Linux, Grep to math string without character

Question

Im trying to install LOG4PLSQL . There is a build process on linux server, which put logs into file.

After processing all files there is a command, which checks text file if it contains a ORA- string,

Problem is, that in log4plsql code actually contains one ORA- :

BEGIN
build   20-Jun-2018 09:22:28    1960       checkAndInitCTX(pCTX);
build   20-Jun-2018 09:22:28    1961       LLTEXT :=   'SQLCODE:'||SQLCODE ||' SQLERRM:'||SQLERRM || CHR(10) ||
build   20-Jun-2018 09:22:28    1962            'Error back trace:' || CHR(10) ||
build   20-Jun-2018 09:22:28    1963             replace(dbms_utility.format_error_backtrace, 'ORA-06512: ', ''); -- <<<<<<<<<<
build   20-Jun-2018 09:22:28    1964       log(pLEVEL => PLOGPARAM.DEFAULT_FT_ERR_BTRACE_LEVEL, pCTX => pCTX,  pTEXT => LLTEXT );
build   20-Jun-2018 09:22:28    1965  END full_error_backtrace;
build   20-Jun-2018 09:22:28    1966  
build   20-Jun-2018 09:22:28    1967  
build   20-Jun-2018 09:22:28    1968  FUNCTION getLOG4PLSQVersion
build   20-Jun-2018 09:22:28    1969  RETURN VARCHAR2

and although build has no errors, this grep function find one in package code and treat it like an error.

Grep responsible for finding ORA: grep "ORA-" I modify it to: grep "[^']ORA-"

and ORA- with ' ('ORA-) is now invisible, but invisible is also actual error:

ORA-00955: name is already being used by existing object

so for example, in this log:

BEGIN
       checkAndInitCTX(pCTX);
       LLTEXT :=   'SQLCODE:'||SQLCODE ||' SQLERRM:'||SQLERRM || CHR(10) ||
            'Error back trace:' || CHR(10) ||
             replace(dbms_utility.format_error_backtrace, 'ORA-06512: ', '');
       log(pLEVEL => PLOGPARAM.DEFAULT_FT_ERR_BTRACE_LEVEL, pCTX => pCTX,  pTEXT => LLTEXT );
END full_error_backtrace;
ORA-00955: name is already being used by existing object

my grep wont find any ORA.

Anyone has an idea?

Answer 1

The problem is that when you add the [^'] to the regex grep expects a character on the left-hand side of ORA- , but - since the pattern is potentially at the beginning of the line in the case of a genuine error - it will potentially fail to find one (as it has done in your example above).

Some regex guru might have a more elegant solution, but the following works for me:

grep -E "(^|[^'])ORA-" output.log

That will match lines which either begin with ORA- or contain the pattern ORA- preceded by any character except ' .

My grep version:

$ grep --version
grep (GNU grep) 2.27

Answer 2

Try use -P for perl-compatible regexps

grep -P "^ORA-|\\'ORA" log