让我们用一个例子来理解。我们可以使用带有选项的grep：

-A 5  # this will give you 5 lines after searched string.
-B 5  # this will give you 5 lines before searched string.
-C 5  # this will give you 5 lines before & after searched string

实例File.txt包含6行，以下是操作。

[abc@xyz]~/% cat file.txt # print all file data
this is first line
this is 2nd line
this is 3rd line
this is 4th line
this is 5th line
this is 6th line

[abc@xyz]~% grep "3rd" file.txt # we are searching for keyword '3rd' in the file
this is 3rd line

[abc@xyz]~% grep -A 2 "3rd" file.txt # print 2 lines after finding the searched string
this is 3rd line
this is 4th line
this is 5th line

[abc@xyz]~% grep -B 2 "3rd" file.txt # Print 2 lines before the search string.
this is first line
this is 2nd line
this is 3rd line

[abc@xyz]~% grep -C 2 "3rd" file.txt # print 2 line before and 2 line after the searched string 
this is first line
this is 2nd line
this is 3rd line
this is 4th line
this is 5th line

记住选项的技巧：选项：

-一个 -> 之后的平均值-B级 -> B表示之前。-c类 -> 介于两者之间

-A和-B将起作用，-C n（对于n行上下文）或-n（对于n个上下文……只要n是1到9）也会起作用。

Grep有一个名为Context Line Control的选项，您可以使用--Context，

| grep -C 5

or

| grep -5

应该会成功的

这是awk中的@Ygor解决方案

awk 'c-->0;$0~s{if(b)for(c=b+1;c>1;c--)print r[(NR-c+1)%b];print;c=a}b{r[NR%b]=$0}' b=3 a=3 s="pattern" myfile

注意：用前后的行数替换a和b变量。

它对于不支持grep的-A、-B和-C参数的系统特别有用。

使用grep

$ grep --help | grep -i context
Context control:
  -B, --before-context=NUM  print NUM lines of leading context
  -A, --after-context=NUM   print NUM lines of trailing context
  -C, --context=NUM         print NUM lines of output context
  -NUM                      same as --context=NUM

对于BSD或GNUgrep，可以使用-B num设置匹配前的行数，使用-A num设置匹配后的行数。

grep -B 3 -A 2 foo README.txt

如果希望前后行数相同，可以使用-C num。

grep -C 3 foo README.txt

这将显示前3行和后3行。