I think it's already an optional feature; if you construct the regexp with explicit syntax flags you can get an instance that won't consider '@' special. Haven't actually had a need to do that so I'm assuming it works as documented.
/** Syntax flag, enables anystring (<code>@</code>). */ public static final int ANYSTRING = 0x0008; On Thu, Jan 21, 2021 at 9:21 PM Marcus Eagan <marcusea...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi All, > > In looking at the Java Docs, our Lucene team noticed that the `@` symbol > is a reserved character in the Lucene regular expression syntax. > > In re-visiting the page in curiosity, I found that the symbol was > [Optional] for "any string." This came at a surprise because there's a very > common way to achieve "any string" in `.*`. Is there any compelling reason > to preserve this tiny vector of complexity? I suspect there may be some > differences in the constructions of the finite automata produced by `.*` > and `@` but I am not sure. > > If insignificant or non-existent, I suggest we remove `@` from the regular > expression syntax. > > -- > Marcus Eagan > > -- http://www.needhamsoftware.com (work) http://www.the111shift.com (play)
