[lug] grep question

[Jeffrey Haemer]

Steve,

Very nice.  Try this, too. (Output's from Ubuntu Feisty Fawn.  YMMV.)

echo $LANG                     # default value
en_US.UTF-8
mkdir /tmp/foo; cd /tmp/foo    # scratch directory
touch a b A B                  # with four empty files
ls                             # ls lists in collating order
a A b B
LANG=C ls                      # use traditional Unix ASCII collation
A B a b
LANG=POSIX ls                  # ditto
A B a b
LC_COLLATE=C ls                # setting LC_COLLATE alone also works
A B a b
LC_COLLATE=$LANG LANG=C ls     # in fact, LC_COLLATE trumps LANG
a A b B
ls                             # just to verify that nothing's changed
a A b B

(I'm using the old trick that "VAR=foo command" changes the value of VAR for
the child process without changing it in the current shell.)
You can try out other character sets (mine are in /usr/share/i18n/locales)
or LC_ variables to play around to your heart's content.  For example, on my
distro, I see

LANG=en_CA.UTF-8 ls     # Canadians are backwards, eh?
A a B b

I've used some fonting in the examples, above, to make them look pretty in
gmail.  If it doesn't come through properly for you, my apologies; complain
directly to me and I'll send you something more conventional.

-- 
Jeffrey Haemer <jeffrey.haemer at gmail.com>
720-837-8908 [cell]
http://goyishekop.blogspot.com
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