Re: grep RFE: End-of-Line choices

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Paul Eggert <address@hidden>
> Date: 01 Mar 2004 12:45:41 -0800
> 
> Also, POSIX does not permit the sort of "autodetection" on input that
> is being proposed here, as a default behavior for "grep".  That is
> because POSIX specifies the behavior of "grep" on text files, and it
> says that text files can contain CR characters which are treated like
> any other characters.
> 
> Adding a CRLF autodetection option to "grep" would conform to POSIX,
> as long as this isn't the default behavior.

I agree that autodetection does not conform to Posix, and I'm not
necessarily saying that Grep should autodetect by default.  But let us
not forget that GNU software sometimes does deviate from Posix
dictates, reverting to it under POSIXLY_CORRECT.

So the fact that Posix says something doesn't mean we should follow it
blindly.  It's IMHO a judgement call that should be made in each
separate case.