How to grep a line start with “*” using grep

Question

How can I use 'grep' to get lines start with '* ' in my file?

I tried grep "*" myfile and grep "* " myfile but returns all the lines of my file.

Andy Lester · Answer 1 · 2010-05-13 16:34:18Z

up vote 7 down vote

The "*" is a special character that means "0 or more of the previous character." You need to escape this character.

grep '^\*' myfile

answered May 13 '10 at 16:34

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Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams · Answer 2 · 2010-05-13 16:06:49Z

up vote -2 down vote

grep '^* ' myfile

answered May 13 '10 at 16:06

	This is incorrect, this would say that the line starts with 0 or more '' which is nothing. – Daisetsu May 13 '10 at 20:08
	Perhaps then you can explain why it works here. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams May 14 '10 at 2:00
	I think that what @Daisetsu is saying will only happen if grep has the `-e` switch. – Nathan Fellman May 26 '10 at 13:48

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2 Answers