[SOLVED] grep --include command doesn't work in OSX Zsh

Issue

I am following the best answer on How do I find all files containing specific text on Linux? to search string in my project.

This is my command grep --include=*.rb -rnw . -e "pattern"

Zsh tells me that zsh: no matches found: --include=*.rb

It seems that grep doesn't support --include option.

When I type grep --help, it returns

usage: grep [-abcDEFGHhIiJLlmnOoPqRSsUVvwxZ] [-A num] [-B num] [-C[num]]
    [-e pattern] [-f file] [--binary-files=value] [--color=when]
    [--context[=num]] [--directories=action] [--label] [--line-buffered]
    [--null] [pattern] [file ...]

no --include here.

Is my grep version too old? Or is there something wrong with my command?

Solution

FreeBSD/macOS grep does support the --include option (see man grep; it's unfortunate that the command-line help (grep -h) doesn't list this option), but your problem is that the option argument, *.rb, is unquoted.

As a result, it is your shell, zsh, that attempts to pathname-expand --include=*.rb up front, and fails, because the current directory contains no files with names matching glob pattern *.rb.
grep never even gets to execute.

Since your intent is to pass *.rb unmodified to grep, you must quote it:

grep --include='*.rb' -rnw . -e "pattern"     

To include multiple globs:

• Pass an --include option for each; e.g.:

  grep --include='*.rb' --include=='*.h*' -rnw . -e "pattern"     
  

• Alternatively, in shells that support brace expansion - notably bash, ksh, and zsh - you can let your shell create these multiple options for you, as follows - note the selective quoting (see this answer for a detailed explanation):

  grep '--include=*.'{rb,'h*'} -rnw . -e "pattern"     
  

Answered By - mklement0

Answer Checked By - Marilyn (WPSolving Volunteer)