Fix Unix Problem In Search

Problem

Under Solaris, grep hangs when given the -- option before the list of files to search.

Enhancement Request

Add a configuration variable in TWiki.cfg, say $grepswitch, which allows a user to define out the use of the -- switch. Otherwise, one has to modify lib/TWiki/Search.pm manually, which is a less desirable way of customizing the system.

For example, add to TWiki.cfg at the end of the customization section

#                  For some systems, set to ""
$grepswitch        = "--"

and then change the lines in lib/TWiki/Search.pm which assemble the grep command to reference ${TWiki::grepswitch}.

-- ThomasWeigert - 03 Jan 2004

is this with sun's grep or gnu's?

-- WillNorris - 03 Jan 2004

With both. It's funny, when you run the grep from the command line, the -- do no harm. But when run from TWiki, the system hangs. Removing the -- from the query fixes the hang, and does not seem to cause any problems...

-- ThomasWeigert - 05 Jan 2004

I think this problem needs more investigation - try logging the exact command used by TWiki and re-running it as the same userid. It could be that an older grep is being used by the TWiki/Apache userid, and this is missing the '--' option.

It's advisable to use only GNU grep, as recommended on TWikiOnSolaris, and to ensure that this is used by the TWiki scripts (put a full path in the TWiki.cfg setting if necessary).

The HTML output of testenv would be very useful - if this doesn't say that GNU grep is used, you have a problem anyway.

-- RichardDonkin - 06 Jan 2004