How to exclude a certain string in a search pattern

Question

There are several exception messages in catalina.out file of tomcat server just like -

java.lang.NullPointerException

org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException

java.lang.RuntimeException

java.io.FileNotFoundException

We want to grep all exception error message except “java.io.FileNotFoundException” string. Tried with below command but it’s not working.

cat catalina.out | grep '.*(?<\!=java.io.FileNotFound)Exception\*.)'

Can you please help to find out the correct command?

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 11 '14 at 15:36

1

Try a multi-stage grep: cat <file> | grep Exception | grep -v java.io.FileNotFoundException

answered Nov 11 '14 at 15:36

John

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Thanks for your answer but we want single grep command – Anirvan Ray Nov 12 '14 at 13:19

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 11 '14 at 16:02

0

you can concatenate with multiple grep statements as @John suggested in the other answer or for instance use awk e.g.

awk '/Exception/ && !/java.io.FileNotFoundException/' catalina.out

on your sample this will produce

$ awk '/Exception/ && !/java.io.FileNotFoundException/' catalina.out 
java.lang.NullPointerException
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException
java.lang.RuntimeException

This basically says; match everything that has Exception string; and NOT java.io.FileNotFoundException

answered Nov 11 '14 at 16:02

Hrvoje Špoljar

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Thanks for your answer but we want single grep command – Anirvan Ray Nov 12 '14 at 13:21
there is no single grep command to your problem, you would need to combine two at least; one with exclusion, one with inclusion. – Hrvoje Špoljar Nov 12 '14 at 13:34

How to exclude a certain string in a search pattern

2 Answers2