[SOLVED] Find line number in a text file - without opening the file

Issue

In a very large file I need to find the position (line number) of a string, then extract the 2 lines above and below that string.

To do this right now - I launch vi, find the string, note it's line number, exit vi, then use sed to extract the lines surrounding that string.

Is there a way to streamline this process... ideally without having to run vi at all.

Solution

You can do

grep -C 2 yourSearch yourFile 

To send it in a file, do

grep -C 2 yourSearch yourFile > result.txt

Answered By - Denys Séguret

Answer Checked By - Cary Denson (WPSolving Admin)