Re: grep -v exit status constantly zero

[Harri Järvi]

Paul Jarc wrote:
> Harri Järvi <address@hidden> wrote:
> > In practice the exit value seems to be 0 (zero) in every case with the
> > "-v" option.
>
> The 2.5.3 info documentation says:
> # Normally, the exit status is 0 if selected lines are found and 1
> # otherwise.
>
> With -v, non-matching lines are selected for output.  If there are no
> selected lines (with -v, this means that all input lines match the
> regexp), then the status is 1.
>
> $ echo foo | grep -v foo; echo $?
> 1

Ah, ok. My mistake. I was thinking something else...

I think this is correct after all. At least it's consistent with what 
the documentation for GNU grep says. It just wasn't immediately obvious 
for me. Sorry.

Yours,
Harri