Re: grep

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello Vincenzo,

* Vincenzo Antignano wrote on Sat, Apr 25, 2009 at 03:31:31AM CEST:
> The pattern '\<\.' does not match words starting with a dot.

That's because a dot isn't considered to be part of a word; only
letters, digits, and the underscore are.  Also, while uncommon,
I think user and group names could start with a dot, too; and file
names could contain a space and then a dot in the middle of the name.

> For istance, if want to match lines containing hidden file names, the  
> following command does not work:
>
> $ ls -la | egrep '\<\.'

Try using just shell patterns:
  ls -lad .*

Cheers,
Ralf