On Tue, May 02, 2006 at 03:01:02AM -0400, Roberto C. Sanchez wrote: > David Purton wrote: > > How can I escape a string literal easily for use as a regex with grep? > > > > e.g., > > > > Say I wanted to implement a procmail killfile, that might, say contain a > > mail subject line (dropped in with a mutt macro) like this: > > > > Re: OT: Politics [Was:Social Contract] > > > > (Hypothetical situation, of course...) > > > > Then in my procmail.rc file I could do this: > > > > # subject kill file > > SUBJECT=`formail -zxSubject:` > > :0: > > * ? grep -i "$SUBJECT" $HOME/.mutt.killfile > > /dev/null > > > > > > This doesn't work, since $SUBJECT will contain a '[' and a ']' and these > > are special. > > > > What's the best way to be able to do something like this: > > > > REGEXSAFESUBJECT=`$HOME/bin/regex_escape_string $SUBJECT` > > > > I'm not certain, but did you try escaping the square-brackets directly? > In my logcheck ignore files, I have to use something like \[.*\] to > match pids so all the different ones don't come as different hits on the > scan. >
I need something automatic though. I have no control on what formail
returns. It just returns the subject as a string. I need to be able to
search for that string in the killfile just using literals and not
caring about regex.
cheers
dc
--
David Purton
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to
strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.
2 Chronicles 16:9a
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