GNU bug report logs - #17763
grep --exclude does not match files as documented in man page

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: ANDREUX Hugues <hugues.andreux <at> sgcib.com>
To: "bug-grep <at> gnu.org" <bug-grep <at> gnu.org>
Subject: grep --exclude does not match files as documented in man page
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2014 12:05:52 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

It seems file globbing as done by 'grep --exclude' is broken when wildcards are used.

$ echo foo >bar
$ grep --exclude='.*' . ./bar
$ grep --exclude='.*' . bar
foo

Expected behavior: grep -exclude should not exclude bar, whether it is prefixed by ./ or not. According to the man page:
"       --exclude=GLOB
              Skip files whose *base name* matches GLOB (using wildcard matching). [...]"

This behavior seems to only occur with whenever a directory component of the file path matches the GLOB, e.g.:
$ grep --exclude '.*' . ../bar
$ grep --exclude '.*' . .../bar
$ grep --exclude '.*' . .TEST/bar
$ grep --exclude '.*' . hugues/.TEST/bar

The bug triggers with other globs, unless there is no wildcard:
$ grep --exclude 'w*' . work/bar
$ grep --exclude 'work' . work/bar
foo

Regards,

Hugues Andreux
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Message #10 received at 17763-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: ANDREUX Hugues <hugues.andreux <at> sgcib.com>, 
 17763-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#17763: grep --exclude does not match files as documented
 in man page
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 13:23:56 -0700

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

On 06/12/2014 05:05 AM, ANDREUX Hugues wrote:
> According to the man page:
> "       --exclude=GLOB
>                Skip files whose*base name*  matches GLOB (using wildcard matching).

Thanks, I think that's a bug in the documentation, not in the code; 
grep's behavior is similar to that of tar's, which has similar options.  
I installed the attached documentation patch.

[0001-doc-Document-r-vs-exclude-more-carefully.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]

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