On 15/09/2026 19:14, Wiley Young wrote:
Hi,
I ran across something that seems like a bug to me. My guess is it's
probably unintended behavior.
A script checks to see if `realpath` has '-e'.
'''sh
bash-5.3.9 liveuser ~ $ realpath --help | grep -Fe '-e'
-e-e, --canonicalize-existing all components of the path must exist
#^^^^
# \___ the string \-e\ is repeated twice.
'''
After reviewing the documentation I see that preceding \realpath\ with
either \TERM=\ or \TERM=dumb\ resolves the issue.
Here's how `sed` prints the "visually unambiguous form."
'''bash
bash-5.3.9 liveuser ~ $ realpath --help | grep -Fe '-e' | sed -n l
\033]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.htm\
l#realpath-e\033\\\033[1m-e, --canonicalize-existing\033[0m\033]8;;\
\033\\ all components of the path must exist$
'''
Your grep coloring is conflicting with the URLs used in --help output.
You can avoid your grep alias with \ like:
$ realpath --help | \grep -Fe '-e'
thanks,
Padraig
