Searching text in many files at the same time (for free)

[amanoffewwords]

Does anyone know of a (freeware or very low cost) software that would allow me to search for a word or part of a word (with a wild card) in multiple .htm(l), .php and .txt files simultaneously?

(yes I have checked the FAQ/useful software list)

Thanks
Charles

[spork]

Not sure about a wildcard, but you can search for a contained word right now with the standard Windows Find (W98) or Search (XP) command. Find, Files or Folders, Containing Text.

[amanoffewwords]

Funny, never noticed that box spork

Thanks for the link Mike, duly saved for future investigation. Might help 'cause my problen is that my weblogs (awstats) are telling me that many of my visitors are getting 404 errors but I can't find the site the broken link is coming from. I'm now assuming some people are using cached versions of the site.

Cheers,
Charles

[Front_Seat_Dreamer]

amanoffewwords

I have recently installed the Google desktop search engine which will catalogue your mail, documents etc on your machine and blimey it works good...

google desktop search

[Mac the Knife]

Harness the power of grep (grep is the way grownups find things in LInux/Unix).

Ported to Microsux and with a graphical frontend. Blows Windows Find outa the water.

http://www.wingrep.com/index.html

SCO delenda est!

PS: If you want the REAL THING ported to Winblows (free but no GUI) go to http://www.steve.org.uk/Software/grep/ and download grep.zip - extract grep.exe and put it somewhere in your path.

Best to read the GNU grep manual at http://www.gnu.org/software/grep/doc/

[TeamTerminal]

Tell me I'm not this old....

FIND [/I] "string" [[drive:][path]filename[ Wildcards work here]]

/I Ignores the case of characters when searching for the string.
"string" Specifies the text string to find.
[drive:][path]filename Specifies a file or files to search.

Don't use it across the net but good for local drives. Spork you mean windows can do this now too?

TT

[Mac the Knife]

D'ye know I can never recall using FIND on it's own, only as part of a pipe in a batch file. Alone it isn't a very useful command compared with grep.

Good point though!

[spork]

Ah the good old days! Astounding the teenagers with a batch file! Still, they've got their own back on me now - can't get a job at my age...

What? 51 and you can still function? Surely not...

[amanoffewwords]

Thanks for the info Mac - duly installed - pity it looks like development is in limbo. But it does the job.

Cheers
Charles