FINDSTR [/B] [/E] [/L] [/R] [/S] [/I] [/X] [/V] [/N] [/M] [/O] [/P] [/F:file] [/C:string] [/G:file] [/D:dir list] [/A:color attributes] [/OFF[LINE]] strings [[drive:][path]filename[ ...]]

/B

Matches pattern if at the beginning of a line.

/E

Matches pattern if at the end of a line.

/L

Uses search strings literally.

/R

Uses search strings as regular expressions.

/S

Searches for matching files in the current directory and all subdirectories.

/I

Specifies that the search is not to be case-sensitive.

/X

Prints lines that match exactly.

/V

Prints only lines that do not contain a match.

/N

Prints the line number before each line that matches.

/M

Prints only the filename if a file contains a match.

/O

Prints character offset before each matching line.

/P

Skip files with non-printable characters.

/OFF[LINE]

Do not skip files with offline attribute set.

/A:attr

Specifies color attribute with two hex digits. See “color /?”

/F:file

Reads file list from the specified file(/ stands for console).

/C:string

Uses specified string as a literal search string.

/G:file

Gets search strings from the specified file(/ stands for console).

/D:dir

Search a semicolon delimited list of directories

strings

Text to be searched for.

[drive:][path]filename

Specifies a file or files to search.

Use spaces to separate multiple search strings unless the argument is prefixed with /C. For example, ‘FINDSTR “hello there” x.y’ searches for “hello” or “there” in file x.y. ‘FINDSTR /C:”hello there” x.y’ searches for “hello there” in file x.y.

Regular expression quick reference:

.

Wildcard: any character

*

Repeat: zero or more occurrences of previous character or class

^

Line position: beginning of line

$

Line position: end of line

[class]

Character class: any one character in set

[^class]

Inverse class: any one character not in set

[x-y]

Range: any characters within the specified range

\x

Escape: literal use of metacharacter x

<xyz

Word position: beginning of word

xyz\>

Word position: end of word

For full information on FINDSTR regular expressions refer to the online Command Reference.