On Sat, Apr 8, 2017 at 10:25 PM, Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
<avarab@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Add a short -P option as a synonym for the longer --perl-regexp, for
> consistency with the options the corresponding grep invocations
> accept.
>
> This was intentionally omitted in commit 727b6fc3ed ("log --grep:
> accept --basic-regexp and --perl-regexp", 2012-10-03) for unspecified
> future use.
>
> Since nothing has come along in over 4 1/2 years that's wanted to use
> it, it's more valuable to make it consistent with "grep" than to keep
> it open for future use, and to avoid the confusion of -P meaning
> different things for grep & log, as is the case with the -G option.
I initially had a strong reaction to the above "4 1/2 years entitles us to
do anything that might inconvenience future developers" reasoning, but
as long as we already have -E for extended regexp usable, even if we
will never be able to use -G for basic regexp, I am OK with giving -P for
pcre to be consistent with "git grep". I'd be even supportive if others
agree with this change.
Thanks.