Re: grep: print one match switch

[Jim Meyering]

Dan Jacobson <address@hidden> wrote:
> If grep has these features
>
>        -L, --files-without-match
>               Suppress normal output; instead print the  name  of
>               each input file from which no output would normally
>               have been printed.  The scanning will stop  on  the
>               first match.
>
>        -l, --files-with-matches
>               Suppress  normal  output; instead print the name of
>               each input file from which  output  would  normally
>               have  been  printed.  The scanning will stop on the
>               first match.
>
> Then how could it be that it lacks a switch to just print one match,
> equivalent to awk '/pattern/{print;exit}'.

Maybe you just need a newer version?

  $ grep --help |grep max-count
    -m, --max-count=NUM       stop after NUM matches
  $ grep --version
  grep (GNU grep) 2.5e
  ...

  $ seq 30 |grep --max-count=2 4
  4
  14