diff --git a/parts.rst b/parts.rst
index acc15fdd6..c89a57eb9 100644
--- a/parts.rst
+++ b/parts.rst
@@ -1381,8 +1381,8 @@ which 2.21
 bash built-in ``command -v`` but some scripts call ``which`` instead.
 In particular, ``autogen`` scripts use it.
 
-grep 3.7
-========
+grep 3.12
+=========
 
 Newer ``grep`` will be needed to bootstrap ``autogen``.
 
diff --git a/steps/SHA256SUMS.pkgs b/steps/SHA256SUMS.pkgs
index c6f015e4e..adb8454f8 100644
--- a/steps/SHA256SUMS.pkgs
+++ b/steps/SHA256SUMS.pkgs
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ d34de902de6de9204abedb834c4c39fbb95b993e545fbb090de2b028fa1d4a61  gcc-4.0.4_0.ta
 96f33b53c24f5f46a23c2b9eef8147e684c796889a83bdd39254a73393594a49  gmp-6.2.1_0.tar.bz2
 061bb98da6364ea67c4c1a515ffe06296b4dea045ba3d1b5e229416103f50688  gperf-3.3_0.tar.bz2
 c1989fc2855dbb0350c4e5b677028306614a9f4b5cb6c01fd459c5e1abf592b9  grep-2.4_0.tar.bz2
-3f3247c7d05fcef0d9f624a523afa01257207584045eb7efb7fb8f29fc782c7a  grep-3.7_0.tar.bz2
+7bc5335182db5a38d01ab553b7bb9eba41c3911895e7ab40d6651d361cc40b9a  grep-3.12_0.tar.bz2
 39320fce205c3d53209351c48c7cc59c6157373f940bd9f425cf3c51558fb09f  grub-2.06_0.tar.bz2
 9a5a816925d408967664e82b22b3280db77d940411b0730415dc44f8c9ec09eb  guile-3.0.11_0.tar.bz2
 893bb26efb8b1789702b8fd1a3ed72951990c8e38ab650c5220992405e79b96e  gzip-1.13_0.tar.bz2
diff --git a/steps/grep-3.12/import-gnulib.sh b/steps/grep-3.12/import-gnulib.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..8d4ad59de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/steps/grep-3.12/import-gnulib.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,141 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2022 Andrius Štikonas <andrius@stikonas.eu>
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later
+
+rm lib/unictype/ctype_*.h \
+ lib/unicase/to{lower,upper}.h
+
+local GNULIB_DIR="$(realpath ../gnulib-3773db6)"
+
+pushd "$GNULIB_DIR"
+rm lib/unictype/ctype_*.h \
+ lib/unicase/to{lower,upper}.h
+
+pushd lib
+cat > config.h <<EOF
+#include <stdbool.h>
+EOF
+gcc -Iunictype -o gen-uni-tables str_startswith.c str_endswith.c gen-uni-tables.c
+rm config.h
+mv ../../*-16.0.0.txt ../../PropList-3.0.1.txt .
+./gen-uni-tables UnicodeData-16.0.0.txt \
+    PropList-16.0.0.txt \
+    DerivedCoreProperties-16.0.0.txt \
+    emoji-data-16.0.0.txt \
+    ArabicShaping-16.0.0.txt \
+    Scripts-16.0.0.txt \
+    Blocks-16.0.0.txt \
+    PropList-3.0.1.txt \
+    BidiMirroring-16.0.0.txt \
+    EastAsianWidth-16.0.0.txt \
+    LineBreak-16.0.0.txt \
+    WordBreakProperty-16.0.0.txt \
+    GraphemeBreakProperty-16.0.0.txt \
+    CompositionExclusions-16.0.0.txt \
+    SpecialCasing-16.0.0.txt \
+    CaseFolding-16.0.0.txt \
+    16.0.0
+popd
+
+popd
+
+"$GNULIB_DIR"/gnulib-tool --import --local-dir=gl \
+ --lib=libgreputils \
+ --source-base=lib \
+ --m4-base=m4 \
+ --doc-base=doc \
+ --tests-base=gnulib-tests \
+ --aux-dir=build-aux \
+ --with-tests \
+ --makefile-name=gnulib.mk \
+ --no-conditional-dependencies \
+ --no-libtool \
+ --macro-prefix=gl \
+ --avoid=lock-tests \
+ --avoid=mbuiter \
+ --avoid=mbuiterf \
+ --avoid=mbrlen-tests \
+ --avoid=mbrtowc-tests \
+ --avoid=update-copyright-tests \
+ announce-gen \
+ argmatch \
+ assert-h \
+ c-ctype \
+ c-stack \
+ c-strcasecmp \
+ c32isalnum \
+ c32rtomb \
+ closeout \
+ configmake \
+ dfa \
+ dirname-lgpl \
+ do-release-commit-and-tag \
+ error \
+ exclude \
+ fcntl-h \
+ fnmatch \
+ fstatat \
+ fts \
+ getopt-gnu \
+ getpagesize \
+ getprogname \
+ gettext-h \
+ git-version-gen \
+ gitlog-to-changelog \
+ gnu-web-doc-update \
+ gnupload \
+ hash \
+ idx \
+ ignore-value \
+ intprops \
+ inttypes-h \
+ isatty \
+ isblank \
+ largefile \
+ locale-h \
+ lseek \
+ maintainer-makefile \
+ malloc-gnu \
+ manywarnings \
+ mbrlen \
+ mbrtoc32-regular \
+ mbszero \
+ mcel-prefer \
+ memchr \
+ memchr2 \
+ mempcpy \
+ minmax \
+ nullptr \
+ obstack \
+ openat-safer \
+ perl \
+ rawmemchr \
+ readme-release \
+ realloc-posix \
+ regex \
+ safe-read \
+ same-inode \
+ ssize_t \
+ stdckdint-h \
+ stddef-h \
+ stdlib-h \
+ stpcpy \
+ strerror \
+ string-h \
+ strstr \
+ sys_stat-h \
+ threadlib \
+ unistd-h \
+ unlocked-io \
+ update-copyright \
+ useless-if-before-free \
+ verify \
+ version-etc-fsf \
+ wchar-single \
+ windows-stat-inodes \
+ xalloc \
+ xbinary-io \
+ xstrtoimax \
+ year2038
diff --git a/steps/grep-3.12/pass1.sh b/steps/grep-3.12/pass1.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..daf25fe7c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/steps/grep-3.12/pass1.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2022 Andrius Štikonas <andrius@stikonas.eu>
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later
+
+src_prepare() {
+    default
+
+    find gnulib-tests -not -name "Makefile.am" -delete
+    rm doc/grep.info po/*.gmo
+
+    # cursed autotools order
+    # autopoint and libtoolize have to be run *before* gnulib
+    # and automake, etc after
+    find . \( -name 'Makefile.in' -o -name 'configure' \) -delete
+    autopoint -f
+    libtoolize -fi
+
+    . ../../import-gnulib.sh
+
+    AUTOPOINT=true LIBTOOLIZE=true autoreconf-2.71 -fi
+}
+
+src_configure() {
+    ./configure --prefix="${PREFIX}"
+}
diff --git a/steps/grep-3.12/sources b/steps/grep-3.12/sources
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..29848c8a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/steps/grep-3.12/sources
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+f https://mirrors.kernel.org/gnu/grep/grep-3.12.tar.xz 2649b27c0e90e632eadcd757be06c6e9a4f48d941de51e7c0f83ff76408a07b9
+g https://https.git.savannah.gnu.org/git/gnulib.git~3773db6 _ edc3d33a24008a96e7d745812659c4b89f2c89e8ea74688f1098eac5b40f7890 gnulib-3773db6.tar.gz
+f http://ftp.unicode.org/Public/16.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt ff58e5823bd095166564a006e47d111130813dcf8bf234ef79fa51a870edb48f UnicodeData-16.0.0.txt
+f http://ftp.unicode.org/Public/16.0.0/ucd/PropList.txt 53d614508e2a0b2305a8aa21cd60d993de9326cdf65993660dfcce4503548583 PropList-16.0.0.txt
+f http://ftp.unicode.org/Public/16.0.0/ucd/DerivedCoreProperties.txt 39d35161f2954497f69e08bdb9e701493f476a3d30222de20028feda36c1dabd DerivedCoreProperties-16.0.0.txt
+f http://ftp.unicode.org/Public/16.0.0/ucd/emoji/emoji-data.txt f1365a5173eee18e1f98b240cdc492e84a25f1ce7e0c9d1094eb29c41a22696a emoji-data-16.0.0.txt
+f http://ftp.unicode.org/Public/16.0.0/ucd/ArabicShaping.txt 764f420cedfc8b43d9fec251c957a5d55fc45d40f6573f162990ed1dce7e36e0 ArabicShaping-16.0.0.txt
+f http://ftp.unicode.org/Public/16.0.0/ucd/Scripts.txt 9e88f0a677df47311106340be8ede2ecdacd9c1c931831218d2be6d5508e0039 Scripts-16.0.0.txt
+f http://ftp.unicode.org/Public/16.0.0/ucd/Blocks.txt f3907b395d410f1b97342292ca6bc83dd12eb4b205f2a0c48efdef99e517d7b0 Blocks-16.0.0.txt
+f http://ftp.unicode.org/Public/3.0-Update1/PropList-3.0.1.txt 909eef4adbeddbdddcd9487c856fe8cdbb8912aa8eb315ed7885b6ef65f4dc4c
+f http://ftp.unicode.org/Public/16.0.0/ucd/BidiMirroring.txt d7afdadd1bbd66f5a663ac0e8f7958f18fd9491fc0bc59ec5877cb82db71db7d BidiMirroring-16.0.0.txt
+f http://ftp.unicode.org/Public/16.0.0/ucd/EastAsianWidth.txt 43adc76c0686a42cb370764eb8cfe2b2a45b10b855e5572a2db4a0eecce15d5b EastAsianWidth-16.0.0.txt
+f http://ftp.unicode.org/Public/16.0.0/ucd/LineBreak.txt e97e4259d0d20fab150b9c7b4b28abfae5cd78ca97e7f4ac6ed20d685d5f4a7c LineBreak-16.0.0.txt
+f http://ftp.unicode.org/Public/16.0.0/ucd/auxiliary/WordBreakProperty.txt 476464e71a4b7b779b8ba7c5671f4338fea77da8e6b6b05fb82b3fdd14603779 WordBreakProperty-16.0.0.txt
+f http://ftp.unicode.org/Public/16.0.0/ucd/auxiliary/GraphemeBreakProperty.txt c29360bd6f7132811d701d29069541e827eb44bfc4c8fbde8c370d6982689dc1 GraphemeBreakProperty-16.0.0.txt
+f http://ftp.unicode.org/Public/16.0.0/ucd/CompositionExclusions.txt 89e83cf9cc8bef6c1f8bf77e42cf6f0341dfa42e66261f4dbe9b492e7a23c8ee CompositionExclusions-16.0.0.txt
+f http://ftp.unicode.org/Public/16.0.0/ucd/SpecialCasing.txt 8d5de354eef79f2395a54c9c7dcebbaf3d30fc962d0f85611ea97aa973a0c451 SpecialCasing-16.0.0.txt
+f http://ftp.unicode.org/Public/16.0.0/ucd/CaseFolding.txt 6f1f9c588eb4a5c718d9e8f93b782685e5c7fec872cf05e8e6878053599e09bb CaseFolding-16.0.0.txt
+f http://ftp.unicode.org/Public/4.0-Update1/Blocks-4.0.1.txt c9dba71655b8787c381b3421ba2bf9a3df9e6168b5835f93fd3931c1eeff90cf Blocks-4.0.1.txt
+f http://ftp.unicode.org/Public/4.0-Update1/UnicodeData-4.0.1.txt de54d68f2df927a20ea4a83dfd74a543ca7f3e3df2441576e7f6a185ec6fa217 UnicodeData-4.0.1.txt
diff --git a/steps/grep-3.7/import-gnulib.sh b/steps/grep-3.7/import-gnulib.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 2dc6e44ea..000000000
--- a/steps/grep-3.7/import-gnulib.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,100 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/sh
-
-# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2022 Andrius Štikonas <andrius@stikonas.eu>
-#
-# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later
-
-../gnulib-8f4538a5/gnulib-tool --import --local-dir=gl \
-  --lib=libgreputils \
-  --source-base=lib \
-  --m4-base=m4 \
-  --doc-base=doc \
-  --tests-base=gnulib-tests \
-  --aux-dir=build-aux \
-  --with-tests \
-  --makefile-name=gnulib.mk \
-  --no-conditional-dependencies \
-  --no-libtool \
-  --macro-prefix=gl \
-  --avoid=lock-tests \
-  --avoid=mbrtowc-tests \
-  --avoid=update-copyright-tests \
-  alloca \
-  announce-gen \
-  argmatch \
-  c-ctype \
-  c-stack \
-  c-strcase \
-  closeout \
-  configmake \
-  dfa \
-  dirname-lgpl \
-  do-release-commit-and-tag \
-  error \
-  exclude \
-  fcntl-h \
-  fdl \
-  fnmatch \
-  fstatat \
-  fts \
-  getopt-gnu \
-  getpagesize \
-  getprogname \
-  gettext-h \
-  git-version-gen \
-  gitlog-to-changelog \
-  gnu-web-doc-update \
-  gnupload \
-  hash \
-  ignore-value \
-  intprops \
-  inttypes \
-  isatty \
-  isblank \
-  iswctype \
-  largefile \
-  locale \
-  lseek \
-  maintainer-makefile \
-  malloc-gnu \
-  manywarnings \
-  mbrlen \
-  mbrtowc \
-  memchr \
-  memchr2 \
-  mempcpy \
-  minmax \
-  obstack \
-  openat-safer \
-  perl \
-  propername \
-  rawmemchr \
-  readme-release \
-  realloc-gnu \
-  regex \
-  safe-read \
-  same-inode \
-  ssize_t \
-  stddef \
-  stdlib \
-  stpcpy \
-  strerror \
-  string \
-  strstr \
-  strtoull \
-  strtoumax \
-  sys_stat \
-  unistd \
-  unlocked-io \
-  update-copyright \
-  useless-if-before-free \
-  verify \
-  version-etc-fsf \
-  wchar \
-  wcrtomb \
-  wctob \
-  wctype-h \
-  windows-stat-inodes \
-  xalloc \
-  xbinary-io \
-  xstrtoimax
diff --git a/steps/grep-3.7/pass1.sh b/steps/grep-3.7/pass1.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index f776c711a..000000000
--- a/steps/grep-3.7/pass1.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,20 +0,0 @@
-# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2022 Andrius Štikonas <andrius@stikonas.eu>
-#
-# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later
-
-src_prepare() {
-    rm configure
-    find . -name 'Makefile.in' -delete
-
-    ../../import-gnulib.sh
-
-    autoreconf-2.71 -fi
-}
-
-src_configure() {
-    ./configure --prefix="${PREFIX}"
-}
-
-src_install() {
-    default
-}
diff --git a/steps/grep-3.7/sources b/steps/grep-3.7/sources
deleted file mode 100644
index e4168e57e..000000000
--- a/steps/grep-3.7/sources
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-f https://mirrors.kernel.org/gnu/grep/grep-3.7.tar.xz 5c10da312460aec721984d5d83246d24520ec438dd48d7ab5a05dbc0d6d6823c
-g https://https.git.savannah.gnu.org/git/gnulib.git~8f4538a5 _ e207c0bb72093c3a72dde302fcfaa1dbda12a62172d47b73565883a92209ebab gnulib-8f4538a5.tar.gz
diff --git a/steps/manifest b/steps/manifest
index 7ee6e7cb0..8b99df5a3 100644
--- a/steps/manifest
+++ b/steps/manifest
@@ -214,7 +214,7 @@ build: libunistring-1.4.1
 build: gc-8.2.12
 build: guile-3.0.11
 build: which-2.23
-build: grep-3.7
+build: grep-3.12
 build: sed-4.8
 build: autogen-5.18.16
 jump: break ( INTERNAL_CI == pass1 ) # scripts are generated in pass1