bug#37753: wish for glob(7)-like matcher

[Trent W. Buck]

Package: grep
Version: 2.20-4
Severity: wishlist
Tags: upstream

This bug was originally reported as
https://bugs.debian.org/813356

I am attempting to upstream it into bugs.gnu.org.

PS: nowadays I also know to mention fnmatch(3).


On Mon, 01 Feb 2016 18:19:06 +1100 "Trent W. Buck" <address@hidden> wrote:
> Sometimes I want to match globs instead of regexps.
> glob(7) explicitly says:
>   "they match filenames, rather than text"
> I don't see why globs shouldn't be used for text.
>
>
> In bash this is ugly and *SLOW*, e.g.
>
>     # Print log lines that match no "whitelisted" patterns.
>     while read -r line
>     do
>         if ! [[ line = glob1 || line = glob2 || ... ]]
>         then echo "$line"
>         fi
>     done <log
>
> instead of
>
>     grep --basic-glob -vf whitelist log
>
>
> GNU grep already has options for fixed strings (-F),
> and BRE, ERE and PCRE.  Can we have one for glob(7)?
>
> AFAICT nobody has asked for this before; this surprises me,
> because it "feels" like it should be easy to implement.
>
> Am I wrong?
>
> Is there a good reason to WONTFIX this?
>
>
>
> I asked my peers and the only real counterargument I got was
> "just learn regexps, you'll need them eventually".
>
> For my use case, I think globs would be more readable (esp. not having
> to escape dots and parens), and easier to teach to non-technical staff.
> (I haven't trialled it yet, because I don't have a globber that's as
> fast as GNU grep is for regexps.)
>
>
> PS: I'd have directly reported this upstream,
> but https://sv.gnu.org/bugs/?group=grep says I must be a "project member",
> and I'm not.