Path: utzoo!telly!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!UHCCUX.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU!stampe
From: stampe@UHCCUX.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU (David Stampe)
Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.bug
Subject: re-search-backward on ".*"
Message-ID: <8912122248.AA18027@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>
Date: 12 Dec 89 22:48:26 GMT
Sender: daemon@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Distribution: gnu
Organization: GNUs Not Usenet
Lines: 16


In GNU Emacs 18.51.3 of Mon Jun  6 1988 on uhccux (berkeley-unix)

(re-search-backward ".*") with the cursor after a line of chars
doesn't move at all, i.e. it matches the MINIMAL instead of maximal
match.  (It isn't merely going to the end of the match: "..*" will
move the cursor back one character.)  The *, not the ., is the bug;
there is a similar minimal move for " *", for example.

Similarly, typing ESC C-s .* C-r C-r C-r C-r doesn't move the cursor.

In contrast, (re-search-forward ".*") with the cursor before a line of
chars moves over the entire line.  And so does ESC C-s .*.

This is so bad a bug I can't understand why I haven't seen it before.
Am I dreaming?