Annotation of embedaddon/pcre/doc/html/pcre.html, revision 1.1
1.1 ! misho 1: <html>
! 2: <head>
! 3: <title>pcre specification</title>
! 4: </head>
! 5: <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#00005A" link="#0066FF" alink="#3399FF" vlink="#2222BB">
! 6: <h1>pcre man page</h1>
! 7: <p>
! 8: Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
! 9: </p>
! 10: <p>
! 11: This page is part of the PCRE HTML documentation. It was generated automatically
! 12: from the original man page. If there is any nonsense in it, please consult the
! 13: man page, in case the conversion went wrong.
! 14: <br>
! 15: <ul>
! 16: <li><a name="TOC1" href="#SEC1">INTRODUCTION</a>
! 17: <li><a name="TOC2" href="#SEC2">USER DOCUMENTATION</a>
! 18: <li><a name="TOC3" href="#SEC3">AUTHOR</a>
! 19: <li><a name="TOC4" href="#SEC4">REVISION</a>
! 20: </ul>
! 21: <br><a name="SEC1" href="#TOC1">INTRODUCTION</a><br>
! 22: <P>
! 23: The PCRE library is a set of functions that implement regular expression
! 24: pattern matching using the same syntax and semantics as Perl, with just a few
! 25: differences. Some features that appeared in Python and PCRE before they
! 26: appeared in Perl are also available using the Python syntax, there is some
! 27: support for one or two .NET and Oniguruma syntax items, and there is an option
! 28: for requesting some minor changes that give better JavaScript compatibility.
! 29: </P>
! 30: <P>
! 31: The current implementation of PCRE corresponds approximately with Perl 5.12,
! 32: including support for UTF-8 encoded strings and Unicode general category
! 33: properties. However, UTF-8 and Unicode support has to be explicitly enabled; it
! 34: is not the default. The Unicode tables correspond to Unicode release 6.0.0.
! 35: </P>
! 36: <P>
! 37: In addition to the Perl-compatible matching function, PCRE contains an
! 38: alternative function that matches the same compiled patterns in a different
! 39: way. In certain circumstances, the alternative function has some advantages.
! 40: For a discussion of the two matching algorithms, see the
! 41: <a href="pcrematching.html"><b>pcrematching</b></a>
! 42: page.
! 43: </P>
! 44: <P>
! 45: PCRE is written in C and released as a C library. A number of people have
! 46: written wrappers and interfaces of various kinds. In particular, Google Inc.
! 47: have provided a comprehensive C++ wrapper. This is now included as part of the
! 48: PCRE distribution. The
! 49: <a href="pcrecpp.html"><b>pcrecpp</b></a>
! 50: page has details of this interface. Other people's contributions can be found
! 51: in the <i>Contrib</i> directory at the primary FTP site, which is:
! 52: <a href="ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre">ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre</a>
! 53: </P>
! 54: <P>
! 55: Details of exactly which Perl regular expression features are and are not
! 56: supported by PCRE are given in separate documents. See the
! 57: <a href="pcrepattern.html"><b>pcrepattern</b></a>
! 58: and
! 59: <a href="pcrecompat.html"><b>pcrecompat</b></a>
! 60: pages. There is a syntax summary in the
! 61: <a href="pcresyntax.html"><b>pcresyntax</b></a>
! 62: page.
! 63: </P>
! 64: <P>
! 65: Some features of PCRE can be included, excluded, or changed when the library is
! 66: built. The
! 67: <a href="pcre_config.html"><b>pcre_config()</b></a>
! 68: function makes it possible for a client to discover which features are
! 69: available. The features themselves are described in the
! 70: <a href="pcrebuild.html"><b>pcrebuild</b></a>
! 71: page. Documentation about building PCRE for various operating systems can be
! 72: found in the <b>README</b> and <b>NON-UNIX-USE</b> files in the source
! 73: distribution.
! 74: </P>
! 75: <P>
! 76: The library contains a number of undocumented internal functions and data
! 77: tables that are used by more than one of the exported external functions, but
! 78: which are not intended for use by external callers. Their names all begin with
! 79: "_pcre_", which hopefully will not provoke any name clashes. In some
! 80: environments, it is possible to control which external symbols are exported
! 81: when a shared library is built, and in these cases the undocumented symbols are
! 82: not exported.
! 83: </P>
! 84: <br><a name="SEC2" href="#TOC1">USER DOCUMENTATION</a><br>
! 85: <P>
! 86: The user documentation for PCRE comprises a number of different sections. In
! 87: the "man" format, each of these is a separate "man page". In the HTML format,
! 88: each is a separate page, linked from the index page. In the plain text format,
! 89: all the sections, except the <b>pcredemo</b> section, are concatenated, for ease
! 90: of searching. The sections are as follows:
! 91: <pre>
! 92: pcre this document
! 93: pcre-config show PCRE installation configuration information
! 94: pcreapi details of PCRE's native C API
! 95: pcrebuild options for building PCRE
! 96: pcrecallout details of the callout feature
! 97: pcrecompat discussion of Perl compatibility
! 98: pcrecpp details of the C++ wrapper
! 99: pcredemo a demonstration C program that uses PCRE
! 100: pcregrep description of the <b>pcregrep</b> command
! 101: pcrejit discussion of the just-in-time optimization support
! 102: pcrelimits details of size and other limits
! 103: pcrematching discussion of the two matching algorithms
! 104: pcrepartial details of the partial matching facility
! 105: pcrepattern syntax and semantics of supported regular expressions
! 106: pcreperform discussion of performance issues
! 107: pcreposix the POSIX-compatible C API
! 108: pcreprecompile details of saving and re-using precompiled patterns
! 109: pcresample discussion of the pcredemo program
! 110: pcrestack discussion of stack usage
! 111: pcresyntax quick syntax reference
! 112: pcretest description of the <b>pcretest</b> testing command
! 113: pcreunicode discussion of Unicode and UTF-8 support
! 114: </pre>
! 115: In addition, in the "man" and HTML formats, there is a short page for each
! 116: C library function, listing its arguments and results.
! 117: </P>
! 118: <br><a name="SEC3" href="#TOC1">AUTHOR</a><br>
! 119: <P>
! 120: Philip Hazel
! 121: <br>
! 122: University Computing Service
! 123: <br>
! 124: Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
! 125: <br>
! 126: </P>
! 127: <P>
! 128: Putting an actual email address here seems to have been a spam magnet, so I've
! 129: taken it away. If you want to email me, use my two initials, followed by the
! 130: two digits 10, at the domain cam.ac.uk.
! 131: </P>
! 132: <br><a name="SEC4" href="#TOC1">REVISION</a><br>
! 133: <P>
! 134: Last updated: 24 August 2011
! 135: <br>
! 136: Copyright © 1997-2011 University of Cambridge.
! 137: <br>
! 138: <p>
! 139: Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
! 140: </p>
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