diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/grep.texi | 14 |
1 files changed, 10 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/doc/grep.texi b/doc/grep.texi index 074113b7..1d3d5cb0 100644 --- a/doc/grep.texi +++ b/doc/grep.texi @@ -607,10 +607,6 @@ By default, @var{type} is @samp{binary}, and when @command{grep} discovers that a file is binary it suppresses any further output, and instead outputs either a one-line message saying that a binary file matches, or no message if there is no match. -When processing binary data, @command{grep} may treat non-text bytes -as line terminators; for example, the pattern @samp{.} (period) might -not match a null byte, as the null byte might be treated as a line -terminator even without the @option{-z} (@option{--null-data}) option. If @var{type} is @samp{without-match}, when @command{grep} discovers that a file is binary @@ -621,6 +617,16 @@ If @var{type} is @samp{text}, @command{grep} processes a binary file as if it were text; this is equivalent to the @option{-a} option. +When @var{type} is @samp{binary}, @command{grep} may treat non-text +bytes as line terminators even without the @option{-z} +(@option{--null-data}) option. This means choosing @samp{binary} +versus @samp{text} can affect whether a pattern matches a file. For +example, when @var{type} is @samp{binary} the pattern @samp{q$} might +match @samp{q} immediately followed by a null byte, even though this +is not matched when @var{type} is @samp{text}. Conversely, when +@var{type} is @samp{binary} the pattern @samp{.} (period) might not +match a null byte. + @emph{Warning:} @samp{--binary-files=text} might output binary garbage, which can have nasty side effects if the output is a terminal and |