[debbugs-tracker] bug#22701: closed (egrep/fgrep shows as 'grep -E'/'grep -F' in ps output)

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Your message dated Tue, 16 Feb 2016 09:46:57 -0800
with message-id <address@hidden>
and subject line Re: bug#22701: egrep/fgrep shows as 'grep -E'/'grep -F' in ps 
output
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #22701,
regarding egrep/fgrep shows as 'grep -E'/'grep -F' in ps output
to be marked as done.

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22701: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=22701
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--- Begin Message --- Subject: egrep/fgrep shows as 'grep -E'/'grep -F' in ps output Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2016 11:58:06 -0500 (EST)

Hi,

previously egrep/fgrep shows as egrep/fgrep in ps output, now it
shows as 'grep -E'/'grep -F'. Personally I don't see much problem in
it, but I received some bug reports regarding it downstream. My question
is, what about using symlinks for egrep/fgrep and something similar
to the attached patch? Or are scripts used to support platforms
without symlinks? Or is there different reason for script usage?

thanks & regards

Jaroslav

egrep-fgrep-symlinks.patch
Description: Text Data

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> --- Begin Message ---
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> Subject: 
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> Re: bug#22701: egrep/fgrep shows as 'grep -E'/'grep -F' in ps output
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> Date: 
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> Tue, 16 Feb 2016 09:46:57 -0800
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> User-agent: 
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> Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/38.5.0
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> On 02/16/2016 08:58 AM, Jaroslav Skarvada wrote:
> > previously egrep/fgrep shows as egrep/fgrep in ps output, now it
> > shows as 'grep -E'/'grep -F'. Personally I don't see much problem in
> > it, but I received some bug reports regarding it downstream.
>
> It's not a bug, as 'grep' should be free to choose its own 
> implementation strategy.
>
> Originally GNU egrep and fgrep were implemented via shell scripts, as 
> they are now. In 2005 we changed them to be separate executables (I 
> think it was for performance and/or installation reasons), but doing 
> this made them harder to maintain. The circa-2005 issues are no longer 
> significant in practice, so we changed them back to scripts in 2014.
>
> By the way, POSIX has removed egrep and fgrep, so portable applications 
> should be using grep -E and grep -F instead. We won't be removing these 
> obsolete scripts from GNU grep any time soon, though.
>
> > +          if (strncmp(ptr_c - 5, "egrep", 5) == 0)
> > +            setmatcher ("egrep");
>
> The GNU Coding Standards say that program behavior should be independent 
> of the name used to invoke the program.
>
>
> --- End Message ---