Re: grep recurse fails

[Dave B]

On Monday 12 October 2009, John Cowan wrote:

> Dave B scripsit:
> > > When using grep or fgrep like the following, if a sub-directory
> > > starting with "---" is present in the current directory, grep fails
> > > with the message "grep: unknown option  « ---<<directory name>> »"
> > >
> > > Example :
> > >
> > > $ ls
> > > profil.centrapel.com
> > > ---recrutement.centrapel.com
> > > recrutement.centrapel.com
> > >
> > > $ fgrep -R "find me" *.*
> >
> > fgrep -R -- "find me" *.*
>
> That works, but it's still a bug that grep recognizes options after the
> pattern argument has been given.

I'm not sure that would be a bug. I've found nothing in POSIX that says that 
behavior is illegal, and that the pattern must be the last argument. This is 
from the "utility syntax guideline":

Guideline 14:
    If an argument can be identified according to Guidelines 3 through 10 as 
an option, or as a group of options without option-arguments behind one '-' 
delimiter, then it should be treated as such.

That seems to imply that, unless -- is used (guideline 10), options can and 
should be catched and recognized anywhere in the command line. But of course 
that's just my interpretation.

-- 
D.