4

Setup

echo "abc" >/tmp/foo1
echo "def" >/tmp/foo2
cp /tmp/foo1 /tmp/gzfoo1
cp /tmp/foo2 /tmp/gzfoo2
gzip /tmp/gzfoo*

grep exit status with multiple files and one match is 0

grep -q abc /tmp/foo[12]
echo $?
0

zgrep exit status with multiple unzipped files and one match is 1

zgrep -q abc /tmp/foo[12]
echo $?
1

zgrep exit status with multiple zipped files and one match is 1

zgrep -q abc /tmp/gzfoo[12].gz
echo $?
1

I do see that zgrep is a shell script. And it does seem like if any grep returns non-zero, zgrep returns non-zero as well. Here's my paraphrased excerpt from zgrep:

res=0
for input_file
do
  # ... run grep on input_file ...
  r=$?
  ...
  test $res -lt $r && res=$r
done
exit $res

zgrep version is (ancient) 1.3.12:

$ zgrep --version
zgrep (gzip) 1.3.12
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software.  You may redistribute copies of it under the terms of
the GNU General Public License <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Jean-loup Gailly.

Also happens with zgrep (gzip) 1.6:

$ /<other_zgrep_path/bin/zgrep --version
zgrep (gzip) 1.6
Copyright (C) 2010-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software.  You may redistribute copies of it under the terms of
the GNU General Public License <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Jean-loup Gailly.

$ /<other_zgrep_path/bin/zgrep -q abc /tmp/gzfoo[12].gz
$ echo $? 
1

Question: Is there a bug in zgrep? Should it be fixed?

Edit: Found a newer machine with zgrep/gzip 1.8 and it doesn't have this problem. So, it seems like my machine is just old. Here's what it looks like on the newer machine:

: zgrep --version
zgrep (gzip) 1.8
Copyright (C) 2010-2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software.  You may redistribute copies of it under the terms of
the GNU General Public License <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Jean-loup Gailly.

: zgrep -q abc /tmp/foo[12]
: echo $?
0

Hacky Workaround to avoid old/buggy zgrep:

: ( gzcat -f /tmp/foo[12] | grep -q abc ) >&/dev/null 
: echo $?
0
Improve this question
4
  • I can't reproduce with zgrep (gzip) 1.10. zgrep -q abc /tmp/foo[12] and zgrep -q abc /tmp/gzfoo[12].gz both return exit code 0. Please add the output of zgrep --version and type zgrep to your question. Commented Sep 5, 2019 at 19:07
  • I can confirm zgrep (gzip) 1.9 (Debian buster) is good and zgrep (gzip) 1.6 (Debian stretch) is bad. Commented Sep 5, 2019 at 19:21
  • There were a lot of changes from 1.6 to 1.7 regarding the exit code, see fossies.org/diffs/gzip/1.6_vs_1.7/zgrep.in-diff.html (variable res=0 vs. res=1 and the changes at the bottom of the page). Seems it was fixed there. Commented Sep 5, 2019 at 19:37
  • Thanks to l0b0 and Freddy for pointing to the correct solution. Commented Sep 5, 2019 at 20:07

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

You can get source code from https://savannah.gnu.org/git/?group=gzip. Return code was changed in commit d2a1928e5534017456dc8a3b600ba0b30cce4a6e:

commit d2a1928e5534017456dc8a3b600ba0b30cce4a6e
Author: Paul Eggert <[email protected]>
Date:   Thu Jun 12 18:43:08 2014 -0700

    zgrep: exit with status 0 if a file matches and there's no trouble

    Reported by Pavel Raiskup in: http://bugs.gnu.org/17760
    * zgrep.in (res): Treat exit status 0 to be greater than 1.
    Also, exit immediately on software configuration error.

Commit message contains a link to bug report: https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=17760

You can easily check it yourself. With zgrep built from the above commit:

$ /media/data/gzip-install-newer/bin/zgrep --version
zgrep (gzip) 1.6.17-d2a1
Copyright (C) 2010-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software.  You may redistribute copies of it under the terms of
the GNU General Public License <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Jean-loup Gailly.
$ /media/data/gzip-install-newer/bin/zgrep -q abc /tmp/foo[12]
$ echo $?
0

With zgrep built from the previous commit:

$ /media/data/gzip-install/bin/zgrep --version
zgrep (gzip) 1.6.16-ed8c
Copyright (C) 2010-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software.  You may redistribute copies of it under the terms of
the GNU General Public License <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Jean-loup Gailly.
$ /media/data/gzip-install/bin/zgrep -q abc /tmp/foo[12]
$ echo $?
1
Improve this answer
2
  • Here's the d2a1928e5534017456dc8a3b600ba0b30cce4a6e diff. Commented Sep 5, 2019 at 20:02
  • Thanks for detailed reply! Glad to see it's already fixed and just that I'm on an old version. Commented Sep 5, 2019 at 20:08

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