Re: Possible grep(1) bug or user error :)?

Garret,

Sat, Mar 17, 2007 at 02:47:43PM -0700, Garrett Cooper wrote:
I was recently grepping a directory and outputting to a file located in the
same directory as follows:

grep -ri {key} * > {key}.found

The thing is that grep kept on feeding off of the {key}.found file and
eventually ate up all the free space on the device (~12GB).

And what you expected? The file {key}.found was created prior to the
expansion of '*', so grep was parsing that file and feeding it with
the messages about the lines with {key} that were found. And these
lines also provoked grep to add more lines about the {key} found, and
so on. I think you got the idea of the infinite cycle you created.
--
Eygene
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