---
title: How Grep Got its Name
teaser:
tags: vim,unix
author: Mike Burns
published_on: 2010-07-28
---

How did `grep` get its name? This all starts back with `ed`, the original unix
editor. ed was a command-line editor that worked identically to the
colon-commands in vi and vim--in fact, you can press `Q` to get into ed mode
(then type `vi` to get back into vim). From the ed editor you can issue common
line-oriented commands like s, d, y, and so on:

    :%s/rdoc/docr/g
    :/include/d

![Mr. Ed giving a speech](https://images.thoughtbot.com/mister-ed-speech.jpg)

If you're following along at home you may wonder "how can I see the contents of
this file?" Well if you just want to see every line you can use `%p` (`%` is
"the whole file", and `p` is "print to screen"), though it's more likely that
you want to see a small series of lines. `10,20p` will show you lines 10
through 20, but maybe it makes more sense to see all lines matching a regular
expression.

From ed, to see all lines matching "include", use `g/include/p`. To see all
lines matching "docr" use `g/docr/p`. In general, to see **all lines matching
the regular expression "re", use `g/re/p`**.

... And that's how grep got its name.

## What's next

If you like Unix and Vim history, you might also enjoy:

* [${VISUAL}ize the Future][visual]
* [Onramp to Vim][onramp]

[visual]: https://thoughtbot.com/blog/visual-ize-the-future/
[onramp]: https://thoughtbot.com/upcase/onramp-to-vim