From POSIX 1003.2/D11.2, Section 2.8.3.2 (1):

	... The special characters

                .   *   [   \

	(period, asterisk, left-bracket, and backslash, respectively)
	shall lose their special meaning within a bracket expression.
	...

And as far as I can tell, \w and \W aren't mentioned at all in 1003.2


On Tue, 22 Apr 2003, Caffeinate The World wrote:

>
> --- Martin Husemann <martin@duskware.de> wrote:
> > On Tue, Apr 22, 2003 at 03:02:45AM -0700, Caffeinate The World wrote:
> > > # egrep [\W] -
> >
> > try
> >
> >   egrep '[\W]' -
>
> That didn't work either, but the following worked:
>
> ---
> # egrep '\W' -
> !
> !
> a
> 2
>
> .
> .
> _
> -
> -
> ---
>
> I guess you can't put use square brackets around  \W. Is that POSIX?
>
> Thomas T. Thai
>
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