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[address@hidden: Grep --directories option]


From: Alfred M. Szmidt
Subject: [address@hidden: Grep --directories option]
Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 11:54:20 +0200

This might be of interest to everyone...

------- Start of forwarded message -------
Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 09:49:07 +0200
From: Stepan Kasal <kasal@math.cas.cz>
To: bug-grep@gnu.org
Content-Disposition: inline
cc: Jori Mantysalo <Jori.Mantysalo@uta.fi>
cc: Alain Magloire <alain@qnx.com>
cc: Paul Eggert <eggert@twinsun.com>
Subject: Grep --directories option
Sender: bug-gnu-utils-bounces+ams=kemisten.nu@gnu.org

Hello all,

I'd like to ask you how should grep behave if it encounters a directory
as an argument on the command line.

I think that POSIX doesn't have any requiremnets here, as it simply says:

     The input files shall be text files.

I infer that if they are not, the behaviour is undefined.

The behaviour is controlled by the --directories option.
There are three possible values:

read:   try to read the directory as if it was regular file.
        This ``greps through file names'' on some systems
        (eg. on ancient Unix or on GNU/Hurd) and produces
        an error on other (eg. on Linux and other contemporary
        unices).

skip:   silently ignore directory parameters

recurse: recurse through them, equivalent to -r or --recurse.

Let me recapitulate the history:
* grep <= 2.0 had ``read'' hardwired
* grep 2.1 and 2.2 had ``skip'' hardwired
* since 2.3 the --directories option is available, read is again
  the default

* BUT: grep 2.5 introduced a bug [1], which caused that grep behaved
  as if the default was ``skip'' on sustems where reading a directory
  is a faux pas.

Well, I'd like to change the default to ``skip'' now.
We don't have to follow the Unix tradition that closely; after all GNU
is not Unix ;-)

I don't like changing the defaults every other release, but remember
that because of the bug, this won't be a visible change for users of
grep version 2.5 or 2.5.1 on modern Unices.

For users on systems where reading a dir is allowed, this will be
a change of the default.  But is it really true that people on Hurd
do
                grep '^[0-9]\.txt$ dir'
instead of
                ls dir | grep '^[0-9]\.txt$'
?

I'd like to hear comments.

Have a nice day,
        Stepan Kasal

[1] grep 2.5 introduced a bug, which effectively changed the code

  if (! fillbuf (save, stats))
      if (! (is_EISDIR (errno, file) && suppress_errors))
        error (filename, errno);

to

  if (! fillbuf (save, stats))
      if (! is_EISDIR (errno, file) && ! suppress_errors)
        error (filename, errno);

This is real bug, if there is a problem reading dir contents.
If no serious error occurs, this only suppresses the "Is a directory"
messages.


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