GNU bug report logs - #52679
Errors in grep man pages

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Package: grep;

Reported by: Helge Kreutzmann <debian <at> helgefjell.de>

Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2021 14:56:01 UTC

Severity: normal

Done: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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Report forwarded to bug-grep <at> gnu.org:
bug#52679; Package grep. (Mon, 20 Dec 2021 14:56:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Acknowledgement sent to Helge Kreutzmann <debian <at> helgefjell.de>:
New bug report received and forwarded. Copy sent to bug-grep <at> gnu.org. (Mon, 20 Dec 2021 14:56:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Helge Kreutzmann <debian <at> helgefjell.de>
To: bug-grep <at> gnu.org
Subject: Errors in grep man pages
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2021 15:52:38 +0100
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
Dear grep maintainer,
the manpage-l10n project maintains a large number of translations of
man pages both from a large variety of sources (including grep) as
well for a large variety of target languages.

During their work translators notice different possible issues in the
original (english) man pages. Sometimes this is a straightforward
typo, sometimes a hard to read sentence, sometimes this is a
convention not held up and sometimes we simply do not understand the
original.

We use several distributions as sources and update regularly (at
least every 2 month). This means we are fairly recent (some
distributions like archlinux also update frequently) but might miss
the latest upstream version once in a while, so the error might be
already fixed. We apologize and ask you to close the issue immediately
if this should be the case, but given the huge volume of projects and
the very limited number of volunteers we are not able to double check
each and every issue.

Secondly we translators see the manpages in the neutral po format,
i.e. converted and harmonized, but not the original source (be it man,
groff, xml or other). So we cannot provide a true patch (where
possible), but only an approximation which you need to convert into
your source format.

Finally the issues I'm reporting have accumulated over time and are
not always discovered by me, so sometimes my description of the
problem my be a bit limited - do not hesitate to ask so we can clarify
them.

I'm now reporting the errors for your project. If future reports
should use another channel, please let me know.

Man page: grep.1
Issue: IE<lt>PATTERNSE<gt> → I<PATTERNS>

"Interpret IE<lt>PATTERNSE<gt> as Perl-compatible regular expressions "
"(PCREs).  This option is experimental when combined with the B<-z> (B<-\\^-"
"null-data>)  option, and B<grep -P> may warn of unimplemented features."
--
Issue: BE<lt>pcrepatternE<gt>(3) → B<pcrepattern>(3)

"B<grep> understands three different versions of regular expression syntax: "
"``basic'' (BRE), ``extended'' (ERE) and ``perl'' (PCRE).  In GNU B<grep> "
"there is no difference in available functionality between basic and extended "
"syntaxes.  In other implementations, basic regular expressions are less "
"powerful.  The following description applies to extended regular "
"expressions; differences for basic regular expressions are summarized "
"afterwards.  Perl-compatible regular expressions give additional "
"functionality, and are documented in BE<lt>pcresyntaxE<gt>(3) and "
"BE<lt>pcrepatternE<gt>(3), but work only if PCRE support is enabled."
--
Issue: Not in "grep --help"; remove?

"B<-y>"
--
Issue: --invert-match is above, not below.

"Suppress normal output; instead print a count of matching lines for each "
"input file.  With the B<-v>, B<-\\^-invert-match> option (see below), count "
"non-matching lines."


-- 
      Dr. Helge Kreutzmann                     debian <at> helgefjell.de
           Dipl.-Phys.                   http://www.helgefjell.de/debian.php
        64bit GNU powered                     gpg signed mail preferred
           Help keep free software "libre": http://www.ffii.de/
[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Information forwarded to bug-grep <at> gnu.org:
bug#52679; Package grep. (Mon, 20 Dec 2021 18:34:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #8 received at 52679 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>
To: Helge Kreutzmann <debian <at> helgefjell.de>
Cc: 52679 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#52679: Errors in grep man pages
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2021 10:33:32 -0800
On Mon, Dec 20, 2021 at 8:23 AM Helge Kreutzmann <debian <at> helgefjell.de> wrote:
>
> Dear grep maintainer,
> the manpage-l10n project maintains a large number of translations of
> man pages both from a large variety of sources (including grep) as
> well for a large variety of target languages.
>
> During their work translators notice different possible issues in the
> original (english) man pages. Sometimes this is a straightforward
> typo, sometimes a hard to read sentence, sometimes this is a
> convention not held up and sometimes we simply do not understand the
> original.
>
> We use several distributions as sources and update regularly (at
> least every 2 month). This means we are fairly recent (some
> distributions like archlinux also update frequently) but might miss
> the latest upstream version once in a while, so the error might be
> already fixed. We apologize and ask you to close the issue immediately
> if this should be the case, but given the huge volume of projects and
> the very limited number of volunteers we are not able to double check
> each and every issue.
>
> Secondly we translators see the manpages in the neutral po format,
> i.e. converted and harmonized, but not the original source (be it man,
> groff, xml or other). So we cannot provide a true patch (where
> possible), but only an approximation which you need to convert into
> your source format.
>
> Finally the issues I'm reporting have accumulated over time and are
> not always discovered by me, so sometimes my description of the
> problem my be a bit limited - do not hesitate to ask so we can clarify
> them.
>
> I'm now reporting the errors for your project. If future reports
> should use another channel, please let me know.
>
> Man page: grep.1
> Issue: IE<lt>PATTERNSE<gt> → I<PATTERNS>
>
> "Interpret IE<lt>PATTERNSE<gt> as Perl-compatible regular expressions "
> "(PCREs).  This option is experimental when combined with the B<-z> (B<-\\^-"
> "null-data>)  option, and B<grep -P> may warn of unimplemented features."
> --
> Issue: BE<lt>pcrepatternE<gt>(3) → B<pcrepattern>(3)
>
> "B<grep> understands three different versions of regular expression syntax: "
> "``basic'' (BRE), ``extended'' (ERE) and ``perl'' (PCRE).  In GNU B<grep> "
> "there is no difference in available functionality between basic and extended "
> "syntaxes.  In other implementations, basic regular expressions are less "
> "powerful.  The following description applies to extended regular "
> "expressions; differences for basic regular expressions are summarized "
> "afterwards.  Perl-compatible regular expressions give additional "
> "functionality, and are documented in BE<lt>pcresyntaxE<gt>(3) and "
> "BE<lt>pcrepatternE<gt>(3), but work only if PCRE support is enabled."

Thank you for the reports.
The above issues are no longer present in the latest sources.

> --
> Issue: Not in "grep --help"; remove?
>
> "B<-y>"

This is the desired state: documented in texinfo only (not in --help
or man page), because the option
is on its way to being deleted.

> --
> Issue: --invert-match is above, not below.
>
> "Suppress normal output; instead print a count of matching lines for each "
> "input file.  With the B<-v>, B<-\\^-invert-match> option (see below), count "
> "non-matching lines."

Thanks for that. I have corrected it with a patch in your name here:
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grep.git/commit/?id=95440891d04762d8112b6ae858b9b00932b573d5




Reply sent to Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>:
You have taken responsibility. (Fri, 20 May 2022 00:03:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Notification sent to Helge Kreutzmann <debian <at> helgefjell.de>:
bug acknowledged by developer. (Fri, 20 May 2022 00:03:02 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

Message #13 received at 52679-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
To: Jim Meyering <jim <at> meyering.net>
Cc: 52679-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Helge Kreutzmann <debian <at> helgefjell.de>
Subject: Re: bug#52679: Errors in grep man pages
Date: Thu, 19 May 2022 17:02:26 -0700
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
On 12/20/21 10:33, Jim Meyering wrote:

>> Issue: Not in "grep --help"; remove?
>>
>> "B<-y>"
> 
> This is the desired state: documented in texinfo only (not in --help
> or man page), because the option
> is on its way to being deleted.

I installed the attached to remove the documentation from the man page. 
I think this was all that was remaining from the bug report, so I am 
closing the bug report.
[0001-doc-omit-y-from-grep-man-page.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]

bug archived. Request was from Debbugs Internal Request <help-debbugs <at> gnu.org> to internal_control <at> debbugs.gnu.org. (Fri, 17 Jun 2022 11:24:09 GMT) Full text and rfc822 format available.

This bug report was last modified 1 year and 284 days ago.

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