How to use grep command in cPanel?

Grep is a linux command that is used for searching of certain strings in files. The default cPanel search system allows you to search only the in the filenames of the files hosted in your account.

But how to search within the files? Let's find out!

The trick is the execute the command via a php script. In order to do this, I will describe the case that I tested and that worked on my small shared hosting account. So, let's go.

1. Create a file called find.php;

2. Place the file in your root directory so that it could be accessed in browser when typing yourdomain.com/find.php;

3. The content of the find.php file should be as following:

<?php

$command = "grep -rle 'this is the search string' ./*";

$output = shell_exec($command);

echo "Search for: $command <br>";
echo "Results <br>";
echo "<pre>$output</pre>";

echo "Grep over.";

?>


4. In this line:

$command = "grep -rle 'this is the search string' ./*";

You should replace 'this is the search string' with the string you would like to find. Have in mind to keep the single quotes on both sides of the query.

5. Save the find.php file;

6. Open the file in browser by typing yourdomain.com/find.php;

7. Wait for some time - this is needed because the php script is being executed and it tries to find the string that you entered;

8. When the job finishes, the grep job will display the files where the string is located. A sample output displayed by the browser is:

./error_log
./find.php
./wp-admin/css/colors/modern/colors.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/modern/colors-rtl.min.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/modern/colors-rtl.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/modern/colors.min.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/sunrise/colors.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/sunrise/colors-rtl.min.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/sunrise/colors-rtl.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/sunrise/colors.min.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/blue/colors.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/blue/colors-rtl.min.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/blue/colors-rtl.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/blue/colors.min.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/midnight/colors.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/midnight/colors-rtl.min.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/midnight/colors-rtl.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/midnight/colors.min.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/light/colors.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/light/colors-rtl.min.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/light/colors-rtl.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/light/colors.min.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/light/colors.scss
./wp-admin/css/colors/coffee/colors.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/coffee/colors-rtl.min.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/coffee/colors-rtl.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/coffee/colors.min.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/ectoplasm/colors.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/ectoplasm/colors-rtl.min.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/ectoplasm/colors-rtl.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/ectoplasm/colors.min.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/_admin.scss
./wp-admin/css/colors/ocean/colors.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/ocean/colors-rtl.min.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/ocean/colors-rtl.css
./wp-admin/css/colors/ocean/colors.min.css
./wp-includes/class-wp-admin-bar.php
./wp-includes/css/admin-bar.css
./wp-includes/css/admin-bar.min.css
./wp-includes/css/admin-bar-rtl.css
./wp-includes/css/admin-bar-rtl.min.css

Grep over.

9. Done!