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I can't seem to recursively search with grep for some reason in WSL2.

me@SOMEHOST:~$ grep -r -e "DATASTORE_BAKs" --exclude=SOMEHOST-2\.viminfo *
grep: SOMEHOST-2.viminfo: invalid context length argument

It seems to have something to do with my .viminfo file, but I can't exclude it properly and I can't even ignore the file using the ignore binary arg.

The file seems to contain alot of -- characters and I'm wondering if that's screwing it up.

I also did a file command on it and it doesn't warrant much:

le ./.viminfo
./.viminfo: data

How can I make this work again?

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    Do you get a different result if you do grep -r -e "DATASTORE_BAKs" --exclude=SOMEHOST-2\.viminfo -- * ? It's more likely that you have a file named something like -ASOMEHOST-2\.viminfo or -CSOMEHOST-2\.viminfo in the current directory
    – steeldriver
    Dec 28, 2022 at 0:55
  • @steeldriver I already tried looking for a file named that
    – leeand00
    Dec 28, 2022 at 1:17
  • Or use . instead of *?
    – muru
    Dec 28, 2022 at 3:38
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    @leeand00 it tells grep to treat everything following as a non-option (i.e. filename) argument, even if it begins with a -. See for example What does "--" (double-dash) mean?
    – steeldriver
    Dec 28, 2022 at 16:50
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    ... although as @muru pointed out you might want to use . instead of * (unless your intent is to skip hidden files/directories in the current directory?)
    – steeldriver
    Dec 28, 2022 at 17:56

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