bug#46179: closed (Tweak to man page)

[GNU bug Tracking System]

Your message dated Sun, 31 Jan 2021 09:33:37 -0800
with message-id 
<CA+8g5KGVA0CsoSO1gd8ubSHYdaayR8fxPS0wpq0oNPX=qsb9WA@mail.gmail.com>
and subject line Re: bug#46179: Tweak to man page
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #46179,
regarding Tweak to man page
to be marked as done.

(If you believe you have received this mail in error, please contact
help-debbugs@gnu.org.)


-- 
46179: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=46179
GNU Bug Tracking System
Contact help-debbugs@gnu.org with problems

--- Begin Message --- Subject: Tweak to man page Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2021 14:38:18 -0500

Hi there -

  I would like to recommend a minor tweak to the man page for GNU grep.  (The version I'm looking at is 2.20, but I doubt that matters.)

  I would recommend changing the description of the -l and -L options from this:

The scanning will stop on the first match.

  to something like this:

The scanning of a file will stop on the first match.

  The reason for this is that the first version is ambiguous, in that it could be read as the grep command itself will stop at the first match, thus printing only the name of the first file that matches (-l) or doesn't match (-L), rather than the scanning of each file will stop on the first match and start again on the next file.

  Admittedly, this functionality doesn't make much sense, but most users don't use all the functionality of a command, so some of it doesn't make sense on the first encounter (or even much later), and I admit that at one point that's exactly what happened to me in this very case ("Why would you only want the name of the first file that matches and none of the others?  That's kind of bizarre.")

  Please let me know if any of the above is unclear (unless, of course, you stopped reading at the first nonsensical part and skipped on to the next email).

  Thanks!

---

Robert Bruntz, PhD

Associate Scientist, PCSE dept. at CNU

robert.bruntz@cnu.edu

757-594-8570 (office)

817-899-7716 (cell)

--- End Message ---

--- Begin Message --- Subject: Re: bug#46179: Tweak to man page Date: Sun, 31 Jan 2021 09:33:37 -0800

On Fri, Jan 29, 2021 at 11:51 AM Robert Bruntz <robert.bruntz@cnu.edu> wrote:
>   I would like to recommend a minor tweak to the man page for GNU grep.
> (The version I'm looking at is 2.20, but I doubt that matters.)
>   I would recommend changing the description of the -l and -L options from
> this:
> The scanning will stop on the first match.
>   to something like this:
> The scanning of a file will stop on the first match.
>   The reason for this is that the first version is ambiguous, in that it
> could be read as the grep command itself will stop at the first match, thus
> printing only the name of the first file that matches (-l) or doesn't match
> (-L), rather than the scanning of each file will stop on the first match
> and start again on the next file.

Thanks for the report. That has highlighted the fact that the sentence
in question doesn't even make sense for -L, so I've deleted it. Note
that for the -l option, this was documented properly in grep.texi (the
primary documentation -- you can read via "info grep"), but I've
tweaked the wording there slightly and propagated that wording to the
man page.

I'll push the attached later today.

0001-doc-man-fix-L-description-and-improve-l-s.patch
Description: Binary data

--- End Message ---