Hi, here is a script I use often to search thru my files, it's not the best code, but it works. Notice the commented out lines which skip binary files. Usually, you don't want to search a binary file.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use File::Find;

$|++;

# defaults are case-insensitive, no recurse, open and search files (no
+t filename) 

if ($#ARGV < 0){die "Usage zgrep 'pattern' c(case sensitive optional) 
+r(recurse optional) n(search name only optional)
                   examples: zgrep 'debug me' r 
           will recursively search all files for 'debug me'\n";  
               }

my ($recurse, $name, $case) =(0,0,0);
if( grep{/\bn\b/} @ARGV ){@ARGV = grep { $_ ne 'n' } @ARGV; $name = 1 
+};
if( grep{/\br\b/} @ARGV ){@ARGV = grep { $_ ne 'r' } @ARGV; $recurse =
+ 1 };
if( grep{/\bc\b/} @ARGV ){@ARGV = grep { $_ ne 'c' } @ARGV; $case = 1 
+};

#print "$name $recurse $case @ARGV\n";

my $path = '.';

#only accept 1 search string, so quote phrases
my $search = $ARGV[0];

my $regex;  #defaults to case insensitive
if ($case){$regex =  qr/\Q$search\E/}
      else{$regex =  qr/\Q$search\E/i}
# use s modifier for multiline match

find (sub { 
       #skip directories which begin with 1
       if (-d && $_ =~ /^1.*$/) {
        $File::Find::prune = 1;
            return;
        }

     if( ! $recurse ){
      my $n = ($File::Find::name) =~ tr!/!!; #count slashes in file
      return $File::Find::prune = 1 if ($n > 1);
      }

     return if -d;
#     return unless (-f and -T ); # don't waste time on binaries

    if($name){
         if ($_ =~ /$regex/){print "$File::Find::name\n"};
     
     }else{
         return unless (-f and -T ); # don't waste time on binaries
         open (FH,"< $_");
         while(<FH>){
           print "$File::Find::name: $. :$_\n "  if /$regex/;
          }
         close FH;
      }
      
 }, $path);
    
exit;
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