Subject: Re: [PATCH 21/25] pickaxe: use PCREv2 for -G and -S

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 2021 10:22:35 -0800

Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason  <[email-masked]> writes:

> Follow-up b65abcafc7a (grep: use PCRE v2 for optimized fixed-string
> search, 2019-07-01) and remove the use of kwset in the pickaxe code
> for fixed-string search, in favor of optimistically using PCRE v2.
>
> This does mean that the semantics of the -G option subtly change,
> before it's an ERE, whereas now it'll be a PCRE if we're compiled with
> PCRE. Since PCRE is almost entirely a strict superset of ERE syntax I
> think this is OK.

Since Git is no longer a tool shared among 100 developers who are at
least acquaintances, there will be people who are bothered by the
differences, and such a change deserves a backward-compatibility
warning in the release notes, at least.

Recently, I discovered that I've been building my personal copy of
Git without LIBPCRE support at all for a long time.  It is possible
I've never built with LIBPCRE.  This series may give me incentive to
start using "git grep -P" ;-)

Thanks.