I need to search all my log files for 2 specific words and list only the files that contain them. These words will not be on the same line. I can do a grep on one word: >grep -il chris * I tried >grep -il "chris".*"help" *.txt but it stops at the new line char.. I have tried to pipe "|" one grep into another but it doesn't seem to work. Can anyone help with the syntax to do it in one command?

Not at a unix box, but I believe you could, if the files are similary named OR in the same directory: for files in `ls`;do if [[ `grep -il chris $files` != "" && `grep -il help $files` != "" ]];then echo $files fi done you can also use ls *.txt if they are the only text files. Try that. Also, I think the page will break the code up, but the line from if to then should all be on the same line.

try using grep -il -e "chris" -e "help" *.txt

Thanks to you both...