[Exim] Re: Bug#233927: exim4-doc-info: clarify meaning of "m…

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Author: Andreas Metzler
Date:  
To: exim-users
CC: 233927-forwarded, Ross Boylan
Subject: [Exim] Re: Bug#233927: exim4-doc-info: clarify meaning of "matches"
Hello,
This is http://bugs.debian.org/233927
On 2004-02-20 Ross Boylan <RossBoylan@???> wrote:
> The discussion of "matches" (described in string testing conditions
> section of exim4-filter) should whether matches requires a match of
> the entire string, in other words whether "ab" matches "a" is true. I
> believe it is.


> Similar remarks probably apply to the match condition for strings
> (probably in the mail exim4 info).


> This undoubtedly applies to other forms of documentation as well; I
> even see the same issue in the exim (v3) book.

[...]

I prodded Ross a little bit and we (well him ;-) came up with a
suggested wording, I hope it is up to your standards.

Filter:
-For a `matches' test, after expansion of both strings, the second one
-is interpreted as a regular expression. Exim uses the PCRE regular
-expression library, which provides regular expressions that are
-compatible with Perl.

+A `matches' test expands both strings and interprets the second one as
+a regular expression. The match succeeds if the regular expression
+matches any part of the first string. Exim uses the Perl-compatible
+PCRE regular expression library.

We started on spec.txt to (with 11.5, the matches condition) but
now that I am going to send the mail I realize that there are
probably dozens of occurences. - I had not realized until now that
downhill.at.eu.org matched
domainlist local_domains = @:\N^downhill.a\N:localhost

Perhaps a big fat note in chapter 8?
| In this document the term "a regular expression matches" refers
| to partial matching, i.e. the expression "oo" matches "foobar", it
| is not necessary to match the whole string with something like
| ".oo.*".

                  cu andreas