From: Pádraig Brady <P@draigBrady.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2026 17:24:39 +0000 (+0000)
Subject: doc: tr: warn about shell quoting [:classes:]
X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=a3ae4123f9481e5e422399b7208970d521a1af12;p=thirdparty%2Fcoreutils.git

doc: tr: warn about shell quoting [:classes:]

* src/tr.c (usage): Warn about avoiding shell globbing.
* doc/coreutils.texi (character arrays): Likewise.
Suggested by Daniel Dallos.
---

diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi
index c42d75753d..018dd3af69 100644
--- a/doc/coreutils.texi
+++ b/doc/coreutils.texi
@@ -7074,6 +7074,9 @@ which is of no particular use.
 
 @end table
 
+Since @samp{[:@var{class}:]} and @samp{[=@var{c}=]} syntax
+are similar to shell globbing syntax, all such class arguments should
+be quoted appropriately, when running @command{tr} from the shell.
 
 @node Translating
 @subsection Translating
diff --git a/src/tr.c b/src/tr.c
index 8a184f17a5..051274b382 100644
--- a/src/tr.c
+++ b/src/tr.c
@@ -342,8 +342,9 @@ Translation occurs if -d is not given and both STRING1 and STRING2 appear.\n\
 -t is only significant when translating.  ARRAY2 is extended to length of\n\
 ARRAY1 by repeating its last character as necessary.  Excess characters\n\
 of ARRAY2 are ignored.  Character classes expand in unspecified order;\n\
-while translating, [:lower:] and [:upper:] may be used in pairs to\n\
+while translating, '[:lower:]' and '[:upper:]' may be used in pairs to\n\
 specify case conversion.  Squeezing occurs after translation or deletion.\n\
+Arguments like '[...]' should be quoted, to avoid potential shell globbing.\n\
 "), stdout);
       emit_ancillary_info (PROGRAM_NAME);
     }