GNU bug report logs - #49996
egrep and fgrep?

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Package: grep;

Reported by: Simon Josefsson <simon <at> josefsson.org>

Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2021 07:23:01 UTC

Severity: normal

Done: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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From: help-debbugs <at> gnu.org (GNU bug Tracking System)
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: tracker <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#49996: closed (egrep and fgrep?)
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2021 17:15:02 +0000
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
Your message dated Mon, 16 Aug 2021 10:14:02 -0700
with message-id <9277086f-6280-28cd-53ac-0fb86e75fa2a <at> cs.ucla.edu>
and subject line Re: bug#49996: egrep and fgrep?
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #49996,
regarding egrep and fgrep?
to be marked as done.

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


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49996: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=49996
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[Message part 2 (message/rfc822, inline)]
From: Simon Josefsson <simon <at> josefsson.org>
To: bug-grep <at> gnu.org
Subject: egrep and fgrep?
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2021 09:22:45 +0200
[Message part 3 (text/plain, inline)]
Hi!  A long standing pet issue of mine are the "deprecated" (since
2005?) tools fgrep and egrep.  If there is any meaning to the term
"deprecated", maybe they should be dropped at some point, or the
deprecation-status escalated (stderr warning? syslog output?).  What do
you think?

Maybe now is an acceptable time to drop them, I recall seeing some more
recent distributions that do not provide them, and things appears to
work for them except for the rare bug here and there.

Alternatively, how about un-deprecating them, for compatibility with BSD
and deployed popular usage.  I must admint I use egrep quite often.  I
think un-deprecating tools/APIs is an acceptable thing to do in some
cases.

Maybe a middle-ground could exist, that they won't be installed (or
work?) in some "POSIX"-mode -- I think the main reason for deprecating
them was that POSIX dropped a requirement for them?  That doesn't
necessarily mean things must be deprecated.

/Simon
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[Message part 5 (message/rfc822, inline)]
From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>
Cc: 49996-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Simon Josefsson <simon <at> josefsson.org>,
 Aharon Robbins <arnold <at> skeeve.com>
Subject: Re: bug#49996: egrep and fgrep?
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2021 10:14:02 -0700
On 8/16/21 4:32 AM, Jim Meyering wrote:

>> * src/egrep.sh: Issue a obsolescence warning.
> 
> s/a/an/

Thanks, I fixed that and installed the result with a bug# in the commit 
message. Closing the bug report.


This bug report was last modified 3 years and 280 days ago.

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