Annotation of embedaddon/pcre/doc/html/pcregrep.html, revision 1.1.1.2
1.1 misho 1: <html>
2: <head>
3: <title>pcregrep specification</title>
4: </head>
5: <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#00005A" link="#0066FF" alink="#3399FF" vlink="#2222BB">
6: <h1>pcregrep 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">SYNOPSIS</a>
17: <li><a name="TOC2" href="#SEC2">DESCRIPTION</a>
18: <li><a name="TOC3" href="#SEC3">SUPPORT FOR COMPRESSED FILES</a>
1.1.1.2 ! misho 19: <li><a name="TOC4" href="#SEC4">BINARY FILES</a>
! 20: <li><a name="TOC5" href="#SEC5">OPTIONS</a>
! 21: <li><a name="TOC6" href="#SEC6">ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES</a>
! 22: <li><a name="TOC7" href="#SEC7">NEWLINES</a>
! 23: <li><a name="TOC8" href="#SEC8">OPTIONS COMPATIBILITY</a>
! 24: <li><a name="TOC9" href="#SEC9">OPTIONS WITH DATA</a>
! 25: <li><a name="TOC10" href="#SEC10">MATCHING ERRORS</a>
! 26: <li><a name="TOC11" href="#SEC11">DIAGNOSTICS</a>
! 27: <li><a name="TOC12" href="#SEC12">SEE ALSO</a>
! 28: <li><a name="TOC13" href="#SEC13">AUTHOR</a>
! 29: <li><a name="TOC14" href="#SEC14">REVISION</a>
1.1 misho 30: </ul>
31: <br><a name="SEC1" href="#TOC1">SYNOPSIS</a><br>
32: <P>
33: <b>pcregrep [options] [long options] [pattern] [path1 path2 ...]</b>
34: </P>
35: <br><a name="SEC2" href="#TOC1">DESCRIPTION</a><br>
36: <P>
37: <b>pcregrep</b> searches files for character patterns, in the same way as other
38: grep commands do, but it uses the PCRE regular expression library to support
39: patterns that are compatible with the regular expressions of Perl 5. See
40: <a href="pcrepattern.html"><b>pcrepattern</b>(3)</a>
41: for a full description of syntax and semantics of the regular expressions
42: that PCRE supports.
43: </P>
44: <P>
45: Patterns, whether supplied on the command line or in a separate file, are given
46: without delimiters. For example:
47: <pre>
48: pcregrep Thursday /etc/motd
49: </pre>
50: If you attempt to use delimiters (for example, by surrounding a pattern with
51: slashes, as is common in Perl scripts), they are interpreted as part of the
52: pattern. Quotes can of course be used to delimit patterns on the command line
53: because they are interpreted by the shell, and indeed they are required if a
54: pattern contains white space or shell metacharacters.
55: </P>
56: <P>
57: The first argument that follows any option settings is treated as the single
58: pattern to be matched when neither <b>-e</b> nor <b>-f</b> is present.
59: Conversely, when one or both of these options are used to specify patterns, all
60: arguments are treated as path names. At least one of <b>-e</b>, <b>-f</b>, or an
61: argument pattern must be provided.
62: </P>
63: <P>
64: If no files are specified, <b>pcregrep</b> reads the standard input. The
65: standard input can also be referenced by a name consisting of a single hyphen.
66: For example:
67: <pre>
68: pcregrep some-pattern /file1 - /file3
69: </pre>
70: By default, each line that matches a pattern is copied to the standard
71: output, and if there is more than one file, the file name is output at the
72: start of each line, followed by a colon. However, there are options that can
73: change how <b>pcregrep</b> behaves. In particular, the <b>-M</b> option makes it
74: possible to search for patterns that span line boundaries. What defines a line
75: boundary is controlled by the <b>-N</b> (<b>--newline</b>) option.
76: </P>
77: <P>
78: The amount of memory used for buffering files that are being scanned is
79: controlled by a parameter that can be set by the <b>--buffer-size</b> option.
80: The default value for this parameter is specified when <b>pcregrep</b> is built,
81: with the default default being 20K. A block of memory three times this size is
82: used (to allow for buffering "before" and "after" lines). An error occurs if a
83: line overflows the buffer.
84: </P>
85: <P>
86: Patterns are limited to 8K or BUFSIZ bytes, whichever is the greater. BUFSIZ is
87: defined in <b><stdio.h></b>. When there is more than one pattern (specified by
88: the use of <b>-e</b> and/or <b>-f</b>), each pattern is applied to each line in
89: the order in which they are defined, except that all the <b>-e</b> patterns are
90: tried before the <b>-f</b> patterns.
91: </P>
92: <P>
93: By default, as soon as one pattern matches (or fails to match when <b>-v</b> is
94: used), no further patterns are considered. However, if <b>--colour</b> (or
95: <b>--color</b>) is used to colour the matching substrings, or if
96: <b>--only-matching</b>, <b>--file-offsets</b>, or <b>--line-offsets</b> is used to
97: output only the part of the line that matched (either shown literally, or as an
98: offset), scanning resumes immediately following the match, so that further
99: matches on the same line can be found. If there are multiple patterns, they are
100: all tried on the remainder of the line, but patterns that follow the one that
101: matched are not tried on the earlier part of the line.
102: </P>
103: <P>
104: This is the same behaviour as GNU grep, but it does mean that the order in
105: which multiple patterns are specified can affect the output when one of the
106: above options is used.
107: </P>
108: <P>
109: Patterns that can match an empty string are accepted, but empty string
110: matches are never recognized. An example is the pattern "(super)?(man)?", in
111: which all components are optional. This pattern finds all occurrences of both
112: "super" and "man"; the output differs from matching with "super|man" when only
113: the matching substrings are being shown.
114: </P>
115: <P>
116: If the <b>LC_ALL</b> or <b>LC_CTYPE</b> environment variable is set,
117: <b>pcregrep</b> uses the value to set a locale when calling the PCRE library.
118: The <b>--locale</b> option can be used to override this.
119: </P>
120: <br><a name="SEC3" href="#TOC1">SUPPORT FOR COMPRESSED FILES</a><br>
121: <P>
122: It is possible to compile <b>pcregrep</b> so that it uses <b>libz</b> or
123: <b>libbz2</b> to read files whose names end in <b>.gz</b> or <b>.bz2</b>,
124: respectively. You can find out whether your binary has support for one or both
125: of these file types by running it with the <b>--help</b> option. If the
126: appropriate support is not present, files are treated as plain text. The
127: standard input is always so treated.
128: </P>
1.1.1.2 ! misho 129: <br><a name="SEC4" href="#TOC1">BINARY FILES</a><br>
! 130: <P>
! 131: By default, a file that contains a binary zero byte within the first 1024 bytes
! 132: is identified as a binary file, and is processed specially. (GNU grep also
! 133: identifies binary files in this manner.) See the <b>--binary-files</b> option
! 134: for a means of changing the way binary files are handled.
! 135: </P>
! 136: <br><a name="SEC5" href="#TOC1">OPTIONS</a><br>
1.1 misho 137: <P>
138: The order in which some of the options appear can affect the output. For
139: example, both the <b>-h</b> and <b>-l</b> options affect the printing of file
140: names. Whichever comes later in the command line will be the one that takes
141: effect. Numerical values for options may be followed by K or M, to signify
142: multiplication by 1024 or 1024*1024 respectively.
143: </P>
144: <P>
145: <b>--</b>
146: This terminates the list of options. It is useful if the next item on the
147: command line starts with a hyphen but is not an option. This allows for the
148: processing of patterns and filenames that start with hyphens.
149: </P>
150: <P>
151: <b>-A</b> <i>number</i>, <b>--after-context=</b><i>number</i>
152: Output <i>number</i> lines of context after each matching line. If filenames
153: and/or line numbers are being output, a hyphen separator is used instead of a
154: colon for the context lines. A line containing "--" is output between each
155: group of lines, unless they are in fact contiguous in the input file. The value
156: of <i>number</i> is expected to be relatively small. However, <b>pcregrep</b>
157: guarantees to have up to 8K of following text available for context output.
158: </P>
159: <P>
1.1.1.2 ! misho 160: <b>-a</b>, <b>--text</b>
! 161: Treat binary files as text. This is equivalent to
! 162: <b>--binary-files</b>=<i>text</i>.
! 163: </P>
! 164: <P>
1.1 misho 165: <b>-B</b> <i>number</i>, <b>--before-context=</b><i>number</i>
166: Output <i>number</i> lines of context before each matching line. If filenames
167: and/or line numbers are being output, a hyphen separator is used instead of a
168: colon for the context lines. A line containing "--" is output between each
169: group of lines, unless they are in fact contiguous in the input file. The value
170: of <i>number</i> is expected to be relatively small. However, <b>pcregrep</b>
171: guarantees to have up to 8K of preceding text available for context output.
172: </P>
173: <P>
1.1.1.2 ! misho 174: <b>--binary-files=</b><i>word</i>
! 175: Specify how binary files are to be processed. If the word is "binary" (the
! 176: default), pattern matching is performed on binary files, but the only output is
! 177: "Binary file <name> matches" when a match succeeds. If the word is "text",
! 178: which is equivalent to the <b>-a</b> or <b>--text</b> option, binary files are
! 179: processed in the same way as any other file. In this case, when a match
! 180: succeeds, the output may be binary garbage, which can have nasty effects if
! 181: sent to a terminal. If the word is "without-match", which is equivalent to the
! 182: <b>-I</b> option, binary files are not processed at all; they are assumed not to
! 183: be of interest.
! 184: </P>
! 185: <P>
1.1 misho 186: <b>--buffer-size=</b><i>number</i>
187: Set the parameter that controls how much memory is used for buffering files
188: that are being scanned.
189: </P>
190: <P>
191: <b>-C</b> <i>number</i>, <b>--context=</b><i>number</i>
192: Output <i>number</i> lines of context both before and after each matching line.
193: This is equivalent to setting both <b>-A</b> and <b>-B</b> to the same value.
194: </P>
195: <P>
196: <b>-c</b>, <b>--count</b>
197: Do not output individual lines from the files that are being scanned; instead
198: output the number of lines that would otherwise have been shown. If no lines
199: are selected, the number zero is output. If several files are are being
200: scanned, a count is output for each of them. However, if the
201: <b>--files-with-matches</b> option is also used, only those files whose counts
202: are greater than zero are listed. When <b>-c</b> is used, the <b>-A</b>,
203: <b>-B</b>, and <b>-C</b> options are ignored.
204: </P>
205: <P>
206: <b>--colour</b>, <b>--color</b>
207: If this option is given without any data, it is equivalent to "--colour=auto".
208: If data is required, it must be given in the same shell item, separated by an
209: equals sign.
210: </P>
211: <P>
212: <b>--colour=</b><i>value</i>, <b>--color=</b><i>value</i>
213: This option specifies under what circumstances the parts of a line that matched
214: a pattern should be coloured in the output. By default, the output is not
215: coloured. The value (which is optional, see above) may be "never", "always", or
216: "auto". In the latter case, colouring happens only if the standard output is
217: connected to a terminal. More resources are used when colouring is enabled,
218: because <b>pcregrep</b> has to search for all possible matches in a line, not
219: just one, in order to colour them all.
220: <br>
221: <br>
222: The colour that is used can be specified by setting the environment variable
223: PCREGREP_COLOUR or PCREGREP_COLOR. The value of this variable should be a
224: string of two numbers, separated by a semicolon. They are copied directly into
225: the control string for setting colour on a terminal, so it is your
226: responsibility to ensure that they make sense. If neither of the environment
227: variables is set, the default is "1;31", which gives red.
228: </P>
229: <P>
230: <b>-D</b> <i>action</i>, <b>--devices=</b><i>action</i>
231: If an input path is not a regular file or a directory, "action" specifies how
232: it is to be processed. Valid values are "read" (the default) or "skip"
233: (silently skip the path).
234: </P>
235: <P>
236: <b>-d</b> <i>action</i>, <b>--directories=</b><i>action</i>
237: If an input path is a directory, "action" specifies how it is to be processed.
238: Valid values are "read" (the default), "recurse" (equivalent to the <b>-r</b>
239: option), or "skip" (silently skip the path). In the default case, directories
240: are read as if they were ordinary files. In some operating systems the effect
241: of reading a directory like this is an immediate end-of-file.
242: </P>
243: <P>
244: <b>-e</b> <i>pattern</i>, <b>--regex=</b><i>pattern</i>, <b>--regexp=</b><i>pattern</i>
245: Specify a pattern to be matched. This option can be used multiple times in
246: order to specify several patterns. It can also be used as a way of specifying a
247: single pattern that starts with a hyphen. When <b>-e</b> is used, no argument
248: pattern is taken from the command line; all arguments are treated as file
249: names. There is an overall maximum of 100 patterns. They are applied to each
250: line in the order in which they are defined until one matches (or fails to
251: match if <b>-v</b> is used). If <b>-f</b> is used with <b>-e</b>, the command line
252: patterns are matched first, followed by the patterns from the file, independent
253: of the order in which these options are specified. Note that multiple use of
254: <b>-e</b> is not the same as a single pattern with alternatives. For example,
255: X|Y finds the first character in a line that is X or Y, whereas if the two
256: patterns are given separately, <b>pcregrep</b> finds X if it is present, even if
257: it follows Y in the line. It finds Y only if there is no X in the line. This
258: really matters only if you are using <b>-o</b> to show the part(s) of the line
259: that matched.
260: </P>
261: <P>
262: <b>--exclude</b>=<i>pattern</i>
263: When <b>pcregrep</b> is searching the files in a directory as a consequence of
264: the <b>-r</b> (recursive search) option, any regular files whose names match the
265: pattern are excluded. Subdirectories are not excluded by this option; they are
266: searched recursively, subject to the <b>--exclude-dir</b> and
267: <b>--include_dir</b> options. The pattern is a PCRE regular expression, and is
268: matched against the final component of the file name (not the entire path). If
269: a file name matches both <b>--include</b> and <b>--exclude</b>, it is excluded.
270: There is no short form for this option.
271: </P>
272: <P>
273: <b>--exclude-dir</b>=<i>pattern</i>
274: When <b>pcregrep</b> is searching the contents of a directory as a consequence
275: of the <b>-r</b> (recursive search) option, any subdirectories whose names match
276: the pattern are excluded. (Note that the \fP--exclude\fP option does not affect
277: subdirectories.) The pattern is a PCRE regular expression, and is matched
278: against the final component of the name (not the entire path). If a
279: subdirectory name matches both <b>--include-dir</b> and <b>--exclude-dir</b>, it
280: is excluded. There is no short form for this option.
281: </P>
282: <P>
283: <b>-F</b>, <b>--fixed-strings</b>
284: Interpret each pattern as a list of fixed strings, separated by newlines,
285: instead of as a regular expression. The <b>-w</b> (match as a word) and <b>-x</b>
286: (match whole line) options can be used with <b>-F</b>. They apply to each of the
287: fixed strings. A line is selected if any of the fixed strings are found in it
288: (subject to <b>-w</b> or <b>-x</b>, if present).
289: </P>
290: <P>
291: <b>-f</b> <i>filename</i>, <b>--file=</b><i>filename</i>
292: Read a number of patterns from the file, one per line, and match them against
293: each line of input. A data line is output if any of the patterns match it. The
294: filename can be given as "-" to refer to the standard input. When <b>-f</b> is
295: used, patterns specified on the command line using <b>-e</b> may also be
296: present; they are tested before the file's patterns. However, no other pattern
1.1.1.2 ! misho 297: is taken from the command line; all arguments are treated as the names of paths
! 298: to be searched. There is an overall maximum of 100 patterns. Trailing white
! 299: space is removed from each line, and blank lines are ignored. An empty file
! 300: contains no patterns and therefore matches nothing. See also the comments about
! 301: multiple patterns versus a single pattern with alternatives in the description
! 302: of <b>-e</b> above.
! 303: </P>
! 304: <P>
! 305: <b>--file-list</b>=<i>filename</i>
! 306: Read a list of files to be searched from the given file, one per line. Trailing
! 307: white space is removed from each line, and blank lines are ignored. These files
! 308: are searched before any others that may be listed on the command line. The
! 309: filename can be given as "-" to refer to the standard input. If <b>--file</b>
! 310: and <b>--file-list</b> are both specified as "-", patterns are read first. This
! 311: is useful only when the standard input is a terminal, from which further lines
! 312: (the list of files) can be read after an end-of-file indication.
1.1 misho 313: </P>
314: <P>
315: <b>--file-offsets</b>
316: Instead of showing lines or parts of lines that match, show each match as an
317: offset from the start of the file and a length, separated by a comma. In this
318: mode, no context is shown. That is, the <b>-A</b>, <b>-B</b>, and <b>-C</b>
319: options are ignored. If there is more than one match in a line, each of them is
320: shown separately. This option is mutually exclusive with <b>--line-offsets</b>
321: and <b>--only-matching</b>.
322: </P>
323: <P>
324: <b>-H</b>, <b>--with-filename</b>
325: Force the inclusion of the filename at the start of output lines when searching
326: a single file. By default, the filename is not shown in this case. For matching
327: lines, the filename is followed by a colon; for context lines, a hyphen
328: separator is used. If a line number is also being output, it follows the file
329: name.
330: </P>
331: <P>
332: <b>-h</b>, <b>--no-filename</b>
333: Suppress the output filenames when searching multiple files. By default,
334: filenames are shown when multiple files are searched. For matching lines, the
335: filename is followed by a colon; for context lines, a hyphen separator is used.
336: If a line number is also being output, it follows the file name.
337: </P>
338: <P>
339: <b>--help</b>
340: Output a help message, giving brief details of the command options and file
341: type support, and then exit.
342: </P>
343: <P>
1.1.1.2 ! misho 344: <b>-I</b>
! 345: Treat binary files as never matching. This is equivalent to
! 346: <b>--binary-files</b>=<i>without-match</i>.
! 347: </P>
! 348: <P>
1.1 misho 349: <b>-i</b>, <b>--ignore-case</b>
350: Ignore upper/lower case distinctions during comparisons.
351: </P>
352: <P>
353: <b>--include</b>=<i>pattern</i>
354: When <b>pcregrep</b> is searching the files in a directory as a consequence of
355: the <b>-r</b> (recursive search) option, only those regular files whose names
356: match the pattern are included. Subdirectories are always included and searched
357: recursively, subject to the \fP--include-dir\fP and <b>--exclude-dir</b>
358: options. The pattern is a PCRE regular expression, and is matched against the
359: final component of the file name (not the entire path). If a file name matches
360: both <b>--include</b> and <b>--exclude</b>, it is excluded. There is no short
361: form for this option.
362: </P>
363: <P>
364: <b>--include-dir</b>=<i>pattern</i>
365: When <b>pcregrep</b> is searching the contents of a directory as a consequence
366: of the <b>-r</b> (recursive search) option, only those subdirectories whose
367: names match the pattern are included. (Note that the <b>--include</b> option
368: does not affect subdirectories.) The pattern is a PCRE regular expression, and
369: is matched against the final component of the name (not the entire path). If a
370: subdirectory name matches both <b>--include-dir</b> and <b>--exclude-dir</b>, it
371: is excluded. There is no short form for this option.
372: </P>
373: <P>
374: <b>-L</b>, <b>--files-without-match</b>
375: Instead of outputting lines from the files, just output the names of the files
376: that do not contain any lines that would have been output. Each file name is
377: output once, on a separate line.
378: </P>
379: <P>
380: <b>-l</b>, <b>--files-with-matches</b>
381: Instead of outputting lines from the files, just output the names of the files
382: containing lines that would have been output. Each file name is output
383: once, on a separate line. Searching normally stops as soon as a matching line
384: is found in a file. However, if the <b>-c</b> (count) option is also used,
385: matching continues in order to obtain the correct count, and those files that
386: have at least one match are listed along with their counts. Using this option
387: with <b>-c</b> is a way of suppressing the listing of files with no matches.
388: </P>
389: <P>
390: <b>--label</b>=<i>name</i>
391: This option supplies a name to be used for the standard input when file names
392: are being output. If not supplied, "(standard input)" is used. There is no
393: short form for this option.
394: </P>
395: <P>
396: <b>--line-buffered</b>
397: When this option is given, input is read and processed line by line, and the
398: output is flushed after each write. By default, input is read in large chunks,
399: unless <b>pcregrep</b> can determine that it is reading from a terminal (which
400: is currently possible only in Unix environments). Output to terminal is
401: normally automatically flushed by the operating system. This option can be
402: useful when the input or output is attached to a pipe and you do not want
403: <b>pcregrep</b> to buffer up large amounts of data. However, its use will affect
404: performance, and the <b>-M</b> (multiline) option ceases to work.
405: </P>
406: <P>
407: <b>--line-offsets</b>
408: Instead of showing lines or parts of lines that match, show each match as a
409: line number, the offset from the start of the line, and a length. The line
410: number is terminated by a colon (as usual; see the <b>-n</b> option), and the
411: offset and length are separated by a comma. In this mode, no context is shown.
412: That is, the <b>-A</b>, <b>-B</b>, and <b>-C</b> options are ignored. If there is
413: more than one match in a line, each of them is shown separately. This option is
414: mutually exclusive with <b>--file-offsets</b> and <b>--only-matching</b>.
415: </P>
416: <P>
417: <b>--locale</b>=<i>locale-name</i>
418: This option specifies a locale to be used for pattern matching. It overrides
419: the value in the <b>LC_ALL</b> or <b>LC_CTYPE</b> environment variables. If no
420: locale is specified, the PCRE library's default (usually the "C" locale) is
421: used. There is no short form for this option.
422: </P>
423: <P>
424: <b>--match-limit</b>=<i>number</i>
425: Processing some regular expression patterns can require a very large amount of
426: memory, leading in some cases to a program crash if not enough is available.
427: Other patterns may take a very long time to search for all possible matching
428: strings. The <b>pcre_exec()</b> function that is called by <b>pcregrep</b> to do
429: the matching has two parameters that can limit the resources that it uses.
430: <br>
431: <br>
432: The <b>--match-limit</b> option provides a means of limiting resource usage
433: when processing patterns that are not going to match, but which have a very
434: large number of possibilities in their search trees. The classic example is a
435: pattern that uses nested unlimited repeats. Internally, PCRE uses a function
436: called <b>match()</b> which it calls repeatedly (sometimes recursively). The
437: limit set by <b>--match-limit</b> is imposed on the number of times this
438: function is called during a match, which has the effect of limiting the amount
439: of backtracking that can take place.
440: <br>
441: <br>
442: The <b>--recursion-limit</b> option is similar to <b>--match-limit</b>, but
443: instead of limiting the total number of times that <b>match()</b> is called, it
444: limits the depth of recursive calls, which in turn limits the amount of memory
445: that can be used. The recursion depth is a smaller number than the total number
446: of calls, because not all calls to <b>match()</b> are recursive. This limit is
447: of use only if it is set smaller than <b>--match-limit</b>.
448: <br>
449: <br>
450: There are no short forms for these options. The default settings are specified
451: when the PCRE library is compiled, with the default default being 10 million.
452: </P>
453: <P>
454: <b>-M</b>, <b>--multiline</b>
455: Allow patterns to match more than one line. When this option is given, patterns
456: may usefully contain literal newline characters and internal occurrences of ^
457: and $ characters. The output for a successful match may consist of more than
458: one line, the last of which is the one in which the match ended. If the matched
459: string ends with a newline sequence the output ends at the end of that line.
460: <br>
461: <br>
462: When this option is set, the PCRE library is called in "multiline" mode.
463: There is a limit to the number of lines that can be matched, imposed by the way
464: that <b>pcregrep</b> buffers the input file as it scans it. However,
465: <b>pcregrep</b> ensures that at least 8K characters or the rest of the document
466: (whichever is the shorter) are available for forward matching, and similarly
467: the previous 8K characters (or all the previous characters, if fewer than 8K)
468: are guaranteed to be available for lookbehind assertions. This option does not
469: work when input is read line by line (see \fP--line-buffered\fP.)
470: </P>
471: <P>
472: <b>-N</b> <i>newline-type</i>, <b>--newline</b>=<i>newline-type</i>
473: The PCRE library supports five different conventions for indicating
474: the ends of lines. They are the single-character sequences CR (carriage return)
475: and LF (linefeed), the two-character sequence CRLF, an "anycrlf" convention,
476: which recognizes any of the preceding three types, and an "any" convention, in
477: which any Unicode line ending sequence is assumed to end a line. The Unicode
478: sequences are the three just mentioned, plus VT (vertical tab, U+000B), FF
479: (form feed, U+000C), NEL (next line, U+0085), LS (line separator, U+2028), and
480: PS (paragraph separator, U+2029).
481: <br>
482: <br>
483: When the PCRE library is built, a default line-ending sequence is specified.
484: This is normally the standard sequence for the operating system. Unless
485: otherwise specified by this option, <b>pcregrep</b> uses the library's default.
486: The possible values for this option are CR, LF, CRLF, ANYCRLF, or ANY. This
487: makes it possible to use <b>pcregrep</b> on files that have come from other
488: environments without having to modify their line endings. If the data that is
489: being scanned does not agree with the convention set by this option,
490: <b>pcregrep</b> may behave in strange ways.
491: </P>
492: <P>
493: <b>-n</b>, <b>--line-number</b>
494: Precede each output line by its line number in the file, followed by a colon
495: for matching lines or a hyphen for context lines. If the filename is also being
496: output, it precedes the line number. This option is forced if
497: <b>--line-offsets</b> is used.
498: </P>
499: <P>
500: <b>--no-jit</b>
501: If the PCRE library is built with support for just-in-time compiling (which
502: speeds up matching), <b>pcregrep</b> automatically makes use of this, unless it
503: was explicitly disabled at build time. This option can be used to disable the
504: use of JIT at run time. It is provided for testing and working round problems.
505: It should never be needed in normal use.
506: </P>
507: <P>
508: <b>-o</b>, <b>--only-matching</b>
509: Show only the part of the line that matched a pattern instead of the whole
510: line. In this mode, no context is shown. That is, the <b>-A</b>, <b>-B</b>, and
511: <b>-C</b> options are ignored. If there is more than one match in a line, each
512: of them is shown separately. If <b>-o</b> is combined with <b>-v</b> (invert the
513: sense of the match to find non-matching lines), no output is generated, but the
514: return code is set appropriately. If the matched portion of the line is empty,
515: nothing is output unless the file name or line number are being printed, in
516: which case they are shown on an otherwise empty line. This option is mutually
517: exclusive with <b>--file-offsets</b> and <b>--line-offsets</b>.
518: </P>
519: <P>
520: <b>-o</b><i>number</i>, <b>--only-matching</b>=<i>number</i>
521: Show only the part of the line that matched the capturing parentheses of the
522: given number. Up to 32 capturing parentheses are supported. Because these
523: options can be given without an argument (see above), if an argument is
524: present, it must be given in the same shell item, for example, -o3 or
525: --only-matching=2. The comments given for the non-argument case above also
526: apply to this case. If the specified capturing parentheses do not exist in the
527: pattern, or were not set in the match, nothing is output unless the file name
528: or line number are being printed.
529: </P>
530: <P>
531: <b>-q</b>, <b>--quiet</b>
532: Work quietly, that is, display nothing except error messages. The exit
533: status indicates whether or not any matches were found.
534: </P>
535: <P>
536: <b>-r</b>, <b>--recursive</b>
537: If any given path is a directory, recursively scan the files it contains,
538: taking note of any <b>--include</b> and <b>--exclude</b> settings. By default, a
539: directory is read as a normal file; in some operating systems this gives an
540: immediate end-of-file. This option is a shorthand for setting the <b>-d</b>
541: option to "recurse".
542: </P>
543: <P>
544: <b>--recursion-limit</b>=<i>number</i>
545: See <b>--match-limit</b> above.
546: </P>
547: <P>
548: <b>-s</b>, <b>--no-messages</b>
549: Suppress error messages about non-existent or unreadable files. Such files are
550: quietly skipped. However, the return code is still 2, even if matches were
551: found in other files.
552: </P>
553: <P>
554: <b>-u</b>, <b>--utf-8</b>
555: Operate in UTF-8 mode. This option is available only if PCRE has been compiled
556: with UTF-8 support. Both patterns and subject lines must be valid strings of
557: UTF-8 characters.
558: </P>
559: <P>
560: <b>-V</b>, <b>--version</b>
561: Write the version numbers of <b>pcregrep</b> and the PCRE library that is being
562: used to the standard error stream.
563: </P>
564: <P>
565: <b>-v</b>, <b>--invert-match</b>
566: Invert the sense of the match, so that lines which do <i>not</i> match any of
567: the patterns are the ones that are found.
568: </P>
569: <P>
570: <b>-w</b>, <b>--word-regex</b>, <b>--word-regexp</b>
571: Force the patterns to match only whole words. This is equivalent to having \b
572: at the start and end of the pattern.
573: </P>
574: <P>
575: <b>-x</b>, <b>--line-regex</b>, <b>--line-regexp</b>
576: Force the patterns to be anchored (each must start matching at the beginning of
577: a line) and in addition, require them to match entire lines. This is
578: equivalent to having ^ and $ characters at the start and end of each
579: alternative branch in every pattern.
580: </P>
1.1.1.2 ! misho 581: <br><a name="SEC6" href="#TOC1">ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES</a><br>
1.1 misho 582: <P>
583: The environment variables <b>LC_ALL</b> and <b>LC_CTYPE</b> are examined, in that
584: order, for a locale. The first one that is set is used. This can be overridden
585: by the <b>--locale</b> option. If no locale is set, the PCRE library's default
586: (usually the "C" locale) is used.
587: </P>
1.1.1.2 ! misho 588: <br><a name="SEC7" href="#TOC1">NEWLINES</a><br>
1.1 misho 589: <P>
590: The <b>-N</b> (<b>--newline</b>) option allows <b>pcregrep</b> to scan files with
591: different newline conventions from the default. However, the setting of this
592: option does not affect the way in which <b>pcregrep</b> writes information to
593: the standard error and output streams. It uses the string "\n" in C
594: <b>printf()</b> calls to indicate newlines, relying on the C I/O library to
595: convert this to an appropriate sequence if the output is sent to a file.
596: </P>
1.1.1.2 ! misho 597: <br><a name="SEC8" href="#TOC1">OPTIONS COMPATIBILITY</a><br>
1.1 misho 598: <P>
599: Many of the short and long forms of <b>pcregrep</b>'s options are the same
1.1.1.2 ! misho 600: as in the GNU <b>grep</b> program. Any long option of the form
1.1 misho 601: <b>--xxx-regexp</b> (GNU terminology) is also available as <b>--xxx-regex</b>
1.1.1.2 ! misho 602: (PCRE terminology). However, the <b>--file-list</b>, <b>--file-offsets</b>,
! 603: <b>--include-dir</b>, <b>--line-offsets</b>, <b>--locale</b>, <b>--match-limit</b>,
! 604: <b>-M</b>, <b>--multiline</b>, <b>-N</b>, <b>--newline</b>,
! 605: <b>--recursion-limit</b>, <b>-u</b>, and <b>--utf-8</b> options are specific to
! 606: <b>pcregrep</b>, as is the use of the <b>--only-matching</b> option with a
! 607: capturing parentheses number.
1.1 misho 608: </P>
609: <P>
610: Although most of the common options work the same way, a few are different in
611: <b>pcregrep</b>. For example, the <b>--include</b> option's argument is a glob
612: for GNU <b>grep</b>, but a regular expression for <b>pcregrep</b>. If both the
613: <b>-c</b> and <b>-l</b> options are given, GNU grep lists only file names,
614: without counts, but <b>pcregrep</b> gives the counts.
615: </P>
1.1.1.2 ! misho 616: <br><a name="SEC9" href="#TOC1">OPTIONS WITH DATA</a><br>
1.1 misho 617: <P>
618: There are four different ways in which an option with data can be specified.
619: If a short form option is used, the data may follow immediately, or (with one
620: exception) in the next command line item. For example:
621: <pre>
622: -f/some/file
623: -f /some/file
624: </pre>
625: The exception is the <b>-o</b> option, which may appear with or without data.
626: Because of this, if data is present, it must follow immediately in the same
627: item, for example -o3.
628: </P>
629: <P>
630: If a long form option is used, the data may appear in the same command line
631: item, separated by an equals character, or (with two exceptions) it may appear
632: in the next command line item. For example:
633: <pre>
634: --file=/some/file
635: --file /some/file
636: </pre>
637: Note, however, that if you want to supply a file name beginning with ~ as data
638: in a shell command, and have the shell expand ~ to a home directory, you must
639: separate the file name from the option, because the shell does not treat ~
640: specially unless it is at the start of an item.
641: </P>
642: <P>
643: The exceptions to the above are the <b>--colour</b> (or <b>--color</b>) and
644: <b>--only-matching</b> options, for which the data is optional. If one of these
645: options does have data, it must be given in the first form, using an equals
646: character. Otherwise <b>pcregrep</b> will assume that it has no data.
647: </P>
1.1.1.2 ! misho 648: <br><a name="SEC10" href="#TOC1">MATCHING ERRORS</a><br>
1.1 misho 649: <P>
650: It is possible to supply a regular expression that takes a very long time to
651: fail to match certain lines. Such patterns normally involve nested indefinite
652: repeats, for example: (a+)*\d when matched against a line of a's with no final
653: digit. The PCRE matching function has a resource limit that causes it to abort
654: in these circumstances. If this happens, <b>pcregrep</b> outputs an error
655: message and the line that caused the problem to the standard error stream. If
656: there are more than 20 such errors, <b>pcregrep</b> gives up.
657: </P>
658: <P>
659: The <b>--match-limit</b> option of <b>pcregrep</b> can be used to set the overall
660: resource limit; there is a second option called <b>--recursion-limit</b> that
661: sets a limit on the amount of memory (usually stack) that is used (see the
662: discussion of these options above).
663: </P>
1.1.1.2 ! misho 664: <br><a name="SEC11" href="#TOC1">DIAGNOSTICS</a><br>
1.1 misho 665: <P>
666: Exit status is 0 if any matches were found, 1 if no matches were found, and 2
667: for syntax errors, overlong lines, non-existent or inaccessible files (even if
668: matches were found in other files) or too many matching errors. Using the
669: <b>-s</b> option to suppress error messages about inaccessible files does not
670: affect the return code.
671: </P>
1.1.1.2 ! misho 672: <br><a name="SEC12" href="#TOC1">SEE ALSO</a><br>
1.1 misho 673: <P>
674: <b>pcrepattern</b>(3), <b>pcretest</b>(1).
675: </P>
1.1.1.2 ! misho 676: <br><a name="SEC13" href="#TOC1">AUTHOR</a><br>
1.1 misho 677: <P>
678: Philip Hazel
679: <br>
680: University Computing Service
681: <br>
682: Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
683: <br>
684: </P>
1.1.1.2 ! misho 685: <br><a name="SEC14" href="#TOC1">REVISION</a><br>
1.1 misho 686: <P>
1.1.1.2 ! misho 687: Last updated: 04 March 2012
1.1 misho 688: <br>
1.1.1.2 ! misho 689: Copyright © 1997-2012 University of Cambridge.
1.1 misho 690: <br>
691: <p>
692: Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
693: </p>
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