Re: problem with egrep and fgrep

[Bob Proulx]

Warren L Dodge wrote:
> Well, ok I know how to deal with this. But I think in the world there are
> going to be mixed environments when some can put in the gnu path and others
> can't. Like where I work.

I think that in that case it would be best to stick to standard
options then so that it would not matter which utility you used.

> In trying to make everything work seamlessly in solaris 8, solaris 2.5 and
> linux this is one more thing that causes a problem.
> 
> A thought I just had is that when the install is done why can't you put the
> full path into the wrappers? It seems that would fix it and actually I
> believe be faster since it wouldn't have to trace the path. 
> 
> #!/bin/sh
> exec /install/dir/bin/grep -E ${1+"$@"}

Hard coded paths are seen as Evil by many on the 'net.  By myself for
one.  They are too fragile and break too easily.

It would seem that in your case it would be best to install the gnu
tools with a prefix so that they are distinguished from the native
system binaries.  Some people use 'g' at the front and some put a
'gnu' in front as in gnugrep.  Perhaps using the configure prefix
option would work well for you?

Bob