Inverting match with grep, unless another term exists
I have a list containing a set of tags, and would like to exclude one tag, unless another tag exists in the line.
Say I have the following list, and want to exclude B, unless A is present.
[A,B]
[A,C]
[B,C]
[A]
[B]
I can reverse grep for B:
> grep --invert-match "B"
[A,C]
[A]
How can I find the previous list, but also the item containing [A,B]?
6 replies
I like to use awk instead of grep wherever possible, especially for weird logic like this.
awk '!/B/ || /A.*B/'is one way to skin that cat. If you don't care what order A and B are in on the lines containing both, thenawk '!/B/ || (/A/ && /B/)'will work.Thank you! This was exactly was I was looking for. :)
EDIT: Whoops, I meant to make this a top-level comment.
EDIT 2: On one client it looked like a nested comment and on this other client it looks top level and now I'm a confused old man.
You don't need parentheses here.
How dare you?Thanks!
Haha, on Lemmy.World it looks like a top level. Thank you, either way :)