Re: please allow a list of files to grep, as a file that can be - for stdin (fixes other bugs)

[Benno Schulenberg]

t takahashi wrote:
> xargs is insufficient partly because it cannot efficiently call
> shell functions.  this is important for a variety of reasons
> including being able to preprocess files.  preprocessing can
> include uncompressing, unarchiving, and so on.

If one needs more complicated processing like this, one should write 
a custom script, imho.  (Later, if the script is general enough, it 
might be worth including it in grep.)

> however, imho if there is to be a grep -r, it needs to not
> recurse symlinked dirs by default.

Agreed.  But see bug #4354 on Savannah:
https://savannah.gnu.org/patch/?func=detailitem&item_id=4354

> and i like the idea of grep improvements like allowing you to
> specify that there be no colon after the filename

Hmm?  Where did find such proposal?  And when would it be useful?

Benno