GNU bug report logs - #76291
BUG: grep sometimes spits out random garbage in the moddle of results

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Message #8 received at 76291 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>
To: php fan <php4fan <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 76291 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#76291: BUG: grep sometimes spits out random garbage in the
 moddle of results
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2025 12:52:57 -0800

On Fri, Feb 14, 2025 at 9:02 AM php fan <php4fan <at> gmail.com> wrote:
> I have no idea what triggers this, so I haven't been able to produce a
> minimal reproducing example; and I can't share the actual folder with
> which this happens to me all the time.
>
> Sometimes I use "grep -R" on a folder with several repositories, and
> after a few legitimate results, I get a blob of dozens of lines of
> text, coming from several files, with no indication of the file they
> belong to, and which often don't match the pattern.
>
> For example:
>
> ```
> $ grep -R foo
> path/to/file1.txt: lorem ipsum foo bar
> path/to/file2.txt: lalalalala foo lalalala
>    and here's a blob of totally unrelated text
>    that doen't contain the string
>    who knows where this comes from
>    lalalallaal lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
> ```
>
> I am NOT talking about the case where you have a file that is one very
> long line that matches, so you get basically the whole file in the
> output and it gets wrapped. In that case, it will still start with the
> path of the file followed by a colon. Not in this case.

Thanks for the report. Can you tell me how to reproduce that? I have
never seen such a failure.
We'd need system type, version of grep, and names/contents of the
files in the searched directory.

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