GNU bug report logs - #28081
way to change line number separator from colon to space?

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

From: Marcel Partap <mpartap <at> gmx.net>
To: bug-grep <at> gnu.org
Subject: way to change line number separator from colon to space?
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2017 15:41:19 +0200

Hi,
is there any way to make grep place a space before and after the line number instead of a colon?
> *./src/ui_download_manager.cc:36:namespace cwidget
With many terminals not including the : as a word separator SHIFT+double click on the filename selects
> filename:line:
so one has to manually select the filename. So much unneccessary work 😁

#Best Regards/MPartap

Message #8 received at 28081 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Bruce Dubbs <bruce.dubbs <at> gmail.com>
To: Marcel Partap <mpartap <at> gmx.net>, 28081 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#28081: way to change line number separator from colon to
 space?
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2017 13:42:40 -0500

Marcel Partap wrote:
> Hi,
> is there any way to make grep place a space before and after the line number instead of a colon?
>> *./src/ui_download_manager.cc:36:namespace cwidget
> With many terminals not including the : as a word separator SHIFT+double click on the filename selects
>> filename:line:
> so one has to manually select the filename. So much unneccessary work 😁

One way:

grep <arguments> | sed "s/:/ /"

You could easily create a script to automatically do that. It wouldn't 
handle the case where a colon is a part of the file name, but that's 
pretty rare.

  -- Bruce

Message #11 received at 28081 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Marcel Partap <mpartap <at> gmx.net>
To: Bruce Dubbs <bruce.dubbs <at> gmail.com>, 28081 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#28081: way to change line number separator from colon to
 space?
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2017 20:45:58 +0200

> One way:
> grep <arguments> | sed "s/:/ /"
Thanks, obvious approach, but loses colour 😁

Message #14 received at 28081 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Assaf Gordon <assafgordon <at> gmail.com>
To: Marcel Partap <mpartap <at> gmx.net>, Bruce Dubbs <bruce.dubbs <at> gmail.com>,
 28081 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#28081: way to change line number separator from colon to
 space?
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2017 13:05:42 -0600

Hello,

On 13/08/17 12:45 PM, Marcel Partap wrote:
>> One way:
>> grep <arguments> | sed "s/:/ /"
> Thanks, obvious approach, but loses colour 😁

Few things:

First,
you can force grep to output color with:

   grep --color=always <argument> | sed 's/:/ /'


Second,
If you grep on a shell-glob (e.g. "*.txt"),
you might want to add "-H -n" to force grep
to always output the filename and the line number.
Otherwise, if the glob matches a single file,
grep by default will not output the filename/line number -
and the 'sed' will not do what you wanted.

   grep --color=always -Hn <argument> *.txt


Third,
This assumes filenames do not contain the character ':'
(which is probably a valid assumptions most of the time, but not always).
To be more robust, you can use GNU grep's "-Z" option, which outputs
a NUL after the filename, the GNU sed to replace the NUL with something
else.
Example:

  $ grep --color=always -HZn Deb /etc/motd | sed 's/\x00/ === /'
  /etc/motd === 2:The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux
  /etc/motd === 6:Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY



Fourth,
To easily automate all of that, you can create
a tiny shell function (put it in ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_aliases, etc):

  nicegrep() { grep --color=always -HZn "$@" | sed 's/\x00/ === /' ; }

Then run:

  nicegrep Deb /etc/motd




regards,
 - assaf

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