static const char builtin_grep_usage[] =
 "git-grep <option>* <rev>* [-e] <pattern> [<path>...]";
 
+static const char emsg_invalid_context_len[] =
+"%s: invalid context length argument";
+static const char emsg_missing_context_len[] =
+"missing context length argument";
+static const char emsg_missing_argument[] =
+"option requires an argument -%s";
+
 int cmd_grep(int argc, const char **argv, char **envp)
 {
        int hit = 0;
                        case 'A': case 'B': case 'C':
                                if (!arg[2]) {
                                        if (argc <= 1)
-                                               usage(builtin_grep_usage);
+                                               die(emsg_missing_context_len);
                                        scan = *++argv;
                                        argc--;
                                }
                                break;
                        }
                        if (sscanf(scan, "%u", &num) != 1)
-                               usage(builtin_grep_usage);
+                               die(emsg_invalid_context_len, scan);
                        switch (arg[1]) {
                        case 'A':
                                opt.post_context = num;
                        int lno = 0;
                        char buf[1024];
                        if (argc <= 1)
-                               usage(builtin_grep_usage);
+                               die(emsg_missing_argument, arg);
                        patterns = fopen(argv[1], "r");
                        if (!patterns)
                                die("'%s': %s", argv[1], strerror(errno));
                                argc--;
                                continue;
                        }
-                       usage(builtin_grep_usage);
+                       die(emsg_missing_argument, arg);
                }
                if (!strcmp("--", arg)) {
                        /* later processing wants to have this at argv[1] */