Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!henry From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards,net.bugs.v7 Subject: Re: bug/inconsistancy in *grep Message-ID: <3535@utzoo.UUCP> Date: Fri, 10-Feb-84 17:14:58 EST Article-I.D.: utzoo.3535 Posted: Fri Feb 10 17:14:58 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 10-Feb-84 17:14:58 EST References: <692@dciem.UUCP> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology Lines: 15 Tim Pointing complains: There is an inconsistancy in the way "-v" is handled in the V7 grep's (fgrep/egrep/grep). The "-v" flag should, in my humble opinion, invert the exit status of grep. I.e. if every line does contain the pattern (grep -v doesn't pass any lines to stdout), then the exit status of grep should indicate failure. If "grep" fails then "grep -v" shouldn't fail!. Are you looking at the code or the documentation? The behavior that you seek is exactly the way egrep, grep, and fgrep really do behave on our system, which is essentially vanilla V7. The original Bell manual page botched the description of this, but the programs do things right. -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry