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

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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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