The -v option for the egrep command activates the invert matching mode, which means that it only outputs the lines that do not match the given pattern or regular expression. This is useful for filtering out unwanted lines or finding exceptions in a file. For example, the following command will output all the lines in the file my_text that do not contain the word “Linux”:

egrep -v Linux my_text

The -v option can be combined with other options to modify the output format or behavior of the egrep command. For example, the -c option will count the number of non-matching lines instead of printing them, and the -i option will ignore the case of the pattern while matching. References:

[LPI Exam 101 Detailed Objectives], Topic 103: GNU and Unix Commands, Objective 103.7: Perform basic file management, Weight: 4, Key Knowledge Areas: Use of egrep to search for extended regular expressions in text output.

[Linux egrep Command with Examples], Topic: Invert Matching with egrep.