It may be the double quotes you're using. I used single quotes and your commands work fine: tom~> cat file $Log: Blah tom~> grep '\$Log: .*' file $Log: Blah tom~> grep '\$Log: .*\$' file tom~> grep "\$Log: .*\$" file $Log: Blah tom~> grep -V grep (GNU grep) 2.5.1 On Wed, 12 Apr 2006, Ethan Post wrote: > > cat f > > $Log: Blah > > > grep "\$Log: .*\$" f > > $Log: Blah -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l