Unfortunately, systemd in Bionic and Disco was built without the pcre2 library, and that's what journalctl uses to implement --grep. So before Eoan, journalctl --grep will fail with:
"Compiled without pattern matching support" Since adding this support now would pull in an additional dependency to the systemd package, fixing this bug would mean breaking automatic updates for everyone using systemd (on Bionic or Disco) but without libpcre2 installed, since a package won't be automatically updated if it requires new dependencies that aren't currently installed. Also unfortunately, the journalctl -g option was left out of the options string, so it prints "invalid option" as you mentioned; that is trivial to fix, but won't actually make journalctl grep work, since it would just change from "invalid option" to "compile without pattern matching support". So while the -g error message for journalctl in Bionic is a bit confusing, I don't think it's worth a patch just to slightly improve the error message without actually getting --grep working. Please note that --grep (and -g) works starting in Eoan. Also, I'll mention that you can still simply pipe journalctl output into the 'grep' tool; it's a bit less efficient but should still work. Sorry. ** Changed in: systemd (Ubuntu) Status: New => Fix Released -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to systemd in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1856330 Title: journalctl missing grep Status in systemd package in Ubuntu: Fix Released Status in systemd source package in Bionic: Won't Fix Status in systemd source package in Disco: Won't Fix Status in systemd source package in Eoan: Fix Released Bug description: the man page for journalctl and the usage (journalctl --help) advertise an option (-g, --grep=) to grep the MESSAGE portion of events for a pcre pattern. journalctl is linked against libpcre, but doesn't recognize the option when used. $ journalctl -g dhcp journalctl: invalid option -- 'g' ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04 Package: systemd 237-3ubuntu10.33 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.3.0-22.24+system76~1573660262~18.04~d11b582~dev-generic 5.3.7 Uname: Linux 5.3.0-22-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.9 Architecture: amd64 CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME Date: Fri Dec 13 09:26:08 2019 MachineType: System76, Inc. Wild Dog Performance ProcEnviron: TERM=xterm-256color PATH=(custom, no user) XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set> LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.3.0-22-generic root=UUID=25721613-9f9a-4e8d-ac61-a6869852d0e2 ro ipv6.disable=1 usbhid.quirks=0x1B1C:0x1B13:0x400 quiet splash vt.handoff=1 SourcePackage: systemd UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to bionic on 2018-10-05 (433 days ago) dmi.bios.date: 06/28/2013 dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc. dmi.bios.version: 0411 dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M. dmi.board.name: H87-PLUS dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. dmi.board.version: Rev X.0x dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890 dmi.chassis.type: 3 dmi.chassis.vendor: System76, Inc. dmi.chassis.version: Desktop dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr0411:bd06/28/2013:svnSystem76,Inc.:pnWildDogPerformance:pvrwilp10:rvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:rnH87-PLUS:rvrRevX.0x:cvnSystem76,Inc.:ct3:cvrDesktop: dmi.product.family: ASUS MB dmi.product.name: Wild Dog Performance dmi.product.sku: All dmi.product.version: wilp10 dmi.sys.vendor: System76, Inc. mtime.conffile..etc.systemd.resolved.conf: 2018-10-08T15:18:41.655856 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/+bug/1856330/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp