
       -d PATTERN, --delimiter=PATTERN
	      Set the record delimiter regular	expression  to	PATTERN.   The
	      text  between  two  delimiters,  before the first delimiter, and
	      after the last delimiter is considered  to  be  a	 record.   The
	      default  record  delimiter  is  the regexp "\n", so by default a
	      record is a line.	 PATTERN can be any  regular  expression  that
	      does not match the empty string.	For example, using -d "^From "
	      defines mail messages as records in a Mailbox format file.

       -v, --invert-match
	      Select non-matching records instead of matching records.

       -V, --version
	      Print version information and exit.

       -y, --nothing
	      Does nothing.  This options exists only for  compatibility  with
	      the non-free agrep program.

       --help Display a brief help message and exit.

   Output control:
       -B, --best-match
	      Only output the best matching records, that is, the records with
	      the lowest cost.	This is currently implemented  by  making  two
	      passes over the input files and cannot be used when reading from
	      standard input.

       --color, --colour
	      Highlight the matching  strings  in  the	output	with  a	 color
	      marker.	The color string is taken from the GREP_COLOR environ‐
	      ment variable.  The default color is red.

       -c, --count
	      Only print a count of matching records per each input file, sup‐
	      pressing normal output.

       -h, --no-filename
	      Suppress	the  prefixing	filename on output when multiple files
	      are searched.

       -H, --with-filename
	      Prefix each output record with the name of the input file	 where
	      the record was read from.

       -l, --files-with-matches
	      Only  print  the name of each input file which contains at least
	      one match, suppressing normal output.   The  scanning  for  each
	      file will stop on the first match.

       -n, --record-number
	      Prefix  each output record with its sequence number in the input
	      file.  The number of the first record is 1.

       -q, --quiet, --silent
	      Do not write anything to standard output.	 Exit immediately with
	      zero exit status if a match is found.

       -s, --show-cost
	      Print match cost with output.

       --show-position
	      Prefix  each  output record with the start and end offset of the
	      first match within the record.  The offset of the first  charac‐
	      ter of the record is 0.  The end position is given as the offset
	      of the first character after the match.

       -M, --delimiter-after
	      By default, the record delimiter is the newline character and is
	      output  after  the  matching  record.  If -d is used, the record
	      delimiter will be	 output	 before	 the  matching	record.	  This
	      option  causes  the  delimiter  to  be output after the matching
	      record.

       With no FILE, or when FILE is -, reads standard input.	If  less  than
       two FILEs are given -h is assumed, otherwise -H is the default.

DIAGNOSTICS
       Exit  status  is	 0 if a match is found, 1 for no match, and 2 if there
       were errors.  If -E or -# is not	 specified,  only  exact  matches  are
       selected.

       PATTERN	is  a  POSIX  extended	regular	 expression (ERE) with the TRE
       extensions.

REPORTING BUGS
       Report bugs to the TRE mailing list <tre-general@lists.laurikari.net>.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright © 2002-2004 Ville Laurikari.
       This is free software, and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.  You  are
       welcome to redistribute this software under certain conditions; see the
       source for the full license text.

TRE agrep 0.8.0		       November 21, 2004		      agrep(1)

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