Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!whuxl!whuxlm!akgua!gatech!seismo!brl-adm!brl-smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@brl-smoke.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.micro.att
Subject: Re: UNIX PC command surprises...
Message-ID: <2199@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 29-Mar-86 17:32:14 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-smok.2199
Posted: Sat Mar 29 17:32:14 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 1-Apr-86 07:25:27 EST
References: <351@hropus.UUCP> <888@kitty.UUCP> <2012@brl-smoke.ARPA> <919@kitty.UUCP>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.ARPA
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL)
Lines: 18

In article <919@kitty.UUCP> larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman) writes:
>	Traditional System V Release 2.x does use two totally different
>programs for egrep(1) and grep(1).  In fact, while the grep source is simply
>grep.c, the egrep source is egrep.y which uses a deterministic algorithm as
>produced by yacc.
>	HOWEVER, this is NOT TRUE FOR THE 7300; the 7300 functions are
>identical!  I don't have specific source code for the 7300, so I don't know
>what algorithm is used for the grep functions, but it is obviously not the
>same as traditional Sys V Release 2.  I have no idea why AT&T has made this
>departure for the 7300.

Don't get me wrong; I would love to have a single grep-like utility
instead of several.  However, the three existing *greps do not have
the same pattern expression grammar, for example, and therefore if
the very same code is used by the 7300 for all three, two of them
are broken.  This may not matter to those who hack on just the 7300,
but if you're trying to maintain applications across a number of
systems, you want a common environment (including *grep behavior).