Re: [PATCH] builtin-grep: workaround for non GNU grep.

[Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>]

No, please don't do it this way.

On Wed, 17 May 2006, Junio C Hamano wrote:
>
> +	 * Some grep implementations do not understand -H nor --
> +	 * but /dev/null can be used as a substitution in most
> +	 * cases.
> +	 *
> +	 * However -L and -c would slightly misbehave (-L would
> +	 * list /dev/null as a hit, and -c would report 0 hits
> +	 * from /dev/null); so do not use the external one on
> +	 * such platforms.
>  	 */
> -	if (!cached) {
> +	if (!cached &&
> +	    (!NO_H_OPTION_IN_GREP ||
> +	     (!opt->count && !opt->unmatch_name_only))) {
>  		hit = external_grep(opt, paths, cached);
>  		if (hit >= 0)
>  			return hit;

That's the ugliest test ever, and at all the wrong levels.

Just make "external_grep()" test for the cases that it cannot handle, and 
return -1. That's how it's designed to work.

		Linus