Get N matches using grep

Here is the test data that we gonna use:

>grep create *.log
1.log:create1
1.log:create2
10.log:create1
10.log:create2
2.log:create1
2.log:create2
3.log:create1
3.log:create2
4.log:create1
4.log:create2
5.log:create1
5.log:create2
6.log:create1
6.log:create2
7.log:create1
7.log:create2
8.log:create1
8.log:create2
9.log:create1
9.log:create2
>

Finding the First N matches

For N matches from the start of the file

grep -i -m<N> create *.log

Example:

>grep -m1 create *.log
1.log:create1
10.log:create1
2.log:create1
3.log:create1
4.log:create1
5.log:create1
6.log:create1
7.log:create1
8.log:create1
9.log:create1
>

Finding the Last N matches

Well I think grep does not support to limit N matches from the end of file so this is what you have to do.

ls *.log | while read fn; do grep -iH create "$fn" | tail -<N>; done

Example:

>ls *.log | while read fn; do grep -iH create "$fn" | tail -1; done
1.log:create2
10.log:create2
2.log:create2
3.log:create2
4.log:create2
5.log:create2
6.log:create2
7.log:create2
8.log:create2
9.log:create2
>

(-H options is to print the file name else it wont be printed if you are grep in a single file and thats exactly we are doing above)

NOTE: The above soln will cover file names with ‘spaces’ but if filenames include unicode, newline etc. it might now work.