Windows Equivalent of Grep

I have been looking for a Windows equivalent for the Unix grep utility for some time. Only recently have I find the solution, it seems Google search has been leading me astray! :)



The command is:

findstr



and it has been available since Windows XP.



For example if I wanted to search all the .java files in the current directory and all sub-directories for "Class" I would use the following command.

findstr /s /n "Class" *.java



The /s switch searches all sub-directories. The /n switch displays the line number where the match was found. If a match is found, the file name and path is also displayed.



As another example, if I wanted to do a case insensitive search I would use:

findstr /s /i /n "Class" *.java



The command also supports regular expressions so you can make your searches as complex as you want.