bug#52873: closed (expr unexpected syntax error)

[GNU bug Tracking System]

Your message dated Wed, 29 Dec 2021 11:52:25 -0800
with message-id <3df84a2c-05aa-7aea-6d38-6ebe80a3b76f@cs.ucla.edu>
and subject line Re: bug#52873: expr unexpected syntax error
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #52873,
regarding expr unexpected syntax error
to be marked as done.

(If you believe you have received this mail in error, please contact
help-debbugs@gnu.org.)


-- 
52873: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=52873
GNU Bug Tracking System
Contact help-debbugs@gnu.org with problems

--- Begin Message --- Subject: expr unexpected syntax error Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2021 12:42:24 +0000

I'm getting an error from the following:

    [martin@fedora ~]$ expr ')' : '.*'
    expr: syntax error: unexpected ')'

There also seems to be a similar problem with:

    expr '(' : '.*'

Here's the version:

    [martin@fedora ~]$ expr --version
    expr (GNU coreutils) 8.32
    Copyright (C) 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
    License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
    This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
    There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

    Written by Mike Parker, James Youngman, and Paul Eggert.

And a uname for good measure:

    [martin@fedora ~]$ uname -a
    Linux fedora 5.15.7-200.fc35.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Dec 8 19:00:47 UTC 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Thanks,

Martin

--- End Message ---

> --- Begin Message ---
>
>
>
> Subject: 
>
> Re: bug#52873: expr unexpected syntax error
>
>
>
>
> Date: 
>
> Wed, 29 Dec 2021 11:52:25 -0800
>
>
>
>
> User-agent: 
>
> Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:91.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/91.3.1
>
>
>
>
> On 12/29/21 08:31, Davide Brini wrote:
> > I think you need to use '+' before the offending token
>
> Yes. That's a GNU extension. If you want to be portable to any POSIX 
> implementation, you can use this instead:
>
> expr "X(" : '.*' - 1
>
> A similar example is given in the POSIX spec for 'expr':
>
> https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/expr.html
>
> As this is not a bug, I'm closing the bug report.
>
>
> --- End Message ---