Re: Inconsistent regex matching with =~ between bash 3.1 and 3.2

[Chet Ramey]

Scott Carpenter wrote:
> Hi, all.  I hope this report is of some use -- I'm pretty inexperienced
> at GNU/Linux and Bash so I'm afraid this is going to sound horribly
> amateurish.  But I think I've found something for you.  (Or I'm simply
> about to demonstrate my crude understanding of regular expressions.)
> 
> I realize that regex handling has changed for the =~ operator from 3.1
> to 3.2, and I'm trying to get my head around this while fixing a script
> that has broken in 3.2.  I studied this thread:
> 
> http://www.nabble.com/Conditional-Regexp-matching-problem-in-3.2-t3040946.html

Please read the newest Bash FAQ, question E14.  It attempts to explain
the differences and the rationale.

You can solve your problem by using a shell variable to hold the pattern,
bypassing the parsing and expansion differences in backslash handling
between bash-3.1 and 3.2.

Chet
-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
                       Live Strong.  No day but today.
Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/