Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!pacbell.com!tandem!zorch!hico2!kak
From: kak@hico2.UUCP (Kris A. Kugel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.3b1
Subject: Re: egrep on the 3b1 is weird!
Summary: kak reacts in an annoyed fashion to part of dsh's reply.
         kak still thinks egrep is broken.
Keywords: egrep unix-pc 3b1
Message-ID: <1311@hico2.UUCP>
Date: 21 Mar 91 23:04:03 GMT
References: <1268@hico2.UUCP> <8783@gollum.twg.com>
Organization: High Country Software
Lines: 51

> <- David Herron, an MMDF & WIN/MHS guy, <david@twg.com>

In article <8783@gollum.twg.com>, david@twg.com (David S. Herron) writes:
> In article <1268@hico2.UUCP> kak@hico2.UUCP (Kris A. Kugel) writes:
> >Am I confused, or does egrep on the 3b1
> >handle multiple regular expressions incorrectly?
> >
> >	egrep 'foo|bar'
> >
> >seems to match '[fb][oa][or]' patterns,
> >instead of what I wanted (matching lines with "foo" or "bar")
> 
> Try
> 
> 	egrep '(foo)|(bar)'

I'll try this, thanks for the method.
  
> And read the F'ing manual a little more closely next time ...

No need to get hostile, I did after your message.  Carefully.

It says,

"3. Two regular expressions separated by | or by a
    new line match strings that are matched by either.
 4. A regular expression may be enclosed in parentheses () for grouping.

    The order of precedence of operators is [], then * ? + ,
    then concatenation, then | and new-line."

Now, if you want to complain that I missed something obvious
and well documented, fine.  If what you describe is really how
the feature is designed, then I claim that that is NOT obvious
from the description on the manual page.

Now, I could see from this description that maybe the pattern I
tried would match  "fo[bo]ar", but that was NOT the behavior
I remember seeing.  

I claim that either the manual page is very poorly written,
or else what I tried should have given me CLEARLY different
results than I got.

Now, to find the egrep on osu-cis . . . .

                               Kris A. Kugel
                             ( 908 ) 842-2707
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