GNU bug report logs - #49996
egrep and fgrep?

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From: arnold <at> skeeve.com
To: jim <at> meyering.net, eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu
Cc: 49996 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, simon <at> josefsson.org
Subject: bug#49996: egrep and fgrep?
Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2021 08:25:51 -0600

Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net> wrote:

> 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.

I beg to differ.  Scripts is one thing.  But breaking 40+ years
of interactive usage merely because POSIX doesn't standardize fgrep
and egrep (anymore!) is doing thousands of users a disservice.

As software suppliers, we need to take into account the bigger picture
of day-to-day usage, and not only what POSIX standardizes and doesn't
standardize.

And I'm willing to bet that the majority of grep/egrep/fgrep invocations
come from the command line rather than from scripts.

Arnold

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