GNU bug report logs - #41700
grep -v always exiting with 1 for empty file

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From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Andi Kleen <andi <at> firstfloor.org>, Norihiro Tanaka <noritnk <at> kcn.ne.jp>
Cc: 41700 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#41700: grep -v always exiting with 1 for empty file
Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2020 12:19:14 -0700

On 6/4/20 7:06 AM, Andi Kleen wrote:
> I would argue that a empty file has a single empty line.

No, an empty file has no lines. A single empty line would be a file of size 1,
containing just a newline byte.

> Besides it completely breaks the "is foo not in file" functionality.

That's not what -v is for. -v asks "is not-FOO in file". If you want "is FOO not
in file", use -L.

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