trunk/doc/pcresample.3

.TH PCRESAMPLE 3 "10 January 2012" "PCRE 8.30"
.SH NAME
PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions
.SH "PCRE SAMPLE PROGRAM"
.rs
.sp
A simple, complete demonstration program, to get you started with using PCRE,
is supplied in the file \fIpcredemo.c\fP in the PCRE distribution. A listing of
this program is given in the
.\" HREF
\fBpcredemo\fP
.\"
documentation. If you do not have a copy of the PCRE distribution, you can save
this listing to re-create \fIpcredemo.c\fP.
.P
The demonstration program, which uses the original PCRE 8-bit library, compiles
the regular expression that is its first argument, and matches it against the
subject string in its second argument. No PCRE options are set, and default
character tables are used. If matching succeeds, the program outputs the
portion of the subject that matched, together with the contents of any captured
substrings.
.P
If the -g option is given on the command line, the program then goes on to
check for further matches of the same regular expression in the same subject
string. The logic is a little bit tricky because of the possibility of matching
an empty string. Comments in the code explain what is going on.
.P
If PCRE is installed in the standard include and library directories for your
operating system, you should be able to compile the demonstration program using
this command:
.sp
  gcc -o pcredemo pcredemo.c -lpcre
.sp
If PCRE is installed elsewhere, you may need to add additional options to the
command line. For example, on a Unix-like system that has PCRE installed in
\fI/usr/local\fP, you can compile the demonstration program using a command
like this:
.sp
.\" JOINSH
  gcc -o pcredemo -I/usr/local/include pcredemo.c \e
      -L/usr/local/lib -lpcre
.sp
In a Windows environment, if you want to statically link the program against a
non-dll \fBpcre.a\fP file, you must uncomment the line that defines PCRE_STATIC
before including \fBpcre.h\fP, because otherwise the \fBpcre_malloc()\fP and
\fBpcre_free()\fP exported functions will be declared
\fB__declspec(dllimport)\fP, with unwanted results.
.P
Once you have compiled and linked the demonstration program, you can run simple
tests like this:
.sp
  ./pcredemo 'cat|dog' 'the cat sat on the mat'
  ./pcredemo -g 'cat|dog' 'the dog sat on the cat'
.sp
Note that there is a much more comprehensive test program, called
.\" HREF
\fBpcretest\fP,
.\"
which supports many more facilities for testing regular expressions and both
PCRE libraries. The
.\" HREF
\fBpcredemo\fP
.\"
program is provided as a simple coding example.
.P
If you try to run
.\" HREF
\fBpcredemo\fP
.\"
when PCRE is not installed in the standard library directory, you may get an
error like this on some operating systems (e.g. Solaris):
.sp
  ld.so.1: a.out: fatal: libpcre.so.0: open failed: No such file or directory
.sp
This is caused by the way shared library support works on those systems. You
need to add
.sp
  -R/usr/local/lib
.sp
(for example) to the compile command to get round this problem.
.
.
.SH AUTHOR
.rs
.sp
.nf
Philip Hazel
University Computing Service
Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
.fi
.
.
.SH REVISION
.rs
.sp
.nf
Last updated: 10 January 2012
Copyright (c) 1997-2012 University of Cambridge.
.fi
1	ph10	954	.TH PCRESAMPLE 3 "10 January 2012" "PCRE 8.30"
2	nigel	63	.SH NAME
3			PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions
4	nigel	75	.SH "PCRE SAMPLE PROGRAM"
5	nigel	63	.rs
6			.sp
7			A simple, complete demonstration program, to get you started with using PCRE,
8	ph10	429	is supplied in the file \fIpcredemo.c\fP in the PCRE distribution. A listing of
9			this program is given in the
10			.\" HREF
11			\fBpcredemo\fP
12			.\"
13	ph10	461	documentation. If you do not have a copy of the PCRE distribution, you can save
14	ph10	429	this listing to re-create \fIpcredemo.c\fP.
15	nigel	75	.P
16	ph10	861	The demonstration program, which uses the original PCRE 8-bit library, compiles
17			the regular expression that is its first argument, and matches it against the
18			subject string in its second argument. No PCRE options are set, and default
19			character tables are used. If matching succeeds, the program outputs the
20			portion of the subject that matched, together with the contents of any captured
21			substrings.
22	nigel	75	.P
23	nigel	63	If the -g option is given on the command line, the program then goes on to
24			check for further matches of the same regular expression in the same subject
25			string. The logic is a little bit tricky because of the possibility of matching
26			an empty string. Comments in the code explain what is going on.
27	nigel	75	.P
28	ph10	312	If PCRE is installed in the standard include and library directories for your
29	ph10	456	operating system, you should be able to compile the demonstration program using
30			this command:
31	nigel	75	.sp
32			gcc -o pcredemo pcredemo.c -lpcre
33			.sp
34			If PCRE is installed elsewhere, you may need to add additional options to the
35			command line. For example, on a Unix-like system that has PCRE installed in
36			\fI/usr/local\fP, you can compile the demonstration program using a command
37			like this:
38			.sp
39			.\" JOINSH
40			gcc -o pcredemo -I/usr/local/include pcredemo.c \e
41	nigel	63	-L/usr/local/lib -lpcre
42	nigel	75	.sp
43	ph10	525	In a Windows environment, if you want to statically link the program against a
44			non-dll \fBpcre.a\fP file, you must uncomment the line that defines PCRE_STATIC
45			before including \fBpcre.h\fP, because otherwise the \fBpcre_malloc()\fP and
46			\fBpcre_free()\fP exported functions will be declared
47			\fB__declspec(dllimport)\fP, with unwanted results.
48			.P
49			Once you have compiled and linked the demonstration program, you can run simple
50			tests like this:
51	nigel	75	.sp
52	nigel	63	./pcredemo 'cat\|dog' 'the cat sat on the mat'
53			./pcredemo -g 'cat\|dog' 'the dog sat on the cat'
54	nigel	75	.sp
55	nigel	63	Note that there is a much more comprehensive test program, called
56	nigel	75	.\" HREF
57			\fBpcretest\fP,
58			.\"
59	ph10	861	which supports many more facilities for testing regular expressions and both
60			PCRE libraries. The
61	ph10	429	.\" HREF
62			\fBpcredemo\fP
63			.\"
64			program is provided as a simple coding example.
65	nigel	75	.P
66	ph10	572	If you try to run
67	ph10	429	.\" HREF
68			\fBpcredemo\fP
69			.\"
70			when PCRE is not installed in the standard library directory, you may get an
71			error like this on some operating systems (e.g. Solaris):
72	nigel	75	.sp
73	nigel	63	ld.so.1: a.out: fatal: libpcre.so.0: open failed: No such file or directory
74	nigel	75	.sp
75	nigel	63	This is caused by the way shared library support works on those systems. You
76			need to add
77	nigel	75	.sp
78	nigel	63	-R/usr/local/lib
79	nigel	75	.sp
80			(for example) to the compile command to get round this problem.
81	ph10	99	.
82			.
83			.SH AUTHOR
84			.rs
85			.sp
86			.nf
87			Philip Hazel
88			University Computing Service
89			Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
90			.fi
91			.
92			.
93			.SH REVISION
94			.rs
95			.sp
96			.nf
97	ph10	861	Last updated: 10 January 2012
98			Copyright (c) 1997-2012 University of Cambridge.
99	ph10	99	.fi
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