Re: Recursion with grep?

From: Kirk Strauser (kirk_at_strauser.com)
Date: 11/14/03

  • Next message: Sunil Sunder Raj: "Re: Postfix and SASL2 authentication" 
    To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2003 23:46:19 -0600

    At 2003-11-14T03:42:18Z, Francisco J Reyes <fran@natserv.net> writes:

    > I think I am going to research what would it take for someone to fix grep
    > and pay them.

    Grep works perfectly in that respect, thanks - it's your understanding
    that's a bit askew. Say you're in a directory with 'file1.c', 'file2.c',
    'file3.c', etc. When you type:

        grep -r 'string' *.c

    your shell (*not* grep!) is expanding your command line to:

        grep -r 'string' file1.c file2.c file3.c

    Now, grep's man page says this:

           -r, --recursive
                  Read all files under each directory, recursively; this is equiv-
                  alent to the -d recurse option.

    None of the arguments you specified at the command line are directories -
    they're all files. What would you say is the proper behavior for recursing
    into a file?

    grep did exactly what you asked it to; your request was not what you thought
    it was, but grep had no way of knowing.

    > How do think we would want grep to work?
    >
    > Do we want something like:
    > grep -r <string> *.c

    No. We want to learn the proper usage of our tools. Take a look at the
    "find | grep" examples elsewhere in the thread. 

    -- 
Kirk Strauser
"94 outdated ports on the box,
 94 outdated ports.
 Portupgrade one, an hour 'til done,
 82 outdated ports on the box."

  • Next message: Sunil Sunder Raj: "Re: Postfix and SASL2 authentication"

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