On Fri, Jul 05, 2013 at 05:06:03PM +0200, Christopher Huhn, GSI wrote:
> I just stumbled upon "grep-available -w -P libstdc++6" not finding any
> package.
>
> Obviously '+' signs are not treated as literals but regex operators and
> consequently
> "grep-available -w -P 'libstdc\+\+6'" properly locates the package.
> "grep-available -X -P libstdc++6" works as anticipated by me.
>
> Is this the expected behaviour?
> If so maybe the manpage should be a bit more verbose about the exact
> semantics
> (and possible use) of -w.
The manpage says this about -w:
-w, --whole-pkg
Do an extended regular expression match on whole package names,
assuming the syntax of inter-package relationship fields such as
Depends,Recommends, ... When this flag is given you should not
worry about sub-package names such as "libpcre3" also matching
"libpcre3-dev". This flag implies (and is incompatible with) -e.
The idea is, if I recall correctly, to allow you to see if a particular package
name (and not some other package name that happens to contain it as a
substring) occurs in a Depends field. See #383921 for background.
Combining -w with -P isn't particularly useful, as the Package field does not
use Depends syntax. You may want to use -PX instead.
However, I note the man page excerpt above says "an extended regular expression
match" and "This flag implies (and is incompatible with) -e" which to me pretty
clearly seems to say that the pattern must follow eregexp syntax.
Can you suggest a clearer wording?
--
Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho
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