> Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2011 15:19:21 -0400 > From: Ted Unangst <t...@tedunangst.com> > > On Sun, Jul 17, 2011, Jason McIntyre wrote: > > On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 11:43:03AM -0400, Ted Unangst wrote: > >> I recently learned that our grep does not support the \<\> syntax for > >> word boundaries, only the somewhat more difficult to use [[:<:]] format. > >> It's fairly easy to convert one to the other however. > >> > > > > if you do this, we will need to think carefully about how to document > > it. grep(1) itself does not discuss REs, and instead points to > > re_format(7). but you are proposing an extension to grep only. > > > > can i ask why you want to support this? it is a gnu grep thing or > > something? > > It is supported (and documented) by GNU grep. I'm not proposing > documenting it per se, it's simply something that will work if you use > it, but the documented regex format remains the supported way.
We should not just add GNU extensions to our userland, especially if a proper portable alternative exists. > There is at least one port (libpqxx) that expects this syntax to work > and doesn't check that it doesn't. It just runs the command. I suspect > other such scripts exist. That's not a good enough reason. People write all sorts of unportable scripts on Linux. We should add stuff like this only if specified by a standard we care about, or if it's supported on the majority of UNIX-ike operating systems.
