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From: | Eric Backus |
Subject: | Re: problem with egrep and fgrep |
Date: | Wed, 15 Sep 2004 12:13:11 -0700 |
Eric Backus wrote:Frankly, I'd like to see this done with links, in spite of the coding standards.The problem is how do you handle renames with a prefix or suffix? Let's say you configure --prefix="gnu" so the final binary ends up being called 'gnuegrep'. Will it still recognize that this implies the -E option? Another case is someone who compiles GNU grep and creates 'egrep'. Then they run into a system where they cannot adjust PATH. So on that system they copy 'egrep' and call it 'gnuegrep'. Now on that system will this 'gnuegrep' recognize that this implies the -E option?
I'd make the name-handling code look for a substring "egrep" somewhere in the basename of $0 to mean that -E should be used, a substring "fgrep" means that -F should be used, else treat it as normal grep. Ideally the substring comparison should be case-insensitive. Perhaps it's not 100% foolproof, but I'm having trouble coming up with a realistic failure mode.
If not links, then we should just go to completely separate copies.That would be my choice too, but preferably only on non-GNU systems where GNU software has been installed as an add-on. On a native GNU system these are not problems and there is no need to work around them.
I'm not convinced that making the code (and install) work differently depending on system type is a good idea. But I guess I don't care very much as long as any systems I have access to work properly.
-- Eric Backus
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