windows git bash does not support grep -o option

[mcollina]

I've just installed nvm and as I type "nvm install 0.4.12" on mac os x lion it outputs:

nvm: install N/A failed!

[creationix]

you need to put the v in front. For example nvm install v0.4.12.

[willbowling]

$ nvm install v0.6.14

results in the following...

grep: invalid option -- o
Usage: grep [OPTION]... PATTERN [FILE]...
Try `grep --help' for more information.
Additional options while compiling:
nvm: install N/A failed!

please assist.

[RichFromGalvanize]

Having the same issue on Windows 7 using git bash.

[vinaydotblog]

I am getting same error message.

[koenpunt]

grep is never called with the o option, only egrep, so can it be that egrep is a symlink to grep?

[funseiki]

I'm also having this issue on Windows 7 git bash - any fixes as of yet?

[mikeumus]

I'm having this issue as well with git bash on Windows 8.

[ljharb]

@koenpunt -o is a perfectly valid option for grep - and egrep as far as I know is just an alias for grep -e.

@mikeumus / @funseiki : can you provide a gist showing the command line input and output?

[mikeumus]

Sure @ljharb: https://gist.github.com/mikeumus/6616504

[ljharb]

Thanks @mikeumus! OK, then this sounds like it might be an issue with git bash in Windows not supporting the -o option on grep.

I'm reopening this issue and will adjust the title to reflect that.

[UltCombo]

Since this is one of the first google results for git bash's seemingly terribly outdated grep problem, I'll post a temporary workaround here.

Open <Git install directory>/bin and overwrite grep.exe with a more up to date version. I found two alternatives that provide -o support:

• GnuWin32's grep 2.5.4 (dl).
• ezwinports' grep 2.10 (dl). Note: You also have to extract libprce-0.dll in the same folder as grep.

Though ezwinports' grep port is much more up to date, I can't say whether any of these will cause stability/compatibility issues. I haven't found any issues yet, but use it at your own risk.

[tomByrer]

Works great @UltCombo !
I would note that only grep.exe & libprce-0.dll are needed to copy into git\bin, since egrep & fgrep are already aliased in the Git Bash distro.
I also have a personal habit of renaming the old files as *name*_old.*ext*, incase one has to rollback.

[tomByrer]

Seems that there is no -o flag for [e]grep either.
Use sed instead?

[qkdreyer]

You can also check this Node Version Manager for Windows : https://github.com/hakobera/nvmw

[trisys3]

If I used one of the zip files from this site, how could I get the grep.exe file from it? It seems to be the latest version, hosted right on the Git Bash site, but not included in Git Bash. I tried "configure" & that did a lot of stuff, but didn't make the exe. "make" doesn't come with git-scm.

[UltCombo]

@trisys3 You're linking to the official GNU grep, and as far as I know, GNU is Unix-compatible only. If you're running Windows, you will need a port of it - see my comment above.

[trisys3]

OK, I guess I'll just use ezwinport's port. It's just so frustrating that Git Bash has on its site not only the latest version, but the latest dev version, and they can't think to port it over.

[Daniel-Hug]

I also get a similar error when trying to update node using the n package:

D:\Users\Daniel>npm cache clean -f
npm WARN using --force I sure hope you know what you are doing.

D:\Users\Daniel>npm install -g n
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/n
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/n
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/n/-/n-1.2.1.tgz
npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/n/-/n-1.2.1.tgz
D:\Users\daniel\AppData\Roaming\npm\n -> D:\Users\daniel\AppData\Roaming\npm\nod
e_modules\n\bin\n
n@1.2.1 D:\Users\daniel\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\n

D:\Users\Daniel>n stable
Input file specified two times.

grep: invalid option -- o
Usage: grep [OPTION]... PATTERN [FILE]...
Try `grep --help' for more information.
cp: cannot stat `/usr/local/n/versions//*': No such file or directory

D:\Users\Daniel>

[ljharb]

I'm going to close this - this is clearly a git bash issue on Windows, and not an nvm issue.

[flcintfre]

It's a conflict with Windows overriding GNU for me... Renamed C:\Windows\grep to grep2 and problem solved.