Re: Weird grep behavior

[Fred Kulack <kulack@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Yes, by default grep uses basic regular expressions.
The dot means to match any single character.
Use man grep and see the regular expression section. 

As you've seen, 
  Use fgrep to grep for fixed strings (or grep -F)
  Use egrep to grep using extended regular expressions (or grep -E).


"It was a rigorous result in information theory that once you could 
learn in a sufficiently flexible manner - something humanity had achieved 
in the Bronze Age - the only limits you faced were speed and storage; 
any other structural changes were just a matter of style."
[Schild's Ladder by Greg Egan]

Fred A. Kulack - IBM eServer iSeries - Enterprise Application Solutions
ERP, Java DB2 access, Jdbc, JTA, etc...
IBM in Rochester, MN  (Phone: 507.253.5982   T/L 553-5982)
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