Package: grep
Version: 2.20-4
Severity: wishlist
Tags: upstream
Sometimes I want to match globs instead of regexps.
glob(7) explicitly says:
"they match filenames, rather than text"
I don't see why globs shouldn't be used for text.
In bash this is ugly and *SLOW*, e.g.
# Print log lines that match no "whitelisted" patterns.
while read -r line
do
if ! [[ line = glob1 || line = glob2 || ... ]]
then echo "$line"
fi
done <log
instead of
grep --basic-glob -vf whitelist log
GNU grep already has options for fixed strings (-F),
and BRE, ERE and PCRE. Can we have one for glob(7)?
AFAICT nobody has asked for this before; this surprises me,
because it "feels" like it should be easy to implement.
Am I wrong?
Is there a good reason to WONTFIX this?
I asked my peers and the only real counterargument I got was
"just learn regexps, you'll need them eventually".
For my use case, I think globs would be more readable (esp. not having
to escape dots and parens), and easier to teach to non-technical staff.
(I haven't trialled it yet, because I don't have a globber that's as
fast as GNU grep is for regexps.)
PS: I'd have directly reported this upstream,
but https://sv.gnu.org/bugs/?group=grep says I must be a "project member",
and I'm not.
