diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/grep.texi')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/grep.texi | 9 |
1 files changed, 7 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/doc/grep.texi b/doc/grep.texi index 63016bdc..acd5be8d 100644 --- a/doc/grep.texi +++ b/doc/grep.texi @@ -596,6 +596,11 @@ If a file's allocation metadata, or if its data read before a line is selected for output, indicate that the file contains binary data, assume that the file is of type @var{type}. +Non-text bytes indicate binary data; these are either data bytes +improperly encoded for the current locale, or null bytes when the +@option{-z} (@option{--null-data}) option is not given (@pxref{Other +Options}). + By default, @var{type} is @samp{binary}, and @command{grep} normally outputs either a one-line message saying that a binary file matches, @@ -1721,8 +1726,8 @@ Standard grep cannot do this, as it is fundamentally line-based. Therefore, merely using the @code{[:space:]} character class does not match newlines in the way you might expect. -With the GNU @command{grep} option @code{-z} (@pxref{File and -Directory Selection}), the input is terminated by null bytes. Thus, +With the GNU @command{grep} option @option{-z} (@option{--null-data}), each +input ``line'' is terminated by a null byte; @pxref{Other Options}. Thus, you can match newlines in the input, but typically if there is a match the entire input is output, so this usage is often combined with output-suppressing options like @option{-q}, e.g.: |