GNU bug report logs -
#75582
GNU grep 3.4 — enhancing manual
Previous Next
Full log
View this message in rfc822 format
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
Your message dated Wed, 15 Jan 2025 21:02:34 -0800
with message-id <CA+8g5KF5ck32cSNnOsAv3Aa5o_oomgiGwzC7CmDme5ZJNFk3uQ <at> mail.gmail.com>
and subject line Re: bug#75582: GNU grep 3.4 — enhancing manual
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #75582,
regarding GNU grep 3.4 — enhancing manual
to be marked as done.
(If you believe you have received this mail in error, please contact
help-debbugs <at> gnu.org.)
--
75582: https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=75582
GNU Bug Tracking System
Contact help-debbugs <at> gnu.org with problems
[Message part 2 (message/rfc822, inline)]
[Message part 3 (text/plain, inline)]
Hello
In *man grep* page, in the beginning, in the *description* section,
there is phrase:
/A FILE of “-” stands for standard input. If no FILE is given,
recursive searches examine the working directory, and nonrecursive
searches read standard input./
This is for GNU grep 3.4 in Ubuntu 20.04. At first read I thought that
this phrase is non accurate, that it have mistakes. I read and
understand it as follows:
/ If no FILE is given, recursively examine the working directory, and
nonrecursively read standard input./
/Which does not have sense./
/But t/his phrase is accurate and means the following: _If no FILE is
given, recursive searches (grep with -r option), examine the working
directory; nonrecursive searches (without -r option), read standard input._
Though it will be hard to get for non experienced user. Please, make it
more simple and straightforward, remove possible ambiguity. You can use
my version above or correct it as you prefer.
As I understand this ambiguity created related discussion on Unix &
Linux Stack Exchange: Why is "grep keyword" causing the terminal to
stand by forever? — https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/789609/585416
Thanks, Anton.
[Message part 4 (text/html, inline)]
[Message part 5 (message/rfc822, inline)]
On Wed, Jan 15, 2025 at 8:16 PM sur-behoffski
<sur-behoffski <at> grouse.com.au> wrote:
> On 2025-01-16 08:05, Paul Eggert wrote:
> > On 2025-01-15 02:51, Anton Samokat wrote:
> >> Please, make it more simple and straightforward, remove possible ambiguity
> >
> > Unfortunately these are competing goals.
> >
> > Perhaps this would be better:
> >
> > If no FILE is given read standard input, but if -r is given recursively
> > search the working directory instead.
> > [...]
>
> Interesting. How about:
>
> If no FILE is given, grep's behaviour depends on the -r (recursive)
> option, which is disabled (non-recursive) by default:
>
> - If non-recursive, then read standard input; otherwise
> - If recursive, examine all files in the working directory,
> including recursively descending into subdirectories.
>
> No idea if this is good, bad, or indifferent... others can decide.
Thanks for the suggestions. I went with Paul's (keeping it concise is
important), so --help now prints this:
When FILE is '-', read standard input. If no FILE is given, read standard
input, but with -r, recursively search the working directory instead. With
fewer than two FILEs, assume -h. Exit status is 0 if any line is selected,
1 otherwise; if any error occurs and -q is not given, the exit status is 2.
Here's the commit:
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grep.git/commit/?id=v3.11-56-gfc6aba9
Marking this as done.
This bug report was last modified 184 days ago.
Previous Next
GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham,
1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd,
1994-97 Ian Jackson.