# 
## Overview

In Linux/Unix, the `grep` command is a command-line tool used to search for a string in a file.

## Syntax

```
grep <OPTIONS> [pattern] [files...]
```

The command has several options that are required for different purposes. One such option is `-l` or `--files-with-matches`.

When `-l` or `--files-with-matches` is enabled, only the names of files containing selected lines are written to standard output. The path names are listed once per file searched.

grep --exclude=__ed_stdout.txt "hell*" *.txt

In the above code widget, we create two files called `file1.txt` and `file2.txt` with some text in them. Next, we search for the pattern `hell*` in the present working directory in all the text files only. 

The output prints the filenames with the text matching the pattern. In order to get only filenames, we can enable the `-l` or the `--files-with-matches` flag.

## Example

grep -l --exclude=__ed_stdout.txt "hell*" *.txt

# OR

# grep --files-with-matches --exclude=__ed_stdout.txt "hell*" *.txt

How to use grep to only show filenames in Linux

Use grep with the -l or --files-with-matches option to display filenames with matched patterns.