Problem
When using grep in Linux, the output frequently contains a large number of “binary file XXX matches,” which I ignore. How can this part of the results be suppressed, or how may binary files be excluded in grep?
Asked by RandyTek
Solution #1
There are three alternatives available to you. In grep, the -I option is used to exclude binary files. Line numbers and file names are among the others.
grep -I -n -H
-I -- process a binary file as if it did not contain matching data;
-n -- prefix each line of output with the 1-based line number within its input file
-H -- print the file name for each match
So here’s one way to execute grep:
grep -InH your-word *
Answered by 2 revs, 2 users 96% user184968
Solution #2
Although this is an old question that has already been answered, I thought I’d include the —binary-files=text option here in case anyone else is interested. The -I option ignores the binary file, but you can use —binary-files=text to make grep treat the binary file as a text file:
bash$ grep -i reset mediaLog*
Binary file mediaLog_dc1.txt matches
bash$ grep --binary-files=text -i reset mediaLog*
mediaLog_dc1.txt:2016-06-29 15:46:02,470 - Media [uploadChunk ,315] - ERROR - ('Connection aborted.', error(104, 'Connection reset by peer'))
mediaLog_dc1.txt:ConnectionError: ('Connection aborted.', error(104, 'Connection reset by peer'))
bash$
Answered by amadain
Post is based on https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25853722/how-to-suppress-binary-file-matching-results-in-grep