GNU bug report logs - #9681
Broken behaviour of re-search-backward (.+ matching only a single character)

Previous Next

Full log

Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Štěpán Němec <stepnem <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org>
Subject: Broken behaviour of re-search-backward (.+ matching only a single
	character)
Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2011 11:13:26 +0200

Quoting from <http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.user/15052>:

===========

> What am I doing wrong?

Nothing, I think :-). I personally don't use fancy split-
ting, but a deeper look at (at least Gnus 5.13's) code seems
to locate the culprit in Emacs' *backward* regular expres-
sion "non-greedity": Position point at the end of
"bugzilla.gdm", C-u C-r "\w+" - et voilà, only one character
is matched.

============

If this curious inconsistency of `re-search-backward' with
`re-search-forward' is intentional (which I hope it is not), it should
be documented, but I couldn't find anything in the manuals or
docstrings.

-- 
Štěpán

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.