[0x0]

Yeah, this sounds really misguided. If they change/add functionality, why not move that to a new option? Those who want the new way can use the new feature, and scripts won't act differently depending on which version is installed.

New features should get new options; they should not move old features to new flags and put the new features on the old flags. Nuts.

[rmc]

Increasing the number of options and switches has downsides, it makes the software more complex to use.

[0x0]

Hehe, you know what makes the software more complex to use? Having to grep in the output of "grep --version" before deciding which switch to pass to grep.. :)

[michaelhoffman]

You don't need to do that, just always use -R :)

[nitrogen]

We'll get right on inventing that time machine so everyone can go back in time to the introduction of the -r flag and warn themselves ;).

[rbanffy]

And note that it will make your code more compatible with other, POSIX-compliant, versions of grep.