Shell Script to find string in log file

Question

I have a script that matches a string in a directory from number of log files as below:

#!/bin/sh
# Collect Customer ID as input
read -p "Enter Customer ID: " custid
echo "Searched customer ID $custid found in following logs: "
# Find the customer id as string in specified directory
find /usr/local/tomcat9/logs/ -type f -exec grep -l "$custid" {} \;

This outputs a list of log files that contains the searched string. For example:

Enter Customer ID: 2001NM-100313
Searched customer ID 2001NM-100313 found in following logs:
/usr/local/tomcat9/logs/localhost_access_log.2017-10-04.txt
/usr/local/tomcat9/logs/localhost_access_log.2017-07-11.txt
/usr/local/tomcat9/logs/localhost_access_log.2017-11-02.txt
/usr/local/tomcat9/logs/localhost_access_log.2017-09-11.txt
/usr/local/tomcat9/logs/localhost_access_log.2017-08-09.txt
/usr/local/tomcat9/logs/localhost_access_log.2017-06-11.txt

I want this output as list like:

1. /usr/local/tomcat9/logs/localhost_access_log.2017-10-04.txt
2. /usr/local/tomcat9/logs/localhost_access_log.2017-07-11.txt
3. /usr/local/tomcat9/logs/localhost_access_log.2017-11-02.txt
4. /usr/local/tomcat9/logs/localhost_access_log.2017-09-11.txt
5. /usr/local/tomcat9/logs/localhost_access_log.2017-08-09.txt
6. /usr/local/tomcat9/logs/localhost_access_log.2017-06-11.txt

And it will ask for the number 1/2/3/4/5/6 to input which will open that numbered file, i.e; if I press 4 it will send command

vim /usr/local/tomcat9/logs/localhost_access_log.2017-09-11.txt

and the string "2001NM-100313" will be searched all over that file.

My target is to read the whole line/lines (there may be multiple lines with the string) that contain this string from the log files, there may be multiple log files that have this string with multiple date, I need to select any dated file and read the log.

Answer 1

Just use select (the bash builtin).

$ help select
select: select NAME [in WORDS ... ;] do COMMANDS; done
    The WORDS are expanded, generating a list of words.  The
    set of expanded words is printed on the standard error, each
    preceded by a number.  If `in WORDS' is not present, `in "$@"'
    is assumed.  The PS3 prompt is then displayed and a line read
    from the standard input.  If the line consists of the number
    corresponding to one of the displayed words, then NAME is set
    to that word.  If the line is empty, WORDS and the prompt are
    redisplayed.  If EOF is read, the command completes.  Any other
    value read causes NAME to be set to null.  The line read is saved
    in the variable REPLY.  COMMANDS are executed after each selection
    until a break command is executed.
$

So the code you want is probably:

read -p 'Enter Customer ID: ' custid
select f in $(find /usr/local/tomcat9/logs -type f -exec grep -q -e "$custid" {} \; -print); do
  vim "$f"
done

Note that if your filenames contain whitespace this will break. See also:

• Why is looping over find's output bad practice?

---

However, if you call the select builtin directly from find, this will handle whitespace with ease. So the following is actually better in all cases I can think of:

read -p 'Enter customer ID: ' custid
find /usr/local/tomcat9/logs -type f -exec grep -qe "$custid" {} \; -exec bash -c '
  select f; do vim "$f"; done' find-sh {} +

Answer 2

Reading your question reminded me always wanting to have a simple script that would make it easier for me to search files for a particular string and then look at one of the files containing the string. Building upon your script and the suggestion by saga to use an array, I have created my script and also finished yours. :)

Please note: This script is /bin/bash, not /bin/sh, because I don't know how to get the array working in /bin/sh...

Your script:

#!/bin/bash
# Collect Customer ID as input
read -p "Enter Customer ID: " custid
echo "Searched customer ID $custid found in following logs: "
# Find the customer id as string in specified directory

arr=( $(find /usr/local/tomcat9/logs/ -type f -exec grep -l "$custid" {} \; | sort -r) )

if [ ${#arr[@]} -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "No matches found."
else
    arr+=('Quit')
    select opt in "${arr[@]}"
    do
        case $opt in
            "Quit")
                break
                ;;
            *)
                vim $opt
                break
                ;;
        esac
    done
fi

EDIT: While the script above will work perfectly fine for the the original question, I have built upon Wildcard's answer, so my script can handle files with empty spaces and offers various tools to open the selected file.

My script:

#!/bin/bash
# Find string in files of given directory (recursively)

read -p "Enter search string: " text
read -p "Enter directory: " directory

#arr=( $(find $directory -type f -exec grep -l "$text" {} \; | sort -r) )
#find $directory -type f -exec grep -qe "$text" {} \; -exec bash -c '

file=$(find $directory -type f -exec grep -qe "$text" {} \; -exec bash -c 'select f; do echo $f; break; done' find-sh {} +;)

if [ -z "$file" ]; then
    echo "No matches found."
else
    echo "select tool:"
    tools=("nano" "less" "vim" "quit")
    select tool in "${tools[@]}"
    do
        case $tool in
            "quit")
                break
                ;;
            *)
                $tool $file
                break
                ;;
        esac
    done
fi