Use algo como isto talvez (se gnu grep).
grep -r 'content pattern' --include==*.cpp
homem grep
--include=GLOB Search only files whose base name matches GLOB (using wildcard matching as described under --exclude)
Veja também as opções para delimitadores nulos.
-Z, --null Output a zero byte (the ASCII NUL character) instead of the character that normally follows a file name. For example, grep -lZ outputs a zero byte after each file name instead of the usual newline. This option makes the output unambiguous, even in the presence of file names containing unusual characters like newlines. This option can be used with commands like find -print0, perl -0, sort -z, and xargs -0 to process arbitrary file names, even those that contain newline characters.
-z, --null-data Treat the input as a set of lines, each terminated by a zero byte (the ASCII NUL character) instead of a newline. Like the -Z or --null option, this option can be used with commands like sort -z to process arbitrary file names.