use unix grep to conduct a web search on a static site the web server code would have to execute the command-line program @grep -R --exclude-dir=versions --include='*.txt' "Test Post 8Apr2016 1130" .@ the search would start in document root. check string to permit only alphanumeric, underscore, and hyphen. maybe the period. http://www.perlmonks.org/bare/?node_id=114642 h2. Examples @ grep -i -R --exclude-dir=versions --include='*.txt' "4APR2016" .@ ./note-4apr2016-2102-edt.txt:# Note: 4Apr2016 2102 EDT ./2016/04/04/test-post-4apr2016-1312.txt:# test post 4apr2016 1312 ./2016/04/04/test-1313.txt:# test post 4apr2016 1313 ./index.txt:* [Note: 4Apr2016 2102 EDT](/note-4apr2016-2102-edt.html) ./tag-note.txt:* [Note: 4Apr2016 2102 EDT](/note-4apr2016-2102-edt.html) hr. @grep -i -R --exclude-dir=versions --include='*.txt' "comet" .@ code. ./2016/04/17/test-post-17apr2016-2103.txt:this is a sentence that mentions my old cat Comet. ./2016/04/17/test-post-17apr2016-2103.txt:asf jlajsflja lfjal fjla jf lja sf af but this one does mention COMET again, along with some gibberish text a ljaslfj al ksjflkaj fja lja fjalf jal fjalj flaj fl jalf jlaj fll ajsf jl fjljf ./2016/04/17/test-post-17apr2016-2103.txt:finally, i miss comet who passed away in May 2010 at the age of 18-years-old. almost six years ago already. code.. if want to stop the search on each file after only one match, then add the @-m 1@ @grep -i -R -m 1 --exclude-dir=versions --include='*.txt' "comet" .@ Only the first hit will get displayed.