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--- grep_usage [2023/08/17 14:37] – [wordscapes] raju
+++ grep_usage [2023/09/07 21:03] (current) – [repeat previous character N times] raju
@@ Line 57: / Line 57: @@
  % grep -Ei "^([dunes]){2}u([dunes]){2}d$" /usr/share/dict/american-english
 unused
+</code>
+==== print lines with less than a certain number of characters ====
+To print lines that contain less than N characters
+<code>
+grep -Ev ".{N}" data.txt
+</code>
+For example:
+To print lines that contain less then 6 characters
+<code>
+grep -Ev ".{6}" data.txt
+</code>
+You can also do
+<code>
+grep -v "......" data.txt
+</code>
+where the . is repeated N times. This is easier to type for small N.
+Sample run:
+<code>
+$ cat data.txt
+a
+ab
+abc
+abcd
+abcde
+abcdef
+abcdefg
+$ grep -v "......" data.txt
+a
+ab
+abc
+abcd
+abcde
+$ grep -Ev ".{6}" data.txt
+a
+ab
+abc
+abcd
+abcde
 </code>