GNU bug report logs - #30326
grep not searching through a text file (thinking it binary)

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From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: L A Walsh <gnu <at> tlinx.org>
Cc: 30326-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org, GNU bug control <control <at> debbugs.gnu.org>
Subject: bug#30326: grep not searching through a text file (thinking it binary)
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2018 15:09:06 -0800

On 02/02/2018 12:09 PM, L A Walsh wrote:
> Grep was able to find text strings in mboxes without a POSIX
> definition telling it that it was "broken".

It's not a question of POSIX telling us what to do. It's a question of 
what is a good thing for GNU grep to do, and making sure that this 
behavior conforms to POSIX (at least if POSIXLY_CORRECT is set).

When grep encounters binary data, there are different "good" things to 
do depending on the application, so grep has options. The behavior 
you're asking for is available as an option. As I understand it, the 
main point of your bug report is that you want the option to be the 
default behavior. However, that would adversely affect some other common 
uses of grep and it's not clear that it's a good idea.

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