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Re: Doc error in Debian devfsd.conf(5)?

To: Greg Ward <gward@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Doc error in Debian devfsd.conf(5)?
From: Richard Gooch <rgooch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2002 14:25:18 -0700
Cc: devfs@xxxxxxxxxxx
In-reply-to: <20011231214420.GA6138@xxxxxxx>
References: <20011231214420.GA6138@xxxxxxx>
Sender: owner-devfs@xxxxxxxxxxx
Greg Ward writes:
> Sometime in the last month or two, the syntax of regular expressions in
> devfsd as packaged in Debian woody has changed.  It appears that
> escaping parentheses for their "special" regex-ish meaning is no longer
> necessary, ie. a bare paren is the same as in Perl or awk.  I assume
> this change was deliberate and intentional; I certainly think it's the
> better syntax.
> 
> However, the docs are lagging.  devfsd.conf(5) has this example:
> 
>   LOOKUP  
> ^\(\(ide\|scsi\)/host[0-9]\+/bus[0-9]\+/target[0-9]\+/lun[0-9]\+\)/part[0-9]\+$
>  EXECUTE /sbin/partx -a $mntpnt/\1/disc
> 
> and the accompanying text says:
> 
>        Notice the use
>        of regular expression substituation in the  command  "\1",
>        corresponding to the first set of parentheses in the regu­
>        lar expression being matched  (yes,  the  backslashes  are
>        syntactically  necesary  for  the  special  meaning of the
>        parentheses, the vertical bar and the plus sign).
> 
> I assume this is just a doc bug, and that either Russell or Richard
> will see this and fix it (if they haven't already).

IIRC, Russell has modified the expression handling code in Debian, to
support some other feature (I forget the details). This feature is
available in the mainline code, so I think Russell is planning to
remove the Debian hacks. In that case, the escaping of parenthesis is
still required.

Russell: ?

                                Regards,

                                        Richard....
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