Package: grep
Severity: wishlist
Dear Maintainers,
I would like to request a feature enhancement for the grep tool.
Feature Request
Allow the command 'grep -A' (without specifying a number) to default to showing
all lines after a match, instead of erroring out. This would be conceptually
equivalent to something like using a very large number ('grep -A 999999
<pattern>'), but without having to manually pick a placeholder length.
Current Behavior
$ grep -A <pattern>
grep: <pattern>: Invalid context length argument
Proposed Behavior
$ grep -A <pattern> # show all lines after match
Rationale
- Intuitive defaults: If no numeric limit is specified, show everything after
the match.
- Cleaner syntax: Avoids the arbitrary use of large numbers.
- Unix philosophy: Simple, predictable defaults that reduce friction.
- Alternative approach: If there’s concern about backward compatibility,
consider a more explicit flag like '-A all'
I acknowledge that some scripts may rely on the current error behavior for an
empty '-A' argument. However, I believe that in most cases it would not cause
significant breakage. If necessary, we could introduce a distinct option to
avoid disrupting existing usage.
Thank you for considering this enhancement.
Best regards,
Karsten Holmøe
