>From 5bba395e00c01b8fc263d576ab3b34121fd6a3c0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Paul Eggert Date: Thu, 31 Dec 2015 10:02:31 -0800 Subject: [PATCH] doc: clarify text vs binary match output * NEWS: * doc/grep.texi (File and Directory Selection): Make it clearer that grep can now output matching text before reporting a binary match. Problem reported by Norihiro Tanaka in: http://bugs.gnu.org/20526#83 --- NEWS | 14 +++++++++----- doc/grep.texi | 9 ++++----- 2 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-) diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS index b451d76..6e97e45 100644 --- a/NEWS +++ b/NEWS @@ -4,11 +4,15 @@ GNU grep NEWS -*- outline -*- ** Bug fixes - Binary files are now less likely to generate diagnostics. grep now - reports "Binary file FOO matches" and suppresses further output when - grep is about to output a match that contains an encoding error. - Formerly, grep reported FOO to be binary merely because grep found - an encoding error in FOO before generating output for FOO. + Binary files are now less likely to generate diagnostics and more + likely to yield text matches. grep now reports "Binary file FOO + matches" and suppresses further output instead of outputting a line + containing a encoding error; hence grep can now report matching text + before a later binary match. Formerly, grep reported FOO to be + binary when it found an encoding error in FOO before generating + output for FOO, which meant it never reported both matching text and + matching binary data; this was less useful for searching text + containing encoding errors in non-matching lines. [bug introduced in grep-2.21] grep -c no longer stops counting when finding binary data. diff --git a/doc/grep.texi b/doc/grep.texi index 73151e4..b9a4d25 100644 --- a/doc/grep.texi +++ b/doc/grep.texi @@ -594,8 +594,7 @@ this is equivalent to the @samp{--binary-files=text} option. @item address@hidden @opindex --binary-files @cindex binary files -If a file's allocation metadata, -or if its data read before a line is selected for output, +If a file's data or metadata indicate that the file contains binary data, assume that the file is of type @var{type}. Non-text bytes indicate binary data; these are either output bytes that are @@ -604,9 +603,9 @@ improperly encoded for the current locale, or null input bytes when the Options}). By default, @var{type} is @samp{binary}, and when @command{grep} -discovers that a file is binary it normally outputs either -a one-line message saying that a binary file matches, -or no message if there is no match. +discovers that a file is binary it suppresses any further output, and +instead outputs either a one-line message saying that a binary file +matches, or no message if there is no match. When processing binary data, @command{grep} may treat non-text bytes as line terminators; for example, the pattern @samp{.} (period) might not match a null byte, as the null byte might be treated as a line -- 2.5.0