/[pcre]/code/trunk/doc/pcrepattern.3

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-revision 96 by nigel,
Fri Mar  2 13:10:43 2007 UTC
+revision 447 by ph10,
Tue Sep 15 18:17:54 2009 UTC
 Line 4 
 PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressio
  .SH "PCRE REGULAR EXPRESSION DETAILS"
  .rs
  .sp
- The syntax and semantics of the regular expressions supported by PCRE are
+ The syntax and semantics of the regular expressions that are supported by PCRE
- described below. Regular expressions are also described in the Perl
+ are described in detail below. There is a quick-reference syntax summary in the
- documentation and in a number of books, some of which have copious examples.
+ .\" HREF
- Jeffrey Friedl's "Mastering Regular Expressions", published by O'Reilly, covers
+ \fBpcresyntax\fP
- regular expressions in great detail. This description of PCRE's regular
+ .\"
- expressions is intended as reference material.
+ page. PCRE tries to match Perl syntax and semantics as closely as it can. PCRE
+ also supports some alternative regular expression syntax (which does not
+ conflict with the Perl syntax) in order to provide some compatibility with
+ regular expressions in Python, .NET, and Oniguruma.
+ .P
+ Perl's regular expressions are described in its own documentation, and
+ regular expressions in general are covered in a number of books, some of which
+ have copious examples. Jeffrey Friedl's "Mastering Regular Expressions",
+ published by O'Reilly, covers regular expressions in great detail. This
+ description of PCRE's regular expressions is intended as reference material.
  .P
  The original operation of PCRE was on strings of one-byte characters. However,
  there is now also support for UTF-8 character strings. To use this, you must
  build PCRE to include UTF-8 support, and then call \fBpcre_compile()\fP with
- the PCRE_UTF8 option. How this affects pattern matching is mentioned in several
+ the PCRE_UTF8 option. There is also a special sequence that can be given at the
- places below. There is also a summary of UTF-8 features in the
+ start of a pattern:
+ .sp
+   (*UTF8)
+ .sp
+ Starting a pattern with this sequence is equivalent to setting the PCRE_UTF8
+ option. This feature is not Perl-compatible. How setting UTF-8 mode affects
+ pattern matching is mentioned in several places below. There is also a summary
+ of UTF-8 features in the
  .\" HTML <a href="pcre.html#utf8support">
  .\" </a>
  section on UTF-8 support
-Line 30 
 The remainder of this document discusses
+Line 46 
 The remainder of this document discusses
  PCRE when its main matching function, \fBpcre_exec()\fP, is used.
  From release 6.0, PCRE offers a second matching function,
  \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP, which matches using a different algorithm that is not
- Perl-compatible. The advantages and disadvantages of the alternative function,
+ Perl-compatible. Some of the features discussed below are not available when
- and how it differs from the normal function, are discussed in the
+ \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP is used. The advantages and disadvantages of the
+ alternative function, and how it differs from the normal function, are
+ discussed in the
  .\" HREF
  \fBpcrematching\fP
  .\"
  page.
  .
  .
+ .SH "NEWLINE CONVENTIONS"
+ .rs
+ .sp
+ PCRE supports five different conventions for indicating line breaks in
+ strings: a single CR (carriage return) character, a single LF (linefeed)
+ character, the two-character sequence CRLF, any of the three preceding, or any
+ Unicode newline sequence. The
+ .\" HREF
+ \fBpcreapi\fP
+ .\"
+ page has
+ .\" HTML <a href="pcreapi.html#newlines">
+ .\" </a>
+ further discussion
+ .\"
+ about newlines, and shows how to set the newline convention in the
+ \fIoptions\fP arguments for the compiling and matching functions.
+ .P
+ It is also possible to specify a newline convention by starting a pattern
+ string with one of the following five sequences:
+ .sp
+   (*CR)        carriage return
+   (*LF)        linefeed
+   (*CRLF)      carriage return, followed by linefeed
+   (*ANYCRLF)   any of the three above
+   (*ANY)       all Unicode newline sequences
+ .sp
+ These override the default and the options given to \fBpcre_compile()\fP. For
+ example, on a Unix system where LF is the default newline sequence, the pattern
+ .sp
+   (*CR)a.b
+ .sp
+ changes the convention to CR. That pattern matches "a\enb" because LF is no
+ longer a newline. Note that these special settings, which are not
+ Perl-compatible, are recognized only at the very start of a pattern, and that
+ they must be in upper case. If more than one of them is present, the last one
+ is used.
+ .P
+ The newline convention does not affect what the \eR escape sequence matches. By
+ default, this is any Unicode newline sequence, for Perl compatibility. However,
+ this can be changed; see the description of \eR in the section entitled
+ .\" HTML <a href="#newlineseq">
+ .\" </a>
+ "Newline sequences"
+ .\"
+ below. A change of \eR setting can be combined with a change of newline
+ convention.
+ .
+ .
  .SH "CHARACTERS AND METACHARACTERS"
  .rs
  .sp
-Line 147 
 represents:
+Line 214 
 represents:
    \ecx       "control-x", where x is any character
    \ee        escape (hex 1B)
    \ef        formfeed (hex 0C)
-   \en        newline (hex 0A)
+   \en        linefeed (hex 0A)
    \er        carriage return (hex 0D)
    \et        tab (hex 09)
    \eddd      character with octal code ddd, or backreference
-Line 162 
 Thus \ecz becomes hex 1A, but \ec{ becom
+Line 229 
 Thus \ecz becomes hex 1A, but \ec{ becom
  After \ex, from zero to two hexadecimal digits are read (letters can be in
  upper or lower case). Any number of hexadecimal digits may appear between \ex{
  and }, but the value of the character code must be less than 256 in non-UTF-8
- mode, and less than 2**31 in UTF-8 mode (that is, the maximum hexadecimal value
+ mode, and less than 2**31 in UTF-8 mode. That is, the maximum value in
- is 7FFFFFFF). If characters other than hexadecimal digits appear between \ex{
+ hexadecimal is 7FFFFFFF. Note that this is bigger than the largest Unicode code
- and }, or if there is no terminating }, this form of escape is not recognized.
+ point, which is 10FFFF.
- Instead, the initial \ex will be interpreted as a basic hexadecimal escape,
+ .P
- with no following digits, giving a character whose value is zero.
+ If characters other than hexadecimal digits appear between \ex{ and }, or if
+ there is no terminating }, this form of escape is not recognized. Instead, the
+ initial \ex will be interpreted as a basic hexadecimal escape, with no
+ following digits, giving a character whose value is zero.
  .P
  Characters whose value is less than 256 can be defined by either of the two
  syntaxes for \ex. There is no difference in the way they are handled. For
-Line 238 
 meanings
+Line 308 
 meanings
  .SS "Absolute and relative back references"
  .rs
  .sp
- The sequence \eg followed by a positive or negative number, optionally enclosed
+ The sequence \eg followed by an unsigned or a negative number, optionally
- in braces, is an absolute or relative back reference. Back references are
+ enclosed in braces, is an absolute or relative back reference. A named back
- discussed
+ reference can be coded as \eg{name}. Back references are discussed
  .\" HTML <a href="#backreferences">
  .\" </a>
  later,
-Line 252 
 parenthesized subpatterns.
+Line 322 
 parenthesized subpatterns.
  .\"
  .
  .
+ .SS "Absolute and relative subroutine calls"
+ .rs
+ .sp
+ For compatibility with Oniguruma, the non-Perl syntax \eg followed by a name or
+ a number enclosed either in angle brackets or single quotes, is an alternative
+ syntax for referencing a subpattern as a "subroutine". Details are discussed
+ .\" HTML <a href="#onigurumasubroutines">
+ .\" </a>
+ later.
+ .\"
+ Note that \eg{...} (Perl syntax) and \eg<...> (Oniguruma syntax) are \fInot\fP
+ synonymous. The former is a back reference; the latter is a subroutine call.
+ .
+ .
  .SS "Generic character types"
  .rs
  .sp
-Line 260 
 following are always recognized:
+Line 344 
 following are always recognized:
  .sp
    \ed     any decimal digit
    \eD     any character that is not a decimal digit
+   \eh     any horizontal whitespace character
+   \eH     any character that is not a horizontal whitespace character
    \es     any whitespace character
    \eS     any character that is not a whitespace character
+   \ev     any vertical whitespace character
+   \eV     any character that is not a vertical whitespace character
    \ew     any "word" character
    \eW     any "non-word" character
  .sp
-Line 275 
 there is no character to match.
+Line 363 
 there is no character to match.
  .P
  For compatibility with Perl, \es does not match the VT character (code 11).
  This makes it different from the the POSIX "space" class. The \es characters
- are HT (9), LF (10), FF (12), CR (13), and space (32). (If "use locale;" is
+ are HT (9), LF (10), FF (12), CR (13), and space (32). If "use locale;" is
  included in a Perl script, \es may match the VT character. In PCRE, it never
- does.)
+ does.
+ .P
+ In UTF-8 mode, characters with values greater than 128 never match \ed, \es, or
+ \ew, and always match \eD, \eS, and \eW. This is true even when Unicode
+ character property support is available. These sequences retain their original
+ meanings from before UTF-8 support was available, mainly for efficiency
+ reasons. Note that this also affects \eb, because it is defined in terms of \ew
+ and \eW.
+ .P
+ The sequences \eh, \eH, \ev, and \eV are Perl 5.10 features. In contrast to the
+ other sequences, these do match certain high-valued codepoints in UTF-8 mode.
+ The horizontal space characters are:
+ .sp
+   U+0009     Horizontal tab
+   U+0020     Space
+   U+00A0     Non-break space
+   U+1680     Ogham space mark
+   U+180E     Mongolian vowel separator
+   U+2000     En quad
+   U+2001     Em quad
+   U+2002     En space
+   U+2003     Em space
+   U+2004     Three-per-em space
+   U+2005     Four-per-em space
+   U+2006     Six-per-em space
+   U+2007     Figure space
+   U+2008     Punctuation space
+   U+2009     Thin space
+   U+200A     Hair space
+   U+202F     Narrow no-break space
+   U+205F     Medium mathematical space
+   U+3000     Ideographic space
+ .sp
+ The vertical space characters are:
+ .sp
+   U+000A     Linefeed
+   U+000B     Vertical tab
+   U+000C     Formfeed
+   U+000D     Carriage return
+   U+0085     Next line
+   U+2028     Line separator
+   U+2029     Paragraph separator
  .P
  A "word" character is an underscore or any character less than 256 that is a
  letter or digit. The definition of letters and digits is controlled by PCRE's
-Line 291 
 in the
+Line 420 
 in the
  .\" HREF
  \fBpcreapi\fP
  .\"
- page). For example, in the "fr_FR" (French) locale, some character codes
+ page). For example, in a French locale such as "fr_FR" in Unix-like systems,
- greater than 128 are used for accented letters, and these are matched by \ew.
+ or "french" in Windows, some character codes greater than 128 are used for
- .P
+ accented letters, and these are matched by \ew. The use of locales with Unicode
- In UTF-8 mode, characters with values greater than 128 never match \ed, \es, or
+ is discouraged.
- \ew, and always match \eD, \eS, and \eW. This is true even when Unicode
- character property support is available. The use of locales with Unicode is
- discouraged.
  .
  .
+ .\" HTML <a name="newlineseq"></a>
  .SS "Newline sequences"
  .rs
  .sp
- Outside a character class, the escape sequence \eR matches any Unicode newline
+ Outside a character class, by default, the escape sequence \eR matches any
- sequence. This is an extension to Perl. In non-UTF-8 mode \eR is equivalent to
+ Unicode newline sequence. This is a Perl 5.10 feature. In non-UTF-8 mode \eR is
- the following:
+ equivalent to the following:
  .sp
    (?>\er\en|\en|\ex0b|\ef|\er|\ex85)
  .sp
-Line 325 
 are added: LS (line separator, U+2028) a
+Line 452 
 are added: LS (line separator, U+2028) a
  Unicode character property support is not needed for these characters to be
  recognized.
  .P
+ It is possible to restrict \eR to match only CR, LF, or CRLF (instead of the
+ complete set of Unicode line endings) by setting the option PCRE_BSR_ANYCRLF
+ either at compile time or when the pattern is matched. (BSR is an abbrevation
+ for "backslash R".) This can be made the default when PCRE is built; if this is
+ the case, the other behaviour can be requested via the PCRE_BSR_UNICODE option.
+ It is also possible to specify these settings by starting a pattern string with
+ one of the following sequences:
+ .sp
+   (*BSR_ANYCRLF)   CR, LF, or CRLF only
+   (*BSR_UNICODE)   any Unicode newline sequence
+ .sp
+ These override the default and the options given to \fBpcre_compile()\fP, but
+ they can be overridden by options given to \fBpcre_exec()\fP. Note that these
+ special settings, which are not Perl-compatible, are recognized only at the
+ very start of a pattern, and that they must be in upper case. If more than one
+ of them is present, the last one is used. They can be combined with a change of
+ newline convention, for example, a pattern can start with:
+ .sp
+   (*ANY)(*BSR_ANYCRLF)
+ .sp
  Inside a character class, \eR matches the letter "R".
  .
  .
-Line 333 
 Inside a character class, \eR matches th
+Line 480 
 Inside a character class, \eR matches th
  .rs
  .sp
  When PCRE is built with Unicode character property support, three additional
- escape sequences to match character properties are available when UTF-8 mode
+ escape sequences that match characters with specific properties are available.
- is selected. They are:
+ When not in UTF-8 mode, these sequences are of course limited to testing
+ characters whose codepoints are less than 256, but they do work in this mode.
+ The extra escape sequences are:
  .sp
    \ep{\fIxx\fP}   a character with the \fIxx\fP property
    \eP{\fIxx\fP}   a character without the \fIxx\fP property
-Line 486 
 The special property L& is also supporte
+Line 635 
 The special property L& is also supporte
  the Lu, Ll, or Lt property, in other words, a letter that is not classified as
  a modifier or "other".
  .P
+ The Cs (Surrogate) property applies only to characters in the range U+D800 to
+ U+DFFF. Such characters are not valid in UTF-8 strings (see RFC 3629) and so
+ cannot be tested by PCRE, unless UTF-8 validity checking has been turned off
+ (see the discussion of PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK in the
+ .\" HREF
+ \fBpcreapi\fP
+ .\"
+ page).
+ .P
  The long synonyms for these properties that Perl supports (such as \ep{Letter})
  are not supported by PCRE, nor is it permitted to prefix any of these
  properties with "Is".
-Line 510 
 atomic group
+Line 668 
 atomic group
  (see below).
  .\"
  Characters with the "mark" property are typically accents that affect the
- preceding character.
+ preceding character. None of them have codepoints less than 256, so in
+ non-UTF-8 mode \eX matches any one character.
  .P
  Matching characters by Unicode property is not fast, because PCRE has to search
  a structure that contains data for over fifteen thousand characters. That is
-Line 518 
 why the traditional escape sequences suc
+Line 677 
 why the traditional escape sequences suc
  properties in PCRE.
  .
  .
+ .\" HTML <a name="resetmatchstart"></a>
+ .SS "Resetting the match start"
+ .rs
+ .sp
+ The escape sequence \eK, which is a Perl 5.10 feature, causes any previously
+ matched characters not to be included in the final matched sequence. For
+ example, the pattern:
+ .sp
+   foo\eKbar
+ .sp
+ matches "foobar", but reports that it has matched "bar". This feature is
+ similar to a lookbehind assertion
+ .\" HTML <a href="#lookbehind">
+ .\" </a>
+ (described below).
+ .\"
+ However, in this case, the part of the subject before the real match does not
+ have to be of fixed length, as lookbehind assertions do. The use of \eK does
+ not interfere with the setting of
+ .\" HTML <a href="#subpattern">
+ .\" </a>
+ captured substrings.
+ .\"
+ For example, when the pattern
+ .sp
+   (foo)\eKbar
+ .sp
+ matches "foobar", the first substring is still set to "foo".
+ .
+ .
  .\" HTML <a name="smallassertions"></a>
  .SS "Simple assertions"
  .rs
-Line 740 
 example [\ex{100}-\ex{2ff}].
+Line 929 
 example [\ex{100}-\ex{2ff}].
  If a range that includes letters is used when caseless matching is set, it
  matches the letters in either case. For example, [W-c] is equivalent to
  [][\e\e^_`wxyzabc], matched caselessly, and in non-UTF-8 mode, if character
- tables for the "fr_FR" locale are in use, [\exc8-\excb] matches accented E
+ tables for a French locale are in use, [\exc8-\excb] matches accented E
  characters in both cases. In UTF-8 mode, PCRE supports the concept of case for
  characters with values greater than 128 only when it is compiled with Unicode
  property support.
-Line 830 
 alternative in the subpattern.
+Line 1019 
 alternative in the subpattern.
  .rs
  .sp
  The settings of the PCRE_CASELESS, PCRE_MULTILINE, PCRE_DOTALL, and
- PCRE_EXTENDED options can be changed from within the pattern by a sequence of
+ PCRE_EXTENDED options (which are Perl-compatible) can be changed from within
- Perl option letters enclosed between "(?" and ")". The option letters are
+ the pattern by a sequence of Perl option letters enclosed between "(?" and ")".
+ The option letters are
  .sp
    i  for PCRE_CASELESS
    m  for PCRE_MULTILINE
-Line 845 
 PCRE_MULTILINE while unsetting PCRE_DOTA
+Line 1035 
 PCRE_MULTILINE while unsetting PCRE_DOTA
  permitted. If a letter appears both before and after the hyphen, the option is
  unset.
  .P
- When an option change occurs at top level (that is, not inside subpattern
+ The PCRE-specific options PCRE_DUPNAMES, PCRE_UNGREEDY, and PCRE_EXTRA can be
- parentheses), the change applies to the remainder of the pattern that follows.
+ changed in the same way as the Perl-compatible options by using the characters
- If the change is placed right at the start of a pattern, PCRE extracts it into
+ J, U and X respectively.
- the global options (and it will therefore show up in data extracted by the
+ .P
- \fBpcre_fullinfo()\fP function).
+ When one of these option changes occurs at top level (that is, not inside
+ subpattern parentheses), the change applies to the remainder of the pattern
+ that follows. If the change is placed right at the start of a pattern, PCRE
+ extracts it into the global options (and it will therefore show up in data
+ extracted by the \fBpcre_fullinfo()\fP function).
  .P
  An option change within a subpattern (see below for a description of
  subpatterns) affects only that part of the current pattern that follows it, so
-Line 868 
 branch is abandoned before the option se
+Line 1062 
 branch is abandoned before the option se
  option settings happen at compile time. There would be some very weird
  behaviour otherwise.
  .P
- The PCRE-specific options PCRE_DUPNAMES, PCRE_UNGREEDY, and PCRE_EXTRA can be
+ \fBNote:\fP There are other PCRE-specific options that can be set by the
- changed in the same way as the Perl-compatible options by using the characters
+ application when the compile or match functions are called. In some cases the
- J, U and X respectively.
+ pattern can contain special leading sequences such as (*CRLF) to override what
+ the application has set or what has been defaulted. Details are given in the
+ section entitled
+ .\" HTML <a href="#newlineseq">
+ .\" </a>
+ "Newline sequences"
+ .\"
+ above. There is also the (*UTF8) leading sequence that can be used to set UTF-8
+ mode; this is equivalent to setting the PCRE_UTF8 option.
  .
  .
  .\" HTML <a name="subpattern"></a>
-Line 925 
 is reached, an option setting in one bra
+Line 1127 
 is reached, an option setting in one bra
  the above patterns match "SUNDAY" as well as "Saturday".
  .
  .
+ .SH "DUPLICATE SUBPATTERN NUMBERS"
+ .rs
+ .sp
+ Perl 5.10 introduced a feature whereby each alternative in a subpattern uses
+ the same numbers for its capturing parentheses. Such a subpattern starts with
+ (?| and is itself a non-capturing subpattern. For example, consider this
+ pattern:
+ .sp
+   (?|(Sat)ur|(Sun))day
+ .sp
+ Because the two alternatives are inside a (?| group, both sets of capturing
+ parentheses are numbered one. Thus, when the pattern matches, you can look
+ at captured substring number one, whichever alternative matched. This construct
+ is useful when you want to capture part, but not all, of one of a number of
+ alternatives. Inside a (?| group, parentheses are numbered as usual, but the
+ number is reset at the start of each branch. The numbers of any capturing
+ buffers that follow the subpattern start after the highest number used in any
+ branch. The following example is taken from the Perl documentation.
+ The numbers underneath show in which buffer the captured content will be
+ stored.
+ .sp
+   # before  ---------------branch-reset----------- after
+   / ( a )  (?| x ( y ) z | (p (q) r) | (t) u (v) ) ( z ) /x
+   # 1            2         2  3        2     3     4
+ .sp
+ A backreference or a recursive call to a numbered subpattern always refers to
+ the first one in the pattern with the given number.
+ .P
+ An alternative approach to using this "branch reset" feature is to use
+ duplicate named subpatterns, as described in the next section.
+ .
+ .
  .SH "NAMED SUBPATTERNS"
  .rs
  .sp
-Line 974 
 abbreviation. This pattern (ignoring the
+Line 1208 
 abbreviation. This pattern (ignoring the
    (?<DN>Sat)(?:urday)?
  .sp
  There are five capturing substrings, but only one is ever set after a match.
+ (An alternative way of solving this problem is to use a "branch reset"
+ subpattern, as described in the previous section.)
+ .P
  The convenience function for extracting the data by name returns the substring
  for the first (and in this example, the only) subpattern of that name that
  matched. This saves searching to find which numbered subpattern it was. If you
-Line 984 
 details of the interfaces for handling n
+Line 1221 
 details of the interfaces for handling n
  \fBpcreapi\fP
  .\"
  documentation.
+ .P
+ \fBWarning:\fP You cannot use different names to distinguish between two
+ subpatterns with the same number (see the previous section) because PCRE uses
+ only the numbers when matching.
  .
  .
  .SH REPETITION
-Line 1032 
 support is available, \eX{3} matches thr
+Line 1273 
 support is available, \eX{3} matches thr
  which may be several bytes long (and they may be of different lengths).
  .P
  The quantifier {0} is permitted, causing the expression to behave as if the
- previous item and the quantifier were not present.
+ previous item and the quantifier were not present. This may be useful for
+ subpatterns that are referenced as
+ .\" HTML <a href="#subpatternsassubroutines">
+ .\" </a>
+ subroutines
+ .\"
+ from elsewhere in the pattern. Items other than subpatterns that have a {0}
+ quantifier are omitted from the compiled pattern.
  .P
  For convenience, the three most common quantifiers have single-character
  abbreviations:
-Line 1179 
 previous example can be rewritten as
+Line 1427 
 previous example can be rewritten as
  .sp
    \ed++foo
  .sp
+ Note that a possessive quantifier can be used with an entire group, for
+ example:
+ .sp
+   (abc|xyz){2,3}+
+ .sp
  Possessive quantifiers are always greedy; the setting of the PCRE_UNGREEDY
  option is ignored. They are a convenient notation for the simpler forms of
  atomic group. However, there is no difference in the meaning of a possessive
-Line 1253 
 subpattern is possible using named paren
+Line 1506 
 subpattern is possible using named paren
  .P
  Another way of avoiding the ambiguity inherent in the use of digits following a
  backslash is to use the \eg escape sequence, which is a feature introduced in
- Perl 5.10. This escape must be followed by a positive or a negative number,
+ Perl 5.10. This escape must be followed by an unsigned number or a negative
- optionally enclosed in braces. These examples are all identical:
+ number, optionally enclosed in braces. These examples are all identical:
  .sp
    (ring), \e1
    (ring), \eg1
    (ring), \eg{1}
  .sp
- A positive number specifies an absolute reference without the ambiguity that is
+ An unsigned number specifies an absolute reference without the ambiguity that
- present in the older syntax. It is also useful when literal digits follow the
+ is present in the older syntax. It is also useful when literal digits follow
- reference. A negative number is a relative reference. Consider this example:
+ the reference. A negative number is a relative reference. Consider this
+ example:
  .sp
    (abc(def)ghi)\eg{-1}
  .sp
-Line 1292 
 back reference, the case of letters is r
+Line 1546 
 back reference, the case of letters is r
  matches "rah rah" and "RAH RAH", but not "RAH rah", even though the original
  capturing subpattern is matched caselessly.
  .P
- Back references to named subpatterns use the Perl syntax \ek<name> or \ek'name'
+ There are several different ways of writing back references to named
- or the Python syntax (?P=name). We could rewrite the above example in either of
+ subpatterns. The .NET syntax \ek{name} and the Perl syntax \ek<name> or
+ \ek'name' are supported, as is the Python syntax (?P=name). Perl 5.10's unified
+ back reference syntax, in which \eg can be used for both numeric and named
+ references, is also supported. We could rewrite the above example in any of
  the following ways:
  .sp
    (?<p1>(?i)rah)\es+\ek<p1>
+   (?'p1'(?i)rah)\es+\ek{p1}
    (?P<p1>(?i)rah)\es+(?P=p1)
+   (?<p1>(?i)rah)\es+\eg{p1}
  .sp
  A subpattern that is referenced by name may appear in the pattern before or
  after the reference.
-Line 1420 
 lengths, but it is acceptable if rewritt
+Line 1679 
 lengths, but it is acceptable if rewritt
  .sp
    (?<=abc|abde)
  .sp
+ In some cases, the Perl 5.10 escape sequence \eK
+ .\" HTML <a href="#resetmatchstart">
+ .\" </a>
+ (see above)
+ .\"
+ can be used instead of a lookbehind assertion; this is not restricted to a
+ fixed-length.
+ .P
  The implementation of lookbehind assertions is, for each alternative, to
  temporarily move the current position back by the fixed length and then try to
  match. If there are insufficient characters before the current position, the
-Line 1514 
 recursion, a pseudo-condition called DEF
+Line 1781 
 recursion, a pseudo-condition called DEF
  .sp
  If the text between the parentheses consists of a sequence of digits, the
  condition is true if the capturing subpattern of that number has previously
- matched.
+ matched. An alternative notation is to precede the digits with a plus or minus
+ sign. In this case, the subpattern number is relative rather than absolute.
+ The most recently opened parentheses can be referenced by (?(-1), the next most
+ recent by (?(-2), and so on. In looping constructs it can also make sense to
+ refer to subsequent groups with constructs such as (?(+2).
  .P
  Consider the following pattern, which contains non-significant white space to
  make it more readable (assume the PCRE_EXTENDED option) and to divide it into
-Line 1531 
 the condition is true, and so the yes-pa
+Line 1802 
 the condition is true, and so the yes-pa
  parenthesis is required. Otherwise, since no-pattern is not present, the
  subpattern matches nothing. In other words, this pattern matches a sequence of
  non-parentheses, optionally enclosed in parentheses.
+ .P
+ If you were embedding this pattern in a larger one, you could use a relative
+ reference:
+ .sp
+   ...other stuff... ( \e( )?    [^()]+    (?(-1) \e) ) ...
+ .sp
+ This makes the fragment independent of the parentheses in the larger pattern.
  .
  .SS "Checking for a used subpattern by name"
  .rs
-Line 1673 
 pattern, so instead you could use this:
+Line 1951 
 pattern, so instead you could use this:
    ( \e( ( (?>[^()]+) | (?1) )* \e) )
  .sp
  We have put the pattern into parentheses, and caused the recursion to refer to
- them instead of the whole pattern. In a larger pattern, keeping track of
+ them instead of the whole pattern.
- parenthesis numbers can be tricky. It may be more convenient to use named
+ .P
- parentheses instead. The Perl syntax for this is (?&name); PCRE's earlier
+ In a larger pattern, keeping track of parenthesis numbers can be tricky. This
- syntax (?P>name) is also supported. We could rewrite the above example as
+ is made easier by the use of relative references. (A Perl 5.10 feature.)
- follows:
+ Instead of (?1) in the pattern above you can write (?-2) to refer to the second
+ most recently opened parentheses preceding the recursion. In other words, a
+ negative number counts capturing parentheses leftwards from the point at which
+ it is encountered.
+ .P
+ It is also possible to refer to subsequently opened parentheses, by writing
+ references such as (?+2). However, these cannot be recursive because the
+ reference is not inside the parentheses that are referenced. They are always
+ "subroutine" calls, as described in the next section.
+ .P
+ An alternative approach is to use named parentheses instead. The Perl syntax
+ for this is (?&name); PCRE's earlier syntax (?P>name) is also supported. We
+ could rewrite the above example as follows:
  .sp
    (?<pn> \e( ( (?>[^()]+) | (?&pn) )* \e) )
  .sp
  If there is more than one subpattern with the same name, the earliest one is
- used. This particular example pattern contains nested unlimited repeats, and so
+ used.
- the use of atomic grouping for matching strings of non-parentheses is important
+ .P
- when applying the pattern to strings that do not match. For example, when this
+ This particular example pattern that we have been looking at contains nested
- pattern is applied to
+ unlimited repeats, and so the use of atomic grouping for matching strings of
+ non-parentheses is important when applying the pattern to strings that do not
+ match. For example, when this pattern is applied to
  .sp
    (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa()
  .sp
-Line 1737 
 is the actual recursive call.
+Line 2029 
 is the actual recursive call.
  If the syntax for a recursive subpattern reference (either by number or by
  name) is used outside the parentheses to which it refers, it operates like a
  subroutine in a programming language. The "called" subpattern may be defined
- before or after the reference. An earlier example pointed out that the pattern
+ before or after the reference. A numbered reference can be absolute or
+ relative, as in these examples:
+ .sp
+   (...(absolute)...)...(?2)...
+   (...(relative)...)...(?-1)...
+   (...(?+1)...(relative)...
+ .sp
+ An earlier example pointed out that the pattern
  .sp
    (sens|respons)e and \e1ibility
  .sp
-Line 1758 
 When a subpattern is used as a subroutin
+Line 2057 
 When a subpattern is used as a subroutin
  case-independence are fixed when the subpattern is defined. They cannot be
  changed for different calls. For example, consider this pattern:
  .sp
-   (abc)(?i:(?1))
+   (abc)(?i:(?-1))
  .sp
  It matches "abcabc". It does not match "abcABC" because the change of
  processing option does not affect the called subpattern.
  .
  .
+ .\" HTML <a name="onigurumasubroutines"></a>
+ .SH "ONIGURUMA SUBROUTINE SYNTAX"
+ .rs
+ .sp
+ For compatibility with Oniguruma, the non-Perl syntax \eg followed by a name or
+ a number enclosed either in angle brackets or single quotes, is an alternative
+ syntax for referencing a subpattern as a subroutine, possibly recursively. Here
+ are two of the examples used above, rewritten using this syntax:
+ .sp
+   (?<pn> \e( ( (?>[^()]+) | \eg<pn> )* \e) )
+   (sens|respons)e and \eg'1'ibility
+ .sp
+ PCRE supports an extension to Oniguruma: if a number is preceded by a
+ plus or a minus sign it is taken as a relative reference. For example:
+ .sp
+   (abc)(?i:\eg<-1>)
+ .sp
+ Note that \eg{...} (Perl syntax) and \eg<...> (Oniguruma syntax) are \fInot\fP
+ synonymous. The former is a back reference; the latter is a subroutine call.
+ .
+ .
  .SH CALLOUTS
  .rs
  .sp
-Line 1782 
 function is to be called. If you want to
+Line 2102 
 function is to be called. If you want to
  can put a number less than 256 after the letter C. The default value is zero.
  For example, this pattern has two callout points:
  .sp
-   (?C1)\dabc(?C2)def
+   (?C1)abc(?C2)def
  .sp
  If the PCRE_AUTO_CALLOUT flag is passed to \fBpcre_compile()\fP, callouts are
  automatically installed before each item in the pattern. They are all numbered
-Line 1800 
 description of the interface to the call
+Line 2120 
 description of the interface to the call
  documentation.
  .
  .
+ .SH "BACKTRACKING CONTROL"
+ .rs
+ .sp
+ Perl 5.10 introduced a number of "Special Backtracking Control Verbs", which
+ are described in the Perl documentation as "experimental and subject to change
+ or removal in a future version of Perl". It goes on to say: "Their usage in
+ production code should be noted to avoid problems during upgrades." The same
+ remarks apply to the PCRE features described in this section.
+ .P
+ Since these verbs are specifically related to backtracking, most of them can be
+ used only when the pattern is to be matched using \fBpcre_exec()\fP, which uses
+ a backtracking algorithm. With the exception of (*FAIL), which behaves like a
+ failing negative assertion, they cause an error if encountered by
+ \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP.
+ .P
+ If any of these verbs are used in an assertion subpattern, their effect is
+ confined to that subpattern; it does not extend to the surrounding pattern.
+ Note that assertion subpatterns are processed as anchored at the point where
+ they are tested.
+ .P
+ The new verbs make use of what was previously invalid syntax: an opening
+ parenthesis followed by an asterisk. In Perl, they are generally of the form
+ (*VERB:ARG) but PCRE does not support the use of arguments, so its general
+ form is just (*VERB). Any number of these verbs may occur in a pattern. There
+ are two kinds:
+ .
+ .SS "Verbs that act immediately"
+ .rs
+ .sp
+ The following verbs act as soon as they are encountered:
+ .sp
+    (*ACCEPT)
+ .sp
+ This verb causes the match to end successfully, skipping the remainder of the
+ pattern. When inside a recursion, only the innermost pattern is ended
+ immediately. If the (*ACCEPT) is inside capturing parentheses, the data so far
+ is captured. (This feature was added to PCRE at release 8.00.) For example:
+ .sp
+   A((?:A|B(*ACCEPT)|C)D)
+ .sp
+ This matches "AB", "AAD", or "ACD"; when it matches "AB", "B" is captured by
+ the outer parentheses.
+ .sp
+   (*FAIL) or (*F)
+ .sp
+ This verb causes the match to fail, forcing backtracking to occur. It is
+ equivalent to (?!) but easier to read. The Perl documentation notes that it is
+ probably useful only when combined with (?{}) or (??{}). Those are, of course,
+ Perl features that are not present in PCRE. The nearest equivalent is the
+ callout feature, as for example in this pattern:
+ .sp
+   a+(?C)(*FAIL)
+ .sp
+ A match with the string "aaaa" always fails, but the callout is taken before
+ each backtrack happens (in this example, 10 times).
+ .
+ .SS "Verbs that act after backtracking"
+ .rs
+ .sp
+ The following verbs do nothing when they are encountered. Matching continues
+ with what follows, but if there is no subsequent match, a failure is forced.
+ The verbs differ in exactly what kind of failure occurs.
+ .sp
+   (*COMMIT)
+ .sp
+ This verb causes the whole match to fail outright if the rest of the pattern
+ does not match. Even if the pattern is unanchored, no further attempts to find
+ a match by advancing the start point take place. Once (*COMMIT) has been
+ passed, \fBpcre_exec()\fP is committed to finding a match at the current
+ starting point, or not at all. For example:
+ .sp
+   a+(*COMMIT)b
+ .sp
+ This matches "xxaab" but not "aacaab". It can be thought of as a kind of
+ dynamic anchor, or "I've started, so I must finish."
+ .sp
+   (*PRUNE)
+ .sp
+ This verb causes the match to fail at the current position if the rest of the
+ pattern does not match. If the pattern is unanchored, the normal "bumpalong"
+ advance to the next starting character then happens. Backtracking can occur as
+ usual to the left of (*PRUNE), or when matching to the right of (*PRUNE), but
+ if there is no match to the right, backtracking cannot cross (*PRUNE).
+ In simple cases, the use of (*PRUNE) is just an alternative to an atomic
+ group or possessive quantifier, but there are some uses of (*PRUNE) that cannot
+ be expressed in any other way.
+ .sp
+   (*SKIP)
+ .sp
+ This verb is like (*PRUNE), except that if the pattern is unanchored, the
+ "bumpalong" advance is not to the next character, but to the position in the
+ subject where (*SKIP) was encountered. (*SKIP) signifies that whatever text
+ was matched leading up to it cannot be part of a successful match. Consider:
+ .sp
+   a+(*SKIP)b
+ .sp
+ If the subject is "aaaac...", after the first match attempt fails (starting at
+ the first character in the string), the starting point skips on to start the
+ next attempt at "c". Note that a possessive quantifer does not have the same
+ effect in this example; although it would suppress backtracking during the
+ first match attempt, the second attempt would start at the second character
+ instead of skipping on to "c".
+ .sp
+   (*THEN)
+ .sp
+ This verb causes a skip to the next alternation if the rest of the pattern does
+ not match. That is, it cancels pending backtracking, but only within the
+ current alternation. Its name comes from the observation that it can be used
+ for a pattern-based if-then-else block:
+ .sp
+   ( COND1 (*THEN) FOO | COND2 (*THEN) BAR | COND3 (*THEN) BAZ ) ...
+ .sp
+ If the COND1 pattern matches, FOO is tried (and possibly further items after
+ the end of the group if FOO succeeds); on failure the matcher skips to the
+ second alternative and tries COND2, without backtracking into COND1. If (*THEN)
+ is used outside of any alternation, it acts exactly like (*PRUNE).
+ .
+ .
  .SH "SEE ALSO"
  .rs
  .sp
  \fBpcreapi\fP(3), \fBpcrecallout\fP(3), \fBpcrematching\fP(3), \fBpcre\fP(3).
- .P
+ .
- .in 0
+ .
- Last updated: 06 December 2006
+ .SH AUTHOR
- .br
+ .rs
- Copyright (c) 1997-2006 University of Cambridge.
+ .sp
+ .nf
+ Philip Hazel
+ University Computing Service
+ Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
+ .fi
+ .
+ .
+ .SH REVISION
+ .rs
+ .sp
+ .nf
+ Last updated: 15 September 2009
+ Copyright (c) 1997-2009 University of Cambridge.
+ .fi

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