trunk/doc/pcre_compile.3

.TH PCRE 3
.SH NAME
PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions
.SH SYNOPSIS
.rs
.sp
.B #include <pcre.h>
.PP
.SM
.br
.B pcre *pcre_compile(const char *\fIpattern\fP, int \fIoptions\fP,
.ti +5n
.B const char **\fIerrptr\fP, int *\fIerroffset\fP,
.ti +5n
.B const unsigned char *\fItableptr\fP);
.
.SH DESCRIPTION
.rs
.sp
This function compiles a regular expression into an internal form. Its
arguments are:
.sp
  \fIpattern\fR       A zero-terminated string containing the
                  regular expression to be compiled
  \fIoptions\fR       Zero or more option bits
  \fIerrptr\fR        Where to put an error message
  \fIerroffset\fR     Offset in pattern where error was found
  \fItableptr\fR      Pointer to character tables, or NULL to
                  use the built-in default
.sp
The option bits are:
.sp
  PCRE_ANCHORED         Force pattern anchoring
  PCRE_AUTO_CALLOUT     Compile automatic callouts
  PCRE_CASELESS         Do caseless matching
  PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY   $ not to match newline at end
  PCRE_DOTALL           . matches anything including NL
  PCRE_EXTENDED         Ignore whitespace and # comments
  PCRE_EXTRA            PCRE extra features
                          (not much use currently)
  PCRE_MULTILINE        ^ and $ match newlines within data
  PCRE_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE  Disable numbered capturing paren-
                          theses (named ones available)
  PCRE_UNGREEDY         Invert greediness of quantifiers
  PCRE_UTF8             Run in UTF-8 mode
  PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK    Do not check the pattern for UTF-8
                          validity (only relevant if
                          PCRE_UTF8 is set)
.sp
PCRE must be built with UTF-8 support in order to use PCRE_UTF8 and
PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK.
.P
The yield of the function is a pointer to a private data structure that
contains the compiled pattern, or NULL if an error was detected.
.P
There is a complete description of the PCRE native API in the
.\" HREF
\fBpcreapi\fR
.\"
page and a description of the POSIX API in the
.\" HREF
\fBpcreposix\fR
.\"
page.
1	.TH PCRE 3
2	.SH NAME
3	PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions
4	.SH SYNOPSIS
5	.rs
6	.sp
7	.B #include <pcre.h>
8	.PP
9	.SM
10	.br
11	.B pcre pcre_compile(const char \fIpattern\fP, int \fIoptions\fP,
12	.ti +5n
13	.B const char *\fIerrptr\fP, int \fIerroffset\fP,
14	.ti +5n
15	.B const unsigned char *\fItableptr\fP);
16	.
17	.SH DESCRIPTION
18	.rs
19	.sp
20	This function compiles a regular expression into an internal form. Its
21	arguments are:
22	.sp
23	\fIpattern\fR A zero-terminated string containing the
24	regular expression to be compiled
25	\fIoptions\fR Zero or more option bits
26	\fIerrptr\fR Where to put an error message
27	\fIerroffset\fR Offset in pattern where error was found
28	\fItableptr\fR Pointer to character tables, or NULL to
29	use the built-in default
30	.sp
31	The option bits are:
32	.sp
33	PCRE_ANCHORED Force pattern anchoring
34	PCRE_AUTO_CALLOUT Compile automatic callouts
35	PCRE_CASELESS Do caseless matching
36	PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY $ not to match newline at end
37	PCRE_DOTALL . matches anything including NL
38	PCRE_EXTENDED Ignore whitespace and # comments
39	PCRE_EXTRA PCRE extra features
40	(not much use currently)
41	PCRE_MULTILINE ^ and $ match newlines within data
42	PCRE_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE Disable numbered capturing paren-
43	theses (named ones available)
44	PCRE_UNGREEDY Invert greediness of quantifiers
45	PCRE_UTF8 Run in UTF-8 mode
46	PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK Do not check the pattern for UTF-8
47	validity (only relevant if
48	PCRE_UTF8 is set)
49	.sp
50	PCRE must be built with UTF-8 support in order to use PCRE_UTF8 and
51	PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK.
52	.P
53	The yield of the function is a pointer to a private data structure that
54	contains the compiled pattern, or NULL if an error was detected.
55	.P
56	There is a complete description of the PCRE native API in the
57	.\" HREF
58	\fBpcreapi\fR
59	.\"
60	page and a description of the POSIX API in the
61	.\" HREF
62	\fBpcreposix\fR
63	.\"
64	page.