Re: [PATCH v2 1/3] test-lib: allow selecting tests by substring/regex with --run

Elijah Newren [off-list ref] writes:

On Wed, Oct 14, 2020 at 12:24 PM Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] wrote:

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If you define the pattern is not regexp but is glob, you can use
case/esac to do this without any forking.

Yes, that would probably be OK for most purposes, though I admit my real
love for regex support is the ability to use "." instead of space to
avoid quoting arguments. ;)

I use "?" for the same purpose for globs. For things that are casual,
I find that
it tends to make the end-user (read: my) experience simpler to use globs than
to use regexp, largely for your ".*" vs "*" reasons.

Oh, I thought you were arguing for globs over regexes here just due to
performance reasons.

Heh, but no, not me.

You and Peff were the ones who were talking about performance by
counting forks.  I more often than others come from usability's
point of view.  When we are not dealing with uncontrollable and
unbounded possiblity of end-user generated contents, I find it
easier to forego the power and flexibility of regexp and instead
settle on simpler globs---matching against the test titles is a
good example use case, I would imagine.

But if we are exposing regexp to those who run and debug test
scripts already, I am perfectly fine with using regexp with 'expr'.

Thanks.