[bug-grep] Re: PCRE-related segfault in grep 2.5.1

[Julian Foad]

(Grep now has its own mailing list, <address@hidden>, so I'm replying to there.)

Michael Henry wrote:
> I believe I've found a bug in GNU grep 2.5.1 related to
> Perl-compatible regular expressions.
>
> Symptom
> =================================
> A segmentation fault is produced by GNU grep whenever
> Perl-compatible regular expressions is turned on and a
> negated character class is used that fails to match after
> scanning a non-zero amount of text.
>
> Reproducing the bug
> =================================
>  address@hidden ~]$ echo "No bug" | grep -P '[^a]'
>  No bug
>  address@hidden ~]$ echo "a" | grep -P '[^a]'
>  Segmentation fault

Thank you for this report and the clear reproduction recipe.  This bug has 
already been fixed in Grep CVS so the fix will be in the next released version.

- Julian


> Test environment
> =================================
>
> Tested using GNU grep 2.5.1 on my Fedora Core 2 and 3 boxes.
>  address@hidden ~]$ grep --version
>  grep (GNU grep) 2.5.1
>
>  Copyright 1988, 1992-1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
>  This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
>  warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR 
> PURPOSE.
>
> It appears to be a problem only with the Perl-compatible regular
> expression mode (enabled by the -P option).
>
> Thanks,
> Michael Henry