this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2024
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Linux

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)
  • sed requires both ( and )characters to be escaped (in ERE mode), whereas grep and awkdon't require ) to be escaped.
  • sed requires { to be escaped (in ERE mode) even if it isn't part of a valid quantifier syntax, whereas grep and awk don't require escaping. For example, you'd need \{a} in sed whereas {a} is enough for the other two.
  • In BRE mode, grep and sed don't require ^ and $ to be escaped if they are used away from their customary positions.

Fuck that.

Edit: I’m not complaining about the the page, it looks nice and polished. It’s the inconsistencies among the GNU tools in handling regex that grind me.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago

Yeah, every now and then I take a step back and say "what the fuck did they build?" when dealing with some of the GNU tools. Twenty minutes later I'll start complaining about how the BSD version of something from coreutils lacks a GNU argument that would make my life about 83% easier.

It's like a sick sort of Stockholm Syndrome. I do genuinely like GNU coreutils, but there's some baffling shit present.