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I don't know how to ask this, but let me explain.

I have a text file (named bla) in my ~/user/Dropbox folder. I would like to grep on it from any folder in terminal.

For example, I'd like just type grep 'foo' bla instead of going to ~/user/Dropbox to look for.

I believe that some symbolic link could help. Any idea?

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@sputnick, sorry but I have no idea about what you're saying. –  Sigur Mar 26 '13 at 23:03
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up vote 2 down vote accepted

Basically, you can give the full path to grep:

grep foo ~/user/Dropbox/bla

Or you could add a function on your ~/.bashrc file, so you won't need to type the full path:

    grep "$1" "~/user/Dropbox/$2"

Running the function (after you open a new shell or run . .bashrc):

dgrep foo bla

EDIT: dgrep is a tool contained in debian-goodies that searches all files in specified packages for a regex. It should be safe to use this name if you don't use Debian or are not an advanced user. Otherwise, change dgrep to something else.

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+1. Thanks so much. Since I'll grep on the same file everytime, I defined a function (called busca, which means find in my language) only with one argument so I just call busca foo. –  Sigur Mar 26 '13 at 23:10
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