Subject: Re: bug#68776: bug with escape characters in pattern
From: Paul Eggert <[email-masked]>
To: Brendan Richardson <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2024 18:35:35 -0800
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

On 2024-01-27 16:00, Brendan Richardson wrote:
> If you use input
> egrep "[^\\n\\t]" file
> 
> and the file contains a line with only n or t on it, those lines are also

This is the correct behavior. The command you mention is equivalent to

grep -E '[^nt\]' file

and this outputs all lines containing some character other than 'n', 
't', or '\'. A line containing only n or t should not be output.