grep-flag-available() { echo | grep $1 "" >/dev/null 2>&1 } GREP_OPTIONS="" if grep-flag-available --color=auto; then GREP_OPTIONS+=" --color=auto" fi VCS_FOLDERS="{.bzr,CVS,.git,.hg,.svn}" if grep-flag-available --exclude-dir=.cvs; then GREP_OPTIONS+=" --exclude-dir=$VCS_FOLDERS" elif grep-flag-available --exclude=.cvs; then GREP_OPTIONS+=" --exclude=$VCS_FOLDERS" fi alias grep="grep $GREP_OPTIONS" unset GREP_OPTIONS unset VCS_FOLDERS unfunction grep-flag-available