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P4 CLI Documentation | 2026.1

# Searching job text

You can use the expression `'`word1 word2 ... wordN`'` to find jobs that contain all of word1 through wordN in any field (excluding date fields). Use single quotes on UNIX and double quotes on Windows.

When searching jobs, note the following restrictions:

- When you specify multiple words separated by whitespace, P4 Server searches for jobs that contain all the words specified. To find jobs that contain any of the terms, separate the terms with the pipe ( `|` ) character.
- Field names and text comparisons in expressions are not case-sensitive.
- Only alphanumeric text and punctuation can appear in an expression. To match the following characters, which are used by P4 Server as logical operators, precede them with a backslash: `=^&|()<>`.
- You cannot search for phrases, only individual words.

Example: Searching jobs for specific words

Bruno wants to find all jobs that contain the words `filter`, `file`, and `mailbox`. He types:

    p4 jobs -e 'filter file mailbox'

Example: Finding jobs that contain any of a set of words in any field

Bruno wants to find jobs that contain any of the words `filter`, `file` or `mailbox`. He types:

    p4 jobs -e 'filter|file|mailbox'

You can use the `*` wildcard to match one or more characters. For example, the expression `fieldname=string*` matches `string`, `strings`, `stringbuffer`, and so on.

To search for words that contain wildcards, precede the wildcard with a backslash in the command. For instance, to search for `*string` (perhaps in reference to `char *string`), issue the following command:

    p4 jobs -e '\*string'

Your search for returned results