If you want to grep for DPT=22 followed by a space, then grep for it: grep 'DPT=22 ' file ^ space! Why do you pipe to "cat" and redirect? Direct redirection should also have the desired effect: grep 'DPT=22 ' file > dp22 The reason that grep DPT=22\> doesn't work is that the \> probably gets grabbed by your shell and handed to grep as a bare >, the \ being the shell escape character, so what grep actually sees is DPT=22>. Quote-protect the grep pattern so the shell doesn't mess around with it. grep 'DPT=22\>' file > dp22 Bonne chance, Andy -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml