Re^2: Perl Regexp help w/ grep

in reply to Re: Perl Regexp help w/ grep
in thread Perl Regexp help w/ grep

the ? keeps it from being too greedy

I'm curious, what is the purpose of including this in a simple match? Seems to me that it would only make sense if it was a capturing match or a search and replace. Not that there's anything wrong with it, it just seems a bit pointless.

Comment on Re^2: Perl Regexp help w/ grep

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Re^3: Perl Regexp help w/ grep by duff (Parson) on Oct 15, 2005 at 03:52 UTC
Perhaps it's an attempt at optimization? A greedy RE will match the entire filename from that point on and then have to back track character by character to determine if there is or isn't a match. By making the RE non-greedy, matching filenames will be found faster. duff	[reply]

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