Re: [PATCH 21/25] pickaxe: use PCREv2 for -G and -S

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Feb 4, 2021, 18:22 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqpn1f7kwk.fsf@gitster.c.googlers.com>
In-Reply-To: <20210203032811.14979-22-avarab@gmail.com>

Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason  <avarab@gmail.com> writes:

Show 8 quoted lines

> Follow-up b65abcafc7a (grep: use PCRE v2 for optimized fixed-string
> search, 2019-07-01) and remove the use of kwset in the pickaxe code
> for fixed-string search, in favor of optimistically using PCRE v2.
>
> This does mean that the semantics of the -G option subtly change,
> before it's an ERE, whereas now it'll be a PCRE if we're compiled with
> PCRE. Since PCRE is almost entirely a strict superset of ERE syntax I
> think this is OK.

Since Git is no longer a tool shared among 100 developers who are at least acquaintances, there will be people who are bothered by the differences, and such a change deserves a backward-compatibility warning in the release notes, at least.

Recently, I discovered that I've been building my personal copy of Git without LIBPCRE support at all for a long time. It is possible I've never built with LIBPCRE. This series may give me incentive to start using "git grep -P" ;-)

Thanks.