GNU bug report logs - #49996
egrep and fgrep?

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Message #11 received at 49996 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: 49996 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Simon Josefsson <simon <at> josefsson.org>
Subject: Re: bug#49996: egrep and fgrep?
Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2021 12:43:09 +0200

On Wed, Aug 11, 2021 at 9:35 AM Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
> On 8/11/21 12:22 AM, Simon Josefsson via Bug reports for GNU grep wrote:
> > I think the main reason for deprecating
> > them was that POSIX dropped a requirement for them?
>
> As I recall, it was because they were kinda useless cruft. Portable
> scripts can't use egrep and fgrep since they're not standardized, and
> for personal command-line usage aliases suffice and 'eg' is a better
> alias anyway (it's less typing).

IMHO, they must be removed.
Anyone who requires to be able to use "egrep" or "fgrep" from the
command line can use a function or alias. Given their lack of
standardization, those should not be used in scripts.

My only questions are "when?" and "how?". I.e. first release
intermediate scripts that emit a warning every time they are used, or
just drop them from the list of installed targets.

I won't do either now, but they've been deprecated for so long I'll
definitely consider it for the next release.

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