GREP - Exclude line entries that have a question mark "?"

Question

I have a large file with over 800k entries (access log file). I need to output a file with only clean URLs (without parameters / "?") in the URL.

Output should only display entries that DON'T have a "?" in the URL.

Parameter url:

http://www.example.com/sample?parameter=1

Also related: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4373675/how-to-invert-a-grep-expression — l'L'l, Jan 09 '17 at 10:58
Excellent closing guys. Have any of you actually tried a regex with a question mark in grep? — Derf Skren, Jan 14 '20 at 22:17

score 5 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 02 '23 at 15:03

5

In POSIX grep with the --invert-match (short: -v) for inverse match,

grep --invert-match "?" file

Or using awk with !

awk '!/?/' file

Using GNU sed with --quiet or --silent (short: -n):

sed --quiet '/?/!p' file

edited Mar 02 '23 at 15:03

breversa

107
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answered Jan 09 '17 at 10:52

Inian

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There's nothing GNU specific about grep -v. – Ed Morton Jan 09 '17 at 19:43

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 09 '17 at 10:52

@Seasonal_showers: You haven't shown us a handful samples, so considering that your Input_file will have only URLs and nothing else, could you please try following then.

grep -v '?' Input_file

Let me know if this is not helping, you could show more sample Input_file details for better understanding then.

GREP - Exclude line entries that have a question mark "?"

2 Answers2