Grep matches exact substring ignoring regex syntax

Question

Is there a way to get grep to match the exact string and not parse it as a regular expression? Or is there any tool for the right line for grep?

$ version=10.4 $ echo "10.4" | grep $version 10.4 $ echo "1034" | grep $version # shouldn't match 1034 

Answer 1

Use grep -F or fgrep.

 $ echo "1034" | grep -F $version # shouldn't match $ echo "10.4" | grep -F $version 10.4 

See the man page:

  -F, --fixed-strings Interpret PATTERN as a list of fixed strings, separated by newlines, any of which is to be matched. 

I searched for the term "literal match" or "fixed string".

_{(See also Using grep with a complex string and How can grep literally interpret a string containing an asterisk and feed it into grep through a variable? )}

Answer 2

This should work ... this works for me:

 echo "1034" | grep "10\.4"