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: i'll try.
Message-ID: <9447@alice.UUCP>
Date: 7 Jun 89 05:29:05 GMT
References: <25249@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <8170003@hpfcdq.HP.COM> <883@nebulus.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill NJ
Lines: 11



i know i ought not add to the cloud of confusion but i'm in a bad mood.
as some people have observed, grep comes from the ed idiom
	g/re/p

al aho coined egrep for an extended grep which handled alternation amongst other things
he also coind fgrep for the special case of looking for fixed strings.
it has never NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER stood for fast grep
(as anyone with a clock could tell).
if you don't believe me, mail ava@research.att.com and ask al aho yourself.