changeset 54273:d46dec533480

(Regexps): Explain that ^ and $ have their special meanings only in certain contexts.
author Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
date Thu, 04 Mar 2004 17:25:34 +0000
parents 3fd0ea9feede
children d41dd3d19ce4
files man/search.texi
diffstat 1 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) [+]
line wrap: on
line diff
--- a/man/search.texi	Thu Mar 04 17:24:23 2004 +0000
+++ b/man/search.texi	Thu Mar 04 17:25:34 2004 +0000
@@ -576,10 +576,18 @@
 match anything.  Thus, @samp{^foo} matches a @samp{foo} that occurs at
 the beginning of a line.
 
+For historical compatibility reasons, @samp{^} can be used with this
+meaning only at the beginning of the regular expression, or after
+@samp{\(} or @samp{\|}.
+
 @item @kbd{$}
 is similar to @samp{^} but matches only at the end of a line.  Thus,
 @samp{x+$} matches a string of one @samp{x} or more at the end of a line.
 
+For historical compatibility reasons, @samp{$} can be used with this
+meaning only at the end of the regular expression, or before @samp{\)}
+or @samp{\|}.
+
 @item @kbd{\}
 has two functions: it quotes the special characters (including
 @samp{\}), and it introduces additional special constructs.