Is grep documentation wrong? Announcing the arrival of Valued Associate #679: Cesar Manara ...
Is "Reachable Object" really an NP-complete problem?
2001: A Space Odyssey's use of the song "Daisy Bell" (Bicycle Built for Two); life imitates art or vice-versa?
8 Prisoners wearing hats
Dating a Former Employee
If a VARCHAR(MAX) column is included in an index, is the entire value always stored in the index page(s)?
How to show element name in portuguese using elements package?
What does the "x" in "x86" represent?
How would a mousetrap for use in space work?
Crossing US/Canada Border for less than 24 hours
Fantasy story; one type of magic grows in power with use, but the more powerful they are, they more they are drawn to travel to their source
What does "lightly crushed" mean for cardamon pods?
What do you call the main part of a joke?
Using audio cues to encourage good posture
What are the out-of-universe reasons for the references to Toby Maguire-era Spider-Man in ITSV
What causes the direction of lightning flashes?
If my PI received research grants from a company to be able to pay my postdoc salary, did I have a potential conflict interest too?
Can a new player join a group only when a new campaign starts?
Should I use a zero-interest credit card for a large one-time purchase?
How to react to hostile behavior from a senior developer?
What's the meaning of "fortified infraction restraint"?
For a new assistant professor in CS, how to build/manage a publication pipeline
Delete nth line from bottom
Circuit to "zoom in" on mV fluctuations of a DC signal?
Fundamental Solution of the Pell Equation
Is grep documentation wrong?
Announcing the arrival of Valued Associate #679: Cesar Manara
Planned maintenance scheduled April 17/18, 2019 at 00:00UTC (8:00pm US/Eastern)
2019 Community Moderator Election Results
Why I closed the “Why is Kali so hard” questiongrep and brackets in textgrep: Ignoring GREP_OPTIONS to search case-sensitiveHow to Get FreeBSD Grep to recognize '-' option?Grep on single lineHow to find/grep what is between string1 and string2?Recursive Grep with filename pattern specifiedWhy does grep not work?grep works with one filepath, not anotherquote files matched by grepDoes grep --color default to =auto or =always?
.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__bot-mid-leaderboard:empty{ margin-bottom:0;
}
The man page for grep
reads
-i, --ignore-case
Ignore case distinctions in both the PATTERN and the input
files. (-i is specified by POSIX.)
However, if I change case on a filename, it won't work.
$ touch WHATEVER
$ grep -i pattern whatever
grep: whatever: No such file or directory
Am I missing something?
grep documentation
New contributor
|
show 8 more comments
The man page for grep
reads
-i, --ignore-case
Ignore case distinctions in both the PATTERN and the input
files. (-i is specified by POSIX.)
However, if I change case on a filename, it won't work.
$ touch WHATEVER
$ grep -i pattern whatever
grep: whatever: No such file or directory
Am I missing something?
grep documentation
New contributor
@steeldriver I actually tried in several systems (all Linux). I'm using grep (GNU grep) 2.16. How can I get the information about the man page?
– grep
1 hour ago
No, you're not missing anything. It's not supposed to work --grep
cannot ignore case differences in the filenames passed as arguments (what should it do? try all possible filenames combination when open(2)ing a file?Whatever
,wHaTevER
, etc? ;-)). I let the other find a rationalization for that confusing doc snippet.
– mosvy
1 hour ago
@drewbenn Did you really? Or are you trying to find arguments to support that it is correct? This is a genuine question, I'm not trying to start a fight. And I have an additional question. If it is as you say, what would it mean to ignore case in the pattern, but not in the contents of the file? What functionality would this be and how would it differ from how it works?
– grep
1 hour ago
FWIW, the standard says only this about-i
: "Perform pattern matching in searches without regard to case"
– mosvy
1 hour ago
2
@grep It DOES ignore case in the contents of the file as well as the pattern. It doesn't ignore case in the name of the file.
– Nasir Riley
1 hour ago
|
show 8 more comments
The man page for grep
reads
-i, --ignore-case
Ignore case distinctions in both the PATTERN and the input
files. (-i is specified by POSIX.)
However, if I change case on a filename, it won't work.
$ touch WHATEVER
$ grep -i pattern whatever
grep: whatever: No such file or directory
Am I missing something?
grep documentation
New contributor
The man page for grep
reads
-i, --ignore-case
Ignore case distinctions in both the PATTERN and the input
files. (-i is specified by POSIX.)
However, if I change case on a filename, it won't work.
$ touch WHATEVER
$ grep -i pattern whatever
grep: whatever: No such file or directory
Am I missing something?
grep documentation
grep documentation
New contributor
New contributor
New contributor
asked 1 hour ago
grepgrep
162
162
New contributor
New contributor
@steeldriver I actually tried in several systems (all Linux). I'm using grep (GNU grep) 2.16. How can I get the information about the man page?
– grep
1 hour ago
No, you're not missing anything. It's not supposed to work --grep
cannot ignore case differences in the filenames passed as arguments (what should it do? try all possible filenames combination when open(2)ing a file?Whatever
,wHaTevER
, etc? ;-)). I let the other find a rationalization for that confusing doc snippet.
– mosvy
1 hour ago
@drewbenn Did you really? Or are you trying to find arguments to support that it is correct? This is a genuine question, I'm not trying to start a fight. And I have an additional question. If it is as you say, what would it mean to ignore case in the pattern, but not in the contents of the file? What functionality would this be and how would it differ from how it works?
– grep
1 hour ago
FWIW, the standard says only this about-i
: "Perform pattern matching in searches without regard to case"
– mosvy
1 hour ago
2
@grep It DOES ignore case in the contents of the file as well as the pattern. It doesn't ignore case in the name of the file.
– Nasir Riley
1 hour ago
|
show 8 more comments
@steeldriver I actually tried in several systems (all Linux). I'm using grep (GNU grep) 2.16. How can I get the information about the man page?
– grep
1 hour ago
No, you're not missing anything. It's not supposed to work --grep
cannot ignore case differences in the filenames passed as arguments (what should it do? try all possible filenames combination when open(2)ing a file?Whatever
,wHaTevER
, etc? ;-)). I let the other find a rationalization for that confusing doc snippet.
– mosvy
1 hour ago
@drewbenn Did you really? Or are you trying to find arguments to support that it is correct? This is a genuine question, I'm not trying to start a fight. And I have an additional question. If it is as you say, what would it mean to ignore case in the pattern, but not in the contents of the file? What functionality would this be and how would it differ from how it works?
– grep
1 hour ago
FWIW, the standard says only this about-i
: "Perform pattern matching in searches without regard to case"
– mosvy
1 hour ago
2
@grep It DOES ignore case in the contents of the file as well as the pattern. It doesn't ignore case in the name of the file.
– Nasir Riley
1 hour ago
@steeldriver I actually tried in several systems (all Linux). I'm using grep (GNU grep) 2.16. How can I get the information about the man page?
– grep
1 hour ago
@steeldriver I actually tried in several systems (all Linux). I'm using grep (GNU grep) 2.16. How can I get the information about the man page?
– grep
1 hour ago
No, you're not missing anything. It's not supposed to work --
grep
cannot ignore case differences in the filenames passed as arguments (what should it do? try all possible filenames combination when open(2)ing a file? Whatever
, wHaTevER
, etc? ;-)). I let the other find a rationalization for that confusing doc snippet.– mosvy
1 hour ago
No, you're not missing anything. It's not supposed to work --
grep
cannot ignore case differences in the filenames passed as arguments (what should it do? try all possible filenames combination when open(2)ing a file? Whatever
, wHaTevER
, etc? ;-)). I let the other find a rationalization for that confusing doc snippet.– mosvy
1 hour ago
@drewbenn Did you really? Or are you trying to find arguments to support that it is correct? This is a genuine question, I'm not trying to start a fight. And I have an additional question. If it is as you say, what would it mean to ignore case in the pattern, but not in the contents of the file? What functionality would this be and how would it differ from how it works?
– grep
1 hour ago
@drewbenn Did you really? Or are you trying to find arguments to support that it is correct? This is a genuine question, I'm not trying to start a fight. And I have an additional question. If it is as you say, what would it mean to ignore case in the pattern, but not in the contents of the file? What functionality would this be and how would it differ from how it works?
– grep
1 hour ago
FWIW, the standard says only this about
-i
: "Perform pattern matching in searches without regard to case"– mosvy
1 hour ago
FWIW, the standard says only this about
-i
: "Perform pattern matching in searches without regard to case"– mosvy
1 hour ago
2
2
@grep It DOES ignore case in the contents of the file as well as the pattern. It doesn't ignore case in the name of the file.
– Nasir Riley
1 hour ago
@grep It DOES ignore case in the contents of the file as well as the pattern. It doesn't ignore case in the name of the file.
– Nasir Riley
1 hour ago
|
show 8 more comments
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
That confusing snippet was changed in newer versions of GNU grep to:
-i
,-ignore-case
Ignore case distinctions, so that characters that differ only in case match each other.
See this commit: http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grep.git/commit/?id=e1ca01be48cb64e5eaa6b5b29910e7eea1719f91
.BR -i ", " -^-ignore-case
-Ignore case distinctions in both the
-.I PATTERN
-and the input files.
+Ignore case distinctions, so that characters that differ only in case
+match each other.
Do you mind opening that link in private mode finding that part of the doc? I just went through all ten occurrences of "ignore" and couldn't find that bit.
– grep
1 hour ago
sorry for the mixup
– mosvy
45 mins ago
add a comment |
"It ignores case in the file (contents) but also in the pattern",
this suggests (although it doesn't necessarily say it),
that it is possible to ignore case in the pattern, but not in the contents.
I'd like to understand how this would work
(ignoring pattern, but not contents -- or the other way around).
Well, for example, it could be written
so that a pattern of “hello” would match “Hello” in the file,
but not vice versa.
While this sounds hypothetical, it is the way spell-check works.
If your dictionary contains “stack” and “exchange”,
and your document contains “Stack Exchange”,
spell-check will succeed without error.
But if your dictionary contains “Unix” and your document contains “unix”,
that will be flagged as an error.
add a comment |
Apparently I have a different manpage.
-i, --ignore-case
Ignore case distinctions, so that characters that differ only in
case match each other.
In any case, it's not about the filenames.
It ignores case in the file (contents) but also in the pattern.
Test file:
___________
Hello World
^^^^^^^^^^^
Grep results (ignore case of file contents):
$ grep hello test.txt
$ grep Hello test.txt
Hello World
$ grep -i HELLO test.txt
Hello World
$ grep -i hello test.txt
Hello World
Grep results (ignore case of pattern):
$ grep [a-Z] test.txt
grep: Invalid range end
$ grep -i [a-Z] test.txt
Hello World
$ grep -i [A-z] test.txt
Hello World
$ grep [A-z] test.txt
___________
Hello World
^^^^^^^^^^^
As you can see the results can sometimes be a little unexpected.
Not sure if there is an example where this actually matters more.
1
"It ignores case in the file (contents) but also in the pattern", this suggests (although it doesn't necessarily say it), that it is possible to ignore case in the pattern, but not in the contents. I'd like to understand how this would work (ignoring pattern, but not contents -- or the other way around).
– grep
1 hour ago
1
Inless
, for example, there's a-i
mode in which matching is case-insensitive if you only use lowercase letters in the pattern, but if there are any uppercase letters in the pattern, the whole thing is case-sensitive. That's like (sometimes) ignoring case in the contents but not the pattern.
– Wumpus Q. Wumbley
1 hour ago
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "106"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
grep is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2funix.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f513108%2fis-grep-documentation-wrong%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
That confusing snippet was changed in newer versions of GNU grep to:
-i
,-ignore-case
Ignore case distinctions, so that characters that differ only in case match each other.
See this commit: http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grep.git/commit/?id=e1ca01be48cb64e5eaa6b5b29910e7eea1719f91
.BR -i ", " -^-ignore-case
-Ignore case distinctions in both the
-.I PATTERN
-and the input files.
+Ignore case distinctions, so that characters that differ only in case
+match each other.
Do you mind opening that link in private mode finding that part of the doc? I just went through all ten occurrences of "ignore" and couldn't find that bit.
– grep
1 hour ago
sorry for the mixup
– mosvy
45 mins ago
add a comment |
That confusing snippet was changed in newer versions of GNU grep to:
-i
,-ignore-case
Ignore case distinctions, so that characters that differ only in case match each other.
See this commit: http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grep.git/commit/?id=e1ca01be48cb64e5eaa6b5b29910e7eea1719f91
.BR -i ", " -^-ignore-case
-Ignore case distinctions in both the
-.I PATTERN
-and the input files.
+Ignore case distinctions, so that characters that differ only in case
+match each other.
Do you mind opening that link in private mode finding that part of the doc? I just went through all ten occurrences of "ignore" and couldn't find that bit.
– grep
1 hour ago
sorry for the mixup
– mosvy
45 mins ago
add a comment |
That confusing snippet was changed in newer versions of GNU grep to:
-i
,-ignore-case
Ignore case distinctions, so that characters that differ only in case match each other.
See this commit: http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grep.git/commit/?id=e1ca01be48cb64e5eaa6b5b29910e7eea1719f91
.BR -i ", " -^-ignore-case
-Ignore case distinctions in both the
-.I PATTERN
-and the input files.
+Ignore case distinctions, so that characters that differ only in case
+match each other.
That confusing snippet was changed in newer versions of GNU grep to:
-i
,-ignore-case
Ignore case distinctions, so that characters that differ only in case match each other.
See this commit: http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grep.git/commit/?id=e1ca01be48cb64e5eaa6b5b29910e7eea1719f91
.BR -i ", " -^-ignore-case
-Ignore case distinctions in both the
-.I PATTERN
-and the input files.
+Ignore case distinctions, so that characters that differ only in case
+match each other.
edited 45 mins ago
answered 1 hour ago
mosvymosvy
10.2k11237
10.2k11237
Do you mind opening that link in private mode finding that part of the doc? I just went through all ten occurrences of "ignore" and couldn't find that bit.
– grep
1 hour ago
sorry for the mixup
– mosvy
45 mins ago
add a comment |
Do you mind opening that link in private mode finding that part of the doc? I just went through all ten occurrences of "ignore" and couldn't find that bit.
– grep
1 hour ago
sorry for the mixup
– mosvy
45 mins ago
Do you mind opening that link in private mode finding that part of the doc? I just went through all ten occurrences of "ignore" and couldn't find that bit.
– grep
1 hour ago
Do you mind opening that link in private mode finding that part of the doc? I just went through all ten occurrences of "ignore" and couldn't find that bit.
– grep
1 hour ago
sorry for the mixup
– mosvy
45 mins ago
sorry for the mixup
– mosvy
45 mins ago
add a comment |
"It ignores case in the file (contents) but also in the pattern",
this suggests (although it doesn't necessarily say it),
that it is possible to ignore case in the pattern, but not in the contents.
I'd like to understand how this would work
(ignoring pattern, but not contents -- or the other way around).
Well, for example, it could be written
so that a pattern of “hello” would match “Hello” in the file,
but not vice versa.
While this sounds hypothetical, it is the way spell-check works.
If your dictionary contains “stack” and “exchange”,
and your document contains “Stack Exchange”,
spell-check will succeed without error.
But if your dictionary contains “Unix” and your document contains “unix”,
that will be flagged as an error.
add a comment |
"It ignores case in the file (contents) but also in the pattern",
this suggests (although it doesn't necessarily say it),
that it is possible to ignore case in the pattern, but not in the contents.
I'd like to understand how this would work
(ignoring pattern, but not contents -- or the other way around).
Well, for example, it could be written
so that a pattern of “hello” would match “Hello” in the file,
but not vice versa.
While this sounds hypothetical, it is the way spell-check works.
If your dictionary contains “stack” and “exchange”,
and your document contains “Stack Exchange”,
spell-check will succeed without error.
But if your dictionary contains “Unix” and your document contains “unix”,
that will be flagged as an error.
add a comment |
"It ignores case in the file (contents) but also in the pattern",
this suggests (although it doesn't necessarily say it),
that it is possible to ignore case in the pattern, but not in the contents.
I'd like to understand how this would work
(ignoring pattern, but not contents -- or the other way around).
Well, for example, it could be written
so that a pattern of “hello” would match “Hello” in the file,
but not vice versa.
While this sounds hypothetical, it is the way spell-check works.
If your dictionary contains “stack” and “exchange”,
and your document contains “Stack Exchange”,
spell-check will succeed without error.
But if your dictionary contains “Unix” and your document contains “unix”,
that will be flagged as an error.
"It ignores case in the file (contents) but also in the pattern",
this suggests (although it doesn't necessarily say it),
that it is possible to ignore case in the pattern, but not in the contents.
I'd like to understand how this would work
(ignoring pattern, but not contents -- or the other way around).
Well, for example, it could be written
so that a pattern of “hello” would match “Hello” in the file,
but not vice versa.
While this sounds hypothetical, it is the way spell-check works.
If your dictionary contains “stack” and “exchange”,
and your document contains “Stack Exchange”,
spell-check will succeed without error.
But if your dictionary contains “Unix” and your document contains “unix”,
that will be flagged as an error.
answered 1 hour ago
G-ManG-Man
13.7k93870
13.7k93870
add a comment |
add a comment |
Apparently I have a different manpage.
-i, --ignore-case
Ignore case distinctions, so that characters that differ only in
case match each other.
In any case, it's not about the filenames.
It ignores case in the file (contents) but also in the pattern.
Test file:
___________
Hello World
^^^^^^^^^^^
Grep results (ignore case of file contents):
$ grep hello test.txt
$ grep Hello test.txt
Hello World
$ grep -i HELLO test.txt
Hello World
$ grep -i hello test.txt
Hello World
Grep results (ignore case of pattern):
$ grep [a-Z] test.txt
grep: Invalid range end
$ grep -i [a-Z] test.txt
Hello World
$ grep -i [A-z] test.txt
Hello World
$ grep [A-z] test.txt
___________
Hello World
^^^^^^^^^^^
As you can see the results can sometimes be a little unexpected.
Not sure if there is an example where this actually matters more.
1
"It ignores case in the file (contents) but also in the pattern", this suggests (although it doesn't necessarily say it), that it is possible to ignore case in the pattern, but not in the contents. I'd like to understand how this would work (ignoring pattern, but not contents -- or the other way around).
– grep
1 hour ago
1
Inless
, for example, there's a-i
mode in which matching is case-insensitive if you only use lowercase letters in the pattern, but if there are any uppercase letters in the pattern, the whole thing is case-sensitive. That's like (sometimes) ignoring case in the contents but not the pattern.
– Wumpus Q. Wumbley
1 hour ago
add a comment |
Apparently I have a different manpage.
-i, --ignore-case
Ignore case distinctions, so that characters that differ only in
case match each other.
In any case, it's not about the filenames.
It ignores case in the file (contents) but also in the pattern.
Test file:
___________
Hello World
^^^^^^^^^^^
Grep results (ignore case of file contents):
$ grep hello test.txt
$ grep Hello test.txt
Hello World
$ grep -i HELLO test.txt
Hello World
$ grep -i hello test.txt
Hello World
Grep results (ignore case of pattern):
$ grep [a-Z] test.txt
grep: Invalid range end
$ grep -i [a-Z] test.txt
Hello World
$ grep -i [A-z] test.txt
Hello World
$ grep [A-z] test.txt
___________
Hello World
^^^^^^^^^^^
As you can see the results can sometimes be a little unexpected.
Not sure if there is an example where this actually matters more.
1
"It ignores case in the file (contents) but also in the pattern", this suggests (although it doesn't necessarily say it), that it is possible to ignore case in the pattern, but not in the contents. I'd like to understand how this would work (ignoring pattern, but not contents -- or the other way around).
– grep
1 hour ago
1
Inless
, for example, there's a-i
mode in which matching is case-insensitive if you only use lowercase letters in the pattern, but if there are any uppercase letters in the pattern, the whole thing is case-sensitive. That's like (sometimes) ignoring case in the contents but not the pattern.
– Wumpus Q. Wumbley
1 hour ago
add a comment |
Apparently I have a different manpage.
-i, --ignore-case
Ignore case distinctions, so that characters that differ only in
case match each other.
In any case, it's not about the filenames.
It ignores case in the file (contents) but also in the pattern.
Test file:
___________
Hello World
^^^^^^^^^^^
Grep results (ignore case of file contents):
$ grep hello test.txt
$ grep Hello test.txt
Hello World
$ grep -i HELLO test.txt
Hello World
$ grep -i hello test.txt
Hello World
Grep results (ignore case of pattern):
$ grep [a-Z] test.txt
grep: Invalid range end
$ grep -i [a-Z] test.txt
Hello World
$ grep -i [A-z] test.txt
Hello World
$ grep [A-z] test.txt
___________
Hello World
^^^^^^^^^^^
As you can see the results can sometimes be a little unexpected.
Not sure if there is an example where this actually matters more.
Apparently I have a different manpage.
-i, --ignore-case
Ignore case distinctions, so that characters that differ only in
case match each other.
In any case, it's not about the filenames.
It ignores case in the file (contents) but also in the pattern.
Test file:
___________
Hello World
^^^^^^^^^^^
Grep results (ignore case of file contents):
$ grep hello test.txt
$ grep Hello test.txt
Hello World
$ grep -i HELLO test.txt
Hello World
$ grep -i hello test.txt
Hello World
Grep results (ignore case of pattern):
$ grep [a-Z] test.txt
grep: Invalid range end
$ grep -i [a-Z] test.txt
Hello World
$ grep -i [A-z] test.txt
Hello World
$ grep [A-z] test.txt
___________
Hello World
^^^^^^^^^^^
As you can see the results can sometimes be a little unexpected.
Not sure if there is an example where this actually matters more.
answered 1 hour ago
frostschutzfrostschutz
27.7k15790
27.7k15790
1
"It ignores case in the file (contents) but also in the pattern", this suggests (although it doesn't necessarily say it), that it is possible to ignore case in the pattern, but not in the contents. I'd like to understand how this would work (ignoring pattern, but not contents -- or the other way around).
– grep
1 hour ago
1
Inless
, for example, there's a-i
mode in which matching is case-insensitive if you only use lowercase letters in the pattern, but if there are any uppercase letters in the pattern, the whole thing is case-sensitive. That's like (sometimes) ignoring case in the contents but not the pattern.
– Wumpus Q. Wumbley
1 hour ago
add a comment |
1
"It ignores case in the file (contents) but also in the pattern", this suggests (although it doesn't necessarily say it), that it is possible to ignore case in the pattern, but not in the contents. I'd like to understand how this would work (ignoring pattern, but not contents -- or the other way around).
– grep
1 hour ago
1
Inless
, for example, there's a-i
mode in which matching is case-insensitive if you only use lowercase letters in the pattern, but if there are any uppercase letters in the pattern, the whole thing is case-sensitive. That's like (sometimes) ignoring case in the contents but not the pattern.
– Wumpus Q. Wumbley
1 hour ago
1
1
"It ignores case in the file (contents) but also in the pattern", this suggests (although it doesn't necessarily say it), that it is possible to ignore case in the pattern, but not in the contents. I'd like to understand how this would work (ignoring pattern, but not contents -- or the other way around).
– grep
1 hour ago
"It ignores case in the file (contents) but also in the pattern", this suggests (although it doesn't necessarily say it), that it is possible to ignore case in the pattern, but not in the contents. I'd like to understand how this would work (ignoring pattern, but not contents -- or the other way around).
– grep
1 hour ago
1
1
In
less
, for example, there's a -i
mode in which matching is case-insensitive if you only use lowercase letters in the pattern, but if there are any uppercase letters in the pattern, the whole thing is case-sensitive. That's like (sometimes) ignoring case in the contents but not the pattern.– Wumpus Q. Wumbley
1 hour ago
In
less
, for example, there's a -i
mode in which matching is case-insensitive if you only use lowercase letters in the pattern, but if there are any uppercase letters in the pattern, the whole thing is case-sensitive. That's like (sometimes) ignoring case in the contents but not the pattern.– Wumpus Q. Wumbley
1 hour ago
add a comment |
grep is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
grep is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
grep is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
grep is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Thanks for contributing an answer to Unix & Linux Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2funix.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f513108%2fis-grep-documentation-wrong%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
@steeldriver I actually tried in several systems (all Linux). I'm using grep (GNU grep) 2.16. How can I get the information about the man page?
– grep
1 hour ago
No, you're not missing anything. It's not supposed to work --
grep
cannot ignore case differences in the filenames passed as arguments (what should it do? try all possible filenames combination when open(2)ing a file?Whatever
,wHaTevER
, etc? ;-)). I let the other find a rationalization for that confusing doc snippet.– mosvy
1 hour ago
@drewbenn Did you really? Or are you trying to find arguments to support that it is correct? This is a genuine question, I'm not trying to start a fight. And I have an additional question. If it is as you say, what would it mean to ignore case in the pattern, but not in the contents of the file? What functionality would this be and how would it differ from how it works?
– grep
1 hour ago
FWIW, the standard says only this about
-i
: "Perform pattern matching in searches without regard to case"– mosvy
1 hour ago
2
@grep It DOES ignore case in the contents of the file as well as the pattern. It doesn't ignore case in the name of the file.
– Nasir Riley
1 hour ago