Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

Development Tools Introduction to the Terminal Common Commands Other Things to Explore

Swan The Human
seal-mask
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Swan The Human
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 19,338 Points
Posted by Swan The Human
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Swan The Human
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 19,338 Points

About the 'grep' command... How does it determine what a "line" is?

In the example, using the "grep" command while searching for "mac" doesn't show every literal line break on the screen with "mac" in it. How does it determine what a "line" is? Is it by a period? or is it by a certain amount of characters?

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,271 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,271 Points

A "line" in text-based utilities (like "grep") is any number of characters ending in a newline character (\n).

Periods and other punctuation have no special meaning unless they are part of the pattern being searched for.