Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi,

I'm trying to write shell scripts on busybox bash on windows and grep is not working for simple regular expression like

Code:

$ grep FEN *
bash: grep: Invalid argument

but the same grep works fine if use the single file instead of asterisk

Code:

$ grep FEN test
[FEN "abc"]
$

Am I doing something wrong here or is it a bug with busybox? If yes, Is there any bug-free (or latest version) of busybox? Is there any best portable alternative to cygwin?

cygwin is a perfect choice for me but I'm not supposed to install anything on my current laptop. This portable cygwin doesn't seem to be active. Is this portable cygwin of any good?

Please advise,
Thanks

What does the command:

Code:

printf "'%s'\n" *

do in that directory?

Thanks for the reply.

It displays list of all the files with each file name between 2 single quotes '

Code:

$ printf "'%s'\n" *
'sample_test_50_diag_011.pgn'
'sample_50_diag_012.pgn'
'test'
$

In the standards, the behavior of grep is only defined when the operands are text files. One use of the .pgn extension is for Portable Game Notation files, but the names you showed us don't sound like game status files. If these are some kind of (binary) graphics files, your version of grep may be rejecting them.

Did you just try:

Code:

grep FEN test

or did your also try one or both of:

Code:

grep FEN sample_test_50_diag_011.pgn
grep FEN sample_50_diag_012.pgn

?

How are you managing to mix bash and Busybox grep? The shell in Busybox is not Bash, it is ash.

All these are text files only.

Code:

$ grep FEN sample_test_50_diag_011.pgn
[FEN "r4brk/5p1p/2bp1P2/p3p2N/1pq1P3/5N1Q/PPP4P/1K1RR3 w - - 0 1"]
$ grep FEN sample_50_diag_012.pgn
[FEN "2r1r1k1/1p4bp/p2p1qp1/1n1P4/2P1B2P/1N1Q4/PP2R3/1K5R b - - 0 1"]
$

I don't know. I run busybox.exe bash at windows command prompt to get the shell

and this shows me that its bash, correct me pls if I'm wrong

Code:

$ echo $0
bash