grep: The Backslash Character and Special Expressions
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1 3.3 The Backslash Character and Special Expressions
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1 The ‘\’ character, when followed by certain ordinary characters, takes a
1 special meaning:
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1 ‘\b’
1 Match the empty string at the edge of a word.
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1 ‘\B’
1 Match the empty string provided it’s not at the edge of a word.
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1 ‘\<’
1 Match the empty string at the beginning of word.
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1 ‘\>’
1 Match the empty string at the end of word.
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1 ‘\w’
1 Match word constituent, it is a synonym for ‘[_[:alnum:]]’.
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1 ‘\W’
1 Match non-word constituent, it is a synonym for ‘[^_[:alnum:]]’.
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1 ‘\s’
1 Match whitespace, it is a synonym for ‘[[:space:]]’.
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1 ‘\S’
1 Match non-whitespace, it is a synonym for ‘[^[:space:]]’.
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1 For example, ‘\brat\b’ matches the separate word ‘rat’, ‘\Brat\B’
1 matches ‘crate’ but not ‘furry rat’.
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