Re: bug in grep

[Waclaw Kusnierczyk]

On 10/08/2010 10:12 AM, Eric Blake wrote:
> On 10/08/2010 03:39 AM, Piotr Karkuciński wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I find bug in grep.
> >
> > I create directory "--help"
> > Next I use command: grep -R "any string" *
> > and grep print help. Grep use directory name --help as parameter.
>
> Thanks for the report.  However, this is not a bug.  See this related 
> FAQ on the coreutils project:
>
> http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/faq/#I-have-a-file-called-_003csamp_003e_003cspan-class_003d_0022option_0022_003e_002d_002dhelp_003c_002fspan_003e_003c_002fsamp_003e_002e-How-do-I-remove-it_003f 
>
>
> Use either one of these alternatives instead:
>
> grep -R "any string" ./*
> grep -R "any string" -- *
>
> Or, for that matter, since * in a large directory may exceed command 
> line length limits on many OS, you may even want to consider using:
>
> grep -R "any string" .
>
> although that will also visit hidden dot-files in the current directory.

... which you can avoid by explicitly specify you don't want to visit them:

    grep -R --exclude='.*' "any string" .

or even

    grep -R --exclude='.*' --exclude-dir='.?*' "any string" .

if you don't want grep to consider hidden dot directories either.

vQ