GNU bug report logs - #34126
grep v. 3.1 – unexpected error message "grep: i.: No such file or directory"

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Package: grep;

Reported by: Ricky Tigg <ricky.tigg <at> gmail.com>

Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2019 20:28:01 UTC

Severity: normal

Tags: notabug

Done: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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From: help-debbugs <at> gnu.org (GNU bug Tracking System)
To: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
Cc: tracker <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#34126: closed (grep v. 3.1 – unexpected
 error message "grep: i.: No such file or directory")
Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2019 20:38:02 +0000
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
Your message dated Fri, 18 Jan 2019 14:37:30 -0600
with message-id <6e98e17c-6881-2230-ff53-09c5f5b21acc <at> redhat.com>
and subject line Re: bug#34126: grep v. 3.1 – unexpected error message "grep: i.: No such file or directory"
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #34126,
regarding grep v. 3.1 – unexpected error message "grep: i.: No such file or directory"
to be marked as done.

(If you believe you have received this mail in error, please contact
help-debbugs <at> gnu.org.)


-- 
34126: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=34126
GNU Bug Tracking System
Contact help-debbugs <at> gnu.org with problems
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From: Ricky Tigg <ricky.tigg <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-grep <at> gnu.org
Subject: grep v. 3.1 – unexpected error message "grep: i.: No such file or directory"
Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2019 21:27:02 +0100
[Message part 3 (text/plain, inline)]
OS: *Fedora*; Component: grep.x86_64  3.1-8.fc29

Commands executed:

$ dnf list|grep -Ei langpack | grep fi.
glibc-langpack-fi.x86_64            2.28-26.fc29         @updates
langpacks-fi.noarch                 1.0-13.fc29          @System
(...)

$ dnf list|grep -Ei langpack | grep fi. | grep "-fi."
grep: i.: No such file or directory

Using grep twice in the same command, the command's last grep is expected
to produce targets, not an STDERR. Probably an issue.
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[Message part 5 (message/rfc822, inline)]
From: Eric Blake <eblake <at> redhat.com>
To: Ricky Tigg <ricky.tigg <at> gmail.com>, 34126-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#34126: grep v. 3.1 – unexpected error message "grep: i.: No such file or directory"
Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2019 14:37:30 -0600
[Message part 6 (text/plain, inline)]
tag 34126 notabug
thanks

On 1/18/19 2:27 PM, Ricky Tigg wrote:
> OS: *Fedora*; Component: grep.x86_64  3.1-8.fc29
> 
> Commands executed:
> 
> $ dnf list|grep -Ei langpack | grep fi.
> glibc-langpack-fi.x86_64            2.28-26.fc29         @updates
> langpacks-fi.noarch                 1.0-13.fc29          @System
> (...)
> 
> $ dnf list|grep -Ei langpack | grep fi. | grep "-fi."
> grep: i.: No such file or directory
> 
> Using grep twice in the same command, the command's last grep is expected
> to produce targets, not an STDERR. Probably an issue.

Not an issue in grep, but in your attempt to use a pattern beginning
with - in a way that grep cannot distinguish from options.  That is, you
asked grep to use the -f option, which takes an argument, so it used
"i." as the argument for -f, and failed because there is no file named
'i.' in your current directory.  (That's true whether you write -fi. or
"-fi.", because the shell strips quoting before grep sees its argv[]).

You want to use either of these formulations instead:

grep -e -fi.
grep -- -fi.

where the "-e" option says to treat the next argv[] entry as a pattern,
even if it otherwise would look like an option, and then continue
finding further options; while the "--" argument says that no more
options are present, and that all further command line arguments are
treated according to their traditional positional usage).  The
difference becomes apparent in constructs like:

grep -e -fi. -i     # greps stdin case-insensitively for "-fi."
grep -- -fi. -i     # greps file ./-i case-sensitively for "-fi."

-- 
Eric Blake, Principal Software Engineer
Red Hat, Inc.           +1-919-301-3226
Virtualization:  qemu.org | libvirt.org

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This bug report was last modified 6 years and 118 days ago.

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