Regex strings count as search patterns

Apt-utils treat regex strings as a search pattern, we should
too.

3 files changed, 15 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 2bb1bc62..5aab4b38 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,6 +1,16 @@
 [6/8/2012]
 Version 0.6.9                               "All in a days work"
 
+- New features:
+
+  * [cmdline]: Regular expressions are now supported to match names
+               (same as apt-utils):
+
+                $ aptitude show ^tf$
+
+               Previously this would result in a "no such package"
+               error.
+
 - Internal changes:
 
   * Unified the way packages are selected from command line
diff --git a/src/generic/apt/matching/pattern.cc b/src/generic/apt/matching/pattern.cc
index 5743a2a7..75339e1d 100644
--- a/src/generic/apt/matching/pattern.cc
+++ b/src/generic/apt/matching/pattern.cc
@@ -79,7 +79,9 @@ namespace aptitude
 
     bool is_pattern(const std::string &s)
     {
-      return s.find_first_of("~?") != s.npos;
+      // regex characters are ".?+*|[^$"
+      // pattern characters are "~?"
+      return s.find_first_of("~?.?+*|[^$") != s.npos;
     }
   }
 }
diff --git a/src/generic/apt/matching/pattern.h b/src/generic/apt/matching/pattern.h
index 5aad42f8..96d48550 100644
--- a/src/generic/apt/matching/pattern.h
+++ b/src/generic/apt/matching/pattern.h
@@ -2021,8 +2021,8 @@ namespace aptitude
      *  This is used in situations where it would be counterintuitive
      *  for all strings to be treated as search patterns, but where we
      *  want search patterns to be available.  Strings are considered
-     *  to be seach patterns if they contain a tilde (~) or a question
-     *  mark (?).
+     *  to be seach patterns if they contain a tilde (~), a question
+     *  mark (?), or any regex characters (.?+*|[^$).
      *
      *  \return \b true if the string qualifies as a search pattern.
      */