In linux/solaris, we can use fgrep/grep for pattern matching in files. But one limitation with these commands is they limit their pattern matching to one line. They don’t search for the pattern in multiple lines. Then I found an open source tool, pcregrep [available as sdk also]. pcregrep provides multi-line grep. In many latest versions of linux and solaris machines, I have found this command, but they are older versions [maybe stable versions]. Older versions did not have multi-line grep functionality. So, I have downloaded its latest source and built it.
One usecase: I have function names, then I need to find out their declarations from header files. Function could be declared over many lines. This is my usecase. In this scenario, I have used pcregrep.
