Hello, I'm just finding out that ^ and $ no longer work with grep -Pz: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/324263/grep-command-doesnt-support-and-anchors-when-its-with-pz
$ grep -Pz '^' grep: unescaped ^ or $ not supported with -Pz Which points to this bug. Note that, it's not that pcre doesn't support NULL-delimited records, it's that grep calls pcre with the wrong flag (PCRE_MULTILINE) which is like the m flag in /.../m perl RE operator which is explicitely to tell ^ to match at the beginning of the subject *but also after every newline* (same for $). As already noted at https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=16871#8 printf 'a\nb\0' | grep -Pz '^b' did match which was a bug indeed, but only because of that PCRE_MULTILINE flag. If you turned off that flag: printf 'a\nb\0' | grep -Pz '(?-m)^b' Then it wouldn't match. With grep 2.10: $ printf 'a\nb\0c\0' | grep -Poz '^.' a b # BUG c $ printf 'a\nb\0c\0' | grep -Poz '(?-m)^.' a c Or use \A and \z in place of ^ and $ that match at the beginning of the subject regardless of the state of the "m" flag: $ printf 'a\nb\0c\0' | grep -Poz '\A.' a c Now with the new version, we need to use those \A, \z. Or if we want to match at the beginning of any of the lines in a NUL delimited record, we need ugly things like: grep -Pz '(?:\A|(?<=\n))' instead of grep -Pz '(?m)^' Can that bug please be reopened so it can be addressed differenly (PCRE_MULTILINE removed, PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY added)? -- Stephane
