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| revision 75 by nigel, Sat Feb 24 21:40:37 2007 UTC | revision 77 by nigel, Sat Feb 24 21:40:45 2007 UTC | |
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| # | Line 6 synopses of each function in the library | Line 6 synopses of each function in the library |
| 6 | separate text files for the pcregrep and pcretest commands. | separate text files for the pcregrep and pcretest commands. |
| 7 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 8 | ||
| PCRE(3) PCRE(3) | ||
| 9 | ||
| 10 | ||
| 11 | NAME | NAME |
| 12 | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions |
| 13 | ||
| 14 | ||
| 15 | INTRODUCTION | INTRODUCTION |
| 16 | ||
| 17 | The PCRE library is a set of functions that implement regular expres- | The PCRE library is a set of functions that implement regular expres- |
| 18 | sion pattern matching using the same syntax and semantics as Perl, with | sion pattern matching using the same syntax and semantics as Perl, with |
| 19 | just a few differences. The current implementation of PCRE (release | just a few differences. The current implementation of PCRE (release |
| 20 | 5.x) corresponds approximately with Perl 5.8, including support for | 6.x) corresponds approximately with Perl 5.8, including support for |
| 21 | UTF-8 encoded strings and Unicode general category properties. However, | UTF-8 encoded strings and Unicode general category properties. However, |
| 22 | this support has to be explicitly enabled; it is not the default. | this support has to be explicitly enabled; it is not the default. |
| 23 | ||
| 24 | In addition to the Perl-compatible matching function, PCRE also con- | |
| 25 | tains an alternative matching function that matches the same compiled | |
| 26 | patterns in a different way. In certain circumstances, the alternative | |
| 27 | function has some advantages. For a discussion of the two matching | |
| 28 | algorithms, see the pcrematching page. | |
| 29 | ||
| 30 | PCRE is written in C and released as a C library. A number of people | PCRE is written in C and released as a C library. A number of people |
| 31 | have written wrappers and interfaces of various kinds. A C++ class is | have written wrappers and interfaces of various kinds. In particular, |
| 32 | included in these contributions, which can be found in the Contrib | Google Inc. have provided a comprehensive C++ wrapper. This is now |
| 33 | directory at the primary FTP site, which is: | included as part of the PCRE distribution. The pcrecpp page has details |
| 34 | of this interface. Other people's contributions can be found in the | |
| 35 | Contrib directory at the primary FTP site, which is: | |
| 36 | ||
| 37 | ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre | ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre |
| 38 | ||
| # | Line 40 INTRODUCTION | Line 47 INTRODUCTION |
| 47 | ing PCRE for various operating systems can be found in the README file | ing PCRE for various operating systems can be found in the README file |
| 48 | in the source distribution. | in the source distribution. |
| 49 | ||
| 50 | The library contains a number of undocumented internal functions and | |
| 51 | data tables that are used by more than one of the exported external | |
| 52 | functions, but which are not intended for use by external callers. | |
| 53 | Their names all begin with "_pcre_", which hopefully will not provoke | |
| 54 | any name clashes. | |
| 55 | ||
| 56 | ||
| 57 | USER DOCUMENTATION | USER DOCUMENTATION |
| 58 | ||
| # | Line 50 USER DOCUMENTATION | Line 63 USER DOCUMENTATION |
| 63 | of searching. The sections are as follows: | of searching. The sections are as follows: |
| 64 | ||
| 65 | pcre this document | pcre this document |
| 66 | pcreapi details of PCRE's native API | pcreapi details of PCRE's native C API |
| 67 | pcrebuild options for building PCRE | pcrebuild options for building PCRE |
| 68 | pcrecallout details of the callout feature | pcrecallout details of the callout feature |
| 69 | pcrecompat discussion of Perl compatibility | pcrecompat discussion of Perl compatibility |
| 70 | pcrecpp details of the C++ wrapper | |
| 71 | pcregrep description of the pcregrep command | pcregrep description of the pcregrep command |
| 72 | pcrematching discussion of the two matching algorithms | |
| 73 | pcrepartial details of the partial matching facility | pcrepartial details of the partial matching facility |
| 74 | pcrepattern syntax and semantics of supported | pcrepattern syntax and semantics of supported |
| 75 | regular expressions | regular expressions |
| 76 | pcreperform discussion of performance issues | pcreperform discussion of performance issues |
| 77 | pcreposix the POSIX-compatible API | pcreposix the POSIX-compatible C API |
| 78 | pcreprecompile details of saving and re-using precompiled patterns | pcreprecompile details of saving and re-using precompiled patterns |
| 79 | pcresample discussion of the sample program | pcresample discussion of the sample program |
| 80 | pcretest description of the pcretest testing command | pcretest description of the pcretest testing command |
| 81 | ||
| 82 | In addition, in the "man" and HTML formats, there is a short page for | In addition, in the "man" and HTML formats, there is a short page for |
| 83 | each library function, listing its arguments and results. | each C library function, listing its arguments and results. |
| 84 | ||
| 85 | ||
| 86 | LIMITATIONS | LIMITATIONS |
| # | Line 90 LIMITATIONS | Line 105 LIMITATIONS |
| 105 | tern, is 200. | tern, is 200. |
| 106 | ||
| 107 | The maximum length of a subject string is the largest positive number | The maximum length of a subject string is the largest positive number |
| 108 | that an integer variable can hold. However, PCRE uses recursion to han- | that an integer variable can hold. However, when using the traditional |
| 109 | dle subpatterns and indefinite repetition. This means that the avail- | matching function, PCRE uses recursion to handle subpatterns and indef- |
| 110 | able stack space may limit the size of a subject string that can be | inite repetition. This means that the available stack space may limit |
| 111 | processed by certain patterns. | the size of a subject string that can be processed by certain patterns. |
| 112 | ||
| 113 | ||
| 114 | UTF-8 AND UNICODE PROPERTY SUPPORT | UTF-8 AND UNICODE PROPERTY SUPPORT |
| 115 | ||
| 116 | From release 3.3, PCRE has had some support for character strings | From release 3.3, PCRE has had some support for character strings |
| 117 | encoded in the UTF-8 format. For release 4.0 this was greatly extended | encoded in the UTF-8 format. For release 4.0 this was greatly extended |
| 118 | to cover most common requirements, and in release 5.0 additional sup- | to cover most common requirements, and in release 5.0 additional sup- |
| 119 | port for Unicode general category properties was added. | port for Unicode general category properties was added. |
| 120 | ||
| 121 | In order process UTF-8 strings, you must build PCRE to include UTF-8 | In order process UTF-8 strings, you must build PCRE to include UTF-8 |
| 122 | support in the code, and, in addition, you must call pcre_compile() | support in the code, and, in addition, you must call pcre_compile() |
| 123 | with the PCRE_UTF8 option flag. When you do this, both the pattern and | with the PCRE_UTF8 option flag. When you do this, both the pattern and |
| 124 | any subject strings that are matched against it are treated as UTF-8 | any subject strings that are matched against it are treated as UTF-8 |
| 125 | strings instead of just strings of bytes. | strings instead of just strings of bytes. |
| 126 | ||
| 127 | If you compile PCRE with UTF-8 support, but do not use it at run time, | If you compile PCRE with UTF-8 support, but do not use it at run time, |
| 128 | the library will be a bit bigger, but the additional run time overhead | the library will be a bit bigger, but the additional run time overhead |
| 129 | is limited to testing the PCRE_UTF8 flag in several places, so should | is limited to testing the PCRE_UTF8 flag in several places, so should |
| 130 | not be very large. | not be very large. |
| 131 | ||
| 132 | If PCRE is built with Unicode character property support (which implies | If PCRE is built with Unicode character property support (which implies |
| 133 | UTF-8 support), the escape sequences \p{..}, \P{..}, and \X are sup- | UTF-8 support), the escape sequences \p{..}, \P{..}, and \X are sup- |
| 134 | ported. The available properties that can be tested are limited to the | ported. The available properties that can be tested are limited to the |
| 135 | general category properties such as Lu for an upper case letter or Nd | general category properties such as Lu for an upper case letter or Nd |
| 136 | for a decimal number. A full list is given in the pcrepattern documen- | for a decimal number. A full list is given in the pcrepattern documen- |
| 137 | tation. The PCRE library is increased in size by about 90K when Unicode | tation. The PCRE library is increased in size by about 90K when Unicode |
| 138 | property support is included. | property support is included. |
| 139 | ||
| 140 | The following comments apply when PCRE is running in UTF-8 mode: | The following comments apply when PCRE is running in UTF-8 mode: |
| 141 | ||
| 142 | 1. When you set the PCRE_UTF8 flag, the strings passed as patterns and | 1. When you set the PCRE_UTF8 flag, the strings passed as patterns and |
| 143 | subjects are checked for validity on entry to the relevant functions. | subjects are checked for validity on entry to the relevant functions. |
| 144 | If an invalid UTF-8 string is passed, an error return is given. In some | If an invalid UTF-8 string is passed, an error return is given. In some |
| 145 | situations, you may already know that your strings are valid, and | situations, you may already know that your strings are valid, and |
| 146 | therefore want to skip these checks in order to improve performance. If | therefore want to skip these checks in order to improve performance. If |
| 147 | you set the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK flag at compile time or at run time, | you set the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK flag at compile time or at run time, |
| 148 | PCRE assumes that the pattern or subject it is given (respectively) | PCRE assumes that the pattern or subject it is given (respectively) |
| 149 | contains only valid UTF-8 codes. In this case, it does not diagnose an | contains only valid UTF-8 codes. In this case, it does not diagnose an |
| 150 | invalid UTF-8 string. If you pass an invalid UTF-8 string to PCRE when | invalid UTF-8 string. If you pass an invalid UTF-8 string to PCRE when |
| 151 | PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK is set, the results are undefined. Your program may | PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK is set, the results are undefined. Your program may |
| 152 | crash. | crash. |
| 153 | ||
| 154 | 2. In a pattern, the escape sequence \x{...}, where the contents of the | 2. In a pattern, the escape sequence \x{...}, where the contents of the |
| 155 | braces is a string of hexadecimal digits, is interpreted as a UTF-8 | braces is a string of hexadecimal digits, is interpreted as a UTF-8 |
| 156 | character whose code number is the given hexadecimal number, for exam- | character whose code number is the given hexadecimal number, for exam- |
| 157 | ple: \x{1234}. If a non-hexadecimal digit appears between the braces, | ple: \x{1234}. If a non-hexadecimal digit appears between the braces, |
| 158 | the item is not recognized. This escape sequence can be used either as | the item is not recognized. This escape sequence can be used either as |
| 159 | a literal, or within a character class. | a literal, or within a character class. |
| 160 | ||
| 161 | 3. The original hexadecimal escape sequence, \xhh, matches a two-byte | 3. The original hexadecimal escape sequence, \xhh, matches a two-byte |
| 162 | UTF-8 character if the value is greater than 127. | UTF-8 character if the value is greater than 127. |
| 163 | ||
| 164 | 4. Repeat quantifiers apply to complete UTF-8 characters, not to indi- | 4. Repeat quantifiers apply to complete UTF-8 characters, not to indi- |
| 165 | vidual bytes, for example: \x{100}{3}. | vidual bytes, for example: \x{100}{3}. |
| 166 | ||
| 167 | 5. The dot metacharacter matches one UTF-8 character instead of a sin- | 5. The dot metacharacter matches one UTF-8 character instead of a sin- |
| 168 | gle byte. | gle byte. |
| 169 | ||
| 170 | 6. The escape sequence \C can be used to match a single byte in UTF-8 | 6. The escape sequence \C can be used to match a single byte in UTF-8 |
| 171 | mode, but its use can lead to some strange effects. | mode, but its use can lead to some strange effects. This facility is |
| 172 | not available in the alternative matching function, pcre_dfa_exec(). | |
| 173 | ||
| 174 | 7. The character escapes \b, \B, \d, \D, \s, \S, \w, and \W correctly | 7. The character escapes \b, \B, \d, \D, \s, \S, \w, and \W correctly |
| 175 | test characters of any code value, but the characters that PCRE recog- | test characters of any code value, but the characters that PCRE recog- |
| # | Line 177 UTF-8 AND UNICODE PROPERTY SUPPORT | Line 193 UTF-8 AND UNICODE PROPERTY SUPPORT |
| 193 | ||
| 194 | AUTHOR | AUTHOR |
| 195 | ||
| 196 | Philip Hazel <ph10@cam.ac.uk> | Philip Hazel |
| 197 | University Computing Service, | University Computing Service, |
| 198 | Cambridge CB2 3QG, England. | Cambridge CB2 3QG, England. |
| Phone: +44 1223 334714 | ||
| 199 | ||
| 200 | Last updated: 09 September 2004 | Putting an actual email address here seems to have been a spam magnet, |
| 201 | Copyright (c) 1997-2004 University of Cambridge. | so I've taken it away. If you want to email me, use my initial and sur- |
| 202 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | name, separated by a dot, at the domain ucs.cam.ac.uk. |
| 203 | ||
| 204 | PCRE(3) PCRE(3) | Last updated: 07 March 2005 |
| 205 | Copyright (c) 1997-2005 University of Cambridge. | |
| 206 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| 207 | ||
| 208 | ||
| 209 | ||
| 210 | NAME | NAME |
| 211 | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions |
| 212 | ||
| 213 | ||
| 214 | PCRE BUILD-TIME OPTIONS | PCRE BUILD-TIME OPTIONS |
| 215 | ||
| 216 | This document describes the optional features of PCRE that can be | This document describes the optional features of PCRE that can be |
| # | Line 287 POSIX MALLOC USAGE | Line 305 POSIX MALLOC USAGE |
| 305 | LIMITING PCRE RESOURCE USAGE | LIMITING PCRE RESOURCE USAGE |
| 306 | ||
| 307 | Internally, PCRE has a function called match(), which it calls repeat- | Internally, PCRE has a function called match(), which it calls repeat- |
| 308 | edly (possibly recursively) when matching a pattern. By controlling the | edly (possibly recursively) when matching a pattern with the |
| 309 | maximum number of times this function may be called during a single | pcre_exec() function. By controlling the maximum number of times this |
| 310 | matching operation, a limit can be placed on the resources used by a | function may be called during a single matching operation, a limit can |
| 311 | single call to pcre_exec(). The limit can be changed at run time, as | be placed on the resources used by a single call to pcre_exec(). The |
| 312 | described in the pcreapi documentation. The default is 10 million, but | limit can be changed at run time, as described in the pcreapi documen- |
| 313 | this can be changed by adding a setting such as | tation. The default is 10 million, but this can be changed by adding a |
| 314 | setting such as | |
| 315 | ||
| 316 | --with-match-limit=500000 | --with-match-limit=500000 |
| 317 | ||
| 318 | to the configure command. | to the configure command. This setting has no effect on the |
| 319 | pcre_dfa_exec() matching function. | |
| 320 | ||
| 321 | ||
| 322 | HANDLING VERY LARGE PATTERNS | HANDLING VERY LARGE PATTERNS |
| # | Line 324 HANDLING VERY LARGE PATTERNS | Line 344 HANDLING VERY LARGE PATTERNS |
| 344 | ||
| 345 | AVOIDING EXCESSIVE STACK USAGE | AVOIDING EXCESSIVE STACK USAGE |
| 346 | ||
| 347 | PCRE implements backtracking while matching by making recursive calls | When matching with the pcre_exec() function, PCRE implements backtrack- |
| 348 | to an internal function called match(). In environments where the size | ing by making recursive calls to an internal function called match(). |
| 349 | of the stack is limited, this can severely limit PCRE's operation. (The | In environments where the size of the stack is limited, this can se- |
| 350 | Unix environment does not usually suffer from this problem.) An alter- | verely limit PCRE's operation. (The Unix environment does not usually |
| 351 | native approach that uses memory from the heap to remember data, | suffer from this problem.) An alternative approach that uses memory |
| 352 | instead of using recursive function calls, has been implemented to work | from the heap to remember data, instead of using recursive function |
| 353 | round this problem. If you want to build a version of PCRE that works | calls, has been implemented to work round this problem. If you want to |
| 354 | this way, add | build a version of PCRE that works this way, add |
| 355 | ||
| 356 | --disable-stack-for-recursion | --disable-stack-for-recursion |
| 357 | ||
| # | Line 342 AVOIDING EXCESSIVE STACK USAGE | Line 362 AVOIDING EXCESSIVE STACK USAGE |
| 362 | the blocks are always freed in reverse order. A calling program might | the blocks are always freed in reverse order. A calling program might |
| 363 | be able to implement optimized functions that perform better than the | be able to implement optimized functions that perform better than the |
| 364 | standard malloc() and free() functions. PCRE runs noticeably more | standard malloc() and free() functions. PCRE runs noticeably more |
| 365 | slowly when built in this way. | slowly when built in this way. This option affects only the pcre_exec() |
| 366 | function; it is not relevant for the the pcre_dfa_exec() function. | |
| 367 | ||
| 368 | ||
| 369 | USING EBCDIC CODE | USING EBCDIC CODE |
| 370 | ||
| 371 | PCRE assumes by default that it will run in an environment where the | PCRE assumes by default that it will run in an environment where the |
| 372 | character code is ASCII (or Unicode, which is a superset of ASCII). | character code is ASCII (or Unicode, which is a superset of ASCII). |
| 373 | PCRE can, however, be compiled to run in an EBCDIC environment by | PCRE can, however, be compiled to run in an EBCDIC environment by |
| 374 | adding | adding |
| 375 | ||
| 376 | --enable-ebcdic | --enable-ebcdic |
| 377 | ||
| 378 | to the configure command. | to the configure command. |
| 379 | ||
| 380 | Last updated: 09 September 2004 | Last updated: 28 February 2005 |
| 381 | Copyright (c) 1997-2004 University of Cambridge. | Copyright (c) 1997-2005 University of Cambridge. |
| 382 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 383 | ||
| 384 | PCRE(3) PCRE(3) | |
| 385 | ||
| 386 | NAME | |
| 387 | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions | |
| 388 | ||
| 389 | ||
| 390 | PCRE MATCHING ALGORITHMS | |
| 391 | ||
| 392 | This document describes the two different algorithms that are available | |
| 393 | in PCRE for matching a compiled regular expression against a given sub- | |
| 394 | ject string. The "standard" algorithm is the one provided by the | |
| 395 | pcre_exec() function. This works in the same was as Perl's matching | |
| 396 | function, and provides a Perl-compatible matching operation. | |
| 397 | ||
| 398 | An alternative algorithm is provided by the pcre_dfa_exec() function; | |
| 399 | this operates in a different way, and is not Perl-compatible. It has | |
| 400 | advantages and disadvantages compared with the standard algorithm, and | |
| 401 | these are described below. | |
| 402 | ||
| 403 | When there is only one possible way in which a given subject string can | |
| 404 | match a pattern, the two algorithms give the same answer. A difference | |
| 405 | arises, however, when there are multiple possibilities. For example, if | |
| 406 | the pattern | |
| 407 | ||
| 408 | ^<.*> | |
| 409 | ||
| 410 | is matched against the string | |
| 411 | ||
| 412 | <something> <something else> <something further> | |
| 413 | ||
| 414 | there are three possible answers. The standard algorithm finds only one | |
| 415 | of them, whereas the DFA algorithm finds all three. | |
| 416 | ||
| 417 | ||
| 418 | REGULAR EXPRESSIONS AS TREES | |
| 419 | ||
| 420 | The set of strings that are matched by a regular expression can be rep- | |
| 421 | resented as a tree structure. An unlimited repetition in the pattern | |
| 422 | makes the tree of infinite size, but it is still a tree. Matching the | |
| 423 | pattern to a given subject string (from a given starting point) can be | |
| 424 | thought of as a search of the tree. There are two standard ways to | |
| 425 | search a tree: depth-first and breadth-first, and these correspond to | |
| 426 | the two matching algorithms provided by PCRE. | |
| 427 | ||
| 428 | ||
| 429 | THE STANDARD MATCHING ALGORITHM | |
| 430 | ||
| 431 | In the terminology of Jeffrey Friedl's book Mastering Regular Expres- | |
| 432 | sions, the standard algorithm is an "NFA algorithm". It conducts a | |
| 433 | depth-first search of the pattern tree. That is, it proceeds along a | |
| 434 | single path through the tree, checking that the subject matches what is | |
| 435 | required. When there is a mismatch, the algorithm tries any alterna- | |
| 436 | tives at the current point, and if they all fail, it backs up to the | |
| 437 | previous branch point in the tree, and tries the next alternative | |
| 438 | branch at that level. This often involves backing up (moving to the | |
| 439 | left) in the subject string as well. The order in which repetition | |
| 440 | branches are tried is controlled by the greedy or ungreedy nature of | |
| 441 | the quantifier. | |
| 442 | ||
| 443 | If a leaf node is reached, a matching string has been found, and at | |
| 444 | that point the algorithm stops. Thus, if there is more than one possi- | |
| 445 | ble match, this algorithm returns the first one that it finds. Whether | |
| 446 | this is the shortest, the longest, or some intermediate length depends | |
| 447 | on the way the greedy and ungreedy repetition quantifiers are specified | |
| 448 | in the pattern. | |
| 449 | ||
| 450 | Because it ends up with a single path through the tree, it is rela- | |
| 451 | tively straightforward for this algorithm to keep track of the sub- | |
| 452 | strings that are matched by portions of the pattern in parentheses. | |
| 453 | This provides support for capturing parentheses and back references. | |
| 454 | ||
| 455 | ||
| 456 | THE DFA MATCHING ALGORITHM | |
| 457 | ||
| 458 | DFA stands for "deterministic finite automaton", but you do not need to | |
| 459 | understand the origins of that name. This algorithm conducts a breadth- | |
| 460 | first search of the tree. Starting from the first matching point in the | |
| 461 | subject, it scans the subject string from left to right, once, charac- | |
| 462 | ter by character, and as it does this, it remembers all the paths | |
| 463 | through the tree that represent valid matches. | |
| 464 | ||
| 465 | The scan continues until either the end of the subject is reached, or | |
| 466 | there are no more unterminated paths. At this point, terminated paths | |
| 467 | represent the different matching possibilities (if there are none, the | |
| 468 | match has failed). Thus, if there is more than one possible match, | |
| 469 | this algorithm finds all of them, and in particular, it finds the long- | |
| 470 | est. In PCRE, there is an option to stop the algorithm after the first | |
| 471 | match (which is necessarily the shortest) has been found. | |
| 472 | ||
| 473 | Note that all the matches that are found start at the same point in the | |
| 474 | subject. If the pattern | |
| 475 | ||
| 476 | cat(er(pillar)?) | |
| 477 | ||
| 478 | is matched against the string "the caterpillar catchment", the result | |
| 479 | will be the three strings "cat", "cater", and "caterpillar" that start | |
| 480 | at the fourth character of the subject. The algorithm does not automat- | |
| 481 | ically move on to find matches that start at later positions. | |
| 482 | ||
| 483 | There are a number of features of PCRE regular expressions that are not | |
| 484 | supported by the DFA matching algorithm. They are as follows: | |
| 485 | ||
| 486 | 1. Because the algorithm finds all possible matches, the greedy or | |
| 487 | ungreedy nature of repetition quantifiers is not relevant. Greedy and | |
| 488 | ungreedy quantifiers are treated in exactly the same way. | |
| 489 | ||
| 490 | 2. When dealing with multiple paths through the tree simultaneously, it | |
| 491 | is not straightforward to keep track of captured substrings for the | |
| 492 | different matching possibilities, and PCRE's implementation of this | |
| 493 | algorithm does not attempt to do this. This means that no captured sub- | |
| 494 | strings are available. | |
| 495 | ||
| 496 | 3. Because no substrings are captured, back references within the pat- | |
| 497 | tern are not supported, and cause errors if encountered. | |
| 498 | ||
| 499 | 4. For the same reason, conditional expressions that use a backrefer- | |
| 500 | ence as the condition are not supported. | |
| 501 | ||
| 502 | 5. Callouts are supported, but the value of the capture_top field is | |
| 503 | always 1, and the value of the capture_last field is always -1. | |
| 504 | ||
| 505 | 6. The \C escape sequence, which (in the standard algorithm) matches a | |
| 506 | single byte, even in UTF-8 mode, is not supported because the DFA algo- | |
| 507 | rithm moves through the subject string one character at a time, for all | |
| 508 | active paths through the tree. | |
| 509 | ||
| 510 | ||
| 511 | ADVANTAGES OF THE DFA ALGORITHM | |
| 512 | ||
| 513 | Using the DFA matching algorithm provides the following advantages: | |
| 514 | ||
| 515 | 1. All possible matches (at a single point in the subject) are automat- | |
| 516 | ically found, and in particular, the longest match is found. To find | |
| 517 | more than one match using the standard algorithm, you have to do kludgy | |
| 518 | things with callouts. | |
| 519 | ||
| 520 | 2. There is much better support for partial matching. The restrictions | |
| 521 | on the content of the pattern that apply when using the standard algo- | |
| 522 | rithm for partial matching do not apply to the DFA algorithm. For non- | |
| 523 | anchored patterns, the starting position of a partial match is avail- | |
| 524 | able. | |
| 525 | ||
| 526 | 3. Because the DFA algorithm scans the subject string just once, and | |
| 527 | never needs to backtrack, it is possible to pass very long subject | |
| 528 | strings to the matching function in several pieces, checking for par- | |
| 529 | tial matching each time. | |
| 530 | ||
| 531 | ||
| 532 | DISADVANTAGES OF THE DFA ALGORITHM | |
| 533 | ||
| 534 | The DFA algorithm suffers from a number of disadvantages: | |
| 535 | ||
| 536 | 1. It is substantially slower than the standard algorithm. This is | |
| 537 | partly because it has to search for all possible matches, but is also | |
| 538 | because it is less susceptible to optimization. | |
| 539 | ||
| 540 | 2. Capturing parentheses and back references are not supported. | |
| 541 | ||
| 542 | 3. The "atomic group" feature of PCRE regular expressions is supported, | |
| 543 | but does not provide the advantage that it does for the standard algo- | |
| 544 | rithm. | |
| 545 | ||
| 546 | Last updated: 28 February 2005 | |
| 547 | Copyright (c) 1997-2005 University of Cambridge. | |
| 548 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| 549 | ||
| 550 | ||
| 551 | ||
| 552 | NAME | NAME |
| 553 | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions |
| 554 | ||
| 555 | ||
| 556 | PCRE NATIVE API | PCRE NATIVE API |
| 557 | ||
| 558 | #include <pcre.h> | #include <pcre.h> |
| # | Line 375 PCRE NATIVE API | Line 561 PCRE NATIVE API |
| 561 | const char **errptr, int *erroffset, | const char **errptr, int *erroffset, |
| 562 | const unsigned char *tableptr); | const unsigned char *tableptr); |
| 563 | ||
| 564 | pcre *pcre_compile2(const char *pattern, int options, | |
| 565 | int *errorcodeptr, | |
| 566 | const char **errptr, int *erroffset, | |
| 567 | const unsigned char *tableptr); | |
| 568 | ||
| 569 | pcre_extra *pcre_study(const pcre *code, int options, | pcre_extra *pcre_study(const pcre *code, int options, |
| 570 | const char **errptr); | const char **errptr); |
| 571 | ||
| # | Line 382 PCRE NATIVE API | Line 573 PCRE NATIVE API |
| 573 | const char *subject, int length, int startoffset, | const char *subject, int length, int startoffset, |
| 574 | int options, int *ovector, int ovecsize); | int options, int *ovector, int ovecsize); |
| 575 | ||
| 576 | int pcre_dfa_exec(const pcre *code, const pcre_extra *extra, | |
| 577 | const char *subject, int length, int startoffset, | |
| 578 | int options, int *ovector, int ovecsize, | |
| 579 | int *workspace, int wscount); | |
| 580 | ||
| 581 | int pcre_copy_named_substring(const pcre *code, | int pcre_copy_named_substring(const pcre *code, |
| 582 | const char *subject, int *ovector, | const char *subject, int *ovector, |
| 583 | int stringcount, const char *stringname, | int stringcount, const char *stringname, |
| # | Line 417 PCRE NATIVE API | Line 613 PCRE NATIVE API |
| 613 | ||
| 614 | int pcre_info(const pcre *code, int *optptr, int *firstcharptr); | int pcre_info(const pcre *code, int *optptr, int *firstcharptr); |
| 615 | ||
| 616 | int pcre_refcount(pcre *code, int adjust); | |
| 617 | ||
| 618 | int pcre_config(int what, void *where); | int pcre_config(int what, void *where); |
| 619 | ||
| 620 | char *pcre_version(void); | char *pcre_version(void); |
| # | Line 436 PCRE API OVERVIEW | Line 634 PCRE API OVERVIEW |
| 634 | ||
| 635 | PCRE has its own native API, which is described in this document. There | PCRE has its own native API, which is described in this document. There |
| 636 | is also a set of wrapper functions that correspond to the POSIX regular | is also a set of wrapper functions that correspond to the POSIX regular |
| 637 | expression API. These are described in the pcreposix documentation. | expression API. These are described in the pcreposix documentation. |
| 638 | Both of these APIs define a set of C function calls. A C++ wrapper is | |
| 639 | distributed with PCRE. It is documented in the pcrecpp page. | |
| 640 | ||
| 641 | The native API function prototypes are defined in the header file | The native API C function prototypes are defined in the header file |
| 642 | pcre.h, and on Unix systems the library itself is called libpcre. It | pcre.h, and on Unix systems the library itself is called libpcre. It |
| 643 | can normally be accessed by adding -lpcre to the command for linking an | can normally be accessed by adding -lpcre to the command for linking an |
| 644 | application that uses PCRE. The header file defines the macros | application that uses PCRE. The header file defines the macros |
| 645 | PCRE_MAJOR and PCRE_MINOR to contain the major and minor release num- | PCRE_MAJOR and PCRE_MINOR to contain the major and minor release num- |
| 646 | bers for the library. Applications can use these to include support | bers for the library. Applications can use these to include support |
| 647 | for different releases of PCRE. | for different releases of PCRE. |
| 648 | ||
| 649 | The functions pcre_compile(), pcre_study(), and pcre_exec() are used | The functions pcre_compile(), pcre_compile2(), pcre_study(), and |
| 650 | for compiling and matching regular expressions. A sample program that | pcre_exec() are used for compiling and matching regular expressions in |
| 651 | demonstrates the simplest way of using them is provided in the file | a Perl-compatible manner. A sample program that demonstrates the sim- |
| 652 | called pcredemo.c in the source distribution. The pcresample documenta- | plest way of using them is provided in the file called pcredemo.c in |
| 653 | tion describes how to run it. | the source distribution. The pcresample documentation describes how to |
| 654 | run it. | |
| 655 | In addition to the main compiling and matching functions, there are | |
| 656 | convenience functions for extracting captured substrings from a matched | A second matching function, pcre_dfa_exec(), which is not Perl-compati- |
| 657 | subject string. They are: | ble, is also provided. This uses a different algorithm for the match- |
| 658 | ing. This allows it to find all possible matches (at a given point in | |
| 659 | the subject), not just one. However, this algorithm does not return | |
| 660 | captured substrings. A description of the two matching algorithms and | |
| 661 | their advantages and disadvantages is given in the pcrematching docu- | |
| 662 | mentation. | |
| 663 | ||
| 664 | In addition to the main compiling and matching functions, there are | |
| 665 | convenience functions for extracting captured substrings from a subject | |
| 666 | string that is matched by pcre_exec(). They are: | |
| 667 | ||
| 668 | pcre_copy_substring() | pcre_copy_substring() |
| 669 | pcre_copy_named_substring() | pcre_copy_named_substring() |
| # | Line 466 PCRE API OVERVIEW | Line 675 PCRE API OVERVIEW |
| 675 | pcre_free_substring() and pcre_free_substring_list() are also provided, | pcre_free_substring() and pcre_free_substring_list() are also provided, |
| 676 | to free the memory used for extracted strings. | to free the memory used for extracted strings. |
| 677 | ||
| 678 | The function pcre_maketables() is used to build a set of character | The function pcre_maketables() is used to build a set of character |
| 679 | tables in the current locale for passing to pcre_compile() or | tables in the current locale for passing to pcre_compile(), |
| 680 | pcre_exec(). This is an optional facility that is provided for spe- | pcre_exec(), or pcre_dfa_exec(). This is an optional facility that is |
| 681 | cialist use. Most commonly, no special tables are passed, in which case | provided for specialist use. Most commonly, no special tables are |
| 682 | internal tables that are generated when PCRE is built are used. | passed, in which case internal tables that are generated when PCRE is |
| 683 | built are used. | |
| 684 | ||
| 685 | The function pcre_fullinfo() is used to find out information about a | The function pcre_fullinfo() is used to find out information about a |
| 686 | compiled pattern; pcre_info() is an obsolete version that returns only | compiled pattern; pcre_info() is an obsolete version that returns only |
| # | Line 478 PCRE API OVERVIEW | Line 688 PCRE API OVERVIEW |
| 688 | patibility. The function pcre_version() returns a pointer to a string | patibility. The function pcre_version() returns a pointer to a string |
| 689 | containing the version of PCRE and its date of release. | containing the version of PCRE and its date of release. |
| 690 | ||
| 691 | The function pcre_refcount() maintains a reference count in a data | |
| 692 | block containing a compiled pattern. This is provided for the benefit | |
| 693 | of object-oriented applications. | |
| 694 | ||
| 695 | The global variables pcre_malloc and pcre_free initially contain the | The global variables pcre_malloc and pcre_free initially contain the |
| 696 | entry points of the standard malloc() and free() functions, respec- | entry points of the standard malloc() and free() functions, respec- |
| 697 | tively. PCRE calls the memory management functions via these variables, | tively. PCRE calls the memory management functions via these variables, |
| # | Line 487 PCRE API OVERVIEW | Line 701 PCRE API OVERVIEW |
| 701 | The global variables pcre_stack_malloc and pcre_stack_free are also | The global variables pcre_stack_malloc and pcre_stack_free are also |
| 702 | indirections to memory management functions. These special functions | indirections to memory management functions. These special functions |
| 703 | are used only when PCRE is compiled to use the heap for remembering | are used only when PCRE is compiled to use the heap for remembering |
| 704 | data, instead of recursive function calls. This is a non-standard way | data, instead of recursive function calls, when running the pcre_exec() |
| 705 | of building PCRE, for use in environments that have limited stacks. | function. This is a non-standard way of building PCRE, for use in envi- |
| 706 | Because of the greater use of memory management, it runs more slowly. | ronments that have limited stacks. Because of the greater use of memory |
| 707 | Separate functions are provided so that special-purpose external code | management, it runs more slowly. Separate functions are provided so |
| 708 | can be used for this case. When used, these functions are always called | that special-purpose external code can be used for this case. When |
| 709 | in a stack-like manner (last obtained, first freed), and always for | used, these functions are always called in a stack-like manner (last |
| 710 | memory blocks of the same size. | obtained, first freed), and always for memory blocks of the same size. |
| 711 | ||
| 712 | The global variable pcre_callout initially contains NULL. It can be set | The global variable pcre_callout initially contains NULL. It can be set |
| 713 | by the caller to a "callout" function, which PCRE will then call at | by the caller to a "callout" function, which PCRE will then call at |
| 714 | specified points during a matching operation. Details are given in the | specified points during a matching operation. Details are given in the |
| 715 | pcrecallout documentation. | pcrecallout documentation. |
| 716 | ||
| 717 | ||
| 718 | MULTITHREADING | MULTITHREADING |
| 719 | ||
| 720 | The PCRE functions can be used in multi-threading applications, with | The PCRE functions can be used in multi-threading applications, with |
| 721 | the proviso that the memory management functions pointed to by | the proviso that the memory management functions pointed to by |
| 722 | pcre_malloc, pcre_free, pcre_stack_malloc, and pcre_stack_free, and the | pcre_malloc, pcre_free, pcre_stack_malloc, and pcre_stack_free, and the |
| 723 | callout function pointed to by pcre_callout, are shared by all threads. | callout function pointed to by pcre_callout, are shared by all threads. |
| 724 | ||
| 725 | The compiled form of a regular expression is not altered during match- | The compiled form of a regular expression is not altered during match- |
| 726 | ing, so the same compiled pattern can safely be used by several threads | ing, so the same compiled pattern can safely be used by several threads |
| 727 | at once. | at once. |
| 728 | ||
| # | Line 516 MULTITHREADING | Line 730 MULTITHREADING |
| 730 | SAVING PRECOMPILED PATTERNS FOR LATER USE | SAVING PRECOMPILED PATTERNS FOR LATER USE |
| 731 | ||
| 732 | The compiled form of a regular expression can be saved and re-used at a | The compiled form of a regular expression can be saved and re-used at a |
| 733 | later time, possibly by a different program, and even on a host other | later time, possibly by a different program, and even on a host other |
| 734 | than the one on which it was compiled. Details are given in the | than the one on which it was compiled. Details are given in the |
| 735 | pcreprecompile documentation. | pcreprecompile documentation. |
| 736 | ||
| 737 | ||
| # | Line 525 CHECKING BUILD-TIME OPTIONS | Line 739 CHECKING BUILD-TIME OPTIONS |
| 739 | ||
| 740 | int pcre_config(int what, void *where); | int pcre_config(int what, void *where); |
| 741 | ||
| 742 | The function pcre_config() makes it possible for a PCRE client to dis- | The function pcre_config() makes it possible for a PCRE client to dis- |
| 743 | cover which optional features have been compiled into the PCRE library. | cover which optional features have been compiled into the PCRE library. |
| 744 | The pcrebuild documentation has more details about these optional fea- | The pcrebuild documentation has more details about these optional fea- |
| 745 | tures. | tures. |
| 746 | ||
| 747 | The first argument for pcre_config() is an integer, specifying which | The first argument for pcre_config() is an integer, specifying which |
| 748 | information is required; the second argument is a pointer to a variable | information is required; the second argument is a pointer to a variable |
| 749 | into which the information is placed. The following information is | into which the information is placed. The following information is |
| 750 | available: | available: |
| 751 | ||
| 752 | PCRE_CONFIG_UTF8 | PCRE_CONFIG_UTF8 |
| 753 | ||
| 754 | The output is an integer that is set to one if UTF-8 support is avail- | The output is an integer that is set to one if UTF-8 support is avail- |
| 755 | able; otherwise it is set to zero. | able; otherwise it is set to zero. |
| 756 | ||
| 757 | PCRE_CONFIG_UNICODE_PROPERTIES | PCRE_CONFIG_UNICODE_PROPERTIES |
| 758 | ||
| 759 | The output is an integer that is set to one if support for Unicode | The output is an integer that is set to one if support for Unicode |
| 760 | character properties is available; otherwise it is set to zero. | character properties is available; otherwise it is set to zero. |
| 761 | ||
| 762 | PCRE_CONFIG_NEWLINE | PCRE_CONFIG_NEWLINE |
| 763 | ||
| 764 | The output is an integer that is set to the value of the code that is | The output is an integer that is set to the value of the code that is |
| 765 | used for the newline character. It is either linefeed (10) or carriage | used for the newline character. It is either linefeed (10) or carriage |
| 766 | return (13), and should normally be the standard character for your | return (13), and should normally be the standard character for your |
| 767 | operating system. | operating system. |
| 768 | ||
| 769 | PCRE_CONFIG_LINK_SIZE | PCRE_CONFIG_LINK_SIZE |
| 770 | ||
| 771 | The output is an integer that contains the number of bytes used for | The output is an integer that contains the number of bytes used for |
| 772 | internal linkage in compiled regular expressions. The value is 2, 3, or | internal linkage in compiled regular expressions. The value is 2, 3, or |
| 773 | 4. Larger values allow larger regular expressions to be compiled, at | 4. Larger values allow larger regular expressions to be compiled, at |
| 774 | the expense of slower matching. The default value of 2 is sufficient | the expense of slower matching. The default value of 2 is sufficient |
| 775 | for all but the most massive patterns, since it allows the compiled | for all but the most massive patterns, since it allows the compiled |
| 776 | pattern to be up to 64K in size. | pattern to be up to 64K in size. |
| 777 | ||
| 778 | PCRE_CONFIG_POSIX_MALLOC_THRESHOLD | PCRE_CONFIG_POSIX_MALLOC_THRESHOLD |
| 779 | ||
| 780 | The output is an integer that contains the threshold above which the | The output is an integer that contains the threshold above which the |
| 781 | POSIX interface uses malloc() for output vectors. Further details are | POSIX interface uses malloc() for output vectors. Further details are |
| 782 | given in the pcreposix documentation. | given in the pcreposix documentation. |
| 783 | ||
| 784 | PCRE_CONFIG_MATCH_LIMIT | PCRE_CONFIG_MATCH_LIMIT |
| 785 | ||
| 786 | The output is an integer that gives the default limit for the number of | The output is an integer that gives the default limit for the number of |
| 787 | internal matching function calls in a pcre_exec() execution. Further | internal matching function calls in a pcre_exec() execution. Further |
| 788 | details are given with pcre_exec() below. | details are given with pcre_exec() below. |
| 789 | ||
| 790 | PCRE_CONFIG_STACKRECURSE | PCRE_CONFIG_STACKRECURSE |
| 791 | ||
| 792 | The output is an integer that is set to one if internal recursion is | The output is an integer that is set to one if internal recursion when |
| 793 | implemented by recursive function calls that use the stack to remember | running pcre_exec() is implemented by recursive function calls that use |
| 794 | their state. This is the usual way that PCRE is compiled. The output is | the stack to remember their state. This is the usual way that PCRE is |
| 795 | zero if PCRE was compiled to use blocks of data on the heap instead of | compiled. The output is zero if PCRE was compiled to use blocks of data |
| 796 | recursive function calls. In this case, pcre_stack_malloc and | on the heap instead of recursive function calls. In this case, |
| 797 | pcre_stack_free are called to manage memory blocks on the heap, thus | pcre_stack_malloc and pcre_stack_free are called to manage memory |
| 798 | avoiding the use of the stack. | blocks on the heap, thus avoiding the use of the stack. |
| 799 | ||
| 800 | ||
| 801 | COMPILING A PATTERN | COMPILING A PATTERN |
| # | Line 590 COMPILING A PATTERN | Line 804 COMPILING A PATTERN |
| 804 | const char **errptr, int *erroffset, | const char **errptr, int *erroffset, |
| 805 | const unsigned char *tableptr); | const unsigned char *tableptr); |
| 806 | ||
| 807 | The function pcre_compile() is called to compile a pattern into an | pcre *pcre_compile2(const char *pattern, int options, |
| 808 | internal form. The pattern is a C string terminated by a binary zero, | int *errorcodeptr, |
| 809 | and is passed in the pattern argument. A pointer to a single block of | const char **errptr, int *erroffset, |
| 810 | memory that is obtained via pcre_malloc is returned. This contains the | const unsigned char *tableptr); |
| 811 | compiled code and related data. The pcre type is defined for the | |
| 812 | returned block; this is a typedef for a structure whose contents are | Either of the functions pcre_compile() or pcre_compile2() can be called |
| 813 | not externally defined. It is up to the caller to free the memory when | to compile a pattern into an internal form. The only difference between |
| 814 | it is no longer required. | the two interfaces is that pcre_compile2() has an additional argument, |
| 815 | errorcodeptr, via which a numerical error code can be returned. | |
| 816 | ||
| 817 | The pattern is a C string terminated by a binary zero, and is passed in | |
| 818 | the pattern argument. A pointer to a single block of memory that is | |
| 819 | obtained via pcre_malloc is returned. This contains the compiled code | |
| 820 | and related data. The pcre type is defined for the returned block; this | |
| 821 | is a typedef for a structure whose contents are not externally defined. | |
| 822 | It is up to the caller to free the memory when it is no longer | |
| 823 | required. | |
| 824 | ||
| 825 | Although the compiled code of a PCRE regex is relocatable, that is, it | Although the compiled code of a PCRE regex is relocatable, that is, it |
| 826 | does not depend on memory location, the complete pcre data block is not | does not depend on memory location, the complete pcre data block is not |
| 827 | fully relocatable, because it may contain a copy of the tableptr argu- | fully relocatable, because it may contain a copy of the tableptr argu- |
| 828 | ment, which is an address (see below). | ment, which is an address (see below). |
| 829 | ||
| 830 | The options argument contains independent bits that affect the compila- | The options argument contains independent bits that affect the compila- |
| 831 | tion. It should be zero if no options are required. The available | tion. It should be zero if no options are required. The available |
| 832 | options are described below. Some of them, in particular, those that | options are described below. Some of them, in particular, those that |
| 833 | are compatible with Perl, can also be set and unset from within the | are compatible with Perl, can also be set and unset from within the |
| 834 | pattern (see the detailed description in the pcrepattern documenta- | pattern (see the detailed description in the pcrepattern documenta- |
| 835 | tion). For these options, the contents of the options argument speci- | tion). For these options, the contents of the options argument speci- |
| 836 | fies their initial settings at the start of compilation and execution. | fies their initial settings at the start of compilation and execution. |
| 837 | The PCRE_ANCHORED option can be set at the time of matching as well as | The PCRE_ANCHORED option can be set at the time of matching as well as |
| 838 | at compile time. | at compile time. |
| 839 | ||
| 840 | If errptr is NULL, pcre_compile() returns NULL immediately. Otherwise, | If errptr is NULL, pcre_compile() returns NULL immediately. Otherwise, |
| 841 | if compilation of a pattern fails, pcre_compile() returns NULL, and | if compilation of a pattern fails, pcre_compile() returns NULL, and |
| 842 | sets the variable pointed to by errptr to point to a textual error mes- | sets the variable pointed to by errptr to point to a textual error mes- |
| 843 | sage. The offset from the start of the pattern to the character where | sage. The offset from the start of the pattern to the character where |
| 844 | the error was discovered is placed in the variable pointed to by | the error was discovered is placed in the variable pointed to by |
| 845 | erroffset, which must not be NULL. If it is, an immediate error is | erroffset, which must not be NULL. If it is, an immediate error is |
| 846 | given. | given. |
| 847 | ||
| 848 | If pcre_compile2() is used instead of pcre_compile(), and the error- | |
| 849 | codeptr argument is not NULL, a non-zero error code number is returned | |
| 850 | via this argument in the event of an error. This is in addition to the | |
| 851 | textual error message. Error codes and messages are listed below. | |
| 852 | ||
| 853 | If the final argument, tableptr, is NULL, PCRE uses a default set of | If the final argument, tableptr, is NULL, PCRE uses a default set of |
| 854 | character tables that are built when PCRE is compiled, using the | character tables that are built when PCRE is compiled, using the |
| 855 | default C locale. Otherwise, tableptr must be an address that is the | default C locale. Otherwise, tableptr must be an address that is the |
| # | Line 664 COMPILING A PATTERN | Line 892 COMPILING A PATTERN |
| 892 | ||
| 893 | If this bit is set, letters in the pattern match both upper and lower | If this bit is set, letters in the pattern match both upper and lower |
| 894 | case letters. It is equivalent to Perl's /i option, and it can be | case letters. It is equivalent to Perl's /i option, and it can be |
| 895 | changed within a pattern by a (?i) option setting. When running in | changed within a pattern by a (?i) option setting. In UTF-8 mode, PCRE |
| 896 | UTF-8 mode, case support for high-valued characters is available only | always understands the concept of case for characters whose values are |
| 897 | when PCRE is built with Unicode character property support. | less than 128, so caseless matching is always possible. For characters |
| 898 | with higher values, the concept of case is supported if PCRE is com- | |
| 899 | piled with Unicode property support, but not otherwise. If you want to | |
| 900 | use caseless matching for characters 128 and above, you must ensure | |
| 901 | that PCRE is compiled with Unicode property support as well as with | |
| 902 | UTF-8 support. | |
| 903 | ||
| 904 | PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY | PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY |
| 905 | ||
| 906 | If this bit is set, a dollar metacharacter in the pattern matches only | If this bit is set, a dollar metacharacter in the pattern matches only |
| 907 | at the end of the subject string. Without this option, a dollar also | at the end of the subject string. Without this option, a dollar also |
| 908 | matches immediately before the final character if it is a newline (but | matches immediately before the final character if it is a newline (but |
| 909 | not before any other newlines). The PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY option is | not before any other newlines). The PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY option is |
| 910 | ignored if PCRE_MULTILINE is set. There is no equivalent to this option | ignored if PCRE_MULTILINE is set. There is no equivalent to this option |
| 911 | in Perl, and no way to set it within a pattern. | in Perl, and no way to set it within a pattern. |
| 912 | ||
| 913 | PCRE_DOTALL | PCRE_DOTALL |
| 914 | ||
| 915 | If this bit is set, a dot metacharater in the pattern matches all char- | If this bit is set, a dot metacharater in the pattern matches all char- |
| 916 | acters, including newlines. Without it, newlines are excluded. This | acters, including newlines. Without it, newlines are excluded. This |
| 917 | option is equivalent to Perl's /s option, and it can be changed within | option is equivalent to Perl's /s option, and it can be changed within |
| 918 | a pattern by a (?s) option setting. A negative class such as [^a] | a pattern by a (?s) option setting. A negative class such as [^a] |
| 919 | always matches a newline character, independent of the setting of this | always matches a newline character, independent of the setting of this |
| 920 | option. | option. |
| 921 | ||
| 922 | PCRE_EXTENDED | PCRE_EXTENDED |
| 923 | ||
| 924 | If this bit is set, whitespace data characters in the pattern are | If this bit is set, whitespace data characters in the pattern are |
| 925 | totally ignored except when escaped or inside a character class. | totally ignored except when escaped or inside a character class. White- |
| 926 | Whitespace does not include the VT character (code 11). In addition, | space does not include the VT character (code 11). In addition, charac- |
| 927 | characters between an unescaped # outside a character class and the | ters between an unescaped # outside a character class and the next new- |
| 928 | next newline character, inclusive, are also ignored. This is equivalent | line character, inclusive, are also ignored. This is equivalent to |
| 929 | to Perl's /x option, and it can be changed within a pattern by a (?x) | Perl's /x option, and it can be changed within a pattern by a (?x) |
| 930 | option setting. | option setting. |
| 931 | ||
| 932 | This option makes it possible to include comments inside complicated | This option makes it possible to include comments inside complicated |
| 933 | patterns. Note, however, that this applies only to data characters. | patterns. Note, however, that this applies only to data characters. |
| 934 | Whitespace characters may never appear within special character | Whitespace characters may never appear within special character |
| 935 | sequences in a pattern, for example within the sequence (?( which | sequences in a pattern, for example within the sequence (?( which |
| 936 | introduces a conditional subpattern. | introduces a conditional subpattern. |
| 937 | ||
| 938 | PCRE_EXTRA | PCRE_EXTRA |
| 939 | ||
| 940 | This option was invented in order to turn on additional functionality | This option was invented in order to turn on additional functionality |
| 941 | of PCRE that is incompatible with Perl, but it is currently of very | of PCRE that is incompatible with Perl, but it is currently of very |
| 942 | little use. When set, any backslash in a pattern that is followed by a | little use. When set, any backslash in a pattern that is followed by a |
| 943 | letter that has no special meaning causes an error, thus reserving | letter that has no special meaning causes an error, thus reserving |
| 944 | these combinations for future expansion. By default, as in Perl, a | these combinations for future expansion. By default, as in Perl, a |
| 945 | backslash followed by a letter with no special meaning is treated as a | backslash followed by a letter with no special meaning is treated as a |
| 946 | literal. There are at present no other features controlled by this | literal. There are at present no other features controlled by this |
| 947 | option. It can also be set by a (?X) option setting within a pattern. | option. It can also be set by a (?X) option setting within a pattern. |
| 948 | ||
| 949 | PCRE_FIRSTLINE | |
| 950 | ||
| 951 | If this option is set, an unanchored pattern is required to match | |
| 952 | before or at the first newline character in the subject string, though | |
| 953 | the matched text may continue over the newline. | |
| 954 | ||
| 955 | PCRE_MULTILINE | PCRE_MULTILINE |
| 956 | ||
| 957 | By default, PCRE treats the subject string as consisting of a single | By default, PCRE treats the subject string as consisting of a single |
| 958 | line of characters (even if it actually contains newlines). The "start | line of characters (even if it actually contains newlines). The "start |
| 959 | of line" metacharacter (^) matches only at the start of the string, | of line" metacharacter (^) matches only at the start of the string, |
| 960 | while the "end of line" metacharacter ($) matches only at the end of | while the "end of line" metacharacter ($) matches only at the end of |
| 961 | the string, or before a terminating newline (unless PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY | the string, or before a terminating newline (unless PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY |
| 962 | is set). This is the same as Perl. | is set). This is the same as Perl. |
| 963 | ||
| 964 | When PCRE_MULTILINE it is set, the "start of line" and "end of line" | When PCRE_MULTILINE it is set, the "start of line" and "end of line" |
| 965 | constructs match immediately following or immediately before any new- | constructs match immediately following or immediately before any new- |
| 966 | line in the subject string, respectively, as well as at the very start | line in the subject string, respectively, as well as at the very start |
| 967 | and end. This is equivalent to Perl's /m option, and it can be changed | and end. This is equivalent to Perl's /m option, and it can be changed |
| 968 | within a pattern by a (?m) option setting. If there are no "\n" charac- | within a pattern by a (?m) option setting. If there are no "\n" charac- |
| 969 | ters in a subject string, or no occurrences of ^ or $ in a pattern, | ters in a subject string, or no occurrences of ^ or $ in a pattern, |
| 970 | setting PCRE_MULTILINE has no effect. | setting PCRE_MULTILINE has no effect. |
| 971 | ||
| 972 | PCRE_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE | PCRE_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE |
| 973 | ||
| 974 | If this option is set, it disables the use of numbered capturing paren- | If this option is set, it disables the use of numbered capturing paren- |
| 975 | theses in the pattern. Any opening parenthesis that is not followed by | theses in the pattern. Any opening parenthesis that is not followed by |
| 976 | ? behaves as if it were followed by ?: but named parentheses can still | ? behaves as if it were followed by ?: but named parentheses can still |
| 977 | be used for capturing (and they acquire numbers in the usual way). | be used for capturing (and they acquire numbers in the usual way). |
| 978 | There is no equivalent of this option in Perl. | There is no equivalent of this option in Perl. |
| 979 | ||
| 980 | PCRE_UNGREEDY | PCRE_UNGREEDY |
| 981 | ||
| 982 | This option inverts the "greediness" of the quantifiers so that they | This option inverts the "greediness" of the quantifiers so that they |
| 983 | are not greedy by default, but become greedy if followed by "?". It is | are not greedy by default, but become greedy if followed by "?". It is |
| 984 | not compatible with Perl. It can also be set by a (?U) option setting | not compatible with Perl. It can also be set by a (?U) option setting |
| 985 | within the pattern. | within the pattern. |
| 986 | ||
| 987 | PCRE_UTF8 | PCRE_UTF8 |
| 988 | ||
| 989 | This option causes PCRE to regard both the pattern and the subject as | This option causes PCRE to regard both the pattern and the subject as |
| 990 | strings of UTF-8 characters instead of single-byte character strings. | strings of UTF-8 characters instead of single-byte character strings. |
| 991 | However, it is available only when PCRE is built to include UTF-8 sup- | However, it is available only when PCRE is built to include UTF-8 sup- |
| 992 | port. If not, the use of this option provokes an error. Details of how | port. If not, the use of this option provokes an error. Details of how |
| 993 | this option changes the behaviour of PCRE are given in the section on | this option changes the behaviour of PCRE are given in the section on |
| 994 | UTF-8 support in the main pcre page. | UTF-8 support in the main pcre page. |
| 995 | ||
| 996 | PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK | PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK |
| 997 | ||
| 998 | When PCRE_UTF8 is set, the validity of the pattern as a UTF-8 string is | When PCRE_UTF8 is set, the validity of the pattern as a UTF-8 string is |
| 999 | automatically checked. If an invalid UTF-8 sequence of bytes is found, | automatically checked. If an invalid UTF-8 sequence of bytes is found, |
| 1000 | pcre_compile() returns an error. If you already know that your pattern | pcre_compile() returns an error. If you already know that your pattern |
| 1001 | is valid, and you want to skip this check for performance reasons, you | is valid, and you want to skip this check for performance reasons, you |
| 1002 | can set the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK option. When it is set, the effect of | can set the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK option. When it is set, the effect of |
| 1003 | passing an invalid UTF-8 string as a pattern is undefined. It may cause | passing an invalid UTF-8 string as a pattern is undefined. It may cause |
| 1004 | your program to crash. Note that this option can also be passed to | your program to crash. Note that this option can also be passed to |
| 1005 | pcre_exec(), to suppress the UTF-8 validity checking of subject | pcre_exec() and pcre_dfa_exec(), to suppress the UTF-8 validity check- |
| 1006 | strings. | ing of subject strings. |
| 1007 | ||
| 1008 | ||
| 1009 | COMPILATION ERROR CODES | |
| 1010 | ||
| 1011 | The following table lists the error codes than may be returned by | |
| 1012 | pcre_compile2(), along with the error messages that may be returned by | |
| 1013 | both compiling functions. | |
| 1014 | ||
| 1015 | 0 no error | |
| 1016 | 1 \ at end of pattern | |
| 1017 | 2 \c at end of pattern | |
| 1018 | 3 unrecognized character follows \ | |
| 1019 | 4 numbers out of order in {} quantifier | |
| 1020 | 5 number too big in {} quantifier | |
| 1021 | 6 missing terminating ] for character class | |
| 1022 | 7 invalid escape sequence in character class | |
| 1023 | 8 range out of order in character class | |
| 1024 | 9 nothing to repeat | |
| 1025 | 10 operand of unlimited repeat could match the empty string | |
| 1026 | 11 internal error: unexpected repeat | |
| 1027 | 12 unrecognized character after (? | |
| 1028 | 13 POSIX named classes are supported only within a class | |
| 1029 | 14 missing ) | |
| 1030 | 15 reference to non-existent subpattern | |
| 1031 | 16 erroffset passed as NULL | |
| 1032 | 17 unknown option bit(s) set | |
| 1033 | 18 missing ) after comment | |
| 1034 | 19 parentheses nested too deeply | |
| 1035 | 20 regular expression too large | |
| 1036 | 21 failed to get memory | |
| 1037 | 22 unmatched parentheses | |
| 1038 | 23 internal error: code overflow | |
| 1039 | 24 unrecognized character after (?< | |
| 1040 | 25 lookbehind assertion is not fixed length | |
| 1041 | 26 malformed number after (?( | |
| 1042 | 27 conditional group contains more than two branches | |
| 1043 | 28 assertion expected after (?( | |
| 1044 | 29 (?R or (?digits must be followed by ) | |
| 1045 | 30 unknown POSIX class name | |
| 1046 | 31 POSIX collating elements are not supported | |
| 1047 | 32 this version of PCRE is not compiled with PCRE_UTF8 support | |
| 1048 | 33 spare error | |
| 1049 | 34 character value in \x{...} sequence is too large | |
| 1050 | 35 invalid condition (?(0) | |
| 1051 | 36 \C not allowed in lookbehind assertion | |
| 1052 | 37 PCRE does not support \L, \l, \N, \U, or \u | |
| 1053 | 38 number after (?C is > 255 | |
| 1054 | 39 closing ) for (?C expected | |
| 1055 | 40 recursive call could loop indefinitely | |
| 1056 | 41 unrecognized character after (?P | |
| 1057 | 42 syntax error after (?P | |
| 1058 | 43 two named groups have the same name | |
| 1059 | 44 invalid UTF-8 string | |
| 1060 | 45 support for \P, \p, and \X has not been compiled | |
| 1061 | 46 malformed \P or \p sequence | |
| 1062 | 47 unknown property name after \P or \p | |
| 1063 | ||
| 1064 | ||
| 1065 | STUDYING A PATTERN | STUDYING A PATTERN |
| 1066 | ||
| 1067 | pcre_extra *pcre_study(const pcre *code, int options, | pcre_extra *pcre_study(const pcre *code, int options |
| 1068 | const char **errptr); | const char **errptr); |
| 1069 | ||
| 1070 | If a compiled pattern is going to be used several times, it is worth | If a compiled pattern is going to be used several times, it is worth |
| 1071 | spending more time analyzing it in order to speed up the time taken for | spending more time analyzing it in order to speed up the time taken for |
| 1072 | matching. The function pcre_study() takes a pointer to a compiled pat- | matching. The function pcre_study() takes a pointer to a compiled pat- |
| 1073 | tern as its first argument. If studying the pattern produces additional | tern as its first argument. If studying the pattern produces additional |
| 1074 | information that will help speed up matching, pcre_study() returns a | information that will help speed up matching, pcre_study() returns a |
| 1075 | pointer to a pcre_extra block, in which the study_data field points to | pointer to a pcre_extra block, in which the study_data field points to |
| 1076 | the results of the study. | the results of the study. |
| 1077 | ||
| 1078 | The returned value from pcre_study() can be passed directly to | The returned value from pcre_study() can be passed directly to |
| 1079 | pcre_exec(). However, a pcre_extra block also contains other fields | pcre_exec(). However, a pcre_extra block also contains other fields |
| 1080 | that can be set by the caller before the block is passed; these are | that can be set by the caller before the block is passed; these are |
| 1081 | described below in the section on matching a pattern. | described below in the section on matching a pattern. |
| 1082 | ||
| 1083 | If studying the pattern does not produce any additional information, | If studying the pattern does not produce any additional information |
| 1084 | pcre_study() returns NULL. In that circumstance, if the calling program | pcre_study() returns NULL. In that circumstance, if the calling program |
| 1085 | wants to pass any of the other fields to pcre_exec(), it must set up | wants to pass any of the other fields to pcre_exec(), it must set up |
| 1086 | its own pcre_extra block. | its own pcre_extra block. |
| 1087 | ||
| 1088 | The second argument of pcre_study() contains option bits. At present, | The second argument of pcre_study() contains option bits. At present, |
| 1089 | no options are defined, and this argument should always be zero. | no options are defined, and this argument should always be zero. |
| 1090 | ||
| 1091 | The third argument for pcre_study() is a pointer for an error message. | The third argument for pcre_study() is a pointer for an error message. |
| 1092 | If studying succeeds (even if no data is returned), the variable it | If studying succeeds (even if no data is returned), the variable it |
| 1093 | points to is set to NULL. Otherwise it points to a textual error mes- | points to is set to NULL. Otherwise it points to a textual error mes- |
| 1094 | sage. You should therefore test the error pointer for NULL after call- | sage. You should therefore test the error pointer for NULL after call- |
| 1095 | ing pcre_study(), to be sure that it has run successfully. | ing pcre_study(), to be sure that it has run successfully. |
| 1096 | ||
| 1097 | This is a typical call to pcre_study(): | This is a typical call to pcre_study(): |
| # | Line 808 STUDYING A PATTERN | Line 1103 STUDYING A PATTERN |
| 1103 | &error); /* set to NULL or points to a message */ | &error); /* set to NULL or points to a message */ |
| 1104 | ||
| 1105 | At present, studying a pattern is useful only for non-anchored patterns | At present, studying a pattern is useful only for non-anchored patterns |
| 1106 | that do not have a single fixed starting character. A bitmap of possi- | that do not have a single fixed starting character. A bitmap of possi- |
| 1107 | ble starting bytes is created. | ble starting bytes is created. |
| 1108 | ||
| 1109 | ||
| 1110 | LOCALE SUPPORT | LOCALE SUPPORT |
| 1111 | ||
| 1112 | PCRE handles caseless matching, and determines whether characters are | PCRE handles caseless matching, and determines whether characters are |
| 1113 | letters, digits, or whatever, by reference to a set of tables, indexed | letters digits, or whatever, by reference to a set of tables, indexed |
| 1114 | by character value. (When running in UTF-8 mode, this applies only to | by character value. When running in UTF-8 mode, this applies only to |
| 1115 | characters with codes less than 128. Higher-valued codes never match | characters with codes less than 128. Higher-valued codes never match |
| 1116 | escapes such as \w or \d, but can be tested with \p if PCRE is built | escapes such as \w or \d, but can be tested with \p if PCRE is built |
| 1117 | with Unicode character property support.) | with Unicode character property support. |
| 1118 | ||
| 1119 | An internal set of tables is created in the default C locale when PCRE | An internal set of tables is created in the default C locale when PCRE |
| 1120 | is built. This is used when the final argument of pcre_compile() is | is built. This is used when the final argument of pcre_compile() is |
| 1121 | NULL, and is sufficient for many applications. An alternative set of | NULL, and is sufficient for many applications. An alternative set of |
| 1122 | tables can, however, be supplied. These may be created in a different | tables can, however, be supplied. These may be created in a different |
| 1123 | locale from the default. As more and more applications change to using | locale from the default. As more and more applications change to using |
| 1124 | Unicode, the need for this locale support is expected to die away. | Unicode, the need for this locale support is expected to die away. |
| 1125 | ||
| 1126 | External tables are built by calling the pcre_maketables() function, | External tables are built by calling the pcre_maketables() function, |
| 1127 | which has no arguments, in the relevant locale. The result can then be | which has no arguments, in the relevant locale. The result can then be |
| 1128 | passed to pcre_compile() or pcre_exec() as often as necessary. For | passed to pcre_compile() or pcre_exec() as often as necessary. For |
| 1129 | example, to build and use tables that are appropriate for the French | example, to build and use tables that are appropriate for the French |
| 1130 | locale (where accented characters with values greater than 128 are | locale (where accented characters with values greater than 128 are |
| 1131 | treated as letters), the following code could be used: | treated as letters), the following code could be used: |
| 1132 | ||
| 1133 | setlocale(LC_CTYPE, "fr_FR"); | setlocale(LC_CTYPE, "fr_FR"); |
| 1134 | tables = pcre_maketables(); | tables = pcre_maketables(); |
| 1135 | re = pcre_compile(..., tables); | re = pcre_compile(..., tables); |
| 1136 | ||
| 1137 | When pcre_maketables() runs, the tables are built in memory that is | When pcre_maketables() runs, the tables are built in memory that is |
| 1138 | obtained via pcre_malloc. It is the caller's responsibility to ensure | obtained via pcre_malloc. It is the caller's responsibility to ensure |
| 1139 | that the memory containing the tables remains available for as long as | that the memory containing the tables remains available for as long as |
| 1140 | it is needed. | it is needed. |
| 1141 | ||
| 1142 | The pointer that is passed to pcre_compile() is saved with the compiled | The pointer that is passed to pcre_compile() is saved with the compiled |
| 1143 | pattern, and the same tables are used via this pointer by pcre_study() | pattern, and the same tables are used via this pointer by pcre_study() |
| 1144 | and normally also by pcre_exec(). Thus, by default, for any single pat- | and normally also by pcre_exec(). Thus, by default, for any single pat- |
| 1145 | tern, compilation, studying and matching all happen in the same locale, | tern, compilation, studying and matching all happen in the same locale, |
| 1146 | but different patterns can be compiled in different locales. | but different patterns can be compiled in different locales. |
| 1147 | ||
| 1148 | It is possible to pass a table pointer or NULL (indicating the use of | It is possible to pass a table pointer or NULL (indicating the use of |
| 1149 | the internal tables) to pcre_exec(). Although not intended for this | the internal tables) to pcre_exec(). Although not intended for this |
| 1150 | purpose, this facility could be used to match a pattern in a different | purpose, this facility could be used to match a pattern in a different |
| 1151 | locale from the one in which it was compiled. Passing table pointers at | locale from the one in which it was compiled. Passing table pointers at |
| 1152 | run time is discussed below in the section on matching a pattern. | run time is discussed below in the section on matching a pattern. |
| 1153 | ||
| # | Line 862 INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN | Line 1157 INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN |
| 1157 | int pcre_fullinfo(const pcre *code, const pcre_extra *extra, | int pcre_fullinfo(const pcre *code, const pcre_extra *extra, |
| 1158 | int what, void *where); | int what, void *where); |
| 1159 | ||
| 1160 | The pcre_fullinfo() function returns information about a compiled pat- | The pcre_fullinfo() function returns information about a compiled pat- |
| 1161 | tern. It replaces the obsolete pcre_info() function, which is neverthe- | tern. It replaces the obsolete pcre_info() function, which is neverthe- |
| 1162 | less retained for backwards compability (and is documented below). | less retained for backwards compability (and is documented below). |
| 1163 | ||
| 1164 | The first argument for pcre_fullinfo() is a pointer to the compiled | The first argument for pcre_fullinfo() is a pointer to the compiled |
| 1165 | pattern. The second argument is the result of pcre_study(), or NULL if | pattern. The second argument is the result of pcre_study(), or NULL if |
| 1166 | the pattern was not studied. The third argument specifies which piece | the pattern was not studied. The third argument specifies which piece |
| 1167 | of information is required, and the fourth argument is a pointer to a | of information is required, and the fourth argument is a pointer to a |
| 1168 | variable to receive the data. The yield of the function is zero for | variable to receive the data. The yield of the function is zero for |
| 1169 | success, or one of the following negative numbers: | success, or one of the following negative numbers: |
| 1170 | ||
| 1171 | PCRE_ERROR_NULL the argument code was NULL | PCRE_ERROR_NULL the argument code was NULL |
| # | Line 878 INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN | Line 1173 INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN |
| 1173 | PCRE_ERROR_BADMAGIC the "magic number" was not found | PCRE_ERROR_BADMAGIC the "magic number" was not found |
| 1174 | PCRE_ERROR_BADOPTION the value of what was invalid | PCRE_ERROR_BADOPTION the value of what was invalid |
| 1175 | ||
| 1176 | The "magic number" is placed at the start of each compiled pattern as | The "magic number" is placed at the start of each compiled pattern as |
| 1177 | an simple check against passing an arbitrary memory pointer. Here is a | an simple check against passing an arbitrary memory pointer. Here is a |
| 1178 | typical call of pcre_fullinfo(), to obtain the length of the compiled | typical call of pcre_fullinfo(), to obtain the length of the compiled |
| 1179 | pattern: | pattern: |
| 1180 | ||
| 1181 | int rc; | int rc; |
| # | Line 891 INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN | Line 1186 INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN |
| 1186 | PCRE_INFO_SIZE, /* what is required */ | PCRE_INFO_SIZE, /* what is required */ |
| 1187 | &length); /* where to put the data */ | &length); /* where to put the data */ |
| 1188 | ||
| 1189 | The possible values for the third argument are defined in pcre.h, and | The possible values for the third argument are defined in pcre.h, and |
| 1190 | are as follows: | are as follows: |
| 1191 | ||
| 1192 | PCRE_INFO_BACKREFMAX | PCRE_INFO_BACKREFMAX |
| 1193 | ||
| 1194 | Return the number of the highest back reference in the pattern. The | Return the number of the highest back reference in the pattern. The |
| 1195 | fourth argument should point to an int variable. Zero is returned if | fourth argument should point to an int variable. Zero is returned if |
| 1196 | there are no back references. | there are no back references. |
| 1197 | ||
| 1198 | PCRE_INFO_CAPTURECOUNT | PCRE_INFO_CAPTURECOUNT |
| 1199 | ||
| 1200 | Return the number of capturing subpatterns in the pattern. The fourth | Return the number of capturing subpatterns in the pattern. The fourth |
| 1201 | argument should point to an int variable. | argument should point to an int variable. |
| 1202 | ||
| 1203 | PCRE_INFO_DEFAULTTABLES | PCRE_INFO_DEFAULT_TABLES |
| 1204 | ||
| 1205 | Return a pointer to the internal default character tables within PCRE. | Return a pointer to the internal default character tables within PCRE. |
| 1206 | The fourth argument should point to an unsigned char * variable. This | The fourth argument should point to an unsigned char * variable. This |
| 1207 | information call is provided for internal use by the pcre_study() func- | information call is provided for internal use by the pcre_study() func- |
| 1208 | tion. External callers can cause PCRE to use its internal tables by | tion. External callers can cause PCRE to use its internal tables by |
| 1209 | passing a NULL table pointer. | passing a NULL table pointer. |
| 1210 | ||
| 1211 | PCRE_INFO_FIRSTBYTE | PCRE_INFO_FIRSTBYTE |
| 1212 | ||
| 1213 | Return information about the first byte of any matched string, for a | Return information about the first byte of any matched string, for a |
| 1214 | non-anchored pattern. (This option used to be called | non-anchored pattern. (This option used to be called |
| 1215 | PCRE_INFO_FIRSTCHAR; the old name is still recognized for backwards | PCRE_INFO_FIRSTCHAR; the old name is still recognized for backwards |
| 1216 | compatibility.) | compatibility.) |
| 1217 | ||
| 1218 | If there is a fixed first byte, for example, from a pattern such as | If there is a fixed first byte, for example, from a pattern such as |
| 1219 | (cat|cow|coyote), it is returned in the integer pointed to by where. | (cat|cow|coyote), it is returned in the integer pointed to by where. |
| 1220 | Otherwise, if either | Otherwise, if either |
| 1221 | ||
| 1222 | (a) the pattern was compiled with the PCRE_MULTILINE option, and every | (a) the pattern was compiled with the PCRE_MULTILINE option, and every |
| 1223 | branch starts with "^", or | branch starts with "^", or |
| 1224 | ||
| 1225 | (b) every branch of the pattern starts with ".*" and PCRE_DOTALL is not | (b) every branch of the pattern starts with ".*" and PCRE_DOTALL is not |
| 1226 | set (if it were set, the pattern would be anchored), | set (if it were set, the pattern would be anchored), |
| 1227 | ||
| 1228 | -1 is returned, indicating that the pattern matches only at the start | -1 is returned, indicating that the pattern matches only at the start |
| 1229 | of a subject string or after any newline within the string. Otherwise | of a subject string or after any newline within the string. Otherwise |
| 1230 | -2 is returned. For anchored patterns, -2 is returned. | -2 is returned. For anchored patterns, -2 is returned. |
| 1231 | ||
| 1232 | PCRE_INFO_FIRSTTABLE | PCRE_INFO_FIRSTTABLE |
| 1233 | ||
| 1234 | If the pattern was studied, and this resulted in the construction of a | If the pattern was studied, and this resulted in the construction of a |
| 1235 | 256-bit table indicating a fixed set of bytes for the first byte in any | 256-bit table indicating a fixed set of bytes for the first byte in any |
| 1236 | matching string, a pointer to the table is returned. Otherwise NULL is | matching string, a pointer to the table is returned. Otherwise NULL is |
| 1237 | returned. The fourth argument should point to an unsigned char * vari- | returned. The fourth argument should point to an unsigned char * vari- |
| 1238 | able. | able. |
| 1239 | ||
| 1240 | PCRE_INFO_LASTLITERAL | PCRE_INFO_LASTLITERAL |
| 1241 | ||
| 1242 | Return the value of the rightmost literal byte that must exist in any | Return the value of the rightmost literal byte that must exist in any |
| 1243 | matched string, other than at its start, if such a byte has been | matched string, other than at its start, if such a byte has been |
| 1244 | recorded. The fourth argument should point to an int variable. If there | recorded. The fourth argument should point to an int variable. If there |
| 1245 | is no such byte, -1 is returned. For anchored patterns, a last literal | is no such byte, -1 is returned. For anchored patterns, a last literal |
| 1246 | byte is recorded only if it follows something of variable length. For | byte is recorded only if it follows something of variable length. For |
| 1247 | example, for the pattern /^a\d+z\d+/ the returned value is "z", but for | example, for the pattern /^a\d+z\d+/ the returned value is "z", but for |
| 1248 | /^a\dz\d/ the returned value is -1. | /^a\dz\d/ the returned value is -1. |
| 1249 | ||
| # | Line 956 INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN | Line 1251 INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN |
| 1251 | PCRE_INFO_NAMEENTRYSIZE | PCRE_INFO_NAMEENTRYSIZE |
| 1252 | PCRE_INFO_NAMETABLE | PCRE_INFO_NAMETABLE |
| 1253 | ||
| 1254 | PCRE supports the use of named as well as numbered capturing parenthe- | PCRE supports the use of named as well as numbered capturing parenthe- |
| 1255 | ses. The names are just an additional way of identifying the parenthe- | ses. The names are just an additional way of identifying the parenthe- |
| 1256 | ses, which still acquire numbers. A convenience function called | ses, which still acquire numbers. A convenience function called |
| 1257 | pcre_get_named_substring() is provided for extracting an individual | pcre_get_named_substring() is provided for extracting an individual |
| 1258 | captured substring by name. It is also possible to extract the data | captured substring by name. It is also possible to extract the data |
| 1259 | directly, by first converting the name to a number in order to access | directly, by first converting the name to a number in order to access |
| 1260 | the correct pointers in the output vector (described with pcre_exec() | the correct pointers in the output vector (described with pcre_exec() |
| 1261 | below). To do the conversion, you need to use the name-to-number map, | below). To do the conversion, you need to use the name-to-number map, |
| 1262 | which is described by these three values. | which is described by these three values. |
| 1263 | ||
| 1264 | The map consists of a number of fixed-size entries. PCRE_INFO_NAMECOUNT | The map consists of a number of fixed-size entries. PCRE_INFO_NAMECOUNT |
| 1265 | gives the number of entries, and PCRE_INFO_NAMEENTRYSIZE gives the size | gives the number of entries, and PCRE_INFO_NAMEENTRYSIZE gives the size |
| 1266 | of each entry; both of these return an int value. The entry size | of each entry; both of these return an int value. The entry size |
| 1267 | depends on the length of the longest name. PCRE_INFO_NAMETABLE returns | depends on the length of the longest name. PCRE_INFO_NAMETABLE returns |
| 1268 | a pointer to the first entry of the table (a pointer to char). The | a pointer to the first entry of the table (a pointer to char). The |
| 1269 | first two bytes of each entry are the number of the capturing parenthe- | first two bytes of each entry are the number of the capturing parenthe- |
| 1270 | sis, most significant byte first. The rest of the entry is the corre- | sis, most significant byte first. The rest of the entry is the corre- |
| 1271 | sponding name, zero terminated. The names are in alphabetical order. | sponding name, zero terminated. The names are in alphabetical order. |
| 1272 | For example, consider the following pattern (assume PCRE_EXTENDED is | For example, consider the following pattern (assume PCRE_EXTENDED is |
| 1273 | set, so white space - including newlines - is ignored): | set, so white space - including newlines - is ignored): |
| 1274 | ||
| 1275 | (?P<date> (?P<year>(\d\d)?\d\d) - | (?P<date> (?P<year>(\d\d)?\d\d) - |
| 1276 | (?P<month>\d\d) - (?P<day>\d\d) ) | (?P<month>\d\d) - (?P<day>\d\d) ) |
| 1277 | ||
| 1278 | There are four named subpatterns, so the table has four entries, and | There are four named subpatterns, so the table has four entries, and |
| 1279 | each entry in the table is eight bytes long. The table is as follows, | each entry in the table is eight bytes long. The table is as follows, |
| 1280 | with non-printing bytes shows in hexadecimal, and undefined bytes shown | with non-printing bytes shows in hexadecimal, and undefined bytes shown |
| 1281 | as ??: | as ??: |
| 1282 | ||
| # | Line 990 INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN | Line 1285 INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN |
| 1285 | 00 04 m o n t h 00 | 00 04 m o n t h 00 |
| 1286 | 00 02 y e a r 00 ?? | 00 02 y e a r 00 ?? |
| 1287 | ||
| 1288 | When writing code to extract data from named subpatterns using the | When writing code to extract data from named subpatterns using the |
| 1289 | name-to-number map, remember that the length of each entry is likely to | name-to-number map, remember that the length of each entry is likely to |
| 1290 | be different for each compiled pattern. | be different for each compiled pattern. |
| 1291 | ||
| 1292 | PCRE_INFO_OPTIONS | PCRE_INFO_OPTIONS |
| 1293 | ||
| 1294 | Return a copy of the options with which the pattern was compiled. The | Return a copy of the options with which the pattern was compiled. The |
| 1295 | fourth argument should point to an unsigned long int variable. These | fourth argument should point to an unsigned long int variable. These |
| 1296 | option bits are those specified in the call to pcre_compile(), modified | option bits are those specified in the call to pcre_compile(), modified |
| 1297 | by any top-level option settings within the pattern itself. | by any top-level option settings within the pattern itself. |
| 1298 | ||
| 1299 | A pattern is automatically anchored by PCRE if all of its top-level | A pattern is automatically anchored by PCRE if all of its top-level |
| 1300 | alternatives begin with one of the following: | alternatives begin with one of the following: |
| 1301 | ||
| 1302 | ^ unless PCRE_MULTILINE is set | ^ unless PCRE_MULTILINE is set |
| # | Line 1015 INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN | Line 1310 INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN |
| 1310 | ||
| 1311 | PCRE_INFO_SIZE | PCRE_INFO_SIZE |
| 1312 | ||
| 1313 | Return the size of the compiled pattern, that is, the value that was | Return the size of the compiled pattern, that is, the value that was |
| 1314 | passed as the argument to pcre_malloc() when PCRE was getting memory in | passed as the argument to pcre_malloc() when PCRE was getting memory in |
| 1315 | which to place the compiled data. The fourth argument should point to a | which to place the compiled data. The fourth argument should point to a |
| 1316 | size_t variable. | size_t variable. |
| # | Line 1023 INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN | Line 1318 INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN |
| 1318 | PCRE_INFO_STUDYSIZE | PCRE_INFO_STUDYSIZE |
| 1319 | ||
| 1320 | Return the size of the data block pointed to by the study_data field in | Return the size of the data block pointed to by the study_data field in |
| 1321 | a pcre_extra block. That is, it is the value that was passed to | a pcre_extra block. That is, it is the value that was passed to |
| 1322 | pcre_malloc() when PCRE was getting memory into which to place the data | pcre_malloc() when PCRE was getting memory into which to place the data |
| 1323 | created by pcre_study(). The fourth argument should point to a size_t | created by pcre_study(). The fourth argument should point to a size_t |
| 1324 | variable. | variable. |
| 1325 | ||
| 1326 | ||
| # | Line 1033 OBSOLETE INFO FUNCTION | Line 1328 OBSOLETE INFO FUNCTION |
| 1328 | ||
| 1329 | int pcre_info(const pcre *code, int *optptr, int *firstcharptr); | int pcre_info(const pcre *code, int *optptr, int *firstcharptr); |
| 1330 | ||
| 1331 | The pcre_info() function is now obsolete because its interface is too | The pcre_info() function is now obsolete because its interface is too |
| 1332 | restrictive to return all the available data about a compiled pattern. | restrictive to return all the available data about a compiled pattern. |
| 1333 | New programs should use pcre_fullinfo() instead. The yield of | New programs should use pcre_fullinfo() instead. The yield of |
| 1334 | pcre_info() is the number of capturing subpatterns, or one of the fol- | pcre_info() is the number of capturing subpatterns, or one of the fol- |
| 1335 | lowing negative numbers: | lowing negative numbers: |
| 1336 | ||
| 1337 | PCRE_ERROR_NULL the argument code was NULL | PCRE_ERROR_NULL the argument code was NULL |
| 1338 | PCRE_ERROR_BADMAGIC the "magic number" was not found | PCRE_ERROR_BADMAGIC the "magic number" was not found |
| 1339 | ||
| 1340 | If the optptr argument is not NULL, a copy of the options with which | If the optptr argument is not NULL, a copy of the options with which |
| 1341 | the pattern was compiled is placed in the integer it points to (see | the pattern was compiled is placed in the integer it points to (see |
| 1342 | PCRE_INFO_OPTIONS above). | PCRE_INFO_OPTIONS above). |
| 1343 | ||
| 1344 | If the pattern is not anchored and the firstcharptr argument is not | If the pattern is not anchored and the firstcharptr argument is not |
| 1345 | NULL, it is used to pass back information about the first character of | NULL, it is used to pass back information about the first character of |
| 1346 | any matched string (see PCRE_INFO_FIRSTBYTE above). | any matched string (see PCRE_INFO_FIRSTBYTE above). |
| 1347 | ||
| 1348 | ||
| 1349 | MATCHING A PATTERN | REFERENCE COUNTS |
| 1350 | ||
| 1351 | int pcre_refcount(pcre *code, int adjust); | |
| 1352 | ||
| 1353 | The pcre_refcount() function is used to maintain a reference count in | |
| 1354 | the data block that contains a compiled pattern. It is provided for the | |
| 1355 | benefit of applications that operate in an object-oriented manner, | |
| 1356 | where different parts of the application may be using the same compiled | |
| 1357 | pattern, but you want to free the block when they are all done. | |
| 1358 | ||
| 1359 | When a pattern is compiled, the reference count field is initialized to | |
| 1360 | zero. It is changed only by calling this function, whose action is to | |
| 1361 | add the adjust value (which may be positive or negative) to it. The | |
| 1362 | yield of the function is the new value. However, the value of the count | |
| 1363 | is constrained to lie between 0 and 65535, inclusive. If the new value | |
| 1364 | is outside these limits, it is forced to the appropriate limit value. | |
| 1365 | ||
| 1366 | Except when it is zero, the reference count is not correctly preserved | |
| 1367 | if a pattern is compiled on one host and then transferred to a host | |
| 1368 | whose byte-order is different. (This seems a highly unlikely scenario.) | |
| 1369 | ||
| 1370 | ||
| 1371 | MATCHING A PATTERN: THE TRADITIONAL FUNCTION | |
| 1372 | ||
| 1373 | int pcre_exec(const pcre *code, const pcre_extra *extra, | int pcre_exec(const pcre *code, const pcre_extra *extra, |
| 1374 | const char *subject, int length, int startoffset, | const char *subject, int length, int startoffset, |
| 1375 | int options, int *ovector, int ovecsize); | int options, int *ovector, int ovecsize); |
| 1376 | ||
| 1377 | The function pcre_exec() is called to match a subject string against a | The function pcre_exec() is called to match a subject string against a |
| 1378 | compiled pattern, which is passed in the code argument. If the pattern | compiled pattern, which is passed in the code argument. If the pattern |
| 1379 | has been studied, the result of the study should be passed in the extra | has been studied, the result of the study should be passed in the extra |
| 1380 | argument. | argument. This function is the main matching facility of the library, |
| 1381 | and it operates in a Perl-like manner. For specialist use there is also | |
| 1382 | an alternative matching function, which is described below in the sec- | |
| 1383 | tion about the pcre_dfa_exec() function. | |
| 1384 | ||
| 1385 | In most applications, the pattern will have been compiled (and option- | In most applications, the pattern will have been compiled (and option- |
| 1386 | ally studied) in the same process that calls pcre_exec(). However, it | ally studied) in the same process that calls pcre_exec(). However, it |
| # | Line 1080 MATCHING A PATTERN | Line 1400 MATCHING A PATTERN |
| 1400 | 0, /* start at offset 0 in the subject */ | 0, /* start at offset 0 in the subject */ |
| 1401 | 0, /* default options */ | 0, /* default options */ |
| 1402 | ovector, /* vector of integers for substring information */ | ovector, /* vector of integers for substring information */ |
| 1403 | 30); /* number of elements in the vector (NOT size in | 30); /* number of elements (NOT size in bytes) */ |
| bytes) */ | ||
| 1404 | ||
| 1405 | Extra data for pcre_exec() | Extra data for pcre_exec() |
| 1406 | ||
| 1407 | If the extra argument is not NULL, it must point to a pcre_extra data | If the extra argument is not NULL, it must point to a pcre_extra data |
| 1408 | block. The pcre_study() function returns such a block (when it doesn't | block. The pcre_study() function returns such a block (when it doesn't |
| 1409 | return NULL), but you can also create one for yourself, and pass addi- | return NULL), but you can also create one for yourself, and pass addi- |
| 1410 | tional information in it. The fields in a pcre_extra block are as fol- | tional information in it. The fields in a pcre_extra block are as fol- |
| 1411 | lows: | lows: |
| 1412 | ||
| 1413 | unsigned long int flags; | unsigned long int flags; |
| # | Line 1097 MATCHING A PATTERN | Line 1416 MATCHING A PATTERN |
| 1416 | void *callout_data; | void *callout_data; |
| 1417 | const unsigned char *tables; | const unsigned char *tables; |
| 1418 | ||
| 1419 | The flags field is a bitmap that specifies which of the other fields | The flags field is a bitmap that specifies which of the other fields |
| 1420 | are set. The flag bits are: | are set. The flag bits are: |
| 1421 | ||
| 1422 | PCRE_EXTRA_STUDY_DATA | PCRE_EXTRA_STUDY_DATA |
| # | Line 1105 MATCHING A PATTERN | Line 1424 MATCHING A PATTERN |
| 1424 | PCRE_EXTRA_CALLOUT_DATA | PCRE_EXTRA_CALLOUT_DATA |
| 1425 | PCRE_EXTRA_TABLES | PCRE_EXTRA_TABLES |
| 1426 | ||
| 1427 | Other flag bits should be set to zero. The study_data field is set in | Other flag bits should be set to zero. The study_data field is set in |
| 1428 | the pcre_extra block that is returned by pcre_study(), together with | the pcre_extra block that is returned by pcre_study(), together with |
| 1429 | the appropriate flag bit. You should not set this yourself, but you may | the appropriate flag bit. You should not set this yourself, but you may |
| 1430 | add to the block by setting the other fields and their corresponding | add to the block by setting the other fields and their corresponding |
| 1431 | flag bits. | flag bits. |
| 1432 | ||
| 1433 | The match_limit field provides a means of preventing PCRE from using up | The match_limit field provides a means of preventing PCRE from using up |
| 1434 | a vast amount of resources when running patterns that are not going to | a vast amount of resources when running patterns that are not going to |
| 1435 | match, but which have a very large number of possibilities in their | match, but which have a very large number of possibilities in their |
| 1436 | search trees. The classic example is the use of nested unlimited | search trees. The classic example is the use of nested unlimited |
| 1437 | repeats. | repeats. |
| 1438 | ||
| 1439 | Internally, PCRE uses a function called match() which it calls repeat- | Internally, PCRE uses a function called match() which it calls repeat- |
| 1440 | edly (sometimes recursively). The limit is imposed on the number of | edly (sometimes recursively). The limit is imposed on the number of |
| 1441 | times this function is called during a match, which has the effect of | times this function is called during a match, which has the effect of |
| 1442 | limiting the amount of recursion and backtracking that can take place. | limiting the amount of recursion and backtracking that can take place. |
| 1443 | For patterns that are not anchored, the count starts from zero for each | For patterns that are not anchored, the count starts from zero for each |
| 1444 | position in the subject string. | position in the subject string. |
| 1445 | ||
| 1446 | The default limit for the library can be set when PCRE is built; the | The default limit for the library can be set when PCRE is built; the |
| 1447 | default default is 10 million, which handles all but the most extreme | default default is 10 million, which handles all but the most extreme |
| 1448 | cases. You can reduce the default by suppling pcre_exec() with a | cases. You can reduce the default by suppling pcre_exec() with a |
| 1449 | pcre_extra block in which match_limit is set to a smaller value, and | pcre_extra block in which match_limit is set to a smaller value, and |
| 1450 | PCRE_EXTRA_MATCH_LIMIT is set in the flags field. If the limit is | PCRE_EXTRA_MATCH_LIMIT is set in the flags field. If the limit is |
| 1451 | exceeded, pcre_exec() returns PCRE_ERROR_MATCHLIMIT. | exceeded, pcre_exec() returns PCRE_ERROR_MATCHLIMIT. |
| 1452 | ||
| 1453 | The pcre_callout field is used in conjunction with the "callout" fea- | The pcre_callout field is used in conjunction with the "callout" fea- |
| 1454 | ture, which is described in the pcrecallout documentation. | ture, which is described in the pcrecallout documentation. |
| 1455 | ||
| 1456 | The tables field is used to pass a character tables pointer to | The tables field is used to pass a character tables pointer to |
| 1457 | pcre_exec(); this overrides the value that is stored with the compiled | pcre_exec(); this overrides the value that is stored with the compiled |
| 1458 | pattern. A non-NULL value is stored with the compiled pattern only if | pattern. A non-NULL value is stored with the compiled pattern only if |
| 1459 | custom tables were supplied to pcre_compile() via its tableptr argu- | custom tables were supplied to pcre_compile() via its tableptr argu- |
| 1460 | ment. If NULL is passed to pcre_exec() using this mechanism, it forces | ment. If NULL is passed to pcre_exec() using this mechanism, it forces |
| 1461 | PCRE's internal tables to be used. This facility is helpful when re- | PCRE's internal tables to be used. This facility is helpful when re- |
| 1462 | using patterns that have been saved after compiling with an external | using patterns that have been saved after compiling with an external |
| 1463 | set of tables, because the external tables might be at a different | set of tables, because the external tables might be at a different |
| 1464 | address when pcre_exec() is called. See the pcreprecompile documenta- | address when pcre_exec() is called. See the pcreprecompile documenta- |
| 1465 | tion for a discussion of saving compiled patterns for later use. | tion for a discussion of saving compiled patterns for later use. |
| 1466 | ||
| 1467 | Option bits for pcre_exec() | Option bits for pcre_exec() |
| 1468 | ||
| 1469 | The unused bits of the options argument for pcre_exec() must be zero. | The unused bits of the options argument for pcre_exec() must be zero. |
| 1470 | The only bits that may be set are PCRE_ANCHORED, PCRE_NOTBOL, | The only bits that may be set are PCRE_ANCHORED, PCRE_NOTBOL, |
| 1471 | PCRE_NOTEOL, PCRE_NOTEMPTY, PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK and PCRE_PARTIAL. | PCRE_NOTEOL, PCRE_NOTEMPTY, PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK and PCRE_PARTIAL. |
| 1472 | ||
| 1473 | PCRE_ANCHORED | PCRE_ANCHORED |
| 1474 | ||
| 1475 | The PCRE_ANCHORED option limits pcre_exec() to matching at the first | The PCRE_ANCHORED option limits pcre_exec() to matching at the first |
| 1476 | matching position. If a pattern was compiled with PCRE_ANCHORED, or | matching position. If a pattern was compiled with PCRE_ANCHORED, or |
| 1477 | turned out to be anchored by virtue of its contents, it cannot be made | turned out to be anchored by virtue of its contents, it cannot be made |
| 1478 | unachored at matching time. | unachored at matching time. |
| 1479 | ||
| 1480 | PCRE_NOTBOL | PCRE_NOTBOL |
| 1481 | ||
| 1482 | This option specifies that first character of the subject string is not | This option specifies that first character of the subject string is not |
| 1483 | the beginning of a line, so the circumflex metacharacter should not | the beginning of a line, so the circumflex metacharacter should not |
| 1484 | match before it. Setting this without PCRE_MULTILINE (at compile time) | match before it. Setting this without PCRE_MULTILINE (at compile time) |
| 1485 | causes circumflex never to match. This option affects only the | causes circumflex never to match. This option affects only the behav- |
| 1486 | behaviour of the circumflex metacharacter. It does not affect \A. | iour of the circumflex metacharacter. It does not affect \A. |
| 1487 | ||
| 1488 | PCRE_NOTEOL | PCRE_NOTEOL |
| 1489 | ||
| 1490 | This option specifies that the end of the subject string is not the end | This option specifies that the end of the subject string is not the end |
| 1491 | of a line, so the dollar metacharacter should not match it nor (except | of a line, so the dollar metacharacter should not match it nor (except |
| 1492 | in multiline mode) a newline immediately before it. Setting this with- | in multiline mode) a newline immediately before it. Setting this with- |
| 1493 | out PCRE_MULTILINE (at compile time) causes dollar never to match. This | out PCRE_MULTILINE (at compile time) causes dollar never to match. This |
| 1494 | option affects only the behaviour of the dollar metacharacter. It does | option affects only the behaviour of the dollar metacharacter. It does |
| 1495 | not affect \Z or \z. | not affect \Z or \z. |
| 1496 | ||
| 1497 | PCRE_NOTEMPTY | PCRE_NOTEMPTY |
| 1498 | ||
| 1499 | An empty string is not considered to be a valid match if this option is | An empty string is not considered to be a valid match if this option is |
| 1500 | set. If there are alternatives in the pattern, they are tried. If all | set. If there are alternatives in the pattern, they are tried. If all |
| 1501 | the alternatives match the empty string, the entire match fails. For | the alternatives match the empty string, the entire match fails. For |
| 1502 | example, if the pattern | example, if the pattern |
| 1503 | ||
| 1504 | a?b? | a?b? |
| 1505 | ||
| 1506 | is applied to a string not beginning with "a" or "b", it matches the | is applied to a string not beginning with "a" or "b", it matches the |
| 1507 | empty string at the start of the subject. With PCRE_NOTEMPTY set, this | empty string at the start of the subject. With PCRE_NOTEMPTY set, this |
| 1508 | match is not valid, so PCRE searches further into the string for occur- | match is not valid, so PCRE searches further into the string for occur- |
| 1509 | rences of "a" or "b". | rences of "a" or "b". |
| 1510 | ||
| 1511 | Perl has no direct equivalent of PCRE_NOTEMPTY, but it does make a spe- | Perl has no direct equivalent of PCRE_NOTEMPTY, but it does make a spe- |
| 1512 | cial case of a pattern match of the empty string within its split() | cial case of a pattern match of the empty string within its split() |
| 1513 | function, and when using the /g modifier. It is possible to emulate | function, and when using the /g modifier. It is possible to emulate |
| 1514 | Perl's behaviour after matching a null string by first trying the match | Perl's behaviour after matching a null string by first trying the match |
| 1515 | again at the same offset with PCRE_NOTEMPTY and PCRE_ANCHORED, and then | again at the same offset with PCRE_NOTEMPTY and PCRE_ANCHORED, and then |
| 1516 | if that fails by advancing the starting offset (see below) and trying | if that fails by advancing the starting offset (see below) and trying |
| 1517 | an ordinary match again. There is some code that demonstrates how to do | an ordinary match again. There is some code that demonstrates how to do |
| 1518 | this in the pcredemo.c sample program. | this in the pcredemo.c sample program. |
| 1519 | ||
| 1520 | PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK | PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK |
| 1521 | ||
| 1522 | When PCRE_UTF8 is set at compile time, the validity of the subject as a | When PCRE_UTF8 is set at compile time, the validity of the subject as a |
| 1523 | UTF-8 string is automatically checked when pcre_exec() is subsequently | UTF-8 string is automatically checked when pcre_exec() is subsequently |
| 1524 | called. The value of startoffset is also checked to ensure that it | called. The value of startoffset is also checked to ensure that it |
| 1525 | points to the start of a UTF-8 character. If an invalid UTF-8 sequence | points to the start of a UTF-8 character. If an invalid UTF-8 sequence |
| 1526 | of bytes is found, pcre_exec() returns the error PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8. If | of bytes is found, pcre_exec() returns the error PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8. If |
| 1527 | startoffset contains an invalid value, PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8_OFFSET is | startoffset contains an invalid value, PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8_OFFSET is |
| 1528 | returned. | returned. |
| 1529 | ||
| 1530 | If you already know that your subject is valid, and you want to skip | If you already know that your subject is valid, and you want to skip |
| 1531 | these checks for performance reasons, you can set the | these checks for performance reasons, you can set the |
| 1532 | PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK option when calling pcre_exec(). You might want to | PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK option when calling pcre_exec(). You might want to |
| 1533 | do this for the second and subsequent calls to pcre_exec() if you are | do this for the second and subsequent calls to pcre_exec() if you are |
| 1534 | making repeated calls to find all the matches in a single subject | making repeated calls to find all the matches in a single subject |
| 1535 | string. However, you should be sure that the value of startoffset | string. However, you should be sure that the value of startoffset |
| 1536 | points to the start of a UTF-8 character. When PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK is | points to the start of a UTF-8 character. When PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK is |
| 1537 | set, the effect of passing an invalid UTF-8 string as a subject, or a | set, the effect of passing an invalid UTF-8 string as a subject, or a |
| 1538 | value of startoffset that does not point to the start of a UTF-8 char- | value of startoffset that does not point to the start of a UTF-8 char- |
| 1539 | acter, is undefined. Your program may crash. | acter, is undefined. Your program may crash. |
| 1540 | ||
| 1541 | PCRE_PARTIAL | PCRE_PARTIAL |
| 1542 | ||
| 1543 | This option turns on the partial matching feature. If the subject | This option turns on the partial matching feature. If the subject |
| 1544 | string fails to match the pattern, but at some point during the match- | string fails to match the pattern, but at some point during the match- |
| 1545 | ing process the end of the subject was reached (that is, the subject | ing process the end of the subject was reached (that is, the subject |
| 1546 | partially matches the pattern and the failure to match occurred only | partially matches the pattern and the failure to match occurred only |
| 1547 | because there were not enough subject characters), pcre_exec() returns | because there were not enough subject characters), pcre_exec() returns |
| 1548 | PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL instead of PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH. When PCRE_PARTIAL is | PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL instead of PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH. When PCRE_PARTIAL is |
| 1549 | used, there are restrictions on what may appear in the pattern. These | used, there are restrictions on what may appear in the pattern. These |
| 1550 | are discussed in the pcrepartial documentation. | are discussed in the pcrepartial documentation. |
| 1551 | ||
| 1552 | The string to be matched by pcre_exec() | The string to be matched by pcre_exec() |
| 1553 | ||
| 1554 | The subject string is passed to pcre_exec() as a pointer in subject, a | The subject string is passed to pcre_exec() as a pointer in subject, a |
| 1555 | length in length, and a starting byte offset in startoffset. In UTF-8 | length in length, and a starting byte offset in startoffset. In UTF-8 |
| 1556 | mode, the byte offset must point to the start of a UTF-8 character. | mode, the byte offset must point to the start of a UTF-8 character. |
| 1557 | Unlike the pattern string, the subject may contain binary zero bytes. | Unlike the pattern string, the subject may contain binary zero bytes. |
| 1558 | When the starting offset is zero, the search for a match starts at the | When the starting offset is zero, the search for a match starts at the |
| 1559 | beginning of the subject, and this is by far the most common case. | beginning of the subject, and this is by far the most common case. |
| 1560 | ||
| 1561 | A non-zero starting offset is useful when searching for another match | A non-zero starting offset is useful when searching for another match |
| 1562 | in the same subject by calling pcre_exec() again after a previous suc- | in the same subject by calling pcre_exec() again after a previous suc- |
| 1563 | cess. Setting startoffset differs from just passing over a shortened | cess. Setting startoffset differs from just passing over a shortened |
| 1564 | string and setting PCRE_NOTBOL in the case of a pattern that begins | string and setting PCRE_NOTBOL in the case of a pattern that begins |
| 1565 | with any kind of lookbehind. For example, consider the pattern | with any kind of lookbehind. For example, consider the pattern |
| 1566 | ||
| 1567 | \Biss\B | \Biss\B |
| 1568 | ||
| 1569 | which finds occurrences of "iss" in the middle of words. (\B matches | which finds occurrences of "iss" in the middle of words. (\B matches |
| 1570 | only if the current position in the subject is not a word boundary.) | only if the current position in the subject is not a word boundary.) |
| 1571 | When applied to the string "Mississipi" the first call to pcre_exec() | When applied to the string "Mississipi" the first call to pcre_exec() |
| 1572 | finds the first occurrence. If pcre_exec() is called again with just | finds the first occurrence. If pcre_exec() is called again with just |
| 1573 | the remainder of the subject, namely "issipi", it does not match, | the remainder of the subject, namely "issipi", it does not match, |
| 1574 | because \B is always false at the start of the subject, which is deemed | because \B is always false at the start of the subject, which is deemed |
| 1575 | to be a word boundary. However, if pcre_exec() is passed the entire | to be a word boundary. However, if pcre_exec() is passed the entire |
| 1576 | string again, but with startoffset set to 4, it finds the second occur- | string again, but with startoffset set to 4, it finds the second occur- |
| 1577 | rence of "iss" because it is able to look behind the starting point to | rence of "iss" because it is able to look behind the starting point to |
| 1578 | discover that it is preceded by a letter. | discover that it is preceded by a letter. |
| 1579 | ||
| 1580 | If a non-zero starting offset is passed when the pattern is anchored, | If a non-zero starting offset is passed when the pattern is anchored, |
| 1581 | one attempt to match at the given offset is made. This can only succeed | one attempt to match at the given offset is made. This can only succeed |
| 1582 | if the pattern does not require the match to be at the start of the | if the pattern does not require the match to be at the start of the |
| 1583 | subject. | subject. |
| 1584 | ||
| 1585 | How pcre_exec() returns captured substrings | How pcre_exec() returns captured substrings |
| 1586 | ||
| 1587 | In general, a pattern matches a certain portion of the subject, and in | In general, a pattern matches a certain portion of the subject, and in |
| 1588 | addition, further substrings from the subject may be picked out by | addition, further substrings from the subject may be picked out by |
| 1589 | parts of the pattern. Following the usage in Jeffrey Friedl's book, | parts of the pattern. Following the usage in Jeffrey Friedl's book, |
| 1590 | this is called "capturing" in what follows, and the phrase "capturing | this is called "capturing" in what follows, and the phrase "capturing |
| 1591 | subpattern" is used for a fragment of a pattern that picks out a sub- | subpattern" is used for a fragment of a pattern that picks out a sub- |
| 1592 | string. PCRE supports several other kinds of parenthesized subpattern | string. PCRE supports several other kinds of parenthesized subpattern |
| 1593 | that do not cause substrings to be captured. | that do not cause substrings to be captured. |
| 1594 | ||
| 1595 | Captured substrings are returned to the caller via a vector of integer | Captured substrings are returned to the caller via a vector of integer |
| 1596 | offsets whose address is passed in ovector. The number of elements in | offsets whose address is passed in ovector. The number of elements in |
| 1597 | the vector is passed in ovecsize, which must be a non-negative number. | the vector is passed in ovecsize, which must be a non-negative number. |
| 1598 | Note: this argument is NOT the size of ovector in bytes. | Note: this argument is NOT the size of ovector in bytes. |
| 1599 | ||
| 1600 | The first two-thirds of the vector is used to pass back captured sub- | The first two-thirds of the vector is used to pass back captured sub- |
| 1601 | strings, each substring using a pair of integers. The remaining third | strings, each substring using a pair of integers. The remaining third |
| 1602 | of the vector is used as workspace by pcre_exec() while matching cap- | of the vector is used as workspace by pcre_exec() while matching cap- |
| 1603 | turing subpatterns, and is not available for passing back information. | turing subpatterns, and is not available for passing back information. |
| 1604 | The length passed in ovecsize should always be a multiple of three. If | The length passed in ovecsize should always be a multiple of three. If |
| 1605 | it is not, it is rounded down. | it is not, it is rounded down. |
| 1606 | ||
| 1607 | When a match is successful, information about captured substrings is | When a match is successful, information about captured substrings is |
| 1608 | returned in pairs of integers, starting at the beginning of ovector, | returned in pairs of integers, starting at the beginning of ovector, |
| 1609 | and continuing up to two-thirds of its length at the most. The first | and continuing up to two-thirds of its length at the most. The first |
| 1610 | element of a pair is set to the offset of the first character in a sub- | element of a pair is set to the offset of the first character in a sub- |
| 1611 | string, and the second is set to the offset of the first character | string, and the second is set to the offset of the first character |
| 1612 | after the end of a substring. The first pair, ovector[0] and ovec- | after the end of a substring. The first pair, ovector[0] and ovec- |
| 1613 | tor[1], identify the portion of the subject string matched by the | tor[1], identify the portion of the subject string matched by the |
| 1614 | entire pattern. The next pair is used for the first capturing subpat- | entire pattern. The next pair is used for the first capturing subpat- |
| 1615 | tern, and so on. The value returned by pcre_exec() is the number of | tern, and so on. The value returned by pcre_exec() is the number of |
| 1616 | pairs that have been set. If there are no capturing subpatterns, the | pairs that have been set. If there are no capturing subpatterns, the |
| 1617 | return value from a successful match is 1, indicating that just the | return value from a successful match is 1, indicating that just the |
| 1618 | first pair of offsets has been set. | first pair of offsets has been set. |
| 1619 | ||
| 1620 | Some convenience functions are provided for extracting the captured | Some convenience functions are provided for extracting the captured |
| 1621 | substrings as separate strings. These are described in the following | substrings as separate strings. These are described in the following |
| 1622 | section. | section. |
| 1623 | ||
| 1624 | It is possible for an capturing subpattern number n+1 to match some | It is possible for an capturing subpattern number n+1 to match some |
| 1625 | part of the subject when subpattern n has not been used at all. For | part of the subject when subpattern n has not been used at all. For |
| 1626 | example, if the string "abc" is matched against the pattern (a|(z))(bc) | example, if the string "abc" is matched against the pattern (a|(z))(bc) |
| 1627 | subpatterns 1 and 3 are matched, but 2 is not. When this happens, both | subpatterns 1 and 3 are matched, but 2 is not. When this happens, both |
| 1628 | offset values corresponding to the unused subpattern are set to -1. | offset values corresponding to the unused subpattern are set to -1. |
| 1629 | ||
| 1630 | If a capturing subpattern is matched repeatedly, it is the last portion | If a capturing subpattern is matched repeatedly, it is the last portion |
| 1631 | of the string that it matched that is returned. | of the string that it matched that is returned. |
| 1632 | ||
| 1633 | If the vector is too small to hold all the captured substring offsets, | If the vector is too small to hold all the captured substring offsets, |
| 1634 | it is used as far as possible (up to two-thirds of its length), and the | it is used as far as possible (up to two-thirds of its length), and the |
| 1635 | function returns a value of zero. In particular, if the substring off- | function returns a value of zero. In particular, if the substring off- |
| 1636 | sets are not of interest, pcre_exec() may be called with ovector passed | sets are not of interest, pcre_exec() may be called with ovector passed |
| 1637 | as NULL and ovecsize as zero. However, if the pattern contains back | as NULL and ovecsize as zero. However, if the pattern contains back |
| 1638 | references and the ovector is not big enough to remember the related | references and the ovector is not big enough to remember the related |
| 1639 | substrings, PCRE has to get additional memory for use during matching. | substrings, PCRE has to get additional memory for use during matching. |
| 1640 | Thus it is usually advisable to supply an ovector. | Thus it is usually advisable to supply an ovector. |
| 1641 | ||
| 1642 | Note that pcre_info() can be used to find out how many capturing sub- | Note that pcre_info() can be used to find out how many capturing sub- |
| 1643 | patterns there are in a compiled pattern. The smallest size for ovector | patterns there are in a compiled pattern. The smallest size for ovector |
| 1644 | that will allow for n captured substrings, in addition to the offsets | that will allow for n captured substrings, in addition to the offsets |
| 1645 | of the substring matched by the whole pattern, is (n+1)*3. | of the substring matched by the whole pattern, is (n+1)*3. |
| 1646 | ||
| 1647 | Return values from pcre_exec() | Return values from pcre_exec() |
| 1648 | ||
| 1649 | If pcre_exec() fails, it returns a negative number. The following are | If pcre_exec() fails, it returns a negative number. The following are |
| 1650 | defined in the header file: | defined in the header file: |
| 1651 | ||
| 1652 | PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH (-1) | PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH (-1) |
| # | Line 1336 MATCHING A PATTERN | Line 1655 MATCHING A PATTERN |
| 1655 | ||
| 1656 | PCRE_ERROR_NULL (-2) | PCRE_ERROR_NULL (-2) |
| 1657 | ||
| 1658 | Either code or subject was passed as NULL, or ovector was NULL and | Either code or subject was passed as NULL, or ovector was NULL and |
| 1659 | ovecsize was not zero. | ovecsize was not zero. |
| 1660 | ||
| 1661 | PCRE_ERROR_BADOPTION (-3) | PCRE_ERROR_BADOPTION (-3) |
| # | Line 1345 MATCHING A PATTERN | Line 1664 MATCHING A PATTERN |
| 1664 | ||
| 1665 | PCRE_ERROR_BADMAGIC (-4) | PCRE_ERROR_BADMAGIC (-4) |
| 1666 | ||
| 1667 | PCRE stores a 4-byte "magic number" at the start of the compiled code, | PCRE stores a 4-byte "magic number" at the start of the compiled code, |
| 1668 | to catch the case when it is passed a junk pointer and to detect when a | to catch the case when it is passed a junk pointer and to detect when a |
| 1669 | pattern that was compiled in an environment of one endianness is run in | pattern that was compiled in an environment of one endianness is run in |
| 1670 | an environment with the other endianness. This is the error that PCRE | an environment with the other endianness. This is the error that PCRE |
| 1671 | gives when the magic number is not present. | gives when the magic number is not present. |
| 1672 | ||
| 1673 | PCRE_ERROR_UNKNOWN_NODE (-5) | PCRE_ERROR_UNKNOWN_NODE (-5) |
| 1674 | ||
| 1675 | While running the pattern match, an unknown item was encountered in the | While running the pattern match, an unknown item was encountered in the |
| 1676 | compiled pattern. This error could be caused by a bug in PCRE or by | compiled pattern. This error could be caused by a bug in PCRE or by |
| 1677 | overwriting of the compiled pattern. | overwriting of the compiled pattern. |
| 1678 | ||
| 1679 | PCRE_ERROR_NOMEMORY (-6) | PCRE_ERROR_NOMEMORY (-6) |
| 1680 | ||
| 1681 | If a pattern contains back references, but the ovector that is passed | If a pattern contains back references, but the ovector that is passed |
| 1682 | to pcre_exec() is not big enough to remember the referenced substrings, | to pcre_exec() is not big enough to remember the referenced substrings, |
| 1683 | PCRE gets a block of memory at the start of matching to use for this | PCRE gets a block of memory at the start of matching to use for this |
| 1684 | purpose. If the call via pcre_malloc() fails, this error is given. The | purpose. If the call via pcre_malloc() fails, this error is given. The |
| 1685 | memory is automatically freed at the end of matching. | memory is automatically freed at the end of matching. |
| 1686 | ||
| 1687 | PCRE_ERROR_NOSUBSTRING (-7) | PCRE_ERROR_NOSUBSTRING (-7) |
| 1688 | ||
| 1689 | This error is used by the pcre_copy_substring(), pcre_get_substring(), | This error is used by the pcre_copy_substring(), pcre_get_substring(), |
| 1690 | and pcre_get_substring_list() functions (see below). It is never | and pcre_get_substring_list() functions (see below). It is never |
| 1691 | returned by pcre_exec(). | returned by pcre_exec(). |
| 1692 | ||
| 1693 | PCRE_ERROR_MATCHLIMIT (-8) | PCRE_ERROR_MATCHLIMIT (-8) |
| 1694 | ||
| 1695 | The recursion and backtracking limit, as specified by the match_limit | The recursion and backtracking limit, as specified by the match_limit |
| 1696 | field in a pcre_extra structure (or defaulted) was reached. See the | field in a pcre_extra structure (or defaulted) was reached. See the |
| 1697 | description above. | description above. |
| 1698 | ||
| 1699 | PCRE_ERROR_CALLOUT (-9) | PCRE_ERROR_CALLOUT (-9) |
| 1700 | ||
| 1701 | This error is never generated by pcre_exec() itself. It is provided for | This error is never generated by pcre_exec() itself. It is provided for |
| 1702 | use by callout functions that want to yield a distinctive error code. | use by callout functions that want to yield a distinctive error code. |
| 1703 | See the pcrecallout documentation for details. | See the pcrecallout documentation for details. |
| 1704 | ||
| 1705 | PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8 (-10) | PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8 (-10) |
| 1706 | ||
| 1707 | A string that contains an invalid UTF-8 byte sequence was passed as a | A string that contains an invalid UTF-8 byte sequence was passed as a |
| 1708 | subject. | subject. |
| 1709 | ||
| 1710 | PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8_OFFSET (-11) | PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8_OFFSET (-11) |
| 1711 | ||
| 1712 | The UTF-8 byte sequence that was passed as a subject was valid, but the | The UTF-8 byte sequence that was passed as a subject was valid, but the |
| 1713 | value of startoffset did not point to the beginning of a UTF-8 charac- | value of startoffset did not point to the beginning of a UTF-8 charac- |
| 1714 | ter. | ter. |
| 1715 | ||
| 1716 | PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL (-12) | PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL (-12) |
| 1717 | ||
| 1718 | The subject string did not match, but it did match partially. See the | The subject string did not match, but it did match partially. See the |
| 1719 | pcrepartial documentation for details of partial matching. | pcrepartial documentation for details of partial matching. |
| 1720 | ||
| 1721 | PCRE_ERROR_BAD_PARTIAL (-13) | PCRE_ERROR_BADPARTIAL (-13) |
| 1722 | ||
| 1723 | The PCRE_PARTIAL option was used with a compiled pattern containing | The PCRE_PARTIAL option was used with a compiled pattern containing |
| 1724 | items that are not supported for partial matching. See the pcrepartial | items that are not supported for partial matching. See the pcrepartial |
| 1725 | documentation for details of partial matching. | documentation for details of partial matching. |
| 1726 | ||
| 1727 | PCRE_ERROR_INTERNAL (-14) | PCRE_ERROR_INTERNAL (-14) |
| 1728 | ||
| 1729 | An unexpected internal error has occurred. This error could be caused | An unexpected internal error has occurred. This error could be caused |
| 1730 | by a bug in PCRE or by overwriting of the compiled pattern. | by a bug in PCRE or by overwriting of the compiled pattern. |
| 1731 | ||
| 1732 | PCRE_ERROR_BADCOUNT (-15) | PCRE_ERROR_BADCOUNT (-15) |
| 1733 | ||
| 1734 | This error is given if the value of the ovecsize argument is negative. | This error is given if the value of the ovecsize argument is negative. |
| 1735 | ||
| 1736 | ||
| 1737 | EXTRACTING CAPTURED SUBSTRINGS BY NUMBER | EXTRACTING CAPTURED SUBSTRINGS BY NUMBER |
| # | Line 1428 EXTRACTING CAPTURED SUBSTRINGS BY NUMBER | Line 1747 EXTRACTING CAPTURED SUBSTRINGS BY NUMBER |
| 1747 | int pcre_get_substring_list(const char *subject, | int pcre_get_substring_list(const char *subject, |
| 1748 | int *ovector, int stringcount, const char ***listptr); | int *ovector, int stringcount, const char ***listptr); |
| 1749 | ||
| 1750 | Captured substrings can be accessed directly by using the offsets | Captured substrings can be accessed directly by using the offsets |
| 1751 | returned by pcre_exec() in ovector. For convenience, the functions | returned by pcre_exec() in ovector. For convenience, the functions |
| 1752 | pcre_copy_substring(), pcre_get_substring(), and pcre_get_sub- | pcre_copy_substring(), pcre_get_substring(), and pcre_get_sub- |
| 1753 | string_list() are provided for extracting captured substrings as new, | string_list() are provided for extracting captured substrings as new, |
| 1754 | separate, zero-terminated strings. These functions identify substrings | separate, zero-terminated strings. These functions identify substrings |
| 1755 | by number. The next section describes functions for extracting named | by number. The next section describes functions for extracting named |
| 1756 | substrings. A substring that contains a binary zero is correctly | substrings. A substring that contains a binary zero is correctly |
| 1757 | extracted and has a further zero added on the end, but the result is | extracted and has a further zero added on the end, but the result is |
| 1758 | not, of course, a C string. | not, of course, a C string. |
| 1759 | ||
| 1760 | The first three arguments are the same for all three of these func- | The first three arguments are the same for all three of these func- |
| 1761 | tions: subject is the subject string that has just been successfully | tions: subject is the subject string that has just been successfully |
| 1762 | matched, ovector is a pointer to the vector of integer offsets that was | matched, ovector is a pointer to the vector of integer offsets that was |
| 1763 | passed to pcre_exec(), and stringcount is the number of substrings that | passed to pcre_exec(), and stringcount is the number of substrings that |
| 1764 | were captured by the match, including the substring that matched the | were captured by the match, including the substring that matched the |
| 1765 | entire regular expression. This is the value returned by pcre_exec() if | entire regular expression. This is the value returned by pcre_exec() if |
| 1766 | it is greater than zero. If pcre_exec() returned zero, indicating that | it is greater than zero. If pcre_exec() returned zero, indicating that |
| 1767 | it ran out of space in ovector, the value passed as stringcount should | it ran out of space in ovector, the value passed as stringcount should |
| 1768 | be the number of elements in the vector divided by three. | be the number of elements in the vector divided by three. |
| 1769 | ||
| 1770 | The functions pcre_copy_substring() and pcre_get_substring() extract a | The functions pcre_copy_substring() and pcre_get_substring() extract a |
| 1771 | single substring, whose number is given as stringnumber. A value of | single substring, whose number is given as stringnumber. A value of |
| 1772 | zero extracts the substring that matched the entire pattern, whereas | zero extracts the substring that matched the entire pattern, whereas |
| 1773 | higher values extract the captured substrings. For pcre_copy_sub- | higher values extract the captured substrings. For pcre_copy_sub- |
| 1774 | string(), the string is placed in buffer, whose length is given by | string(), the string is placed in buffer, whose length is given by |
| 1775 | buffersize, while for pcre_get_substring() a new block of memory is | buffersize, while for pcre_get_substring() a new block of memory is |
| 1776 | obtained via pcre_malloc, and its address is returned via stringptr. | obtained via pcre_malloc, and its address is returned via stringptr. |
| 1777 | The yield of the function is the length of the string, not including | The yield of the function is the length of the string, not including |
| 1778 | the terminating zero, or one of | the terminating zero, or one of |
| 1779 | ||
| 1780 | PCRE_ERROR_NOMEMORY (-6) | PCRE_ERROR_NOMEMORY (-6) |
| 1781 | ||
| 1782 | The buffer was too small for pcre_copy_substring(), or the attempt to | The buffer was too small for pcre_copy_substring(), or the attempt to |
| 1783 | get memory failed for pcre_get_substring(). | get memory failed for pcre_get_substring(). |
| 1784 | ||
| 1785 | PCRE_ERROR_NOSUBSTRING (-7) | PCRE_ERROR_NOSUBSTRING (-7) |
| 1786 | ||
| 1787 | There is no substring whose number is stringnumber. | There is no substring whose number is stringnumber. |
| 1788 | ||
| 1789 | The pcre_get_substring_list() function extracts all available sub- | The pcre_get_substring_list() function extracts all available sub- |
| 1790 | strings and builds a list of pointers to them. All this is done in a | strings and builds a list of pointers to them. All this is done in a |
| 1791 | single block of memory that is obtained via pcre_malloc. The address of | single block of memory that is obtained via pcre_malloc. The address of |
| 1792 | the memory block is returned via listptr, which is also the start of | the memory block is returned via listptr, which is also the start of |
| 1793 | the list of string pointers. The end of the list is marked by a NULL | the list of string pointers. The end of the list is marked by a NULL |
| 1794 | pointer. The yield of the function is zero if all went well, or | pointer. The yield of the function is zero if all went well, or |
| 1795 | ||
| 1796 | PCRE_ERROR_NOMEMORY (-6) | PCRE_ERROR_NOMEMORY (-6) |
| 1797 | ||
| 1798 | if the attempt to get the memory block failed. | if the attempt to get the memory block failed. |
| 1799 | ||
| 1800 | When any of these functions encounter a substring that is unset, which | When any of these functions encounter a substring that is unset, which |
| 1801 | can happen when capturing subpattern number n+1 matches some part of | can happen when capturing subpattern number n+1 matches some part of |
| 1802 | the subject, but subpattern n has not been used at all, they return an | the subject, but subpattern n has not been used at all, they return an |
| 1803 | empty string. This can be distinguished from a genuine zero-length sub- | empty string. This can be distinguished from a genuine zero-length sub- |
| 1804 | string by inspecting the appropriate offset in ovector, which is nega- | string by inspecting the appropriate offset in ovector, which is nega- |
| 1805 | tive for unset substrings. | tive for unset substrings. |
| 1806 | ||
| 1807 | The two convenience functions pcre_free_substring() and pcre_free_sub- | The two convenience functions pcre_free_substring() and pcre_free_sub- |
| 1808 | string_list() can be used to free the memory returned by a previous | string_list() can be used to free the memory returned by a previous |
| 1809 | call of pcre_get_substring() or pcre_get_substring_list(), respec- | call of pcre_get_substring() or pcre_get_substring_list(), respec- |
| 1810 | tively. They do nothing more than call the function pointed to by | tively. They do nothing more than call the function pointed to by |
| 1811 | pcre_free, which of course could be called directly from a C program. | pcre_free, which of course could be called directly from a C program. |
| 1812 | However, PCRE is used in some situations where it is linked via a spe- | However, PCRE is used in some situations where it is linked via a spe- |
| 1813 | cial interface to another programming language which cannot use | cial interface to another programming language which cannot use |
| 1814 | pcre_free directly; it is for these cases that the functions are | pcre_free directly; it is for these cases that the functions are pro- |
| 1815 | provided. | vided. |
| 1816 | ||
| 1817 | ||
| 1818 | EXTRACTING CAPTURED SUBSTRINGS BY NAME | EXTRACTING CAPTURED SUBSTRINGS BY NAME |
| # | Line 1511 EXTRACTING CAPTURED SUBSTRINGS BY NAME | Line 1830 EXTRACTING CAPTURED SUBSTRINGS BY NAME |
| 1830 | int stringcount, const char *stringname, | int stringcount, const char *stringname, |
| 1831 | const char **stringptr); | const char **stringptr); |
| 1832 | ||
| 1833 | To extract a substring by name, you first have to find associated num- | To extract a substring by name, you first have to find associated num- |
| 1834 | ber. For example, for this pattern | ber. For example, for this pattern |
| 1835 | ||
| 1836 | (a+)b(?<xxx>\d+)... | (a+)b(?<xxx>\d+)... |
| 1837 | ||
| 1838 | the number of the subpattern called "xxx" is 2. You can find the number | the number of the subpattern called "xxx" is 2. You can find the number |
| 1839 | from the name by calling pcre_get_stringnumber(). The first argument is | from the name by calling pcre_get_stringnumber(). The first argument is |
| 1840 | the compiled pattern, and the second is the name. The yield of the | the compiled pattern, and the second is the name. The yield of the |
| 1841 | function is the subpattern number, or PCRE_ERROR_NOSUBSTRING (-7) if | function is the subpattern number, or PCRE_ERROR_NOSUBSTRING (-7) if |
| 1842 | there is no subpattern of that name. | there is no subpattern of that name. |
| 1843 | ||
| 1844 | Given the number, you can extract the substring directly, or use one of | Given the number, you can extract the substring directly, or use one of |
| 1845 | the functions described in the previous section. For convenience, there | the functions described in the previous section. For convenience, there |
| 1846 | are also two functions that do the whole job. | are also two functions that do the whole job. |
| 1847 | ||
| 1848 | Most of the arguments of pcre_copy_named_substring() and | Most of the arguments of pcre_copy_named_substring() and |
| 1849 | pcre_get_named_substring() are the same as those for the similarly | pcre_get_named_substring() are the same as those for the similarly |
| 1850 | named functions that extract by number. As these are described in the | named functions that extract by number. As these are described in the |
| 1851 | previous section, they are not re-described here. There are just two | previous section, they are not re-described here. There are just two |
| 1852 | differences: | differences: |
| 1853 | ||
| 1854 | First, instead of a substring number, a substring name is given. Sec- | First, instead of a substring number, a substring name is given. Sec- |
| 1855 | ond, there is an extra argument, given at the start, which is a pointer | ond, there is an extra argument, given at the start, which is a pointer |
| 1856 | to the compiled pattern. This is needed in order to gain access to the | to the compiled pattern. This is needed in order to gain access to the |
| 1857 | name-to-number translation table. | name-to-number translation table. |
| 1858 | ||
| 1859 | These functions call pcre_get_stringnumber(), and if it succeeds, they | These functions call pcre_get_stringnumber(), and if it succeeds, they |
| 1860 | then call pcre_copy_substring() or pcre_get_substring(), as appropri- | then call pcre_copy_substring() or pcre_get_substring(), as appropri- |
| 1861 | ate. | ate. |
| 1862 | ||
| Last updated: 09 September 2004 | ||
| Copyright (c) 1997-2004 University of Cambridge. | ||
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ||
| 1863 | ||
| 1864 | PCRE(3) PCRE(3) | FINDING ALL POSSIBLE MATCHES |
| 1865 | ||
| 1866 | The traditional matching function uses a similar algorithm to Perl, | |
| 1867 | which stops when it finds the first match, starting at a given point in | |
| 1868 | the subject. If you want to find all possible matches, or the longest | |
| 1869 | possible match, consider using the alternative matching function (see | |
| 1870 | below) instead. If you cannot use the alternative function, but still | |
| 1871 | need to find all possible matches, you can kludge it up by making use | |
| 1872 | of the callout facility, which is described in the pcrecallout documen- | |
| 1873 | tation. | |
| 1874 | ||
| 1875 | What you have to do is to insert a callout right at the end of the pat- | |
| 1876 | tern. When your callout function is called, extract and save the cur- | |
| 1877 | rent matched substring. Then return 1, which forces pcre_exec() to | |
| 1878 | backtrack and try other alternatives. Ultimately, when it runs out of | |
| 1879 | matches, pcre_exec() will yield PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH. | |
| 1880 | ||
| 1881 | ||
| 1882 | MATCHING A PATTERN: THE ALTERNATIVE FUNCTION | |
| 1883 | ||
| 1884 | int pcre_dfa_exec(const pcre *code, const pcre_extra *extra, | |
| 1885 | const char *subject, int length, int startoffset, | |
| 1886 | int options, int *ovector, int ovecsize, | |
| 1887 | int *workspace, int wscount); | |
| 1888 | ||
| 1889 | The function pcre_dfa_exec() is called to match a subject string | |
| 1890 | against a compiled pattern, using a "DFA" matching algorithm. This has | |
| 1891 | different characteristics to the normal algorithm, and is not compati- | |
| 1892 | ble with Perl. Some of the features of PCRE patterns are not supported. | |
| 1893 | Nevertheless, there are times when this kind of matching can be useful. | |
| 1894 | For a discussion of the two matching algorithms, see the pcrematching | |
| 1895 | documentation. | |
| 1896 | ||
| 1897 | The arguments for the pcre_dfa_exec() function are the same as for | |
| 1898 | pcre_exec(), plus two extras. The ovector argument is used in a differ- | |
| 1899 | ent way, and this is described below. The other common arguments are | |
| 1900 | used in the same way as for pcre_exec(), so their description is not | |
| 1901 | repeated here. | |
| 1902 | ||
| 1903 | The two additional arguments provide workspace for the function. The | |
| 1904 | workspace vector should contain at least 20 elements. It is used for | |
| 1905 | keeping track of multiple paths through the pattern tree. More | |
| 1906 | workspace will be needed for patterns and subjects where there are a | |
| 1907 | lot of possible matches. | |
| 1908 | ||
| 1909 | Here is an example of a simple call to pcre_exec(): | |
| 1910 | ||
| 1911 | int rc; | |
| 1912 | int ovector[10]; | |
| 1913 | int wspace[20]; | |
| 1914 | rc = pcre_exec( | |
| 1915 | re, /* result of pcre_compile() */ | |
| 1916 | NULL, /* we didn't study the pattern */ | |
| 1917 | "some string", /* the subject string */ | |
| 1918 | 11, /* the length of the subject string */ | |
| 1919 | 0, /* start at offset 0 in the subject */ | |
| 1920 | 0, /* default options */ | |
| 1921 | ovector, /* vector of integers for substring information */ | |
| 1922 | 10, /* number of elements (NOT size in bytes) */ | |
| 1923 | wspace, /* working space vector */ | |
| 1924 | 20); /* number of elements (NOT size in bytes) */ | |
| 1925 | ||
| 1926 | Option bits for pcre_dfa_exec() | |
| 1927 | ||
| 1928 | The unused bits of the options argument for pcre_dfa_exec() must be | |
| 1929 | zero. The only bits that may be set are PCRE_ANCHORED, PCRE_NOTBOL, | |
| 1930 | PCRE_NOTEOL, PCRE_NOTEMPTY, PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK, PCRE_PARTIAL, | |
| 1931 | PCRE_DFA_SHORTEST, and PCRE_DFA_RESTART. All but the last three of | |
| 1932 | these are the same as for pcre_exec(), so their description is not | |
| 1933 | repeated here. | |
| 1934 | ||
| 1935 | PCRE_PARTIAL | |
| 1936 | ||
| 1937 | This has the same general effect as it does for pcre_exec(), but the | |
| 1938 | details are slightly different. When PCRE_PARTIAL is set for | |
| 1939 | pcre_dfa_exec(), the return code PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH is converted into | |
| 1940 | PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL if the end of the subject is reached, there have | |
| 1941 | been no complete matches, but there is still at least one matching pos- | |
| 1942 | sibility. The portion of the string that provided the partial match is | |
| 1943 | set as the first matching string. | |
| 1944 | ||
| 1945 | PCRE_DFA_SHORTEST | |
| 1946 | ||
| 1947 | Setting the PCRE_DFA_SHORTEST option causes the matching algorithm to | |
| 1948 | stop as soon as it has found one match. Because of the way the DFA | |
| 1949 | algorithm works, this is necessarily the shortest possible match at the | |
| 1950 | first possible matching point in the subject string. | |
| 1951 | ||
| 1952 | PCRE_DFA_RESTART | |
| 1953 | ||
| 1954 | When pcre_dfa_exec() is called with the PCRE_PARTIAL option, and | |
| 1955 | returns a partial match, it is possible to call it again, with addi- | |
| 1956 | tional subject characters, and have it continue with the same match. | |
| 1957 | The PCRE_DFA_RESTART option requests this action; when it is set, the | |
| 1958 | workspace and wscount options must reference the same vector as before | |
| 1959 | because data about the match so far is left in them after a partial | |
| 1960 | match. There is more discussion of this facility in the pcrepartial | |
| 1961 | documentation. | |
| 1962 | ||
| 1963 | Successful returns from pcre_dfa_exec() | |
| 1964 | ||
| 1965 | When pcre_dfa_exec() succeeds, it may have matched more than one sub- | |
| 1966 | string in the subject. Note, however, that all the matches from one run | |
| 1967 | of the function start at the same point in the subject. The shorter | |
| 1968 | matches are all initial substrings of the longer matches. For example, | |
| 1969 | if the pattern | |
| 1970 | ||
| 1971 | <.*> | |
| 1972 | ||
| 1973 | is matched against the string | |
| 1974 | ||
| 1975 | This is <something> <something else> <something further> no more | |
| 1976 | ||
| 1977 | the three matched strings are | |
| 1978 | ||
| 1979 | <something> | |
| 1980 | <something> <something else> | |
| 1981 | <something> <something else> <something further> | |
| 1982 | ||
| 1983 | On success, the yield of the function is a number greater than zero, | |
| 1984 | which is the number of matched substrings. The substrings themselves | |
| 1985 | are returned in ovector. Each string uses two elements; the first is | |
| 1986 | the offset to the start, and the second is the offset to the end. All | |
| 1987 | the strings have the same start offset. (Space could have been saved by | |
| 1988 | giving this only once, but it was decided to retain some compatibility | |
| 1989 | with the way pcre_exec() returns data, even though the meaning of the | |
| 1990 | strings is different.) | |
| 1991 | ||
| 1992 | The strings are returned in reverse order of length; that is, the long- | |
| 1993 | est matching string is given first. If there were too many matches to | |
| 1994 | fit into ovector, the yield of the function is zero, and the vector is | |
| 1995 | filled with the longest matches. | |
| 1996 | ||
| 1997 | Error returns from pcre_dfa_exec() | |
| 1998 | ||
| 1999 | The pcre_dfa_exec() function returns a negative number when it fails. | |
| 2000 | Many of the errors are the same as for pcre_exec(), and these are | |
| 2001 | described above. There are in addition the following errors that are | |
| 2002 | specific to pcre_dfa_exec(): | |
| 2003 | ||
| 2004 | PCRE_ERROR_DFA_UITEM (-16) | |
| 2005 | ||
| 2006 | This return is given if pcre_dfa_exec() encounters an item in the pat- | |
| 2007 | tern that it does not support, for instance, the use of \C or a back | |
| 2008 | reference. | |
| 2009 | ||
| 2010 | PCRE_ERROR_DFA_UCOND (-17) | |
| 2011 | ||
| 2012 | This return is given if pcre_dfa_exec() encounters a condition item in | |
| 2013 | a pattern that uses a back reference for the condition. This is not | |
| 2014 | supported. | |
| 2015 | ||
| 2016 | PCRE_ERROR_DFA_UMLIMIT (-18) | |
| 2017 | ||
| 2018 | This return is given if pcre_dfa_exec() is called with an extra block | |
| 2019 | that contains a setting of the match_limit field. This is not supported | |
| 2020 | (it is meaningless). | |
| 2021 | ||
| 2022 | PCRE_ERROR_DFA_WSSIZE (-19) | |
| 2023 | ||
| 2024 | This return is given if pcre_dfa_exec() runs out of space in the | |
| 2025 | workspace vector. | |
| 2026 | ||
| 2027 | PCRE_ERROR_DFA_RECURSE (-20) | |
| 2028 | ||
| 2029 | When a recursive subpattern is processed, the matching function calls | |
| 2030 | itself recursively, using private vectors for ovector and workspace. | |
| 2031 | This error is given if the output vector is not large enough. This | |
| 2032 | should be extremely rare, as a vector of size 1000 is used. | |
| 2033 | ||
| 2034 | Last updated: 16 May 2005 | |
| 2035 | Copyright (c) 1997-2005 University of Cambridge. | |
| 2036 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| 2037 | ||
| 2038 | ||
| 2039 | ||
| 2040 | NAME | NAME |
| 2041 | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions |
| 2042 | ||
| 2043 | ||
| 2044 | PCRE CALLOUTS | PCRE CALLOUTS |
| 2045 | ||
| 2046 | int (*pcre_callout)(pcre_callout_block *); | int (*pcre_callout)(pcre_callout_block *); |
| # | Line 1606 MISSING CALLOUTS | Line 2095 MISSING CALLOUTS |
| 2095 | THE CALLOUT INTERFACE | THE CALLOUT INTERFACE |
| 2096 | ||
| 2097 | During matching, when PCRE reaches a callout point, the external func- | During matching, when PCRE reaches a callout point, the external func- |
| 2098 | tion defined by pcre_callout is called (if it is set). The only argu- | tion defined by pcre_callout is called (if it is set). This applies to |
| 2099 | ment is a pointer to a pcre_callout block. This structure contains the | both the pcre_exec() and the pcre_dfa_exec() matching functions. The |
| 2100 | following fields: | only argument to the callout function is a pointer to a pcre_callout |
| 2101 | block. This structure contains the following fields: | |
| 2102 | ||
| 2103 | int version; | int version; |
| 2104 | int callout_number; | int callout_number; |
| # | Line 1623 THE CALLOUT INTERFACE | Line 2113 THE CALLOUT INTERFACE |
| 2113 | int pattern_position; | int pattern_position; |
| 2114 | int next_item_length; | int next_item_length; |
| 2115 | ||
| 2116 | The version field is an integer containing the version number of the | The version field is an integer containing the version number of the |
| 2117 | block format. The initial version was 0; the current version is 1. The | block format. The initial version was 0; the current version is 1. The |
| 2118 | version number will change again in future if additional fields are | version number will change again in future if additional fields are |
| 2119 | added, but the intention is never to remove any of the existing fields. | added, but the intention is never to remove any of the existing fields. |
| 2120 | ||
| 2121 | The callout_number field contains the number of the callout, as com- | The callout_number field contains the number of the callout, as com- |
| 2122 | piled into the pattern (that is, the number after ?C for manual call- | piled into the pattern (that is, the number after ?C for manual call- |
| 2123 | outs, and 255 for automatically generated callouts). | outs, and 255 for automatically generated callouts). |
| 2124 | ||
| 2125 | The offset_vector field is a pointer to the vector of offsets that was | The offset_vector field is a pointer to the vector of offsets that was |
| 2126 | passed by the caller to pcre_exec(). The contents can be inspected in | passed by the caller to pcre_exec() or pcre_dfa_exec(). When |
| 2127 | order to extract substrings that have been matched so far, in the same | pcre_exec() is used, the contents can be inspected in order to extract |
| 2128 | way as for extracting substrings after a match has completed. | substrings that have been matched so far, in the same way as for |
| 2129 | extracting substrings after a match has completed. For pcre_dfa_exec() | |
| 2130 | this field is not useful. | |
| 2131 | ||
| 2132 | The subject and subject_length fields contain copies of the values that | The subject and subject_length fields contain copies of the values that |
| 2133 | were passed to pcre_exec(). | were passed to pcre_exec(). |
| 2134 | ||
| 2135 | The start_match field contains the offset within the subject at which | The start_match field contains the offset within the subject at which |
| 2136 | the current match attempt started. If the pattern is not anchored, the | the current match attempt started. If the pattern is not anchored, the |
| 2137 | callout function may be called several times from the same point in the | callout function may be called several times from the same point in the |
| 2138 | pattern for different starting points in the subject. | pattern for different starting points in the subject. |
| 2139 | ||
| 2140 | The current_position field contains the offset within the subject of | The current_position field contains the offset within the subject of |
| 2141 | the current match pointer. | the current match pointer. |
| 2142 | ||
| 2143 | The capture_top field contains one more than the number of the highest | When the pcre_exec() function is used, the capture_top field contains |
| 2144 | numbered captured substring so far. If no substrings have been cap- | one more than the number of the highest numbered captured substring so |
| 2145 | tured, the value of capture_top is one. | far. If no substrings have been captured, the value of capture_top is |
| 2146 | one. This is always the case when pcre_dfa_exec() is used, because it | |
| 2147 | The capture_last field contains the number of the most recently cap- | does not support captured substrings. |
| 2148 | tured substring. If no substrings have been captured, its value is -1. | |
| 2149 | The capture_last field contains the number of the most recently cap- | |
| 2150 | The callout_data field contains a value that is passed to pcre_exec() | tured substring. If no substrings have been captured, its value is -1. |
| 2151 | by the caller specifically so that it can be passed back in callouts. | This is always the case when pcre_dfa_exec() is used. |
| 2152 | It is passed in the pcre_callout field of the pcre_extra data struc- | |
| 2153 | ture. If no such data was passed, the value of callout_data in a | The callout_data field contains a value that is passed to pcre_exec() |
| 2154 | pcre_callout block is NULL. There is a description of the pcre_extra | or pcre_dfa_exec() specifically so that it can be passed back in call- |
| 2155 | outs. It is passed in the pcre_callout field of the pcre_extra data | |
| 2156 | structure. If no such data was passed, the value of callout_data in a | |
| 2157 | pcre_callout block is NULL. There is a description of the pcre_extra | |
| 2158 | structure in the pcreapi documentation. | structure in the pcreapi documentation. |
| 2159 | ||
| 2160 | The pattern_position field is present from version 1 of the pcre_call- | The pattern_position field is present from version 1 of the pcre_call- |
| 2161 | out structure. It contains the offset to the next item to be matched in | out structure. It contains the offset to the next item to be matched in |
| 2162 | the pattern string. | the pattern string. |
| 2163 | ||
| 2164 | The next_item_length field is present from version 1 of the pcre_call- | The next_item_length field is present from version 1 of the pcre_call- |
| 2165 | out structure. It contains the length of the next item to be matched in | out structure. It contains the length of the next item to be matched in |
| 2166 | the pattern string. When the callout immediately precedes an alterna- | the pattern string. When the callout immediately precedes an alterna- |
| 2167 | tion bar, a closing parenthesis, or the end of the pattern, the length | tion bar, a closing parenthesis, or the end of the pattern, the length |
| 2168 | is zero. When the callout precedes an opening parenthesis, the length | is zero. When the callout precedes an opening parenthesis, the length |
| 2169 | is that of the entire subpattern. | is that of the entire subpattern. |
| 2170 | ||
| 2171 | The pattern_position and next_item_length fields are intended to help | The pattern_position and next_item_length fields are intended to help |
| 2172 | in distinguishing between different automatic callouts, which all have | in distinguishing between different automatic callouts, which all have |
| 2173 | the same callout number. However, they are set for all callouts. | the same callout number. However, they are set for all callouts. |
| 2174 | ||
| 2175 | ||
| 2176 | RETURN VALUES | RETURN VALUES |
| 2177 | ||
| 2178 | The external callout function returns an integer to PCRE. If the value | The external callout function returns an integer to PCRE. If the value |
| 2179 | is zero, matching proceeds as normal. If the value is greater than | is zero, matching proceeds as normal. If the value is greater than |
| 2180 | zero, matching fails at the current point, but backtracking to test | zero, matching fails at the current point, but the testing of other |
| 2181 | other matching possibilities goes ahead, just as if a lookahead asser- | matching possibilities goes ahead, just as if a lookahead assertion had |
| 2182 | tion had failed. If the value is less than zero, the match is aban- | failed. If the value is less than zero, the match is abandoned, and |
| 2183 | doned, and pcre_exec() returns the negative value. | pcre_exec() (or pcre_dfa_exec()) returns the negative value. |
| 2184 | ||
| 2185 | Negative values should normally be chosen from the set of | Negative values should normally be chosen from the set of |
| 2186 | PCRE_ERROR_xxx values. In particular, PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH forces a stan- | PCRE_ERROR_xxx values. In particular, PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH forces a stan- |
| 2187 | dard "no match" failure. The error number PCRE_ERROR_CALLOUT is | dard "no match" failure. The error number PCRE_ERROR_CALLOUT is |
| 2188 | reserved for use by callout functions; it will never be used by PCRE | reserved for use by callout functions; it will never be used by PCRE |
| 2189 | itself. | itself. |
| 2190 | ||
| 2191 | Last updated: 09 September 2004 | Last updated: 28 February 2005 |
| 2192 | Copyright (c) 1997-2004 University of Cambridge. | Copyright (c) 1997-2005 University of Cambridge. |
| 2193 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 2194 | ||
| PCRE(3) PCRE(3) | ||
| 2195 | ||
| 2196 | ||
| 2197 | NAME | NAME |
| 2198 | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions |
| 2199 | ||
| 2200 | ||
| 2201 | DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PCRE AND PERL | DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PCRE AND PERL |
| 2202 | ||
| 2203 | This document describes the differences in the ways that PCRE and Perl | This document describes the differences in the ways that PCRE and Perl |
| # | Line 1808 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PCRE AND PERL | Line 2302 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PCRE AND PERL |
| 2302 | (m) Patterns compiled by PCRE can be saved and re-used at a later time, | (m) Patterns compiled by PCRE can be saved and re-used at a later time, |
| 2303 | even on different hosts that have the other endianness. | even on different hosts that have the other endianness. |
| 2304 | ||
| 2305 | Last updated: 09 September 2004 | (n) The alternative matching function (pcre_dfa_exec()) matches in a |
| 2306 | Copyright (c) 1997-2004 University of Cambridge. | different way and is not Perl-compatible. |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ||
| 2307 | ||
| 2308 | PCRE(3) PCRE(3) | Last updated: 28 February 2005 |
| 2309 | Copyright (c) 1997-2005 University of Cambridge. | |
| 2310 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| 2311 | ||
| 2312 | ||
| 2313 | ||
| 2314 | NAME | NAME |
| 2315 | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions |
| 2316 | ||
| 2317 | ||
| 2318 | PCRE REGULAR EXPRESSION DETAILS | PCRE REGULAR EXPRESSION DETAILS |
| 2319 | ||
| 2320 | The syntax and semantics of the regular expressions supported by PCRE | The syntax and semantics of the regular expressions supported by PCRE |
| # | Line 1836 PCRE REGULAR EXPRESSION DETAILS | Line 2332 PCRE REGULAR EXPRESSION DETAILS |
| 2332 | of UTF-8 features in the section on UTF-8 support in the main pcre | of UTF-8 features in the section on UTF-8 support in the main pcre |
| 2333 | page. | page. |
| 2334 | ||
| 2335 | The remainder of this document discusses the patterns that are sup- | |
| 2336 | ported by PCRE when its main matching function, pcre_exec(), is used. | |
| 2337 | From release 6.0, PCRE offers a second matching function, | |
| 2338 | pcre_dfa_exec(), which matches using a different algorithm that is not | |
| 2339 | Perl-compatible. The advantages and disadvantages of the alternative | |
| 2340 | function, and how it differs from the normal function, are discussed in | |
| 2341 | the pcrematching page. | |
| 2342 | ||
| 2343 | A regular expression is a pattern that is matched against a subject | A regular expression is a pattern that is matched against a subject |
| 2344 | string from left to right. Most characters stand for themselves in a | string from left to right. Most characters stand for themselves in a |
| 2345 | pattern, and match the corresponding characters in the subject. As a | pattern, and match the corresponding characters in the subject. As a |
| # | Line 1843 PCRE REGULAR EXPRESSION DETAILS | Line 2347 PCRE REGULAR EXPRESSION DETAILS |
| 2347 | ||
| 2348 | The quick brown fox | The quick brown fox |
| 2349 | ||
| 2350 | matches a portion of a subject string that is identical to itself. The | matches a portion of a subject string that is identical to itself. When |
| 2351 | power of regular expressions comes from the ability to include alterna- | caseless matching is specified (the PCRE_CASELESS option), letters are |
| 2352 | tives and repetitions in the pattern. These are encoded in the pattern | matched independently of case. In UTF-8 mode, PCRE always understands |
| 2353 | by the use of metacharacters, which do not stand for themselves but | the concept of case for characters whose values are less than 128, so |
| 2354 | instead are interpreted in some special way. | caseless matching is always possible. For characters with higher val- |
| 2355 | ues, the concept of case is supported if PCRE is compiled with Unicode | |
| 2356 | There are two different sets of metacharacters: those that are recog- | property support, but not otherwise. If you want to use caseless |
| 2357 | nized anywhere in the pattern except within square brackets, and those | matching for characters 128 and above, you must ensure that PCRE is |
| 2358 | that are recognized in square brackets. Outside square brackets, the | compiled with Unicode property support as well as with UTF-8 support. |
| 2359 | ||
| 2360 | The power of regular expressions comes from the ability to include | |
| 2361 | alternatives and repetitions in the pattern. These are encoded in the | |
| 2362 | pattern by the use of metacharacters, which do not stand for themselves | |
| 2363 | but instead are interpreted in some special way. | |
| 2364 | ||
| 2365 | There are two different sets of metacharacters: those that are recog- | |
| 2366 | nized anywhere in the pattern except within square brackets, and those | |
| 2367 | that are recognized in square brackets. Outside square brackets, the | |
| 2368 | metacharacters are as follows: | metacharacters are as follows: |
| 2369 | ||
| 2370 | \ general escape character with several uses | \ general escape character with several uses |
| # | Line 1870 PCRE REGULAR EXPRESSION DETAILS | Line 2383 PCRE REGULAR EXPRESSION DETAILS |
| 2383 | also "possessive quantifier" | also "possessive quantifier" |
| 2384 | { start min/max quantifier | { start min/max quantifier |
| 2385 | ||
| 2386 | Part of a pattern that is in square brackets is called a "character | Part of a pattern that is in square brackets is called a "character |
| 2387 | class". In a character class the only metacharacters are: | class". In a character class the only metacharacters are: |
| 2388 | ||
| 2389 | \ general escape character | \ general escape character |
| # | Line 1880 PCRE REGULAR EXPRESSION DETAILS | Line 2393 PCRE REGULAR EXPRESSION DETAILS |
| 2393 | syntax) | syntax) |
| 2394 | ] terminates the character class | ] terminates the character class |
| 2395 | ||
| 2396 | The following sections describe the use of each of the metacharacters. | The following sections describe the use of each of the metacharacters. |
| 2397 | ||
| 2398 | ||
| 2399 | BACKSLASH | BACKSLASH |
| 2400 | ||
| 2401 | The backslash character has several uses. Firstly, if it is followed by | The backslash character has several uses. Firstly, if it is followed by |
| 2402 | a non-alphanumeric character, it takes away any special meaning that | a non-alphanumeric character, it takes away any special meaning that |
| 2403 | character may have. This use of backslash as an escape character | character may have. This use of backslash as an escape character |
| 2404 | applies both inside and outside character classes. | applies both inside and outside character classes. |
| 2405 | ||
| 2406 | For example, if you want to match a * character, you write \* in the | For example, if you want to match a * character, you write \* in the |
| 2407 | pattern. This escaping action applies whether or not the following | pattern. This escaping action applies whether or not the following |
| 2408 | character would otherwise be interpreted as a metacharacter, so it is | character would otherwise be interpreted as a metacharacter, so it is |
| 2409 | always safe to precede a non-alphanumeric with backslash to specify | always safe to precede a non-alphanumeric with backslash to specify |
| 2410 | that it stands for itself. In particular, if you want to match a back- | that it stands for itself. In particular, if you want to match a back- |
| 2411 | slash, you write \\. | slash, you write \\. |
| 2412 | ||
| 2413 | If a pattern is compiled with the PCRE_EXTENDED option, whitespace in | If a pattern is compiled with the PCRE_EXTENDED option, whitespace in |
| 2414 | the pattern (other than in a character class) and characters between a | the pattern (other than in a character class) and characters between a |
| 2415 | # outside a character class and the next newline character are ignored. | # outside a character class and the next newline character are ignored. |
| 2416 | An escaping backslash can be used to include a whitespace or # charac- | An escaping backslash can be used to include a whitespace or # charac- |
| 2417 | ter as part of the pattern. | ter as part of the pattern. |
| 2418 | ||
| 2419 | If you want to remove the special meaning from a sequence of charac- | If you want to remove the special meaning from a sequence of charac- |
| 2420 | ters, you can do so by putting them between \Q and \E. This is differ- | ters, you can do so by putting them between \Q and \E. This is differ- |
| 2421 | ent from Perl in that $ and @ are handled as literals in \Q...\E | ent from Perl in that $ and @ are handled as literals in \Q...\E |
| 2422 | sequences in PCRE, whereas in Perl, $ and @ cause variable interpola- | sequences in PCRE, whereas in Perl, $ and @ cause variable interpola- |
| 2423 | tion. Note the following examples: | tion. Note the following examples: |
| 2424 | ||
| 2425 | Pattern PCRE matches Perl matches | Pattern PCRE matches Perl matches |
| # | Line 1916 BACKSLASH | Line 2429 BACKSLASH |
| 2429 | \Qabc\$xyz\E abc\$xyz abc\$xyz | \Qabc\$xyz\E abc\$xyz abc\$xyz |
| 2430 | \Qabc\E\$\Qxyz\E abc$xyz abc$xyz | \Qabc\E\$\Qxyz\E abc$xyz abc$xyz |
| 2431 | ||
| 2432 | The \Q...\E sequence is recognized both inside and outside character | The \Q...\E sequence is recognized both inside and outside character |
| 2433 | classes. | classes. |
| 2434 | ||
| 2435 | Non-printing characters | Non-printing characters |
| 2436 | ||
| 2437 | A second use of backslash provides a way of encoding non-printing char- | A second use of backslash provides a way of encoding non-printing char- |
| 2438 | acters in patterns in a visible manner. There is no restriction on the | acters in patterns in a visible manner. There is no restriction on the |
| 2439 | appearance of non-printing characters, apart from the binary zero that | appearance of non-printing characters, apart from the binary zero that |
| 2440 | terminates a pattern, but when a pattern is being prepared by text | terminates a pattern, but when a pattern is being prepared by text |
| 2441 | editing, it is usually easier to use one of the following escape | editing, it is usually easier to use one of the following escape |
| 2442 | sequences than the binary character it represents: | sequences than the binary character it represents: |
| 2443 | ||
| 2444 | \a alarm, that is, the BEL character (hex 07) | \a alarm, that is, the BEL character (hex 07) |
| # | Line 1939 BACKSLASH | Line 2452 BACKSLASH |
| 2452 | \xhh character with hex code hh | \xhh character with hex code hh |
| 2453 | \x{hhh..} character with hex code hhh... (UTF-8 mode only) | \x{hhh..} character with hex code hhh... (UTF-8 mode only) |
| 2454 | ||
| 2455 | The precise effect of \cx is as follows: if x is a lower case letter, | The precise effect of \cx is as follows: if x is a lower case letter, |
| 2456 | it is converted to upper case. Then bit 6 of the character (hex 40) is | it is converted to upper case. Then bit 6 of the character (hex 40) is |
| 2457 | inverted. Thus \cz becomes hex 1A, but \c{ becomes hex 3B, while \c; | inverted. Thus \cz becomes hex 1A, but \c{ becomes hex 3B, while \c; |
| 2458 | becomes hex 7B. | becomes hex 7B. |
| 2459 | ||
| 2460 | After \x, from zero to two hexadecimal digits are read (letters can be | After \x, from zero to two hexadecimal digits are read (letters can be |
| 2461 | in upper or lower case). In UTF-8 mode, any number of hexadecimal dig- | in upper or lower case). In UTF-8 mode, any number of hexadecimal dig- |
| 2462 | its may appear between \x{ and }, but the value of the character code | its may appear between \x{ and }, but the value of the character code |
| 2463 | must be less than 2**31 (that is, the maximum hexadecimal value is | must be less than 2**31 (that is, the maximum hexadecimal value is |
| 2464 | 7FFFFFFF). If characters other than hexadecimal digits appear between | 7FFFFFFF). If characters other than hexadecimal digits appear between |
| 2465 | \x{ and }, or if there is no terminating }, this form of escape is not | \x{ and }, or if there is no terminating }, this form of escape is not |
| 2466 | recognized. Instead, the initial \x will be interpreted as a basic hex- | recognized. Instead, the initial \x will be interpreted as a basic |
| 2467 | adecimal escape, with no following digits, giving a character whose | hexadecimal escape, with no following digits, giving a character whose |
| 2468 | value is zero. | value is zero. |
| 2469 | ||
| 2470 | Characters whose value is less than 256 can be defined by either of the | Characters whose value is less than 256 can be defined by either of the |
| 2471 | two syntaxes for \x when PCRE is in UTF-8 mode. There is no difference | two syntaxes for \x when PCRE is in UTF-8 mode. There is no difference |
| 2472 | in the way they are handled. For example, \xdc is exactly the same as | in the way they are handled. For example, \xdc is exactly the same as |
| 2473 | \x{dc}. | \x{dc}. |
| 2474 | ||
| 2475 | After \0 up to two further octal digits are read. In both cases, if | After \0 up to two further octal digits are read. In both cases, if |
| 2476 | there are fewer than two digits, just those that are present are used. | there are fewer than two digits, just those that are present are used. |
| 2477 | Thus the sequence \0\x\07 specifies two binary zeros followed by a BEL | Thus the sequence \0\x\07 specifies two binary zeros followed by a BEL |
| 2478 | character (code value 7). Make sure you supply two digits after the | character (code value 7). Make sure you supply two digits after the |
| 2479 | initial zero if the pattern character that follows is itself an octal | initial zero if the pattern character that follows is itself an octal |
| 2480 | digit. | digit. |
| 2481 | ||
| 2482 | The handling of a backslash followed by a digit other than 0 is compli- | The handling of a backslash followed by a digit other than 0 is compli- |
| 2483 | cated. Outside a character class, PCRE reads it and any following dig- | cated. Outside a character class, PCRE reads it and any following dig- |
| 2484 | its as a decimal number. If the number is less than 10, or if there | its as a decimal number. If the number is less than 10, or if there |
| 2485 | have been at least that many previous capturing left parentheses in the | have been at least that many previous capturing left parentheses in the |
| 2486 | expression, the entire sequence is taken as a back reference. A | expression, the entire sequence is taken as a back reference. A |
| 2487 | description of how this works is given later, following the discussion | description of how this works is given later, following the discussion |
| 2488 | of parenthesized subpatterns. | of parenthesized subpatterns. |
| 2489 | ||
| 2490 | Inside a character class, or if the decimal number is greater than 9 | Inside a character class, or if the decimal number is greater than 9 |
| 2491 | and there have not been that many capturing subpatterns, PCRE re-reads | and there have not been that many capturing subpatterns, PCRE re-reads |
| 2492 | up to three octal digits following the backslash, and generates a sin- | up to three octal digits following the backslash, and generates a sin- |
| 2493 | gle byte from the least significant 8 bits of the value. Any subsequent | gle byte from the least significant 8 bits of the value. Any subsequent |
| 2494 | digits stand for themselves. For example: | digits stand for themselves. For example: |
| 2495 | ||
| # | Line 1995 BACKSLASH | Line 2508 BACKSLASH |
| 2508 | \81 is either a back reference, or a binary zero | \81 is either a back reference, or a binary zero |
| 2509 | followed by the two characters "8" and "1" | followed by the two characters "8" and "1" |
| 2510 | ||
| 2511 | Note that octal values of 100 or greater must not be introduced by a | Note that octal values of 100 or greater must not be introduced by a |
| 2512 | leading zero, because no more than three octal digits are ever read. | leading zero, because no more than three octal digits are ever read. |
| 2513 | ||
| 2514 | All the sequences that define a single byte value or a single UTF-8 | All the sequences that define a single byte value or a single UTF-8 |
| 2515 | character (in UTF-8 mode) can be used both inside and outside character | character (in UTF-8 mode) can be used both inside and outside character |
| 2516 | classes. In addition, inside a character class, the sequence \b is | classes. In addition, inside a character class, the sequence \b is |
| 2517 | interpreted as the backspace character (hex 08), and the sequence \X is | interpreted as the backspace character (hex 08), and the sequence \X is |
| 2518 | interpreted as the character "X". Outside a character class, these | interpreted as the character "X". Outside a character class, these |
| 2519 | sequences have different meanings (see below). | sequences have different meanings (see below). |
| 2520 | ||
| 2521 | Generic character types | Generic character types |
| 2522 | ||
| 2523 | The third use of backslash is for specifying generic character types. | The third use of backslash is for specifying generic character types. |
| 2524 | The following are always recognized: | The following are always recognized: |
| 2525 | ||
| 2526 | \d any decimal digit | \d any decimal digit |
| # | Line 2018 BACKSLASH | Line 2531 BACKSLASH |
| 2531 | \W any "non-word" character | \W any "non-word" character |
| 2532 | ||
| 2533 | Each pair of escape sequences partitions the complete set of characters | Each pair of escape sequences partitions the complete set of characters |
| 2534 | into two disjoint sets. Any given character matches one, and only one, | into two disjoint sets. Any given character matches one, and only one, |
| 2535 | of each pair. | of each pair. |
| 2536 | ||
| 2537 | These character type sequences can appear both inside and outside char- | These character type sequences can appear both inside and outside char- |
| 2538 | acter classes. They each match one character of the appropriate type. | acter classes. They each match one character of the appropriate type. |
| 2539 | If the current matching point is at the end of the subject string, all | If the current matching point is at the end of the subject string, all |
| 2540 | of them fail, since there is no character to match. | of them fail, since there is no character to match. |
| 2541 | ||
| 2542 | For compatibility with Perl, \s does not match the VT character (code | For compatibility with Perl, \s does not match the VT character (code |
| 2543 | 11). This makes it different from the the POSIX "space" class. The \s | 11). This makes it different from the the POSIX "space" class. The \s |
| 2544 | characters are HT (9), LF (10), FF (12), CR (13), and space (32). | characters are HT (9), LF (10), FF (12), CR (13), and space (32). |
| 2545 | ||
| 2546 | A "word" character is an underscore or any character less than 256 that | A "word" character is an underscore or any character less than 256 that |
| 2547 | is a letter or digit. The definition of letters and digits is con- | is a letter or digit. The definition of letters and digits is con- |
| 2548 | trolled by PCRE's low-valued character tables, and may vary if locale- | trolled by PCRE's low-valued character tables, and may vary if locale- |
| 2549 | specific matching is taking place (see "Locale support" in the pcreapi | specific matching is taking place (see "Locale support" in the pcreapi |
| 2550 | page). For example, in the "fr_FR" (French) locale, some character | page). For example, in the "fr_FR" (French) locale, some character |
| 2551 | codes greater than 128 are used for accented letters, and these are | codes greater than 128 are used for accented letters, and these are |
| 2552 | matched by \w. | matched by \w. |
| 2553 | ||
| 2554 | In UTF-8 mode, characters with values greater than 128 never match \d, | In UTF-8 mode, characters with values greater than 128 never match \d, |
| 2555 | \s, or \w, and always match \D, \S, and \W. This is true even when Uni- | \s, or \w, and always match \D, \S, and \W. This is true even when Uni- |
| 2556 | code character property support is available. | code character property support is available. |
| 2557 | ||
| 2558 | Unicode character properties | Unicode character properties |
| 2559 | ||
| 2560 | When PCRE is built with Unicode character property support, three addi- | When PCRE is built with Unicode character property support, three addi- |
| 2561 | tional escape sequences to match generic character types are available | tional escape sequences to match generic character types are available |
| 2562 | when UTF-8 mode is selected. They are: | when UTF-8 mode is selected. They are: |
| 2563 | ||
| 2564 | \p{xx} a character with the xx property | \p{xx} a character with the xx property |
| 2565 | \P{xx} a character without the xx property | \P{xx} a character without the xx property |
| 2566 | \X an extended Unicode sequence | \X an extended Unicode sequence |
| 2567 | ||
| 2568 | The property names represented by xx above are limited to the Unicode | The property names represented by xx above are limited to the Unicode |
| 2569 | general category properties. Each character has exactly one such prop- | general category properties. Each character has exactly one such prop- |
| 2570 | erty, specified by a two-letter abbreviation. For compatibility with | erty, specified by a two-letter abbreviation. For compatibility with |
| 2571 | Perl, negation can be specified by including a circumflex between the | Perl, negation can be specified by including a circumflex between the |
| 2572 | opening brace and the property name. For example, \p{^Lu} is the same | opening brace and the property name. For example, \p{^Lu} is the same |
| 2573 | as \P{Lu}. | as \P{Lu}. |
| 2574 | ||
| 2575 | If only one letter is specified with \p or \P, it includes all the | If only one letter is specified with \p or \P, it includes all the |
| 2576 | properties that start with that letter. In this case, in the absence of | properties that start with that letter. In this case, in the absence of |
| 2577 | negation, the curly brackets in the escape sequence are optional; these | negation, the curly brackets in the escape sequence are optional; these |
| 2578 | two examples have the same effect: | two examples have the same effect: |
| # | Line 2113 BACKSLASH | Line 2626 BACKSLASH |
| 2626 | Zp Paragraph separator | Zp Paragraph separator |
| 2627 | Zs Space separator | Zs Space separator |
| 2628 | ||
| 2629 | Extended properties such as "Greek" or "InMusicalSymbols" are not sup- | Extended properties such as "Greek" or "InMusicalSymbols" are not sup- |
| 2630 | ported by PCRE. | ported by PCRE. |
| 2631 | ||
| 2632 | Specifying caseless matching does not affect these escape sequences. | Specifying caseless matching does not affect these escape sequences. |
| 2633 | For example, \p{Lu} always matches only upper case letters. | For example, \p{Lu} always matches only upper case letters. |
| 2634 | ||
| 2635 | The \X escape matches any number of Unicode characters that form an | The \X escape matches any number of Unicode characters that form an |
| 2636 | extended Unicode sequence. \X is equivalent to | extended Unicode sequence. \X is equivalent to |
| 2637 | ||
| 2638 | (?>\PM\pM*) | (?>\PM\pM*) |
| 2639 | ||
| 2640 | That is, it matches a character without the "mark" property, followed | That is, it matches a character without the "mark" property, followed |
| 2641 | by zero or more characters with the "mark" property, and treats the | by zero or more characters with the "mark" property, and treats the |
| 2642 | sequence as an atomic group (see below). Characters with the "mark" | sequence as an atomic group (see below). Characters with the "mark" |
| 2643 | property are typically accents that affect the preceding character. | property are typically accents that affect the preceding character. |
| 2644 | ||
| 2645 | Matching characters by Unicode property is not fast, because PCRE has | Matching characters by Unicode property is not fast, because PCRE has |
| 2646 | to search a structure that contains data for over fifteen thousand | to search a structure that contains data for over fifteen thousand |
| 2647 | characters. That is why the traditional escape sequences such as \d and | characters. That is why the traditional escape sequences such as \d and |
| 2648 | \w do not use Unicode properties in PCRE. | \w do not use Unicode properties in PCRE. |
| 2649 | ||
| 2650 | Simple assertions | Simple assertions |
| 2651 | ||
| 2652 | The fourth use of backslash is for certain simple assertions. An asser- | The fourth use of backslash is for certain simple assertions. An asser- |
| 2653 | tion specifies a condition that has to be met at a particular point in | tion specifies a condition that has to be met at a particular point in |
| 2654 | a match, without consuming any characters from the subject string. The | a match, without consuming any characters from the subject string. The |
| 2655 | use of subpatterns for more complicated assertions is described below. | use of subpatterns for more complicated assertions is described below. |
| 2656 | The backslashed assertions are: | The backslashed assertions are: |
| 2657 | ||
| 2658 | \b matches at a word boundary | \b matches at a word boundary |
| # | Line 2149 BACKSLASH | Line 2662 BACKSLASH |
| 2662 | \z matches at end of subject | \z matches at end of subject |
| 2663 | \G matches at first matching position in subject | \G matches at first matching position in subject |
| 2664 | ||
| 2665 | These assertions may not appear in character classes (but note that \b | These assertions may not appear in character classes (but note that \b |
| 2666 | has a different meaning, namely the backspace character, inside a char- | has a different meaning, namely the backspace character, inside a char- |
| 2667 | acter class). | acter class). |
| 2668 | ||
| 2669 | A word boundary is a position in the subject string where the current | A word boundary is a position in the subject string where the current |
| 2670 | character and the previous character do not both match \w or \W (i.e. | character and the previous character do not both match \w or \W (i.e. |
| 2671 | one matches \w and the other matches \W), or the start or end of the | one matches \w and the other matches \W), or the start or end of the |
| 2672 | string if the first or last character matches \w, respectively. | string if the first or last character matches \w, respectively. |
| 2673 | ||
| 2674 | The \A, \Z, and \z assertions differ from the traditional circumflex | The \A, \Z, and \z assertions differ from the traditional circumflex |
| 2675 | and dollar (described in the next section) in that they only ever match | and dollar (described in the next section) in that they only ever match |
| 2676 | at the very start and end of the subject string, whatever options are | at the very start and end of the subject string, whatever options are |
| 2677 | set. Thus, they are independent of multiline mode. These three asser- | set. Thus, they are independent of multiline mode. These three asser- |
| 2678 | tions are not affected by the PCRE_NOTBOL or PCRE_NOTEOL options, which | tions are not affected by the PCRE_NOTBOL or PCRE_NOTEOL options, which |
| 2679 | affect only the behaviour of the circumflex and dollar metacharacters. | affect only the behaviour of the circumflex and dollar metacharacters. |
| 2680 | However, if the startoffset argument of pcre_exec() is non-zero, indi- | However, if the startoffset argument of pcre_exec() is non-zero, indi- |
| 2681 | cating that matching is to start at a point other than the beginning of | cating that matching is to start at a point other than the beginning of |
| 2682 | the subject, \A can never match. The difference between \Z and \z is | the subject, \A can never match. The difference between \Z and \z is |
| 2683 | that \Z matches before a newline that is the last character of the | that \Z matches before a newline that is the last character of the |
| 2684 | string as well as at the end of the string, whereas \z matches only at | string as well as at the end of the string, whereas \z matches only at |
| 2685 | the end. | the end. |
| 2686 | ||
| 2687 | The \G assertion is true only when the current matching position is at | The \G assertion is true only when the current matching position is at |
| 2688 | the start point of the match, as specified by the startoffset argument | the start point of the match, as specified by the startoffset argument |
| 2689 | of pcre_exec(). It differs from \A when the value of startoffset is | of pcre_exec(). It differs from \A when the value of startoffset is |
| 2690 | non-zero. By calling pcre_exec() multiple times with appropriate argu- | non-zero. By calling pcre_exec() multiple times with appropriate argu- |
| 2691 | ments, you can mimic Perl's /g option, and it is in this kind of imple- | ments, you can mimic Perl's /g option, and it is in this kind of imple- |
| 2692 | mentation where \G can be useful. | mentation where \G can be useful. |
| 2693 | ||
| 2694 | Note, however, that PCRE's interpretation of \G, as the start of the | Note, however, that PCRE's interpretation of \G, as the start of the |
| 2695 | current match, is subtly different from Perl's, which defines it as the | current match, is subtly different from Perl's, which defines it as the |
| 2696 | end of the previous match. In Perl, these can be different when the | end of the previous match. In Perl, these can be different when the |
| 2697 | previously matched string was empty. Because PCRE does just one match | previously matched string was empty. Because PCRE does just one match |
| 2698 | at a time, it cannot reproduce this behaviour. | at a time, it cannot reproduce this behaviour. |
| 2699 | ||
| 2700 | If all the alternatives of a pattern begin with \G, the expression is | If all the alternatives of a pattern begin with \G, the expression is |
| 2701 | anchored to the starting match position, and the "anchored" flag is set | anchored to the starting match position, and the "anchored" flag is set |
| 2702 | in the compiled regular expression. | in the compiled regular expression. |
| 2703 | ||
| # | Line 2192 BACKSLASH | Line 2705 BACKSLASH |
| 2705 | CIRCUMFLEX AND DOLLAR | CIRCUMFLEX AND DOLLAR |
| 2706 | ||
| 2707 | Outside a character class, in the default matching mode, the circumflex | Outside a character class, in the default matching mode, the circumflex |
| 2708 | character is an assertion that is true only if the current matching | character is an assertion that is true only if the current matching |
| 2709 | point is at the start of the subject string. If the startoffset argu- | point is at the start of the subject string. If the startoffset argu- |
| 2710 | ment of pcre_exec() is non-zero, circumflex can never match if the | ment of pcre_exec() is non-zero, circumflex can never match if the |
| 2711 | PCRE_MULTILINE option is unset. Inside a character class, circumflex | PCRE_MULTILINE option is unset. Inside a character class, circumflex |
| 2712 | has an entirely different meaning (see below). | has an entirely different meaning (see below). |
| 2713 | ||
| 2714 | Circumflex need not be the first character of the pattern if a number | Circumflex need not be the first character of the pattern if a number |
| 2715 | of alternatives are involved, but it should be the first thing in each | of alternatives are involved, but it should be the first thing in each |
| 2716 | alternative in which it appears if the pattern is ever to match that | alternative in which it appears if the pattern is ever to match that |
| 2717 | branch. If all possible alternatives start with a circumflex, that is, | branch. If all possible alternatives start with a circumflex, that is, |
| 2718 | if the pattern is constrained to match only at the start of the sub- | if the pattern is constrained to match only at the start of the sub- |
| 2719 | ject, it is said to be an "anchored" pattern. (There are also other | ject, it is said to be an "anchored" pattern. (There are also other |
| 2720 | constructs that can cause a pattern to be anchored.) | constructs that can cause a pattern to be anchored.) |
| 2721 | ||
| 2722 | A dollar character is an assertion that is true only if the current | A dollar character is an assertion that is true only if the current |
| 2723 | matching point is at the end of the subject string, or immediately | matching point is at the end of the subject string, or immediately |
| 2724 | before a newline character that is the last character in the string (by | before a newline character that is the last character in the string (by |
| 2725 | default). Dollar need not be the last character of the pattern if a | default). Dollar need not be the last character of the pattern if a |
| 2726 | number of alternatives are involved, but it should be the last item in | number of alternatives are involved, but it should be the last item in |
| 2727 | any branch in which it appears. Dollar has no special meaning in a | any branch in which it appears. Dollar has no special meaning in a |
| 2728 | character class. | character class. |
| 2729 | ||
| 2730 | The meaning of dollar can be changed so that it matches only at the | The meaning of dollar can be changed so that it matches only at the |
| 2731 | very end of the string, by setting the PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY option at | very end of the string, by setting the PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY option at |
| 2732 | compile time. This does not affect the \Z assertion. | compile time. This does not affect the \Z assertion. |
| 2733 | ||
| 2734 | The meanings of the circumflex and dollar characters are changed if the | The meanings of the circumflex and dollar characters are changed if the |
| 2735 | PCRE_MULTILINE option is set. When this is the case, they match immedi- | PCRE_MULTILINE option is set. When this is the case, they match immedi- |
| 2736 | ately after and immediately before an internal newline character, | ately after and immediately before an internal newline character, |
| 2737 | respectively, in addition to matching at the start and end of the sub- | respectively, in addition to matching at the start and end of the sub- |
| 2738 | ject string. For example, the pattern /^abc$/ matches the subject | ject string. For example, the pattern /^abc$/ matches the subject |
| 2739 | string "def\nabc" (where \n represents a newline character) in multi- | string "def\nabc" (where \n represents a newline character) in multi- |
| 2740 | line mode, but not otherwise. Consequently, patterns that are anchored | line mode, but not otherwise. Consequently, patterns that are anchored |
| 2741 | in single line mode because all branches start with ^ are not anchored | in single line mode because all branches start with ^ are not anchored |
| 2742 | in multiline mode, and a match for circumflex is possible when the | in multiline mode, and a match for circumflex is possible when the |
| 2743 | startoffset argument of pcre_exec() is non-zero. The PCRE_DOL- | startoffset argument of pcre_exec() is non-zero. The PCRE_DOL- |
| 2744 | LAR_ENDONLY option is ignored if PCRE_MULTILINE is set. | LAR_ENDONLY option is ignored if PCRE_MULTILINE is set. |
| 2745 | ||
| 2746 | Note that the sequences \A, \Z, and \z can be used to match the start | Note that the sequences \A, \Z, and \z can be used to match the start |
| 2747 | and end of the subject in both modes, and if all branches of a pattern | and end of the subject in both modes, and if all branches of a pattern |
| 2748 | start with \A it is always anchored, whether PCRE_MULTILINE is set or | start with \A it is always anchored, whether PCRE_MULTILINE is set or |
| 2749 | not. | not. |
| 2750 | ||
| 2751 | ||
| 2752 | FULL STOP (PERIOD, DOT) | FULL STOP (PERIOD, DOT) |
| 2753 | ||
| 2754 | Outside a character class, a dot in the pattern matches any one charac- | Outside a character class, a dot in the pattern matches any one charac- |
| 2755 | ter in the subject, including a non-printing character, but not (by | ter in the subject, including a non-printing character, but not (by |
| 2756 | default) newline. In UTF-8 mode, a dot matches any UTF-8 character, | default) newline. In UTF-8 mode, a dot matches any UTF-8 character, |
| 2757 | which might be more than one byte long, except (by default) newline. If | which might be more than one byte long, except (by default) newline. If |
| 2758 | the PCRE_DOTALL option is set, dots match newlines as well. The han- | the PCRE_DOTALL option is set, dots match newlines as well. The han- |
| 2759 | dling of dot is entirely independent of the handling of circumflex and | dling of dot is entirely independent of the handling of circumflex and |
| 2760 | dollar, the only relationship being that they both involve newline | dollar, the only relationship being that they both involve newline |
| 2761 | characters. Dot has no special meaning in a character class. | characters. Dot has no special meaning in a character class. |
| 2762 | ||
| 2763 | ||
| 2764 | MATCHING A SINGLE BYTE | MATCHING A SINGLE BYTE |
| 2765 | ||
| 2766 | Outside a character class, the escape sequence \C matches any one byte, | Outside a character class, the escape sequence \C matches any one byte, |
| 2767 | both in and out of UTF-8 mode. Unlike a dot, it can match a newline. | both in and out of UTF-8 mode. Unlike a dot, it can match a newline. |
| 2768 | The feature is provided in Perl in order to match individual bytes in | The feature is provided in Perl in order to match individual bytes in |
| 2769 | UTF-8 mode. Because it breaks up UTF-8 characters into individual | UTF-8 mode. Because it breaks up UTF-8 characters into individual |
| 2770 | bytes, what remains in the string may be a malformed UTF-8 string. For | bytes, what remains in the string may be a malformed UTF-8 string. For |
| 2771 | this reason, the \C escape sequence is best avoided. | this reason, the \C escape sequence is best avoided. |
| 2772 | ||
| 2773 | PCRE does not allow \C to appear in lookbehind assertions (described | PCRE does not allow \C to appear in lookbehind assertions (described |
| 2774 | below), because in UTF-8 mode this would make it impossible to calcu- | below), because in UTF-8 mode this would make it impossible to calcu- |
| 2775 | late the length of the lookbehind. | late the length of the lookbehind. |
| 2776 | ||
| 2777 | ||
| # | Line 2267 SQUARE BRACKETS AND CHARACTER CLASSES | Line 2780 SQUARE BRACKETS AND CHARACTER CLASSES |
| 2780 | An opening square bracket introduces a character class, terminated by a | An opening square bracket introduces a character class, terminated by a |
| 2781 | closing square bracket. A closing square bracket on its own is not spe- | closing square bracket. A closing square bracket on its own is not spe- |
| 2782 | cial. If a closing square bracket is required as a member of the class, | cial. If a closing square bracket is required as a member of the class, |
| 2783 | it should be the first data character in the class (after an initial | it should be the first data character in the class (after an initial |
| 2784 | circumflex, if present) or escaped with a backslash. | circumflex, if present) or escaped with a backslash. |
| 2785 | ||
| 2786 | A character class matches a single character in the subject. In UTF-8 | A character class matches a single character in the subject. In UTF-8 |
| 2787 | mode, the character may occupy more than one byte. A matched character | mode, the character may occupy more than one byte. A matched character |
| 2788 | must be in the set of characters defined by the class, unless the first | must be in the set of characters defined by the class, unless the first |
| 2789 | character in the class definition is a circumflex, in which case the | character in the class definition is a circumflex, in which case the |
| 2790 | subject character must not be in the set defined by the class. If a | subject character must not be in the set defined by the class. If a |
| 2791 | circumflex is actually required as a member of the class, ensure it is | circumflex is actually required as a member of the class, ensure it is |
| 2792 | not the first character, or escape it with a backslash. | not the first character, or escape it with a backslash. |
| 2793 | ||
| 2794 | For example, the character class [aeiou] matches any lower case vowel, | For example, the character class [aeiou] matches any lower case vowel, |
| 2795 | while [^aeiou] matches any character that is not a lower case vowel. | while [^aeiou] matches any character that is not a lower case vowel. |
| 2796 | Note that a circumflex is just a convenient notation for specifying the | Note that a circumflex is just a convenient notation for specifying the |
| 2797 | characters that are in the class by enumerating those that are not. A | characters that are in the class by enumerating those that are not. A |
| 2798 | class that starts with a circumflex is not an assertion: it still con- | class that starts with a circumflex is not an assertion: it still con- |
| 2799 | sumes a character from the subject string, and therefore it fails if | sumes a character from the subject string, and therefore it fails if |
| 2800 | the current pointer is at the end of the string. | the current pointer is at the end of the string. |
| 2801 | ||
| 2802 | In UTF-8 mode, characters with values greater than 255 can be included | In UTF-8 mode, characters with values greater than 255 can be included |
| 2803 | in a class as a literal string of bytes, or by using the \x{ escaping | in a class as a literal string of bytes, or by using the \x{ escaping |
| 2804 | mechanism. | mechanism. |
| 2805 | ||
| 2806 | When caseless matching is set, any letters in a class represent both | When caseless matching is set, any letters in a class represent both |
| 2807 | their upper case and lower case versions, so for example, a caseless | their upper case and lower case versions, so for example, a caseless |
| 2808 | [aeiou] matches "A" as well as "a", and a caseless [^aeiou] does not | [aeiou] matches "A" as well as "a", and a caseless [^aeiou] does not |
| 2809 | match "A", whereas a caseful version would. When running in UTF-8 mode, | match "A", whereas a caseful version would. In UTF-8 mode, PCRE always |
| 2810 | PCRE supports the concept of case for characters with values greater | understands the concept of case for characters whose values are less |
| 2811 | than 128 only when it is compiled with Unicode property support. | than 128, so caseless matching is always possible. For characters with |
| 2812 | higher values, the concept of case is supported if PCRE is compiled | |
| 2813 | with Unicode property support, but not otherwise. If you want to use | |
| 2814 | caseless matching for characters 128 and above, you must ensure that | |
| 2815 | PCRE is compiled with Unicode property support as well as with UTF-8 | |
| 2816 | support. | |
| 2817 | ||
| 2818 | The newline character is never treated in any special way in character | The newline character is never treated in any special way in character |
| 2819 | classes, whatever the setting of the PCRE_DOTALL or PCRE_MULTILINE | classes, whatever the setting of the PCRE_DOTALL or PCRE_MULTILINE |
| # | Line 3215 CALLOUTS | Line 3733 CALLOUTS |
| 3733 | gether. A complete description of the interface to the callout function | gether. A complete description of the interface to the callout function |
| 3734 | is given in the pcrecallout documentation. | is given in the pcrecallout documentation. |
| 3735 | ||
| 3736 | Last updated: 09 September 2004 | Last updated: 28 February 2005 |
| 3737 | Copyright (c) 1997-2004 University of Cambridge. | Copyright (c) 1997-2005 University of Cambridge. |
| 3738 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 3739 | ||
| PCRE(3) PCRE(3) | ||
| 3740 | ||
| 3741 | ||
| 3742 | NAME | NAME |
| 3743 | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions |
| 3744 | ||
| 3745 | ||
| 3746 | PARTIAL MATCHING IN PCRE | PARTIAL MATCHING IN PCRE |
| 3747 | ||
| 3748 | In normal use of PCRE, if the subject string that is passed to | In normal use of PCRE, if the subject string that is passed to |
| 3749 | pcre_exec() matches as far as it goes, but is too short to match the | pcre_exec() or pcre_dfa_exec() matches as far as it goes, but is too |
| 3750 | entire pattern, PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH is returned. There are circumstances | short to match the entire pattern, PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH is returned. |
| 3751 | where it might be helpful to distinguish this case from other cases in | There are circumstances where it might be helpful to distinguish this |
| 3752 | which there is no match. | case from other cases in which there is no match. |
| 3753 | ||
| 3754 | Consider, for example, an application where a human is required to type | Consider, for example, an application where a human is required to type |
| 3755 | in data for a field with specific formatting requirements. An example | in data for a field with specific formatting requirements. An example |
| # | Line 3248 PARTIAL MATCHING IN PCRE | Line 3765 PARTIAL MATCHING IN PCRE |
| 3765 | until the entire string has been entered. | until the entire string has been entered. |
| 3766 | ||
| 3767 | PCRE supports the concept of partial matching by means of the PCRE_PAR- | PCRE supports the concept of partial matching by means of the PCRE_PAR- |
| 3768 | TIAL option, which can be set when calling pcre_exec(). When this is | TIAL option, which can be set when calling pcre_exec() or |
| 3769 | done, the return code PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH is converted into | pcre_dfa_exec(). When this flag is set for pcre_exec(), the return code |
| 3770 | PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL if at any time during the matching process the | PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH is converted into PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL if at any time |
| 3771 | entire subject string matched part of the pattern. No captured data is | during the matching process the last part of the subject string matched |
| 3772 | set when this occurs. | part of the pattern. Unfortunately, for non-anchored matching, it is |
| 3773 | not possible to obtain the position of the start of the partial match. | |
| 3774 | No captured data is set when PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL is returned. | |
| 3775 | ||
| 3776 | When PCRE_PARTIAL is set for pcre_dfa_exec(), the return code | |
| 3777 | PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH is converted into PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL if the end of | |
| 3778 | the subject is reached, there have been no complete matches, but there | |
| 3779 | is still at least one matching possibility. The portion of the string | |
| 3780 | that provided the partial match is set as the first matching string. | |
| 3781 | ||
| 3782 | Using PCRE_PARTIAL disables one of PCRE's optimizations. PCRE remembers | Using PCRE_PARTIAL disables one of PCRE's optimizations. PCRE remembers |
| 3783 | the last literal byte in a pattern, and abandons matching immediately | the last literal byte in a pattern, and abandons matching immediately |
| # | Line 3263 PARTIAL MATCHING IN PCRE | Line 3788 PARTIAL MATCHING IN PCRE |
| 3788 | RESTRICTED PATTERNS FOR PCRE_PARTIAL | RESTRICTED PATTERNS FOR PCRE_PARTIAL |
| 3789 | ||
| 3790 | Because of the way certain internal optimizations are implemented in | Because of the way certain internal optimizations are implemented in |
| 3791 | PCRE, the PCRE_PARTIAL option cannot be used with all patterns. | the pcre_exec() function, the PCRE_PARTIAL option cannot be used with |
| 3792 | Repeated single characters such as | all patterns. These restrictions do not apply when pcre_dfa_exec() is |
| 3793 | used. For pcre_exec(), repeated single characters such as | |
| 3794 | ||
| 3795 | a{2,4} | a{2,4} |
| 3796 | ||
| # | Line 3272 RESTRICTED PATTERNS FOR PCRE_PARTIAL | Line 3798 RESTRICTED PATTERNS FOR PCRE_PARTIAL |
| 3798 | ||
| 3799 | \d+ | \d+ |
| 3800 | ||
| 3801 | are not permitted if the maximum number of occurrences is greater than | are not permitted if the maximum number of occurrences is greater than |
| 3802 | one. Optional items such as \d? (where the maximum is one) are permit- | one. Optional items such as \d? (where the maximum is one) are permit- |
| 3803 | ted. Quantifiers with any values are permitted after parentheses, so | ted. Quantifiers with any values are permitted after parentheses, so |
| 3804 | the invalid examples above can be coded thus: | the invalid examples above can be coded thus: |
| 3805 | ||
| 3806 | (a){2,4} | (a){2,4} |
| 3807 | (\d)+ | (\d)+ |
| 3808 | ||
| 3809 | These constructions run more slowly, but for the kinds of application | These constructions run more slowly, but for the kinds of application |
| 3810 | that are envisaged for this facility, this is not felt to be a major | that are envisaged for this facility, this is not felt to be a major |
| 3811 | restriction. | restriction. |
| 3812 | ||
| 3813 | If PCRE_PARTIAL is set for a pattern that does not conform to the | If PCRE_PARTIAL is set for a pattern that does not conform to the |
| 3814 | restrictions, pcre_exec() returns the error code PCRE_ERROR_BADPARTIAL | restrictions, pcre_exec() returns the error code PCRE_ERROR_BADPARTIAL |
| 3815 | (-13). | (-13). |
| 3816 | ||
| 3817 | ||
| 3818 | EXAMPLE OF PARTIAL MATCHING USING PCRETEST | EXAMPLE OF PARTIAL MATCHING USING PCRETEST |
| 3819 | ||
| 3820 | If the escape sequence \P is present in a pcretest data line, the | If the escape sequence \P is present in a pcretest data line, the |
| 3821 | PCRE_PARTIAL flag is used for the match. Here is a run of pcretest that | PCRE_PARTIAL flag is used for the match. Here is a run of pcretest that |
| 3822 | uses the date example quoted above: | uses the date example quoted above: |
| 3823 | ||
| # | Line 3308 EXAMPLE OF PARTIAL MATCHING USING PCRETE | Line 3834 EXAMPLE OF PARTIAL MATCHING USING PCRETE |
| 3834 | data> jP | data> jP |
| 3835 | No match | No match |
| 3836 | ||
| 3837 | The first data string is matched completely, so pcretest shows the | The first data string is matched completely, so pcretest shows the |
| 3838 | matched substrings. The remaining four strings do not match the com- | matched substrings. The remaining four strings do not match the com- |
| 3839 | plete pattern, but the first two are partial matches. | plete pattern, but the first two are partial matches. The same test, |
| 3840 | using DFA matching (by means of the \D escape sequence), produces the | |
| 3841 | following output: | |
| 3842 | ||
| 3843 | Last updated: 08 September 2004 | re> /^?(jan|feb|mar|apr|may|jun|jul|aug|sep|oct|nov|dec)$/ |
| 3844 | Copyright (c) 1997-2004 University of Cambridge. | data> 25jun04\P\D |
| 3845 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 0: 25jun04 |
| 3846 | data> 23dec3\P\D | |
| 3847 | Partial match: 23dec3 | |
| 3848 | data> 3ju\P\D | |
| 3849 | Partial match: 3ju | |
| 3850 | data> 3juj\P\D | |
| 3851 | No match | |
| 3852 | data> j\P\D | |
| 3853 | No match | |
| 3854 | ||
| 3855 | Notice that in this case the portion of the string that was matched is | |
| 3856 | made available. | |
| 3857 | ||
| 3858 | ||
| 3859 | MULTI-SEGMENT MATCHING WITH pcre_dfa_exec() | |
| 3860 | ||
| 3861 | PCRE(3) PCRE(3) | When a partial match has been found using pcre_dfa_exec(), it is possi- |
| 3862 | ble to continue the match by providing additional subject data and | |
| 3863 | calling pcre_dfa_exec() again with the PCRE_DFA_RESTART option and the | |
| 3864 | same working space (where details of the previous partial match are | |
| 3865 | stored). Here is an example using pcretest, where the \R escape | |
| 3866 | sequence sets the PCRE_DFA_RESTART option and the \D escape sequence | |
| 3867 | requests the use of pcre_dfa_exec(): | |
| 3868 | ||
| 3869 | re> /^?(jan|feb|mar|apr|may|jun|jul|aug|sep|oct|nov|dec)$/ | |
| 3870 | data> 23ja\P\D | |
| 3871 | Partial match: 23ja | |
| 3872 | data> n05\R\D | |
| 3873 | 0: n05 | |
| 3874 | ||
| 3875 | The first call has "23ja" as the subject, and requests partial match- | |
| 3876 | ing; the second call has "n05" as the subject for the continued | |
| 3877 | (restarted) match. Notice that when the match is complete, only the | |
| 3878 | last part is shown; PCRE does not retain the previously partially- | |
| 3879 | matched string. It is up to the calling program to do that if it needs | |
| 3880 | to. | |
| 3881 | ||
| 3882 | This facility can be used to pass very long subject strings to | |
| 3883 | pcre_dfa_exec(). However, some care is needed for certain types of pat- | |
| 3884 | tern. | |
| 3885 | ||
| 3886 | 1. If the pattern contains tests for the beginning or end of a line, | |
| 3887 | you need to pass the PCRE_NOTBOL or PCRE_NOTEOL options, as appropri- | |
| 3888 | ate, when the subject string for any call does not contain the begin- | |
| 3889 | ning or end of a line. | |
| 3890 | ||
| 3891 | 2. If the pattern contains backward assertions (including \b or \B), | |
| 3892 | you need to arrange for some overlap in the subject strings to allow | |
| 3893 | for this. For example, you could pass the subject in chunks that were | |
| 3894 | 500 bytes long, but in a buffer of 700 bytes, with the starting offset | |
| 3895 | set to 200 and the previous 200 bytes at the start of the buffer. | |
| 3896 | ||
| 3897 | 3. Matching a subject string that is split into multiple segments does | |
| 3898 | not always produce exactly the same result as matching over one single | |
| 3899 | long string. The difference arises when there are multiple matching | |
| 3900 | possibilities, because a partial match result is given only when there | |
| 3901 | are no completed matches in a call to fBpcre_dfa_exec(). This means | |
| 3902 | that as soon as the shortest match has been found, continuation to a | |
| 3903 | new subject segment is no longer possible. Consider this pcretest | |
| 3904 | example: | |
| 3905 | ||
| 3906 | re> /dog(sbody)?/ | |
| 3907 | data> do\P\D | |
| 3908 | Partial match: do | |
| 3909 | data> gsb\R\P\D | |
| 3910 | 0: g | |
| 3911 | data> dogsbody\D | |
| 3912 | 0: dogsbody | |
| 3913 | 1: dog | |
| 3914 | ||
| 3915 | The pattern matches the words "dog" or "dogsbody". When the subject is | |
| 3916 | presented in several parts ("do" and "gsb" being the first two) the | |
| 3917 | match stops when "dog" has been found, and it is not possible to con- | |
| 3918 | tinue. On the other hand, if "dogsbody" is presented as a single | |
| 3919 | string, both matches are found. | |
| 3920 | ||
| 3921 | Because of this phenomenon, it does not usually make sense to end a | |
| 3922 | pattern that is going to be matched in this way with a variable repeat. | |
| 3923 | ||
| 3924 | Last updated: 28 February 2005 | |
| 3925 | Copyright (c) 1997-2005 University of Cambridge. | |
| 3926 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| 3927 | ||
| 3928 | ||
| 3929 | ||
| 3930 | NAME | NAME |
| 3931 | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions |
| 3932 | ||
| 3933 | ||
| 3934 | SAVING AND RE-USING PRECOMPILED PCRE PATTERNS | SAVING AND RE-USING PRECOMPILED PCRE PATTERNS |
| 3935 | ||
| 3936 | If you are running an application that uses a large number of regular | If you are running an application that uses a large number of regular |
| # | Line 3391 SAVING A COMPILED PATTERN | Line 3999 SAVING A COMPILED PATTERN |
| 3999 | RE-USING A PRECOMPILED PATTERN | RE-USING A PRECOMPILED PATTERN |
| 4000 | ||
| 4001 | Re-using a precompiled pattern is straightforward. Having reloaded it | Re-using a precompiled pattern is straightforward. Having reloaded it |
| 4002 | into main memory, you pass its pointer to pcre_exec() in the usual way. | into main memory, you pass its pointer to pcre_exec() or |
| 4003 | This should work even on another host, and even if that host has the | pcre_dfa_exec() in the usual way. This should work even on another |
| 4004 | opposite endianness to the one where the pattern was compiled. | host, and even if that host has the opposite endianness to the one |
| 4005 | where the pattern was compiled. | |
| 4006 | However, if you passed a pointer to custom character tables when the | |
| 4007 | pattern was compiled (the tableptr argument of pcre_compile()), you | However, if you passed a pointer to custom character tables when the |
| 4008 | must now pass a similar pointer to pcre_exec(), because the value saved | pattern was compiled (the tableptr argument of pcre_compile()), you |
| 4009 | with the compiled pattern will obviously be nonsense. A field in a | must now pass a similar pointer to pcre_exec() or pcre_dfa_exec(), |
| 4010 | pcre_extra() block is used to pass this data, as described in the sec- | because the value saved with the compiled pattern will obviously be |
| 4011 | tion on matching a pattern in the pcreapi documentation. | nonsense. A field in a pcre_extra() block is used to pass this data, as |
| 4012 | described in the section on matching a pattern in the pcreapi documen- | |
| 4013 | tation. | |
| 4014 | ||
| 4015 | If you did not provide custom character tables when the pattern was | If you did not provide custom character tables when the pattern was |
| 4016 | compiled, the pointer in the compiled pattern is NULL, which causes | compiled, the pointer in the compiled pattern is NULL, which causes |
| # | Line 3411 RE-USING A PRECOMPILED PATTERN | Line 4021 RE-USING A PRECOMPILED PATTERN |
| 4021 | your own pcre_extra data block and set the study_data field to point to | your own pcre_extra data block and set the study_data field to point to |
| 4022 | the reloaded study data. You must also set the PCRE_EXTRA_STUDY_DATA | the reloaded study data. You must also set the PCRE_EXTRA_STUDY_DATA |
| 4023 | bit in the flags field to indicate that study data is present. Then | bit in the flags field to indicate that study data is present. Then |
| 4024 | pass the pcre_extra block to pcre_exec() in the usual way. | pass the pcre_extra block to pcre_exec() or pcre_dfa_exec() in the |
| 4025 | usual way. | |
| 4026 | ||
| 4027 | ||
| 4028 | COMPATIBILITY WITH DIFFERENT PCRE RELEASES | COMPATIBILITY WITH DIFFERENT PCRE RELEASES |
| 4029 | ||
| 4030 | The layout of the control block that is at the start of the data that | The layout of the control block that is at the start of the data that |
| 4031 | makes up a compiled pattern was changed for release 5.0. If you have | makes up a compiled pattern was changed for release 5.0. If you have |
| 4032 | any saved patterns that were compiled with previous releases (not a | any saved patterns that were compiled with previous releases (not a |
| 4033 | facility that was previously advertised), you will have to recompile | facility that was previously advertised), you will have to recompile |
| 4034 | them for release 5.0. However, from now on, it should be possible to | them for release 5.0. However, from now on, it should be possible to |
| 4035 | make changes in a compabible manner. | make changes in a compabible manner. |
| 4036 | ||
| 4037 | Last updated: 10 September 2004 | Last updated: 28 February 2005 |
| 4038 | Copyright (c) 1997-2004 University of Cambridge. | Copyright (c) 1997-2005 University of Cambridge. |
| 4039 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 4040 | ||
| PCRE(3) PCRE(3) | ||
| 4041 | ||
| 4042 | ||
| 4043 | NAME | NAME |
| 4044 | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions |
| 4045 | ||
| 4046 | ||
| 4047 | PCRE PERFORMANCE | PCRE PERFORMANCE |
| 4048 | ||
| 4049 | Certain items that may appear in regular expression patterns are more | Certain items that may appear in regular expression patterns are more |
| # | Line 3469 PCRE PERFORMANCE | Line 4079 PCRE PERFORMANCE |
| 4079 | ||
| 4080 | If you are using such a pattern with subject strings that do not con- | If you are using such a pattern with subject strings that do not con- |
| 4081 | tain newlines, the best performance is obtained by setting PCRE_DOTALL, | tain newlines, the best performance is obtained by setting PCRE_DOTALL, |
| 4082 | or starting the pattern with ^.* to indicate explicit anchoring. That | or starting the pattern with ^.* or ^.*? to indicate explicit anchor- |
| 4083 | saves PCRE from having to scan along the subject looking for a newline | ing. That saves PCRE from having to scan along the subject looking for |
| 4084 | to restart at. | a newline to restart at. |
| 4085 | ||
| 4086 | Beware of patterns that contain nested indefinite repeats. These can | Beware of patterns that contain nested indefinite repeats. These can |
| 4087 | take a long time to run when applied to a string that does not match. | take a long time to run when applied to a string that does not match. |
| # | Line 3492 PCRE PERFORMANCE | Line 4102 PCRE PERFORMANCE |
| 4102 | (a+)*b | (a+)*b |
| 4103 | ||
| 4104 | where a literal character follows. Before embarking on the standard | where a literal character follows. Before embarking on the standard |
| 4105 | matching procedure, PCRE checks that there is a "b" later in the | matching procedure, PCRE checks that there is a "b" later in the sub- |
| 4106 | subject string, and if there is not, it fails the match immediately. | ject string, and if there is not, it fails the match immediately. How- |
| 4107 | However, when there is no following literal this optimization cannot be | ever, when there is no following literal this optimization cannot be |
| 4108 | used. You can see the difference by comparing the behaviour of | used. You can see the difference by comparing the behaviour of |
| 4109 | ||
| 4110 | (a+)*\d | (a+)*\d |
| # | Line 3506 PCRE PERFORMANCE | Line 4116 PCRE PERFORMANCE |
| 4116 | In many cases, the solution to this kind of performance issue is to use | In many cases, the solution to this kind of performance issue is to use |
| 4117 | an atomic group or a possessive quantifier. | an atomic group or a possessive quantifier. |
| 4118 | ||
| 4119 | Last updated: 09 September 2004 | Last updated: 28 February 2005 |
| 4120 | Copyright (c) 1997-2004 University of Cambridge. | Copyright (c) 1997-2005 University of Cambridge. |
| 4121 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 4122 | ||
| PCRE(3) PCRE(3) | ||
| 4123 | ||
| 4124 | ||
| 4125 | NAME | NAME |
| 4126 | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions. | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions. |
| 4127 | ||
| 4128 | ||
| 4129 | SYNOPSIS OF POSIX API | SYNOPSIS OF POSIX API |
| 4130 | ||
| 4131 | #include <pcreposix.h> | #include <pcreposix.h> |
| # | Line 3537 DESCRIPTION | Line 4146 DESCRIPTION |
| 4146 | ||
| 4147 | This set of functions provides a POSIX-style API to the PCRE regular | This set of functions provides a POSIX-style API to the PCRE regular |
| 4148 | expression package. See the pcreapi documentation for a description of | expression package. See the pcreapi documentation for a description of |
| 4149 | PCRE's native API, which contains additional functionality. | PCRE's native API, which contains much additional functionality. |
| 4150 | ||
| 4151 | The functions described here are just wrapper functions that ultimately | The functions described here are just wrapper functions that ultimately |
| 4152 | call the PCRE native API. Their prototypes are defined in the | call the PCRE native API. Their prototypes are defined in the |
| # | Line 3581 COMPILING A PATTERN | Line 4190 COMPILING A PATTERN |
| 4190 | The argument cflags is either zero, or contains one or more of the bits | The argument cflags is either zero, or contains one or more of the bits |
| 4191 | defined by the following macros: | defined by the following macros: |
| 4192 | ||
| 4193 | REG_DOTALL | |
| 4194 | ||
| 4195 | The PCRE_DOTALL option is set when the expression is passed for compi- | |
| 4196 | lation to the native function. Note that REG_DOTALL is not part of the | |
| 4197 | POSIX standard. | |
| 4198 | ||
| 4199 | REG_ICASE | REG_ICASE |
| 4200 | ||
| 4201 | The PCRE_CASELESS option is set when the expression is passed for com- | The PCRE_CASELESS option is set when the expression is passed for com- |
| # | Line 3692 MEMORY USAGE | Line 4307 MEMORY USAGE |
| 4307 | ||
| 4308 | AUTHOR | AUTHOR |
| 4309 | ||
| 4310 | Philip Hazel <ph10@cam.ac.uk> | Philip Hazel |
| 4311 | University Computing Service, | University Computing Service, |
| 4312 | Cambridge CB2 3QG, England. | Cambridge CB2 3QG, England. |
| 4313 | ||
| 4314 | Last updated: 07 September 2004 | Last updated: 28 February 2005 |
| 4315 | Copyright (c) 1997-2004 University of Cambridge. | Copyright (c) 1997-2005 University of Cambridge. |
| 4316 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 4317 | ||
| 4318 | PCRE(3) PCRE(3) | |
| 4319 | ||
| 4320 | NAME | |
| 4321 | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions. | |
| 4322 | ||
| 4323 | ||
| 4324 | SYNOPSIS OF C++ WRAPPER | |
| 4325 | ||
| 4326 | #include <pcrecpp.h> | |
| 4327 | ||
| 4328 | ||
| 4329 | DESCRIPTION | |
| 4330 | ||
| 4331 | The C++ wrapper for PCRE was provided by Google Inc. This brief man | |
| 4332 | page was constructed from the notes in the pcrecpp.h file, which should | |
| 4333 | be consulted for further details. | |
| 4334 | ||
| 4335 | ||
| 4336 | MATCHING INTERFACE | |
| 4337 | ||
| 4338 | The "FullMatch" operation checks that supplied text matches a supplied | |
| 4339 | pattern exactly. If pointer arguments are supplied, it copies matched | |
| 4340 | sub-strings that match sub-patterns into them. | |
| 4341 | ||
| 4342 | Example: successful match | |
| 4343 | pcrecpp::RE re("h.*o"); | |
| 4344 | re.FullMatch("hello"); | |
| 4345 | ||
| 4346 | Example: unsuccessful match (requires full match): | |
| 4347 | pcrecpp::RE re("e"); | |
| 4348 | !re.FullMatch("hello"); | |
| 4349 | ||
| 4350 | Example: creating a temporary RE object: | |
| 4351 | pcrecpp::RE("h.*o").FullMatch("hello"); | |
| 4352 | ||
| 4353 | You can pass in a "const char*" or a "string" for "text". The examples | |
| 4354 | below tend to use a const char*. You can, as in the different examples | |
| 4355 | above, store the RE object explicitly in a variable or use a temporary | |
| 4356 | RE object. The examples below use one mode or the other arbitrarily. | |
| 4357 | Either could correctly be used for any of these examples. | |
| 4358 | ||
| 4359 | You must supply extra pointer arguments to extract matched subpieces. | |
| 4360 | ||
| 4361 | Example: extracts "ruby" into "s" and 1234 into "i" | |
| 4362 | int i; | |
| 4363 | string s; | |
| 4364 | pcrecpp::RE re("(\\w+):(\\d+)"); | |
| 4365 | re.FullMatch("ruby:1234", &s, &i); | |
| 4366 | ||
| 4367 | Example: does not try to extract any extra sub-patterns | |
| 4368 | re.FullMatch("ruby:1234", &s); | |
| 4369 | ||
| 4370 | Example: does not try to extract into NULL | |
| 4371 | re.FullMatch("ruby:1234", NULL, &i); | |
| 4372 | ||
| 4373 | Example: integer overflow causes failure | |
| 4374 | !re.FullMatch("ruby:1234567891234", NULL, &i); | |
| 4375 | ||
| 4376 | Example: fails because there aren't enough sub-patterns: | |
| 4377 | !pcrecpp::RE("\\w+:\\d+").FullMatch("ruby:1234", &s); | |
| 4378 | ||
| 4379 | Example: fails because string cannot be stored in integer | |
| 4380 | !pcrecpp::RE("(.*)").FullMatch("ruby", &i); | |
| 4381 | ||
| 4382 | The provided pointer arguments can be pointers to any scalar numeric | |
| 4383 | type, or one of: | |
| 4384 | ||
| 4385 | string (matched piece is copied to string) | |
| 4386 | StringPiece (StringPiece is mutated to point to matched piece) | |
| 4387 | T (where "bool T::ParseFrom(const char*, int)" exists) | |
| 4388 | NULL (the corresponding matched sub-pattern is not copied) | |
| 4389 | ||
| 4390 | The function returns true iff all of the following conditions are sat- | |
| 4391 | isfied: | |
| 4392 | ||
| 4393 | a. "text" matches "pattern" exactly; | |
| 4394 | ||
| 4395 | b. The number of matched sub-patterns is >= number of supplied | |
| 4396 | pointers; | |
| 4397 | ||
| 4398 | c. The "i"th argument has a suitable type for holding the | |
| 4399 | string captured as the "i"th sub-pattern. If you pass in | |
| 4400 | NULL for the "i"th argument, or pass fewer arguments than | |
| 4401 | number of sub-patterns, "i"th captured sub-pattern is | |
| 4402 | ignored. | |
| 4403 | ||
| 4404 | The matching interface supports at most 16 arguments per call. If you | |
| 4405 | need more, consider using the more general interface | |
| 4406 | pcrecpp::RE::DoMatch. See pcrecpp.h for the signature for DoMatch. | |
| 4407 | ||
| 4408 | ||
| 4409 | PARTIAL MATCHES | |
| 4410 | ||
| 4411 | You can use the "PartialMatch" operation when you want the pattern to | |
| 4412 | match any substring of the text. | |
| 4413 | ||
| 4414 | Example: simple search for a string: | |
| 4415 | pcrecpp::RE("ell").PartialMatch("hello"); | |
| 4416 | ||
| 4417 | Example: find first number in a string: | |
| 4418 | int number; | |
| 4419 | pcrecpp::RE re("(\\d+)"); | |
| 4420 | re.PartialMatch("x*100 + 20", &number); | |
| 4421 | assert(number == 100); | |
| 4422 | ||
| 4423 | ||
| 4424 | UTF-8 AND THE MATCHING INTERFACE | |
| 4425 | ||
| 4426 | By default, pattern and text are plain text, one byte per character. | |
| 4427 | The UTF8 flag, passed to the constructor, causes both pattern and | |
| 4428 | string to be treated as UTF-8 text, still a byte stream but potentially | |
| 4429 | multiple bytes per character. In practice, the text is likelier to be | |
| 4430 | UTF-8 than the pattern, but the match returned may depend on the UTF8 | |
| 4431 | flag, so always use it when matching UTF8 text. For example, "." will | |
| 4432 | match one byte normally but with UTF8 set may match up to three bytes | |
| 4433 | of a multi-byte character. | |
| 4434 | ||
| 4435 | Example: | |
| 4436 | pcrecpp::RE_Options options; | |
| 4437 | options.set_utf8(); | |
| 4438 | pcrecpp::RE re(utf8_pattern, options); | |
| 4439 | re.FullMatch(utf8_string); | |
| 4440 | ||
| 4441 | Example: using the convenience function UTF8(): | |
| 4442 | pcrecpp::RE re(utf8_pattern, pcrecpp::UTF8()); | |
| 4443 | re.FullMatch(utf8_string); | |
| 4444 | ||
| 4445 | NOTE: The UTF8 flag is ignored if pcre was not configured with the | |
| 4446 | --enable-utf8 flag. | |
| 4447 | ||
| 4448 | ||
| 4449 | SCANNING TEXT INCREMENTALLY | |
| 4450 | ||
| 4451 | The "Consume" operation may be useful if you want to repeatedly match | |
| 4452 | regular expressions at the front of a string and skip over them as they | |
| 4453 | match. This requires use of the "StringPiece" type, which represents a | |
| 4454 | sub-range of a real string. Like RE, StringPiece is defined in the | |
| 4455 | pcrecpp namespace. | |
| 4456 | ||
| 4457 | Example: read lines of the form "var = value" from a string. | |
| 4458 | string contents = ...; // Fill string somehow | |
| 4459 | pcrecpp::StringPiece input(contents); // Wrap in a StringPiece | |
| 4460 | ||
| 4461 | string var; | |
| 4462 | int value; | |
| 4463 | pcrecpp::RE re("(\\w+) = (\\d+)\n"); | |
| 4464 | while (re.Consume(&input, &var, &value)) { | |
| 4465 | ...; | |
| 4466 | } | |
| 4467 | ||
| 4468 | Each successful call to "Consume" will set "var/value", and also | |
| 4469 | advance "input" so it points past the matched text. | |
| 4470 | ||
| 4471 | The "FindAndConsume" operation is similar to "Consume" but does not | |
| 4472 | anchor your match at the beginning of the string. For example, you | |
| 4473 | could extract all words from a string by repeatedly calling | |
| 4474 | ||
| 4475 | pcrecpp::RE("(\\w+)").FindAndConsume(&input, &word) | |
| 4476 | ||
| 4477 | ||
| 4478 | PARSING HEX/OCTAL/C-RADIX NUMBERS | |
| 4479 | ||
| 4480 | By default, if you pass a pointer to a numeric value, the corresponding | |
| 4481 | text is interpreted as a base-10 number. You can instead wrap the | |
| 4482 | pointer with a call to one of the operators Hex(), Octal(), or CRadix() | |
| 4483 | to interpret the text in another base. The CRadix operator interprets | |
| 4484 | C-style "0" (base-8) and "0x" (base-16) prefixes, but defaults to | |
| 4485 | base-10. | |
| 4486 | ||
| 4487 | Example: | |
| 4488 | int a, b, c, d; | |
| 4489 | pcrecpp::RE re("(.*) (.*) (.*) (.*)"); | |
| 4490 | re.FullMatch("100 40 0100 0x40", | |
| 4491 | pcrecpp::Octal(&a), pcrecpp::Hex(&b), | |
| 4492 | pcrecpp::CRadix(&c), pcrecpp::CRadix(&d)); | |
| 4493 | ||
| 4494 | will leave 64 in a, b, c, and d. | |
| 4495 | ||
| 4496 | ||
| 4497 | REPLACING PARTS OF STRINGS | |
| 4498 | ||
| 4499 | You can replace the first match of "pattern" in "str" with "rewrite". | |
| 4500 | Within "rewrite", backslash-escaped digits (\1 to \9) can be used to | |
| 4501 | insert text matching corresponding parenthesized group from the pat- | |
| 4502 | tern. \0 in "rewrite" refers to the entire matching text. For example: | |
| 4503 | ||
| 4504 | string s = "yabba dabba doo"; | |
| 4505 | pcrecpp::RE("b+").Replace("d", &s); | |
| 4506 | ||
| 4507 | will leave "s" containing "yada dabba doo". The result is true if the | |
| 4508 | pattern matches and a replacement occurs, false otherwise. | |
| 4509 | ||
| 4510 | GlobalReplace is like Replace except that it replaces all occurrences | |
| 4511 | of the pattern in the string with the rewrite. Replacements are not | |
| 4512 | subject to re-matching. For example: | |
| 4513 | ||
| 4514 | string s = "yabba dabba doo"; | |
| 4515 | pcrecpp::RE("b+").GlobalReplace("d", &s); | |
| 4516 | ||
| 4517 | will leave "s" containing "yada dada doo". It returns the number of | |
| 4518 | replacements made. | |
| 4519 | ||
| 4520 | Extract is like Replace, except that if the pattern matches, "rewrite" | |
| 4521 | is copied into "out" (an additional argument) with substitutions. The | |
| 4522 | non-matching portions of "text" are ignored. Returns true iff a match | |
| 4523 | occurred and the extraction happened successfully; if no match occurs, | |
| 4524 | the string is left unaffected. | |
| 4525 | ||
| 4526 | ||
| 4527 | AUTHOR | |
| 4528 | ||
| 4529 | The C++ wrapper was contributed by Google Inc. | |
| 4530 | Copyright (c) 2005 Google Inc. | |
| 4531 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| 4532 | ||
| 4533 | ||
| 4534 | ||
| 4535 | NAME | NAME |
| 4536 | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions | PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions |
| 4537 | ||
| 4538 | ||
| 4539 | PCRE SAMPLE PROGRAM | PCRE SAMPLE PROGRAM |
| 4540 | ||
| 4541 | A simple, complete demonstration program, to get you started with using | A simple, complete demonstration program, to get you started with using |