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

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

## tl;dr

8 messages between May 18, 2012 and May 21, 2012.

replies: 7people: 3as markdown or json

Torne (Richard Coles)· May 18, 2012, 11:00 UTC · lore
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...

-- 
Torne (Richard Coles)
torne@google.com
René Scharfe· May 18, 2012, 12:37 UTC · re: Torne (Richard Coles) · lore

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

Am 18.05.2012 13:00, schrieb Torne (Richard Coles):
Show 14 quoted lines
> 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).

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.

René
Torne (Richard Coles)· May 18, 2012, 12:41 UTC · re: René Scharfe · lore

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

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
René Scharfe· May 20, 2012, 14:32 UTC · re: Torne (Richard Coles) · lore

[PATCH 1/3] grep: factor out create_grep_pat()

Add create_grep_pat(), a shared helper for all grep pattern allocation and initialization needs.

Signed-off-by: Rene Scharfe <rene.scharfe@lsrfire.ath.cx>
---
 grep.c |   28 +++++++++++++++++-----------
 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)
diff --git a/grep.c b/grep.c
index f8ffa46..a673ced 100644
--- a/grep.c
+++ b/grep.c
@@ -3,15 +3,26 @@
 #include "userdiff.h"
 #include "xdiff-interface.h"
 
-void append_header_grep_pattern(struct grep_opt *opt, enum grep_header_field field, const char *pat)
+static struct grep_pat *create_grep_pat(const char *pat, size_t patlen,
+					const char *origin, int no,
+					enum grep_pat_token t,
+					enum grep_header_field field)
 {
 	struct grep_pat *p = xcalloc(1, sizeof(*p));
 	p->pattern = pat;
-	p->patternlen = strlen(pat);
-	p->origin = "header";
-	p->no = 0;
-	p->token = GREP_PATTERN_HEAD;
+	p->patternlen = patlen;
+	p->origin = origin;
+	p->no = no;
+	p->token = t;
 	p->field = field;
+	return p;
+}
+
+void append_header_grep_pattern(struct grep_opt *opt,
+				enum grep_header_field field, const char *pat)
+{
+	struct grep_pat *p = create_grep_pat(pat, strlen(pat), "header", 0,
+					     GREP_PATTERN_HEAD, field);
 	*opt->header_tail = p;
 	opt->header_tail = &p->next;
 	p->next = NULL;
@@ -26,12 +37,7 @@ void append_grep_pattern(struct grep_opt *opt, const char *pat,
 void append_grep_pat(struct grep_opt *opt, const char *pat, size_t patlen,
 		     const char *origin, int no, enum grep_pat_token t)
 {
-	struct grep_pat *p = xcalloc(1, sizeof(*p));
-	p->pattern = pat;
-	p->patternlen = patlen;
-	p->origin = origin;
-	p->no = no;
-	p->token = t;
+	struct grep_pat *p = create_grep_pat(pat, patlen, origin, no, t, 0);
 	*opt->pattern_tail = p;
 	opt->pattern_tail = &p->next;
 	p->next = NULL;
-- 
1.7.10.2
René Scharfe· May 20, 2012, 14:32 UTC · re: Torne (Richard Coles) · lore

[PATCH 2/3] grep: factor out do_append_grep_pat()

Add do_append_grep_pat() as a shared function for adding patterns to the header pattern list and the general pattern list.

Signed-off-by: Rene Scharfe <rene.scharfe@lsrfire.ath.cx>
---
Our first three star function. :)
 grep.c |   15 +++++++++------
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
diff --git a/grep.c b/grep.c
index a673ced..f961c2e 100644
--- a/grep.c
+++ b/grep.c
@@ -18,14 +18,19 @@ static struct grep_pat *create_grep_pat(const char *pat, size_t patlen,
 	return p;
 }
 
+static void do_append_grep_pat(struct grep_pat ***tail, struct grep_pat *p)
+{
+	**tail = p;
+	*tail = &p->next;
+	p->next = NULL;
+}
+
 void append_header_grep_pattern(struct grep_opt *opt,
 				enum grep_header_field field, const char *pat)
 {
 	struct grep_pat *p = create_grep_pat(pat, strlen(pat), "header", 0,
 					     GREP_PATTERN_HEAD, field);
-	*opt->header_tail = p;
-	opt->header_tail = &p->next;
-	p->next = NULL;
+	do_append_grep_pat(&opt->header_tail, p);
 }
 
 void append_grep_pattern(struct grep_opt *opt, const char *pat,
@@ -38,9 +43,7 @@ void append_grep_pat(struct grep_opt *opt, const char *pat, size_t patlen,
 		     const char *origin, int no, enum grep_pat_token t)
 {
 	struct grep_pat *p = create_grep_pat(pat, patlen, origin, no, t, 0);
-	*opt->pattern_tail = p;
-	opt->pattern_tail = &p->next;
-	p->next = NULL;
+	do_append_grep_pat(&opt->pattern_tail, p);
 }
 
 struct grep_opt *grep_opt_dup(const struct grep_opt *opt)
-- 
1.7.10.2
René Scharfe· May 20, 2012, 14:33 UTC · re: Torne (Richard Coles) · lore

[PATCH 3/3] grep: support newline separated pattern list

Currently, patterns that contain newline characters don't match anything when given to git grep. Regular grep(1) interprets patterns as lists of newline separated search strings instead.

Implement this functionality by creating and inserting extra grep_pat structures for patterns consisting of multiple lines when appending to the pattern lists. For simplicity, all pattern strings are duplicated. The original pattern is truncated in place to make it contain only the first line.

Requested-by: Torne (Richard Coles) <torne@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Rene Scharfe <rene.scharfe@lsrfire.ath.cx>
---
 Documentation/git-grep.txt |    4 +++-
 grep.c                     |   33 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 grep.h                     |    2 +-
 t/t7810-grep.sh            |    5 +++++
 4 files changed, 41 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/git-grep.txt b/Documentation/git-grep.txt
index 4785f1c..3bec036 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-grep.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-grep.txt
@@ -31,7 +31,9 @@ SYNOPSIS
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
 Look for specified patterns in the tracked files in the work tree, blobs
-registered in the index file, or blobs in given tree objects.
+registered in the index file, or blobs in given tree objects.  Patterns
+are lists of one or more search expressions separated by newline
+characters.  An empty string as search expression matches all lines.
 
 
 CONFIGURATION
diff --git a/grep.c b/grep.c
index f961c2e..04e3ec6 100644
--- a/grep.c
+++ b/grep.c
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ static struct grep_pat *create_grep_pat(const char *pat, size_t patlen,
 					enum grep_header_field field)
 {
 	struct grep_pat *p = xcalloc(1, sizeof(*p));
-	p->pattern = pat;
+	p->pattern = xmemdupz(pat, patlen);
 	p->patternlen = patlen;
 	p->origin = origin;
 	p->no = no;
@@ -23,6 +23,36 @@ static void do_append_grep_pat(struct grep_pat ***tail, struct grep_pat *p)
 	**tail = p;
 	*tail = &p->next;
 	p->next = NULL;
+
+	switch (p->token) {
+	case GREP_PATTERN: /* atom */
+	case GREP_PATTERN_HEAD:
+	case GREP_PATTERN_BODY:
+		for (;;) {
+			struct grep_pat *new_pat;
+			size_t len = 0;
+			char *cp = p->pattern + p->patternlen, *nl = NULL;
+			while (++len <= p->patternlen) {
+				if (*(--cp) == '\n') {
+					nl = cp;
+					break;
+				}
+			}
+			if (!nl)
+				break;
+			new_pat = create_grep_pat(nl + 1, len - 1, p->origin,
+						  p->no, p->token, p->field);
+			new_pat->next = p->next;
+			if (!p->next)
+				*tail = &new_pat->next;
+			p->next = new_pat;
+			*nl = '\0';
+			p->patternlen -= len;
+		}
+		break;
+	default:
+		break;
+	}
 }
 
 void append_header_grep_pattern(struct grep_opt *opt,
@@ -439,6 +469,7 @@ void free_grep_patterns(struct grep_opt *opt)
 				free_pcre_regexp(p);
 			else
 				regfree(&p->regexp);
+			free(p->pattern);
 			break;
 		default:
 			break;
diff --git a/grep.h b/grep.h
index 36e49d8..ed7de6b 100644
--- a/grep.h
+++ b/grep.h
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ struct grep_pat {
 	const char *origin;
 	int no;
 	enum grep_pat_token token;
-	const char *pattern;
+	char *pattern;
 	size_t patternlen;
 	enum grep_header_field field;
 	regex_t regexp;
diff --git a/t/t7810-grep.sh b/t/t7810-grep.sh
index d9ad633..24e9b19 100755
--- a/t/t7810-grep.sh
+++ b/t/t7810-grep.sh
@@ -351,6 +351,11 @@ test_expect_success 'grep -f, multiple patterns' '
 	test_cmp expected actual
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'grep, multiple patterns' '
+	git grep "$(cat patterns)" >actual &&
+	test_cmp expected actual
+'
+
 cat >expected <<EOF
 file:foo mmap bar
 file:foo_mmap bar
-- 
1.7.10.2
Junio C Hamano· May 20, 2012, 22:29 UTC · re: René Scharfe · lore

Re: [PATCH 3/3] grep: support newline separated pattern list

René Scharfe <rene.scharfe@lsrfire.ath.cx> writes:
Show 9 quoted lines
> Currently, patterns that contain newline characters don't match anything
> when given to git grep.  Regular grep(1) interprets patterns as lists of
> newline separated search strings instead.
>
> Implement this functionality by creating and inserting extra grep_pat
> structures for patterns consisting of multiple lines when appending to
> the pattern lists.  For simplicity, all pattern strings are duplicated.
> The original pattern is truncated in place to make it contain only the
> first line.

Thanks for a fix; I am assuming that the duplication for simplicity is not for simplified allocation but primarily for a simpler freeing?

René Scharfe· May 21, 2012, 16:10 UTC · re: Junio C Hamano · lore

Re: [PATCH 3/3] grep: support newline separated pattern list

Am 21.05.2012 00:29, schrieb Junio C Hamano:
Show 14 quoted lines
> René Scharfe<rene.scharfe@lsrfire.ath.cx>  writes:
> 
>> Currently, patterns that contain newline characters don't match anything
>> when given to git grep.  Regular grep(1) interprets patterns as lists of
>> newline separated search strings instead.
>>
>> Implement this functionality by creating and inserting extra grep_pat
>> structures for patterns consisting of multiple lines when appending to
>> the pattern lists.  For simplicity, all pattern strings are duplicated.
>> The original pattern is truncated in place to make it contain only the
>> first line.
> 
> Thanks for a fix; I am assuming that the duplication for simplicity is not
> for simplified allocation but primarily for a simpler freeing?

When we split a search string into multiple parts, we could allocate only the new parts and remember which strings were allocated, so that we could later free them (and only them). Or we could allocate and leak them, as there aren't that many and we keep them during the whole run of the program anyway. Or we could do without any allocations if all match backends respected length limited strings like kwset does. Or only allocate non-fixed pattern.

Allocating any and all pattern strings and freeing them at the end, thus disregarding these considerations, is simpler, cleaner and still doesn't cause excessive memory usage.

That reminds me that we can now have this bonus patch:
-- >8 --
Subject: [PATCH 4/3] grep: stop leaking line strings with -f

When reading patterns from a file, we pass the lines as allocated string buffers to append_grep_pat() and never free them. That's not a problem because they are needed until the program ends anyway.

However, now that the function duplicates the pattern string, we can reuse the strbuf after calling that function. This simplifies the code a bit and plugs a minor memory leak.

Signed-off-by: Rene Scharfe <rene.scharfe@lsrfire.ath.cx>
---
 builtin/grep.c |    7 ++-----
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
diff --git a/builtin/grep.c b/builtin/grep.c
index 643938d..fe1726f 100644
--- a/builtin/grep.c
+++ b/builtin/grep.c
@@ -600,15 +600,12 @@ static int file_callback(const struct option *opt, const char *arg, int unset)
 	if (!patterns)
 		die_errno(_("cannot open '%s'"), arg);
 	while (strbuf_getline(&sb, patterns, '\n') == 0) {
-		char *s;
-		size_t len;
-
 		/* ignore empty line like grep does */
 		if (sb.len == 0)
 			continue;
 
-		s = strbuf_detach(&sb, &len);
-		append_grep_pat(grep_opt, s, len, arg, ++lno, GREP_PATTERN);
+		append_grep_pat(grep_opt, sb.buf, sb.len, arg, ++lno,
+				GREP_PATTERN);
 	}
 	if (!from_stdin)
 		fclose(patterns);
-- 
1.7.10.2

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