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From: andrew@alice.att.com (Andrew Hume)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.3b1
Subject: Re: egrep on the 3b1 is weird!
Summary: calmness please.
Keywords: egrep unix-pc 3b1
Message-ID: <20093@alice.att.com>
Date: 22 Mar 91 14:04:52 GMT
References: <1268@hico2.UUCP> <8783@gollum.twg.com>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill NJ
Lines: 40

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)'
~ 
~ And read the F'ing manual a little more closely next time ...
~ 
~ 
~ -- 
~ <- David Herron, an MMDF & WIN/MHS guy, <david@twg.com>
~ <- Formerly: David Herron -- NonResident E-Mail Hack <david@ms.uky.edu>
~ <-
~ <- "MS-DOS? Where we're going we don't need MS-DOS." --Back To The Future


	with respect, mr herron, kris apparently did read the manual
and his/her expression is perfectly valid. the parentheses in your retort
are superfluous. if after typing
	egrep 'foo|bar'
	foo
	bar
	far
	<ctrl-d>
you get only the lines
	foo
	bar
echoed back, then all is well. if anything different happens,
your egrep is buggered.


	andrew@research.att.com