Ubuntu
apt-file package

--regexp option doesn't work with some regexps

Bug #33485 reported by Chris Moore
8
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
apt-file (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Medium
MOTU Reviewers Team

Bug Description

I wanted to find which package provides /usr/bin/locale.

If I search just for that string, I get 4 responses:

    chris@chrislap:~$ apt-file search /usr/bin/locale
    belocs-locales-bin: usr/bin/locale
    belocs-locales-bin: usr/bin/localedef
    libc6: usr/bin/locale
    libc6: usr/bin/localedef

I didn't want the "localedef" ones, so I tried using the "--regexp" argument:

    chris@chrislap:~$ apt-file --regexp search '/usr/bin/locale$'

But now I get no responses.

It turns out that $ doesn't work in the regular expression search to anchor a match to the end of the string.

The same happens if I search for regexps ending with '\z' or '\Z', both of which are supposed to anchor a match to the end of the string in Perl.

See attached patch for a fix.

Revision history for this message
Chris Moore (dooglus) wrote : patch to fix the problem

This fixes it by implcitly turning on "--fixed-string" and removing the $ if it appears at the end of the regexp with the --regexp flag in effect.

It does the same for \z and \Z too.

Examples of it working:

chris@chrislap:~$ /tmp/apt-file -x search '/usr/bin/firefox$'
firefox: usr/bin/firefox

chris@chrislap:~$ /tmp/apt-file -x search '/usr/bin/firefox\z'
firefox: usr/bin/firefox

chris@chrislap:~$ /tmp/apt-file -x search '/usr/bin/firefox\Z'
firefox: usr/bin/firefox

# find all programs in /usr/bin beginning with f and ending in x:

chris@chrislap:~$ /tmp/apt-file -x search '/usr/bin/f.*x$'
efax: usr/bin/fax
facturalux: usr/bin/facturalux
fcitx: usr/bin/fcitx
felix: usr/bin/flx
firedns: usr/bin/fdnsmx
firefox: usr/bin/firefox
flex: usr/bin/flex
flex-old: usr/bin/flex
fluxbox: usr/bin/fluxbox
fookb-plainx: usr/bin/fookb-plainx
freebsd5-buildutils: usr/bin/freebsd-lex
freebsd5-buildutils: usr/bin/freebsd-yyfix
ispell: usr/bin/findaffix
tetex-bin: usr/bin/fdf2tex
transfig: usr/bin/fig2ps2tex
vflib2: usr/bin/fwindex

Daniel Robitaille (robitaille)
Changed in apt-file:
assignee: nobody → motu
Zak B. Elep (zakame)
Changed in apt-file:
assignee: motu → motureviewers
Revision history for this message
Barry deFreese (bddebian) wrote :

Uploaded in apt-file_2.0.8ubuntu2. Please keep and eye out and close as fix released. Thank you.

Changed in apt-file:
status: Unconfirmed → Fix Committed
William Grant (wgrant)
Changed in apt-file:
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
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