EXIGREP(8)

💖 NAME 💖

EXIGREP — bestie, this one searches Exim's main log. That's the whole vibe. 🔍

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

exigrep [-l] pattern [log file] ...

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

Okay so here's the tea: exigrep is a Perl script that goes digging through one or more main log files looking for entries that match a pattern you give it. And when it finds a match?? It doesn't just show you that one lonely line — no ma'am. It pulls all the log entries for the relevant message, not just the ones that matched. That's the iconic part. 👑

Which means exigrep can extract complete log entries for a given message, or all mail for a given user, or for a given host, for example. Very versatile, very main character energy. 🌈

Now, the -l flag means 'literal' — like, treat all the characters in the pattern as standing for themselves. No regex shenanigans, just vibes and exact characters. 💅

Otherwise, bestie, the pattern must be a Perl regular expression. And heads up: the pattern match is case-insensitive. ✨

If no file names are given on the command line, the standard input is read. Simple as that. 🫶

Oh and here's a fun little detail: if the location of a zcat command is known from the definition of ZCAT_COMMAND in Local/Makefile, exigrep automatically passes any file whose name ends in COMPRESS_SUFFIX through zcat as it searches it. So compressed logs? Handled. No cap. 🦋

💀 BUGS 💀

Not me being the one to say it, but: this manual page needs a major re-work. 😭

If somebody knows better groff than us and has more experience in writing manual pages, any patches would be greatly appreciated. The devs are literally asking. If that's you, go off, you'd be doing the lord's work. 🙈

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• exim(8)
• perlre(1)
• /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/

🌸 AUTHOR 🌸

This manual page was stitched together from spec.txt by Andreas Metzler <ametzler at downhill.at.eu.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others). Respect the craft. 💜

This was the EXIGREP(8) page from the System Manager's Manual, last touched March 26, 2003. Yes bestie, that's an old date — it's vintage, it's retro, it's heritage. 🎀✨

okay bye ily, go grep responsibly 💖🦋🌸