Re: Grep --directories option (POSIX)

[Stepan Kasal]

Hello,
        I haven't read whole thread yet, but I hope the following question
is not misleaded:

On Fri, May 30, 2003 at 05:32:06PM -0700, Paul Eggert wrote:
> [...] As I read it, POSIX requires
> that "grep foo dir" must work if one can read dir as if it were a
> file, and if the resulting bytes are the bytes of a text file.  It
> also requires that 'grep' must output a diagnostic and must fail
> (i.e. exit with status 2) if the 'read' fails.

Understanding what POSIX says is really crucial for this issue.

The definition of grep utility says, among other things:

|    INPUT FILES
|
|     The input files shall be text files.

(http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/007904975/utilities/grep.html)

Looking for what ``shall'' means:

|    shall
|
|   For an implementation [...]
|
|   For an application or user, describes a behavior that is mandatory.

http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/007904975/basedefs/xbd_chap01.html#tag_01_04_05

I understand this that it's mandatory for the user to supply
``text file'' as the arguments.

I can also cite this:

|  Text File
|
|   [...] many utilities only produce predictable or meaningful output when
|   operating  on text files. The standard utilities that have such
|   restrictions always specify "text files" in their STDIN or INPUT FILES
|   sections.

http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/007904975/basedefs/xbd_chap03.html#tag_03_392

So it seems that grep is one of these utilities.

If I were true, grep could do anything as soon as someone supplies a
non-text file.  Thus --directories=skip would be legal on most systems.

The exception are sytems where a file can be ``text file'' and directory
at once.  (I haven't heard about any such system except GNU/Hurd.)

Looking forward to your comments,
        Stepan Kasal