*nix doesn't make sense

https://imgflip.com/i/95q8qm

41 points · 9 comments · view on lemmy.world

9 Comments

Telorand@reddthat.com · 38 pts · 1y (7 replies)

Because there's non-programmers in this community, if you aren't sure what this means but are too afraid to ask, it's a Regular Expression that better represents the terms "Linux" and "Unix."

Though if we're going to be that pedantic, it would be [nN][uiI][xX]$. That extra pipe wouldn't actually do anything in the last example, because regexp picks one character from the set by default.

And if we want to be really pedantic,

(?!nix)[nN][uI][xX]$

Would be the most accurate.

Edit: based on comments, I think...

(nux|NIX)$

...would be the best. Then you don't wind up with weird matches with things like UNiX.

bigkahuna1986@lemmy.ml · 19 pts · 1y

We're talking about Unix so being as pedantic as possible is actually required.

fhein@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Isn't (I|U) equivalent to ([IU])?

Telorand@reddthat.com · 7 pts · 1y

Yes, but you can really only do that with single characters, since your first example is an ordered group and the second is an unordered set in a capturing group. The equivalency drops off when you include more characters.

Plus, you can do things like [a-zA-Z], and you can't do that with the former example.

I would imagine there's a difference in computing overhead, too, but I have no idea which is more performant.

exu@feditown.com · 7 pts · 1y

*nix is more likely to be a glob, therefore an accurate version would be *n?x

Edit: global -> glob dang autocorrect

jyoskykid@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 1y (1 reply)
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Telorand@reddthat.com · 3 pts · 1y

Yep, it would match LUNIX and Binux, but it would not match Bunix because of the negative lookahead.

MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 1y
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xia@lemmy.sdf.org · 3 pts · 1y

There's a good idea and some real potential here, but it didn't quite land for me.

Quail4789@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 1y
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maryjayjay@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y

Unix

Minix

AIX

Irix

HP/UX

Ultrix

OSF/1

Linux

Those are just the ones I remember because I've used them

lurch@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 1y (1 reply)
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lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network · 2 pts · 1y

(two B's or no two B's)