GNU bug report logs - #20657
Traditional range expression not accepted in regex/dfa

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

From: arnold <at> skeeve.com
To: bug-grep <at> gnu.org
Subject: Traditional range expression not accepted in regex/dfa
Date: Tue, 26 May 2015 05:42:19 +0300

Hi.

I received a bug report for gawk by private email that a regexp of
this form: '[^0-9---]' wasn't accepted.  The bugaboo here is the "---"; it's
a range expression consisting of minus through minus, and apparently long
ago was how one got a minus into a bracket expression.

This can be seen in current grep also:

	$ ./src/grep --version
	./src/grep (GNU grep) 2.21
	Copyright (C) 2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
	...

	$ ./src/grep '[^0-9---]' /dev/null
	./src/grep: Invalid range end

The underlying regex and, I believe, dfa routines don't accept this.
Fixing either of them is beyond my skill range, so I thought I'd
pass this one upstream to you folks.

Thanks!

Arnold

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