Searching in multiple files

UNIX BSD
1

I am new to unix and I would like to search multiple log files to find earliest occurrence of a text.
Ex:
Say I have 10 logs file each ending with .log and I want to find the text �CustomeError� .
I want to find the which log file �CustomeError� comes first and lines which surround�s �CustomeError�.
Also I would like to find the last occurrence of �CustomError�
Every line in my log file starts with date and time.
Ex :

8/31/14 7:53:05:954 
9/1/14 0:21:08:050

I am OK with script or single command.

2

Hello Jim,

Welcome to the forum, as per forum rules could you please use code tags for commands and codes before posting you can also use preview post option for same.
Also kindly do let us know the input flle and expected output for same with OS details, it will help us to guide you.

Thanks,
R. Singh

3

Sounds like an application for grep -C , if that is available on your system (it is on FreeBSD).
If you really need to search for �CustomeError�, �CustomError�, or even �CustomerError�, put a wildcard into the search pattern.

4

Example input file:
I will have more files like this.
See in this file i want to find the line

[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at com.abc.MyClass CustomeError"

which is the earliest occurrence of custome error.
I want my search to extend to all the log files in the folder and find first "CustomeError" in log file.

[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:91)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at org.springframework.web.filter.HiddenHttpMethodFilter.doFilterInternal(HiddenHttpMethodFilter.java:77)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:76)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.FilterInstanceWrapper.doFilter(FilterInstanceWrapper.java:195)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:91)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at org.springframework.web.filter.CharacterEncodingFilter.doFilterInternal(CharacterEncodingFilter.java:88)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:76)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.FilterInstanceWrapper.doFilter(FilterInstanceWrapper.java:195)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:91)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at com.abc.MyClass CustomeError"
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:91)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at org.springframework.web.filter.HiddenHttpMethodFilter.doFilterInternal(HiddenHttpMethodFilter.java:77)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:76)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.FilterInstanceWrapper.doFilter(FilterInstanceWrapper.java:195)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:91)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at org.springframework.web.filter.CharacterEncodingFilter.doFilterInternal(CharacterEncodingFilter.java:88)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:76)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.FilterInstanceWrapper.doFilter(FilterInstanceWrapper.java:195)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:91)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at com.abc.MyClass CustomeError"
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:91)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at org.springframework.web.filter.HiddenHttpMethodFilter.doFilterInternal(HiddenHttpMethodFilter.java:77)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:76)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.FilterInstanceWrapper.doFilter(FilterInstanceWrapper.java:195)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:91)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at org.springframework.web.filter.CharacterEncodingFilter.doFilterInternal(CharacterEncodingFilter.java:88)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:76)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.FilterInstanceWrapper.doFilter(FilterInstanceWrapper.java:195)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:91)
[9/1/14 0:21:08:050 EDT] 00000030 SystemErr     R     at com.abc.MyClass CustomeError"
5

Perhaps your grep can stop after the 1st match

grep -m 1 "CustomeError" *.log

Also display the surrounding lines ("Context"):

grep -m 1 -C 1 "CustomeError" *.log
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