PG Doc comments form <nore...@postgresql.org> writes: > the [1] uses term "regular expression" where "psql pattern" [2] should be > used instead which > may be misleading (and might cause even some harm in some edge usage > cases).
> I therefor propose to improve the documentation by emphasizing (strongly) > the fact that the > "regular expression" is in fact (psql) "pattern" and have nothing to do with > *common* regular > expressions and therefor extra care should be taken when using them. Hmm. I looked at this but I think that the existing wording is fine. The definitions of the switches, earlier on the same page, correctly state that they use psql-style patterns, and provide cross-references to that documentation. Moreover, the context of this is that the preceding example already uses shell-pattern notation: To dump all schemas whose names start with east or west and end in gsm, excluding any schemas whose names contain the word test: $ pg_dump -n 'east*gsm' -n 'west*gsm' -N '*test*' mydb > db.sql The same, using regular expression notation to consolidate the switches: $ pg_dump -n '(east|west)*gsm' -N '*test*' mydb > db.sql We could write something wishy-washy like "additional pattern-matching notation", but the psql Patterns section specifically uses "regular expression notation" to describe these extensions to normal shell patterns, and that's completely correct because they *are* standard regular expression notations. So I think being consistent with that is more useful than writing something else. Also, we have five cross-references to Patterns on that page already, so I don't think a sixth would add much. regards, tom lane