Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!ulysses!andante!alice!andrew
From: andrew@alice.UUCP (Andrew Hume)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Expansion of the acronym "grep"
Summary: clarification
Message-ID: <9505@alice.UUCP>
Date: 19 Jun 89 05:01:00 GMT
References: <25249@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <8170003@hpfcdq.HP.COM> <883@nebulus.UUCP> <1246@unh.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill NJ
Lines: 10

In article <1246@unh.UUCP>, pss@unh.UUCP (Paul S. Sawyer) writes:
> Then why does TFM, direct from AT&T, say "fgrep (fast grep) searches [etc.]..."
> 


the manual is the result of some (probably professional) copyediting,
particularly as it is now three manual pages, not one.
the Ninth Edition manual says "fgrep searches for fixed strings; it uses
a fast and compact algorithm." note that for the case of multiple keywords
it is within a constant of the optimal algorithm, so ``fast'' is justified.