grep - Multi-line group capturing between braces - Ask Ubuntu

i have in file testtt:

{it captures this! } // question: 2572410  name: question 2  ::question 2::[html] going -40 tomorrow?  { can't capture this!!! why? } 

when do:

grep -o '{\([^}]*\)}' testttt 

it can't capture multi-line braces. modify in way capture both apppreciated!

ps. have tested given solution from: how grep multiple patterns on multiple lines? , gives following error:

grep: unescaped ^ or $ not supported -pz 

you can find text file of output , file contents here

by default, grep reads , processes single lines.

in newer versions of grep, can use -z option tell consider input null separated instead of newline separated; since input doesn't have null terminations, that's equivalent perl's 'slurp' mode. do

$ grep -zpo '{[^}]*}' testttt {it captures this! } { can't capture this!!! why? } 

or, more perlishly, using .*? non-greedy match (?s) include newlines in .

$ grep -zpo '(?s){.*?}' testttt {it captures this! } { can't capture this!!! why? } 

alternatively, if pcregrep available,

$ pcregrep -mo '(?s){.*?}' testttt {it captures this! } { can't capture this!!! why? }