Re: [ANNOUNCEMENT] Test: grep 3.8 - promotion to current stable

[Brian Inglis <Brian.Inglis@SystematicSw.ab.ca>]

> From: gs-cygwin.com@gluelogic.com
> To: cygwin-apps@cygwin.com
> Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCEMENT] Test: grep 3.8 - promotion to current stable
> Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2022 08:40:32 -0400	[thread overview]
> Message-ID: <Y1vNwOihsgDDrQBV@xps13> (raw)
> In-Reply-To: <f8a59249-1090-9136-c720-6e096bc3b7a8@SystematicSw.ab.ca>
> 
> On Fri, Oct 28, 2022 at 12:49:37AM -0600, Brian Inglis wrote:
>> On Thu, 27 Oct 2022 18:25:45 +0200, Corinna Vinschen wrote
>> > On Sep 29 12:55, Brian Inglis wrote:
>> > > > 	/usr/share/doc/grep/ChangeLog
>> > > > 	https://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=grep.git;a=log;h=refs/tags/v3.8
>> > > > > The change note below states that egrep and fgrep are deprecated
>> > > > obsolescent commands, will be dropped in future, and from this release
>> > > > until then, every use will show a stderr warning message, reminding you
>> > > > how to change your commands and scripts:
>> > > > > 	$ egrep ...
>> > > > 	egrep: warning: egrep is obsolescent; using grep -E
>> > > > 	...
>> > > > 	$ fgrep ...
>> > > > 	fgrep: warning: fgrep is obsolescent; using grep -F
>> > > > 	...
>> 
>> > Please do everyone a favor and remove those warnings.  egrep and fgrep
>> > are used abundantly in existing scripts and the user often has no choice
>> > or no knowledge how to fix this.  If this is an upstream change, it's a
>> > bad one, breaking backward compatibility.  Please fix this at least for
>> > our distro.
>> 
>> This was released as test at the start of September, reiterated at the end
>> of September on this list, then promoted to current stable and announced
>> early October:
> 
> Planning for the future, could the grep package provide egrep and fgrep
> in /etc/alternatives?  Then a new (optional) package, say "grepfe" could
> provide /etc/alternative shell scripts (or binaries) which called
> grep -F and grep -E.

Suggest that I could come up with a package grep-nowarn which can only suppress 
the [ef]grep warnings, where the package would install [ef]grep-nowarn, and the 
postinstall script could rename the distributed shell scripts to [ef]grep-warn, 
and install alternatives with -warn priority 10, -nowarn priority 20; preremove 
would reverse the process.

Suggestions to accommodate -nowarn from grep package postinstall?
I could supply the same postinstall and preremove as -nowarn to check for 
-nowarn and install or uninstall the alternative.

Sequence or timing issues to watch out for during postinstall/preremove?

-- 
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis			Calgary, Alberta, Canada

La perfection est atteinte			Perfection is achieved
non pas lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à ajouter	not when there is no more to add
mais lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à retirer	but when there is no more to cut
			-- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry