Re: Man page of grep : "-A" explanation needs review.

[Matthew Wakeling]

On Thu, 12 Mar 2009, Laxminarayan Kamath wrote:
> "Places  a  line containing  a group separator (--) between
> contiguous groups of matches."
>
> should be
>
> "Places  a  line containing  a group separator (--) between
> non-contiguous groups of matches."

No. The existing version is correct. Your new version doesn't make sense, 
because non-contiguous matches are not grouped. Non-contiguous groups do 
not exist, so it cannot place a separator between them. Because it is a 
slightly non-obvious sentence for non-native english speakers to parse, 
perhaps the documentation should be changed to something completely 
different, like:

"Places a line containing a separator (--) representing lines that have 
been skipped in the input."

Matthew

--
Patron: "I am looking for a globe of the earth."
Librarian: "We have a table-top model over here."
Patron: "No, that's not good enough. Don't you have a life-size?"
Librarian: (pause) "Yes, but it's in use right now."