Re: git grep -F doesn't behave like grep -F?

From: Torne (Richard Coles) <torne@google.com>
Date: May 18, 2012, 12:41 UTC
Message-ID: <CAEV-rjd=WjLu8e+UCnAHVxg7DTLWe+YrEO_Gs2rh5Oy1=KA5sw@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <4FB6426C.7040202@lsrfire.ath.cx>

On 18 May 2012 13:37, René Scharfe <rene.scharfe@lsrfire.ath.cx> wrote:

Show 19 quoted lines

> Am 18.05.2012 13:00, schrieb Torne (Richard Coles):
>
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> git grep -F is documented as: "Use fixed strings for patterns (don’t
>> interpret pattern as a regex)."
>>
>> whereas grep -F is documented as "Interpret PATTERN as a  list  of
>> fixed  strings,  separated  by newlines,  any  of  which is to be
>> matched."
>>
>> This accurately describes how they behave, which means that git grep
>> -F with a pattern containing newlines never matches anything (at least
>> as far as I can see). Is this intentional, or an oversight? The
>> ability to grep -F for a list (e.g. the output of another grep) is
>> pretty handy...
>
>
> You could use -f- (read patterns from stdin).

Ah, yes, rewriting

git grep -F "`git grep -o someregex`"

as

git grep -o someregex | git grep -F -f-

works, but it's not how I immediately think to do it :)

> That said, it looks like a missing feature to me -- at least I didn't know
> that grep -F takes newline separated lists of search strings.  And this
> doesn't seem to be restricted to invocations with -F, only; a plain grep
> with regexps does it as well.

Yeah, it doesn't seem like adding it would break anything; patterns with newlines don't match any lines by definition currently :)

-- 
Torne (Richard Coles)
torne@google.com