From 0269180966fe6e084b8d8af1a61a3d521ad7e081 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Paul Eggert Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2016 21:27:35 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] grep: minor doc tweaks inspired by Debian MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Problem reported by Santiago Ruano Rincón in: http://bugs.gnu.org/22911 * doc/grep.in.1: * doc/grep.texi (Matching Control, grep Programs) (Regular Expressions): Document -e, -f, and PCRE more carefully. --- doc/grep.in.1 | 18 +++++++++++------- doc/grep.texi | 18 ++++++++++-------- 2 files changed, 21 insertions(+), 15 deletions(-) diff --git a/doc/grep.in.1 b/doc/grep.in.1 index ade11b4..1a3b7d2 100644 --- a/doc/grep.in.1 +++ b/doc/grep.in.1 @@ -98,9 +98,7 @@ as a basic regular expression (BRE, see below). This is the default. .TP .BR \-P ", " \-\^\-perl\-regexp -Interpret -.I PATTERN -as a Perl regular expression (PCRE, see below). +Interpret the pattern as a Perl-compatible regular expression (PCRE). This is highly experimental and .B "grep \-P" may warn of unimplemented features. @@ -110,14 +108,20 @@ may warn of unimplemented features. Use .I PATTERN as the pattern. -This can be used to specify multiple search patterns, -or to protect a pattern beginning with a hyphen -.RB ( \- ). +If this option is used multiple times or is combined with the +.B \-f +.RB ( \-\-file ) +option, search for all patterns given. +This option can be used to protect a pattern beginning with \*(lq\-\*(rq. .TP .BI \-f " FILE" "\fR,\fP \-\^\-file=" FILE Obtain patterns from .IR FILE , one per line. +If this option is used multiple times or is combined with the +.B \-e +.RB ( \-\-regexp ) +option, search for all patterns given. The empty file contains zero patterns, and therefore matches nothing. .TP .BR \-i ", " \-\^\-ignore\-case @@ -545,7 +549,7 @@ extended syntaxes. In other implementations, basic regular expressions are less powerful. The following description applies to extended regular expressions; differences for basic regular expressions are summarized afterwards. -Perl regular expressions give additional functionality, and are +Perl-compatible regular expressions give additional functionality, and are documented in pcresyntax(3) and pcrepattern(3), but work only if PCRE is available in the system. .PP diff --git a/doc/grep.texi b/doc/grep.texi index 4e0e48e..80768dd 100644 --- a/doc/grep.texi +++ b/doc/grep.texi @@ -175,8 +175,8 @@ This version number should be included in all bug reports. @opindex address@hidden @cindex pattern list Use @var{pattern} as the pattern. -This can be used to specify multiple search patterns, -or to protect a pattern beginning with a @samp{-}. +If this option is used multiple times or is combined with the address@hidden (@option{--file}) option, search for all patterns given. (@option{-e} is specified by POSIX.) @item -f @var{file} @@ -185,6 +185,8 @@ or to protect a pattern beginning with a @samp{-}. @opindex --file @cindex pattern from file Obtain patterns from @var{file}, one per line. +If this option is used multiple times or is combined with the address@hidden (@option{--regexp}) option, search for all patterns given. The empty file contains zero patterns, and therefore matches nothing. (@option{-f} is specified by POSIX.) @@ -1116,8 +1118,8 @@ expressions), separated by newlines, any of which is to be matched. @itemx --perl-regexp @opindex -P @opindex --perl-regexp address@hidden matching Perl regular expressions -Interpret the pattern as a Perl regular expression. address@hidden matching Perl-compatible regular expressions +Interpret the pattern as a Perl-compatible regular expression (PCRE). This is highly experimental and @samp{grep@ -P} may warn of unimplemented features. @@ -1142,16 +1144,16 @@ Regular expressions are constructed analogously to arithmetic expressions, by using various operators to combine smaller expressions. @command{grep} understands three different versions of regular expression syntax: -``basic,'' (BRE) ``extended'' (ERE) and ``perl''. +``basic'' (BRE), ``extended'' (ERE) and ``perl'' (PCRE). In GNU @command{grep}, there is no difference in available functionality between the basic and extended syntaxes. In other implementations, basic regular expressions are less powerful. The following description applies to extended regular expressions; differences for basic regular expressions are summarized afterwards. -Perl regular expressions give additional functionality, and are -documented in the @i{pcresyntax}(3) and @i{pcrepattern}(3) manual pages, -but work only if PCRE is available in the system. +Perl-compatible regular expressions give additional functionality, and +are documented in the @i{pcresyntax}(3) and @i{pcrepattern}(3) manual +pages, but work only if PCRE is available in the system. @menu * Fundamental Structure:: -- 2.5.5