2015-11-08 21:49:03 +0100, Valerio Bozzolan: > Sorry... typo... > > echo abcde | grep -o -E 'b([a-z])d' > => "bcd" > > Can't I choose to have only "c"? [...]
That's correct, GNU grep doesn't have that capability (yet). Recent versions of pcregrep do: $ echo abc | pcregrep -o1 '.(.).' b Now, I'm not a GNU grep maintainer but I suppose the question is how far do we want to take grep away from its original purpose (print the lines that match a pattern which is what g/re/p stands for). GNU grep is already doing find's job with -r, part of sed's job with -o/--colour. Having said that, I do agree it's the logical continuation after -o. Note that for now, you can already do: $ echo abcde | grep -o -P 'b\K[a-z](?=d)' c -- Stephane
