Regex multiple line search + redirect search results / possible improvement?

[Marco Fabbri]

Hi,
I use quite often the regex search on multiple line.

but I found a couple of limitation:

1. The results frame shows only the first line for the matched text block . In some case this limitation is useful though, especially when a pattern matches many large text blocks. In some cases it would be useful to select the behavior or at least to export the output to a new tab (see point 2)

2. it could be useful to have an option in the search window to export the search results to a new tab .

Do you know if either the above feature can be implemented or a plugin already exists? I spent some time without any luck.
I know could use grep or its variants but it would be handy to have those options.

[Scott Sumner]

@Marco-Fabbri

I don’t know if you are just making feature requests, or if you might be interested in workarounds.

• For feature requests, it might be better to do it here

• For workarounds on the topic you raise, you might have a look here.

[Marco Fabbri]

Thanks for your comment Scott,

I filed an enhancement request.
https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/issues/3569

Regarding the workaround, I am still not sure if that is what I was looking for…I have to learn how to run a python script in N++ first :)

[Marco Fabbri]

Just as a reference…
The quickest workaround I found is to use a cygwin shell with “pcre” package installed…
$ pcregrep -M “BGP neighbor is.\r\n.\r\n.\r\n.\r\n.*\r\n.*state.*Established.*3w” file.txt

(the above example look for a 6 lines string block such as:

BGP neighbor is xxxx
Remote AS xx, local AS xx, internal link
Description: xxxx
Remote router ID xxxx
Cluster ID xxxx
BGP **state **= Established, up for 3w5d

hope this helps.