How to search files specific XML code pattern

Question

I have to search for files (around 2000) for the following string patern, which I do using grep as follows:

grep -irn ".acu" .

The response would be 100s of lines with the following pattern:

<cf_query Query="DSSQuery" Program="qdss.acu" xxx>

Then I will have check whether the line found (above), is surrounded by the xml tags as follows (xxx is irrelevant)

<cfif IsDefined("REQUEST.<STRING>") xxx>
    <cfmodule 
        template="xxx" 
        Service="xxx" 
        Action="xxx" 
        QueryString="xxx"
        ReturnVariable="xxx">
<cfelse>
    <cf_query Query="DSSQuery" Program="qdss.acu" xxx>
</cfif>

If YES then I extract the <STRING> and then I do something with the string.

I am familiar with Lex-Yacc, and also looked into PLY but seems like an overkill. Can I get a pointer where to start with this, and any efficient way to achieve my goal.

Answer 1

You can use lookaround tags eg. https://regex101.com/r/wF3nD3/2

(?s)(?<= ReturnVariable="xxx">\n<cfelse>\n)PATTERN(?=\n</cfif>)

where

• (?s) is for single line mode
• (?<= ....) lookbehind pattern
• (?= .....) lookahead pattern