help using grep with a fixed string

well I changed the url name in the pattern, so people don't click it here (it has a virus).. and I forgot to put in the escapes..

but you've brought up a great point.. the script is stripping out backslashes on the regex patterns, preventing correct matches in many cases..

here's the code that handles that part: first I grep through the whole spamfilter logfile, and cpy only the needed regex patterns into a temp file, and that temp file does have the backslashes preserved.. but then when the script gets to this:

($TEMPF is the temp file with only regex patterns in it, one per line):

{
cat $TEMPF|while read pattern ; do
  PCOUNT=$(grep -Fc "$pattern" $LOGF)
  LDATE=$(grep -F "$pattern" $LOGF|tail -n1|awk '{print $2" "$3" "$5}')
  PACTIVE=$(grep -Fm1 "$pattern" $CONF)
  [ "$PACTIVE" ] && TAG=[*] || TAG=[!]
  echo ""$n"a"$TAG". pattern: $pattern"    
  echo ""$n"b"$TAG". hits: ${PCOUNT:-0} [last: ${LDATE:-n/a]}"
  echo
  n=$(($n + 1))
done
} >> $OUTF

now the whole problem with that loop is that it strips the backslashes out of $pattern for some reason, so when I grep for $pattern, it usually is the wrong one (unless the original pattern had no backslashes to begin with, then those will work).. but why is that loop stripping the backslashes from $pattern?

to make things easier, here is the entire script:

#!/bin/sh
# makes a report on spamfilter hits

CONF=spamfilter.conf
LOGF=spamfilter.log
TEMPF=$(basename $0).tmp
URC=unrealircd.conf
OUTF=$(basename $0).log
STAMP=$(date '+%F %r %z')
SNAME=$(grep -Eom1 "name \".+\"" $URC|awk '{print $2}'|awk -F\" '{print $2}')
n=1

if [ ! -e "$LOGF" ] ; then
  echo "ERROR: Cannot find $LOGF"
  exit 0
fi

SDATE=$(grep -m1 "\- \[Spamfilter\]" $LOGF|awk '{print $2" "$3}')

# total hits in logfile (all filters)
HC=$(grep -Ec "\- \[Spamfilter\]" $LOGF)

# dump unique patterns from log into temp file
grep -E "\- \[Spamfilter\]" $LOGF|grep -Eo "matches filter '.*':"|awk -F\' '{print $2}'|sort|uniq > $TEMPF

# unique patterns found in log
UCOUNT=$(sed -n '$=' $TEMPF)

echo "# Created: $STAMP" > $OUTF
echo "# IRCd: $SNAME" >> $OUTF
echo "" >> $OUTF
echo "- $LOGF has $HC total spamfilter hits," >> $OUTF
echo "- from $UCOUNT unique patterns, since $SDATE" >> $OUTF
echo "- Prefix legend: [*] = active, [!] = not active" >> $OUTF
echo "" >> $OUTF

{
cat $TEMPF|while read pattern ; do
  PCOUNT=$(grep -Fc "$pattern" $LOGF)
  LDATE=$(grep -F "$pattern" $LOGF|tail -n1|awk '{print $2" "$3" "$5}')
  PACTIVE=$(grep -Fm1 "$pattern" $CONF)
  [ "$PACTIVE" ] && TAG=[*] || TAG=[!]
  echo ""$n"a"$TAG". pattern: $pattern"
  echo ""$n"b"$TAG". hits: ${PCOUNT:-0} [last: ${LDATE:-n/a]}"
  echo
  n=$(($n + 1))
done
} >> $OUTF

cat $OUTF

rm -f $OUTF
rm -f $TEMPF
exit 0

using that code above, I ran that with this exact logfile (spamfilter.log):

[Sun Jul  3 18:19:27 2005] - [Spamfilter] [|didosch|]!~wkngfhdvs@d8475.w82-123.abo.wanadoo.fr matches filter '^FREE .+ pics and movies (www\.pornsites\.da\.ru|wWw\.aLmoRa\.oRg)$': [PRIVMSG DarkReal: 'FREE Porn pics and movies www.pornsites.da.ru'] [Spamming a porn url to users. Scan your pc for viruses.]
[Mon Jul  4 07:49:30 2005] - [Spamfilter] GurBeT!kedoozwrkq@23.135.11.3 matches filter '^For Hot Girl & Crazy PØrn Movîes & HardcØre PØrn MØviés Click Red Box : (http://)?.+\.almora\.org$': [PRIVMSG SixPacK: 'For Hot Girl & Crazy PØrn Movîes & HardcØre PØrn MØviés Click Red Box : www.almora.org'] [Spamming a porn url, scan your pc for viruses]
[Mon Jul  4 17:36:14 2005] - [Spamfilter] ATeS!~unicfvukg@12.186.170.89 matches filter '^For Hot Girl & Crazy PØrn Movîes & HardcØre PØrn MØviés Click Red Box : (http://)?.+\.almora\.org$': [PRIVMSG MERR50: 'For Hot Girl & Crazy PØrn Movîes & HardcØre PØrn MØviés Click Red Box : www.almora.org'] [Spamming a porn url, scan your pc for viruses]
[Mon Jul  4 20:48:35 2005] - [Spamfilter] ^Linda!~wxenolilr@3qwes-152-1-28-236.w82-123.abo.wanadoo.fr matches filter '^FREE .+ pics and movies (www\.pornsites\.da\.ru|wWw\.aLmoRa\.oRg)$': [PRIVMSG VOH|out: 'FREE Porn pics and movies www.pornsites.da.ru'] [Spamming a porn url to users. Scan your pc for viruses.]

and using that exact logfile, here is the script's output:

ircd@drt:~/urleaf$ ./wnsflist
# Created: 2005-07-05 05:26:28 AM +0200
# IRCd: someserver.testnet.org

- spamfilter.log has 4 total spamfilter hits,
- from 2 unique patterns, since Jul 3
- Prefix legend: [*] = active, [!] = not active

1a[!]. pattern: ^FREE .+ pics and movies (www.pornsites.da.ru|wWw.aLmoRa.oRg)$
1b[!]. hits: 0 [last: n/a]

2a[!]. pattern: ^For Hot Girl & Crazy PØrn Movîes & HardcØre PØrn MØviés Click Red Box : (http://)?.+.almora.org$
2b[!]. hits: 0 [last: n/a]


it's not supposed to be possible for there to be 0 hits (every pattern has atleast 1 hit of course)

nevermind I found the answer.. just had to use read -r instead of read.. but ozo, your observation was very helpful (don't know how I missed it before), so it looks like you get the points ;)