Grep command! No sense here!

I finally went crazy today. I work everyday with Unix-like systems (Linux and FreeBSD), but my main system is OS X, another Unix.

The problem is, I can't count on grep command working on OS X. Let me explain what happens with an example:

Last login: Fri Feb 11 17:33:41 on ttys000
macbook:~ nicolunacba$ ls | grep <--- Okay, the command exists (1)
Usage: grep [OPTION]... PATTERN [FILE]...
Try `grep --help' for more information.
macbook:~ nicolunacba$ ls | grep dada <---- Why it doesn't exist now? (2)
-bash: grep: command not found
macbook:~ nicolunacba$ ls | grep <---- But it existed in (1), why not now?! (3)
-bash: grep: command not found

What's happening? I am sick of using VMs with Ubuntu when I should do the same in OS X. I work everyday with Bash scripts.</div>
It works for me all day, everyday. At work, I've been using a Mac as my workstation for 6 years, developing kernel software (in C) for Linux, Solaris, AIX, and Windows, with heavy duty bash shell and Perl scripting on the side (such as multi-thousand line scripts). I'm just trying to say that my Mac gets heavy duty use on the Unix side of the street.

You might want to see what grep you are using

type -a grep

And you could try

ls | type grep
ls | grep
ls | type grep
ls | grep
ls | type grep
ls | grep
ls | type grep

And for fun, what happens if you try

ls | (type grep; grep)
ls | (type grep; grep)
ls | (type grep; grep)

Also I guess we should ask if you are running the version of 'bash' that came with Mac OS X, or if you have installed your own bash?

type -a bash
echo $0
echo $BASH_VERSION
bash --version

By the way, Terminal, Unix, X11, and command line command, ssh, rsync, etc... questions are best asked in the Mac OS X Technologies > Unix Forum
< http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=735 >

tags

May I recompile and install bash?

echo $PATH
type -a grep