TTY-dependent GREP_OPTIONS

[Julius Werner]

Hi,

I'm a big fan of GREP_OPTIONS - I usually use "--color=auto -n -r 
--exclude=*.svn-base" because it saves so much hassle in everyday use. 
However, as most of you are probably aware, this (especially -n) can 
seriously break scripts and makefiles that often don't expect it.

Have you ever considered changing the behavior of GREP_OPTIONS to only 
apply when the output is a terminal (similar to --color=auto)? I think 
this would reliably solve the problem and I can't think of a use case 
where one would actually want GREP_OPTIONS to apply to non-terminal 
outputs.

Alternatively, if you don't want to break backwards-compatibility, how 
about adding a new variable for this behavior? It's such a great 
convenience feature, but hardly useable in its current form because so 
many scripts rely on a unmodified grep.

Best regards,
Julius