GNU bug report logs - #41004
Documentation:enhancement - search for hexvalue

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Radisson97 <at> web.de
To: bug-grep <at> gnu.org
Subject: Documentation:enhancement - search for hexvalue
Date: Fri, 1 May 2020 19:05:28 +0200

Hi,
i had the problem of searching for a non-printable character in a long
list of strings. I found nothing the documentation and but several discussion
how to do that where either complicated or did not fit for my case, maybe i
was unlucky, ntl i found a simple solution that should be mentioned in the
documentation.

problem: grep for a character where only the hexcode in known.

solution:        use $'\xNN'
                     then shell expands this to the required code

example:       printf "A\nB\nC\n" | grep $'\x41'

note: that uses only printable characters, it works also with anything else
         except \0 (i guess).

i found that solution nice, it did no require any flags etc, for my problem it
worked like a charm.
(i am not member of the list please reply directly to this address) .

hope that helps,
 radisson

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