The grep disaster

[C de-Avillez]

On Sat, 25 Jun 2016 13:38:54 +0200
php fan <php4fan at gmail.com> wrote:

<snip/>



> Someone commented on the Launchpad issue that it regressed again. But
> then I don't know if it has been fixed again.
> Either way, that's precisely why I don't understand why it takes so
> long to have it fixed in Ubuntu.

Some reasons:

* this is a change in grep that will (most probably) not be reverted:
  grep was (or still is) flaky when dealing with files that have mixed
  encoding (like, say, ASCCI with a few unicode or ISO-whatevers). The
  changes made force grep to revert to binary mode as soon as one such
  character is parsed.
* what upstream has been doing is tweaking the parsing process to
  minimise false positives.
* what really happens is some files have such mixes (perhaps added in
  as time passed). These files cannot be seen as pure unicode (or
  ASCII, or whatever), and grep now forcefully falls back into binary
  mode, since the file declared itself as being encoded in one way (at
  the beginning of the file, then reneged on its declaration).

So, as far as I could see (I stopped following grep upstream due to
lack of time, so take it with a grain of salt) upstream will *NOT*
revert to the old way.

Additionally, these changes were made throughout 2.21 to 2.25. The
amount of patches will require time to unravel in order to apply on
Wily; you can always grab 2.20 and use it. We will not do it.

Until the dust settles on these changes, this will be in a flux.

Nevertheless, 'grep -a' bypasses this issue. Yes, it is a workaround.
But, as the word means, it works around the issue.

If you really do not agree with upstream's move, you should take it on
with them.

Alternatively, we are always open to a patch to grep that would "fix"
it. Please feel free to prepare it.

Cheers,

..C..
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 819 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-quality/attachments/20160625/d361f02b/attachment.pgp>