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Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.x,alt.os.linux,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,gnu.misc.discuss,comp.unix.solaris Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!newsserver.jvnc.net!jgcomp.com!jgcomp.jvnc.net!jon From: jon@jgcomp.jvnc.net (Jon LaBadie) Subject: Re: unix acronyms -collecting a list? Sender: usenet@jgcomp.com (Net News Admin) Message-ID: <EAD3Bz.M69@jgcomp.com> Date: Sun, 18 May 1997 05:31:10 GMT X-Nntp-Posting-Host: jgcomp.com Reply-To: jon@jgcomp.com References: <5kd2ng$c8b$1@rzsun02.rrz.uni-hamburg.de> <337A003F.6A7B@ncofsi.com> <3378D37F.462F3A47@gaijin.com> <x6iv0l7uxw.fsf@ez.bts.com> <5ldtv3$jnm@eve.speakeasy.org> <337B0F6C.4C71614A@indiana.edu> <01bc622b$b51fb0c0$f8298acd@sgifford.tir.com> Organization: JG Computing Lines: 36 Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.shell:45171 comp.os.linux.misc:175965 comp.os.linux.x:61928 alt.os.linux:21356 comp.unix.bsd.misc:3330 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:41185 gnu.misc.discuss:31375 comp.unix.solaris:106866 In article <01bc622b$b51fb0c0$f8298acd@sgifford.tir.com>, "Scott W. Gifford" <sgifford@tir.com> writes: |> |> The story that I have heard about grep is that the name comes from a |> common usage of Sed...In pre-grep days, the same thing was (and still can |> be) accomplished with: |> |> sed -e g/regular expression/p |> |> As this usage became more common, documentation, newsgroups messages, etc. |> began to abbreviate "regular expression" to "re", leading to people talking |> about: |> |> sed -e g/re/p |> |> And that, as they say is history. I don't remember where this story came |> from, and there's a fair-to-middling chance it has no basis in fact, but I |> choose to believe it. I find this repeated misinformation about sed and grep amazing. Particularly as sed has NO GLOBAL COMMAND!!! $ sed -e 'g/x/p' /etc/termcap sed: command garbled: g/x/p sed has a "g" command to "get" the hold space. sed has a "g" flag to the "s" command. Drop the "s" from "sed" guys and you got it. jl -- Jon H. LaBadie jon@jgcomp.com JG Computing jon@jgcomp.jvnc.net 4455 Province Line Road (609) 252-0159 Princeton, NJ 08540-4322 (609) 683-7220 (fax)