Subject: Erroneous claim in grep man page
From: David Kra <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2023 11:27:41 +0200
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

This is a request and further endorsement of a report from 2008, ending
with https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-grep/2008-08/msg00002.html

Request: Either add four words to the manpage or delete the entire
sentence.
ASIS: "In GNU grep there is no difference in available functionality
between basic and extended syntaxes."

TOBE: "Although the syntaxes differ, in GNU grep there is no difference in
available functionality between basic and extended syntaxes."

Reasoning: The user should not suffer for not realizing that "no difference
in available functionality" does not imply "no difference in syntax."
Example:
*$* *grep -i "([A-Z])\1\1" *
grep: Invalid back reference
#but no problem with:
*$* *grep -i -E "([A-Z])\1\1"*
or
*$* *grep -i "\([A-Z]\)\1\1" *
---
Thank you,
*David A. Kra*
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