No Output from grep or fgrep with -f option not working

Question

I have the following regular expression in a file. BTW, im on SunOS

Ex: File pattern contains the following lines:

Ora-[0-9]
violated

I have a file " datafile " which contain the following:

0:/scm/123451/test1.sql:dbuser@database:databasedb:no:yes:ORA-1234|key violated
1:/scm/123451/test1.sql:dbuser@database:databasedb:no:yes:ORA-|key violated
2:/scm/123451/test1_A.sql:dbuser@database:databasedb:no:yes:ORA-|key violated
3:/scm/123451/test1_B.sql:dbuser@database:databasedb:yes:yes:Violated
4.giga:key violated unique:giga
5.fifa:ora-error null value found:giga

Now, I want to use a command either grep -f or fgrep -f to find out the lines which match pattern file's regular expression. The below two command didn't work when patter file contained ONLY "Ora-[0-9]" line.

grep -if ./pattern ./datafile
frep -if ./pattern ./datafile

Am i missing something, does the pattern in the pattern file needs to be fixed strings?

Answer 1

Try /usr/xpg4/bin/grep NOT /usr/bin/grep which is what you seem to get the results for. There are a lot of UNIX commands in Solaris /usr/bin that are old for retro-compatibility. /usr/bin/awk is notorious.

You can see the grep you get by default use of the grep command:

which grep

You can change this for your process by placing /usr/xpg4/bin in your PATH variable before you come to /usr/bin. Or use grep as an alias for /usr/xpg4/bin/grep.

add an alias in .profile (maybe .bashrc, whatever):

alias grep=/usr/xpg4/bin/grep

change your PATH (again in .profile or wherever):

Example old PATH --

 PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin

Example changed PATH

PATH=/usr/bin/xpg4/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin

Changing your PATH can affect how your existing personal scripts behave, usually in minor but sometimes annoying ways.

Also consider just using egrep -i '(ora|violated)' -- suggestion based on your example. This does not require a file of patterns. It can be as many alternations as you need.

Answer 2

I think you didn't notice that the pattern matches only "Ora" but if you look in your datafile you have a "ora" and a "ORA" but not "Ora". Hence, either include case-insensitive matching or correct the pattern.

EDIT: Apologies, bit late here. I didn't notice the SunOS. Seems that on SunOS the grep implementation differs since it runs normally on my linux box here. Issue of Solaris grep?