Actually, there is some evidence that this is a bug, and that current behaviour is not intentional.
$ grep . . ; echo $? 1 open(".", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = 3 read(3, 0x8061000, 32768) = -1 EISDIR (Is a directory) close(3) = 0 So there was a read error, and grep didn't report it. NEWS.gz reads: |- `grep' now searches directories just like ordinary files; it no longer |silently skips directories. This is the traditional behavior of |Unix text utilities (in particular, of traditional `grep'). |Hence `grep PATTERN DIRECTORY' should report |`grep: DIRECTORY: Is a directory' on hosts where the operating system |does not permit programs to read directories directly, and |`grep: DIRECTORY: Binary file matches' (or nothing) otherwise. So it would seem that grep really should have generated a diagnostic/warning. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]