Annotation of embedaddon/pcre/doc/html/pcretest.html, revision 1.1.1.3
1.1 misho 1: <html>
2: <head>
3: <title>pcretest specification</title>
4: </head>
5: <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#00005A" link="#0066FF" alink="#3399FF" vlink="#2222BB">
6: <h1>pcretest 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>
1.1.1.2 misho 17: <li><a name="TOC2" href="#SEC2">PCRE's 8-BIT and 16-BIT LIBRARIES</a>
18: <li><a name="TOC3" href="#SEC3">COMMAND LINE OPTIONS</a>
19: <li><a name="TOC4" href="#SEC4">DESCRIPTION</a>
20: <li><a name="TOC5" href="#SEC5">PATTERN MODIFIERS</a>
21: <li><a name="TOC6" href="#SEC6">DATA LINES</a>
22: <li><a name="TOC7" href="#SEC7">THE ALTERNATIVE MATCHING FUNCTION</a>
23: <li><a name="TOC8" href="#SEC8">DEFAULT OUTPUT FROM PCRETEST</a>
24: <li><a name="TOC9" href="#SEC9">OUTPUT FROM THE ALTERNATIVE MATCHING FUNCTION</a>
25: <li><a name="TOC10" href="#SEC10">RESTARTING AFTER A PARTIAL MATCH</a>
26: <li><a name="TOC11" href="#SEC11">CALLOUTS</a>
27: <li><a name="TOC12" href="#SEC12">NON-PRINTING CHARACTERS</a>
28: <li><a name="TOC13" href="#SEC13">SAVING AND RELOADING COMPILED PATTERNS</a>
29: <li><a name="TOC14" href="#SEC14">SEE ALSO</a>
30: <li><a name="TOC15" href="#SEC15">AUTHOR</a>
31: <li><a name="TOC16" href="#SEC16">REVISION</a>
1.1 misho 32: </ul>
33: <br><a name="SEC1" href="#TOC1">SYNOPSIS</a><br>
34: <P>
35: <b>pcretest [options] [input file [output file]]</b>
36: <br>
37: <br>
38: <b>pcretest</b> was written as a test program for the PCRE regular expression
39: library itself, but it can also be used for experimenting with regular
40: expressions. This document describes the features of the test program; for
41: details of the regular expressions themselves, see the
42: <a href="pcrepattern.html"><b>pcrepattern</b></a>
43: documentation. For details of the PCRE library function calls and their
44: options, see the
45: <a href="pcreapi.html"><b>pcreapi</b></a>
1.1.1.2 misho 46: and
47: <a href="pcre16.html"><b>pcre16</b></a>
1.1 misho 48: documentation. The input for <b>pcretest</b> is a sequence of regular expression
49: patterns and strings to be matched, as described below. The output shows the
50: result of each match. Options on the command line and the patterns control PCRE
51: options and exactly what is output.
52: </P>
1.1.1.2 misho 53: <br><a name="SEC2" href="#TOC1">PCRE's 8-BIT and 16-BIT LIBRARIES</a><br>
54: <P>
55: From release 8.30, two separate PCRE libraries can be built. The original one
56: supports 8-bit character strings, whereas the newer 16-bit library supports
57: character strings encoded in 16-bit units. The <b>pcretest</b> program can be
58: used to test both libraries. However, it is itself still an 8-bit program,
59: reading 8-bit input and writing 8-bit output. When testing the 16-bit library,
60: the patterns and data strings are converted to 16-bit format before being
61: passed to the PCRE library functions. Results are converted to 8-bit for
62: output.
63: </P>
64: <P>
65: References to functions and structures of the form <b>pcre[16]_xx</b> below
66: mean "<b>pcre_xx</b> when using the 8-bit library or <b>pcre16_xx</b> when using
67: the 16-bit library".
68: </P>
69: <br><a name="SEC3" href="#TOC1">COMMAND LINE OPTIONS</a><br>
70: <P>
71: <b>-16</b>
72: If both the 8-bit and the 16-bit libraries have been built, this option causes
73: the 16-bit library to be used. If only the 16-bit library has been built, this
74: is the default (so has no effect). If only the 8-bit library has been built,
75: this option causes an error.
76: </P>
1.1 misho 77: <P>
78: <b>-b</b>
79: Behave as if each pattern has the <b>/B</b> (show byte code) modifier; the
80: internal form is output after compilation.
81: </P>
82: <P>
83: <b>-C</b>
84: Output the version number of the PCRE library, and all available information
1.1.1.2 misho 85: about the optional features that are included, and then exit. All other options
86: are ignored.
87: </P>
88: <P>
89: <b>-C</b> <i>option</i>
90: Output information about a specific build-time option, then exit. This
91: functionality is intended for use in scripts such as <b>RunTest</b>. The
92: following options output the value indicated:
93: <pre>
94: linksize the internal link size (2, 3, or 4)
95: newline the default newline setting:
96: CR, LF, CRLF, ANYCRLF, or ANY
97: </pre>
98: The following options output 1 for true or zero for false:
99: <pre>
100: jit just-in-time support is available
101: pcre16 the 16-bit library was built
102: pcre8 the 8-bit library was built
103: ucp Unicode property support is available
104: utf UTF-8 and/or UTF-16 support is available
105: </PRE>
1.1 misho 106: </P>
107: <P>
108: <b>-d</b>
109: Behave as if each pattern has the <b>/D</b> (debug) modifier; the internal
110: form and information about the compiled pattern is output after compilation;
111: <b>-d</b> is equivalent to <b>-b -i</b>.
112: </P>
113: <P>
114: <b>-dfa</b>
115: Behave as if each data line contains the \D escape sequence; this causes the
1.1.1.2 misho 116: alternative matching function, <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>, to be used instead of
117: the standard <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> function (more detail is given below).
1.1 misho 118: </P>
119: <P>
120: <b>-help</b>
121: Output a brief summary these options and then exit.
122: </P>
123: <P>
124: <b>-i</b>
125: Behave as if each pattern has the <b>/I</b> modifier; information about the
126: compiled pattern is given after compilation.
127: </P>
128: <P>
129: <b>-M</b>
130: Behave as if each data line contains the \M escape sequence; this causes
131: PCRE to discover the minimum MATCH_LIMIT and MATCH_LIMIT_RECURSION settings by
1.1.1.2 misho 132: calling <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> repeatedly with different limits.
1.1 misho 133: </P>
134: <P>
135: <b>-m</b>
136: Output the size of each compiled pattern after it has been compiled. This is
1.1.1.2 misho 137: equivalent to adding <b>/M</b> to each regular expression. The size is given in
138: bytes for both libraries.
1.1 misho 139: </P>
140: <P>
141: <b>-o</b> <i>osize</i>
142: Set the number of elements in the output vector that is used when calling
1.1.1.2 misho 143: <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b> to be <i>osize</i>. The
144: default value is 45, which is enough for 14 capturing subexpressions for
145: <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> or 22 different matches for <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>.
146: The vector size can be changed for individual matching calls by including \O
147: in the data line (see below).
1.1 misho 148: </P>
149: <P>
150: <b>-p</b>
151: Behave as if each pattern has the <b>/P</b> modifier; the POSIX wrapper API is
152: used to call PCRE. None of the other options has any effect when <b>-p</b> is
1.1.1.2 misho 153: set. This option can be used only with the 8-bit library.
1.1 misho 154: </P>
155: <P>
156: <b>-q</b>
157: Do not output the version number of <b>pcretest</b> at the start of execution.
158: </P>
159: <P>
160: <b>-S</b> <i>size</i>
161: On Unix-like systems, set the size of the run-time stack to <i>size</i>
162: megabytes.
163: </P>
164: <P>
165: <b>-s</b> or <b>-s+</b>
166: Behave as if each pattern has the <b>/S</b> modifier; in other words, force each
1.1.1.3 ! misho 167: pattern to be studied. If <b>-s+</b> is used, all the JIT compile options are
1.1.1.2 misho 168: passed to <b>pcre[16]_study()</b>, causing just-in-time optimization to be set
1.1.1.3 ! misho 169: up if it is available, for both full and partial matching. Specific JIT compile
! 170: options can be selected by following <b>-s+</b> with a digit in the range 1 to
! 171: 7, which selects the JIT compile modes as follows:
! 172: <pre>
! 173: 1 normal match only
! 174: 2 soft partial match only
! 175: 3 normal match and soft partial match
! 176: 4 hard partial match only
! 177: 6 soft and hard partial match
! 178: 7 all three modes (default)
! 179: </pre>
! 180: If <b>-s++</b> is used instead of <b>-s+</b> (with or without a following digit),
! 181: the text "(JIT)" is added to the first output line after a match or no match
! 182: when JIT-compiled code was actually used.
! 183: </P>
! 184: <P>
! 185: If the <b>/I</b> or <b>/D</b> option is present on a pattern (requesting output
! 186: about the compiled pattern), information about the result of studying is not
! 187: included when studying is caused only by <b>-s</b> and neither <b>-i</b> nor
! 188: <b>-d</b> is present on the command line. This behaviour means that the output
! 189: from tests that are run with and without <b>-s</b> should be identical, except
! 190: when options that output information about the actual running of a match are
! 191: set.
1.1.1.2 misho 192: <br>
193: <br>
194: The <b>-M</b>, <b>-t</b>, and <b>-tm</b> options, which give information about
195: resources used, are likely to produce different output with and without
196: <b>-s</b>. Output may also differ if the <b>/C</b> option is present on an
197: individual pattern. This uses callouts to trace the the matching process, and
198: this may be different between studied and non-studied patterns. If the pattern
199: contains (*MARK) items there may also be differences, for the same reason. The
200: <b>-s</b> command line option can be overridden for specific patterns that
201: should never be studied (see the <b>/S</b> pattern modifier below).
1.1 misho 202: </P>
203: <P>
204: <b>-t</b>
205: Run each compile, study, and match many times with a timer, and output
206: resulting time per compile or match (in milliseconds). Do not set <b>-m</b> with
207: <b>-t</b>, because you will then get the size output a zillion times, and the
208: timing will be distorted. You can control the number of iterations that are
209: used for timing by following <b>-t</b> with a number (as a separate item on the
210: command line). For example, "-t 1000" would iterate 1000 times. The default is
211: to iterate 500000 times.
212: </P>
213: <P>
214: <b>-tm</b>
215: This is like <b>-t</b> except that it times only the matching phase, not the
216: compile or study phases.
217: </P>
1.1.1.2 misho 218: <br><a name="SEC4" href="#TOC1">DESCRIPTION</a><br>
1.1 misho 219: <P>
220: If <b>pcretest</b> is given two filename arguments, it reads from the first and
221: writes to the second. If it is given only one filename argument, it reads from
222: that file and writes to stdout. Otherwise, it reads from stdin and writes to
223: stdout, and prompts for each line of input, using "re>" to prompt for regular
224: expressions, and "data>" to prompt for data lines.
225: </P>
226: <P>
227: When <b>pcretest</b> is built, a configuration option can specify that it should
228: be linked with the <b>libreadline</b> library. When this is done, if the input
229: is from a terminal, it is read using the <b>readline()</b> function. This
230: provides line-editing and history facilities. The output from the <b>-help</b>
231: option states whether or not <b>readline()</b> will be used.
232: </P>
233: <P>
234: The program handles any number of sets of input on a single input file. Each
235: set starts with a regular expression, and continues with any number of data
236: lines to be matched against the pattern.
237: </P>
238: <P>
239: Each data line is matched separately and independently. If you want to do
240: multi-line matches, you have to use the \n escape sequence (or \r or \r\n,
241: etc., depending on the newline setting) in a single line of input to encode the
242: newline sequences. There is no limit on the length of data lines; the input
243: buffer is automatically extended if it is too small.
244: </P>
245: <P>
246: An empty line signals the end of the data lines, at which point a new regular
247: expression is read. The regular expressions are given enclosed in any
248: non-alphanumeric delimiters other than backslash, for example:
249: <pre>
250: /(a|bc)x+yz/
251: </pre>
252: White space before the initial delimiter is ignored. A regular expression may
253: be continued over several input lines, in which case the newline characters are
254: included within it. It is possible to include the delimiter within the pattern
255: by escaping it, for example
256: <pre>
257: /abc\/def/
258: </pre>
259: If you do so, the escape and the delimiter form part of the pattern, but since
260: delimiters are always non-alphanumeric, this does not affect its interpretation.
261: If the terminating delimiter is immediately followed by a backslash, for
262: example,
263: <pre>
264: /abc/\
265: </pre>
266: then a backslash is added to the end of the pattern. This is done to provide a
267: way of testing the error condition that arises if a pattern finishes with a
268: backslash, because
269: <pre>
270: /abc\/
271: </pre>
272: is interpreted as the first line of a pattern that starts with "abc/", causing
273: pcretest to read the next line as a continuation of the regular expression.
274: </P>
1.1.1.2 misho 275: <br><a name="SEC5" href="#TOC1">PATTERN MODIFIERS</a><br>
1.1 misho 276: <P>
277: A pattern may be followed by any number of modifiers, which are mostly single
278: characters. Following Perl usage, these are referred to below as, for example,
279: "the <b>/i</b> modifier", even though the delimiter of the pattern need not
280: always be a slash, and no slash is used when writing modifiers. White space may
281: appear between the final pattern delimiter and the first modifier, and between
282: the modifiers themselves.
283: </P>
284: <P>
285: The <b>/i</b>, <b>/m</b>, <b>/s</b>, and <b>/x</b> modifiers set the PCRE_CASELESS,
286: PCRE_MULTILINE, PCRE_DOTALL, or PCRE_EXTENDED options, respectively, when
1.1.1.2 misho 287: <b>pcre[16]_compile()</b> is called. These four modifier letters have the same
1.1 misho 288: effect as they do in Perl. For example:
289: <pre>
290: /caseless/i
291: </pre>
292: The following table shows additional modifiers for setting PCRE compile-time
293: options that do not correspond to anything in Perl:
294: <pre>
1.1.1.2 misho 295: <b>/8</b> PCRE_UTF8 ) when using the 8-bit
296: <b>/?</b> PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK ) library
297:
298: <b>/8</b> PCRE_UTF16 ) when using the 16-bit
299: <b>/?</b> PCRE_NO_UTF16_CHECK ) library
300:
1.1 misho 301: <b>/A</b> PCRE_ANCHORED
302: <b>/C</b> PCRE_AUTO_CALLOUT
303: <b>/E</b> PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY
304: <b>/f</b> PCRE_FIRSTLINE
305: <b>/J</b> PCRE_DUPNAMES
306: <b>/N</b> PCRE_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE
307: <b>/U</b> PCRE_UNGREEDY
308: <b>/W</b> PCRE_UCP
309: <b>/X</b> PCRE_EXTRA
310: <b>/Y</b> PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE
311: <b>/<JS></b> PCRE_JAVASCRIPT_COMPAT
312: <b>/<cr></b> PCRE_NEWLINE_CR
313: <b>/<lf></b> PCRE_NEWLINE_LF
314: <b>/<crlf></b> PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF
315: <b>/<anycrlf></b> PCRE_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF
316: <b>/<any></b> PCRE_NEWLINE_ANY
317: <b>/<bsr_anycrlf></b> PCRE_BSR_ANYCRLF
318: <b>/<bsr_unicode></b> PCRE_BSR_UNICODE
319: </pre>
320: The modifiers that are enclosed in angle brackets are literal strings as shown,
321: including the angle brackets, but the letters within can be in either case.
322: This example sets multiline matching with CRLF as the line ending sequence:
323: <pre>
324: /^abc/m<CRLF>
325: </pre>
1.1.1.2 misho 326: As well as turning on the PCRE_UTF8/16 option, the <b>/8</b> modifier causes
327: all non-printing characters in output strings to be printed using the
328: \x{hh...} notation. Otherwise, those less than 0x100 are output in hex without
329: the curly brackets.
330: </P>
331: <P>
332: Full details of the PCRE options are given in the
1.1 misho 333: <a href="pcreapi.html"><b>pcreapi</b></a>
334: documentation.
335: </P>
336: <br><b>
337: Finding all matches in a string
338: </b><br>
339: <P>
340: Searching for all possible matches within each subject string can be requested
341: by the <b>/g</b> or <b>/G</b> modifier. After finding a match, PCRE is called
342: again to search the remainder of the subject string. The difference between
343: <b>/g</b> and <b>/G</b> is that the former uses the <i>startoffset</i> argument to
1.1.1.2 misho 344: <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> to start searching at a new point within the entire
345: string (which is in effect what Perl does), whereas the latter passes over a
346: shortened substring. This makes a difference to the matching process if the
347: pattern begins with a lookbehind assertion (including \b or \B).
1.1 misho 348: </P>
349: <P>
1.1.1.2 misho 350: If any call to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> in a <b>/g</b> or <b>/G</b> sequence matches
351: an empty string, the next call is done with the PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART and
1.1 misho 352: PCRE_ANCHORED flags set in order to search for another, non-empty, match at the
353: same point. If this second match fails, the start offset is advanced, and the
354: normal match is retried. This imitates the way Perl handles such cases when
355: using the <b>/g</b> modifier or the <b>split()</b> function. Normally, the start
356: offset is advanced by one character, but if the newline convention recognizes
357: CRLF as a newline, and the current character is CR followed by LF, an advance
358: of two is used.
359: </P>
360: <br><b>
361: Other modifiers
362: </b><br>
363: <P>
364: There are yet more modifiers for controlling the way <b>pcretest</b>
365: operates.
366: </P>
367: <P>
368: The <b>/+</b> modifier requests that as well as outputting the substring that
369: matched the entire pattern, <b>pcretest</b> should in addition output the
370: remainder of the subject string. This is useful for tests where the subject
371: contains multiple copies of the same substring. If the <b>+</b> modifier appears
372: twice, the same action is taken for captured substrings. In each case the
373: remainder is output on the following line with a plus character following the
374: capture number. Note that this modifier must not immediately follow the /S
1.1.1.3 ! misho 375: modifier because /S+ and /S++ have other meanings.
1.1 misho 376: </P>
377: <P>
378: The <b>/=</b> modifier requests that the values of all potential captured
1.1.1.2 misho 379: parentheses be output after a match. By default, only those up to the highest
380: one actually used in the match are output (corresponding to the return code
381: from <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b>). Values in the offsets vector corresponding to
382: higher numbers should be set to -1, and these are output as "<unset>". This
383: modifier gives a way of checking that this is happening.
1.1 misho 384: </P>
385: <P>
386: The <b>/B</b> modifier is a debugging feature. It requests that <b>pcretest</b>
1.1.1.2 misho 387: output a representation of the compiled code after compilation. Normally this
388: information contains length and offset values; however, if <b>/Z</b> is also
389: present, this data is replaced by spaces. This is a special feature for use in
390: the automatic test scripts; it ensures that the same output is generated for
391: different internal link sizes.
1.1 misho 392: </P>
393: <P>
394: The <b>/D</b> modifier is a PCRE debugging feature, and is equivalent to
395: <b>/BI</b>, that is, both the <b>/B</b> and the <b>/I</b> modifiers.
396: </P>
397: <P>
398: The <b>/F</b> modifier causes <b>pcretest</b> to flip the byte order of the
1.1.1.2 misho 399: 2-byte and 4-byte fields in the compiled pattern. This facility is for testing
400: the feature in PCRE that allows it to execute patterns that were compiled on a
401: host with a different endianness. This feature is not available when the POSIX
402: interface to PCRE is being used, that is, when the <b>/P</b> pattern modifier is
403: specified. See also the section about saving and reloading compiled patterns
404: below.
1.1 misho 405: </P>
406: <P>
407: The <b>/I</b> modifier requests that <b>pcretest</b> output information about the
408: compiled pattern (whether it is anchored, has a fixed first character, and
1.1.1.2 misho 409: so on). It does this by calling <b>pcre[16]_fullinfo()</b> after compiling a
1.1 misho 410: pattern. If the pattern is studied, the results of that are also output.
411: </P>
412: <P>
413: The <b>/K</b> modifier requests <b>pcretest</b> to show names from backtracking
1.1.1.2 misho 414: control verbs that are returned from calls to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b>. It causes
415: <b>pcretest</b> to create a <b>pcre[16]_extra</b> block if one has not already
416: been created by a call to <b>pcre[16]_study()</b>, and to set the
417: PCRE_EXTRA_MARK flag and the <b>mark</b> field within it, every time that
418: <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> is called. If the variable that the <b>mark</b> field
419: points to is non-NULL for a match, non-match, or partial match, <b>pcretest</b>
420: prints the string to which it points. For a match, this is shown on a line by
421: itself, tagged with "MK:". For a non-match it is added to the message.
1.1 misho 422: </P>
423: <P>
424: The <b>/L</b> modifier must be followed directly by the name of a locale, for
425: example,
426: <pre>
427: /pattern/Lfr_FR
428: </pre>
429: For this reason, it must be the last modifier. The given locale is set,
1.1.1.2 misho 430: <b>pcre[16]_maketables()</b> is called to build a set of character tables for
431: the locale, and this is then passed to <b>pcre[16]_compile()</b> when compiling
432: the regular expression. Without an <b>/L</b> (or <b>/T</b>) modifier, NULL is
433: passed as the tables pointer; that is, <b>/L</b> applies only to the expression
434: on which it appears.
1.1 misho 435: </P>
436: <P>
1.1.1.2 misho 437: The <b>/M</b> modifier causes the size in bytes of the memory block used to hold
438: the compiled pattern to be output. This does not include the size of the
439: <b>pcre[16]</b> block; it is just the actual compiled data. If the pattern is
440: successfully studied with the PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE option, the size of the
441: JIT compiled code is also output.
1.1 misho 442: </P>
443: <P>
1.1.1.2 misho 444: If the <b>/S</b> modifier appears once, it causes <b>pcre[16]_study()</b> to be
1.1 misho 445: called after the expression has been compiled, and the results used when the
446: expression is matched. If <b>/S</b> appears twice, it suppresses studying, even
447: if it was requested externally by the <b>-s</b> command line option. This makes
448: it possible to specify that certain patterns are always studied, and others are
449: never studied, independently of <b>-s</b>. This feature is used in the test
450: files in a few cases where the output is different when the pattern is studied.
451: </P>
452: <P>
453: If the <b>/S</b> modifier is immediately followed by a + character, the call to
1.1.1.3 ! misho 454: <b>pcre[16]_study()</b> is made with all the JIT study options, requesting
! 455: just-in-time optimization support if it is available, for both normal and
! 456: partial matching. If you want to restrict the JIT compiling modes, you can
! 457: follow <b>/S+</b> with a digit in the range 1 to 7:
! 458: <pre>
! 459: 1 normal match only
! 460: 2 soft partial match only
! 461: 3 normal match and soft partial match
! 462: 4 hard partial match only
! 463: 6 soft and hard partial match
! 464: 7 all three modes (default)
! 465: </pre>
! 466: If <b>/S++</b> is used instead of <b>/S+</b> (with or without a following digit),
! 467: the text "(JIT)" is added to the first output line after a match or no match
! 468: when JIT-compiled code was actually used.
! 469: </P>
! 470: <P>
! 471: Note that there is also an independent <b>/+</b> modifier; it must not be given
! 472: immediately after <b>/S</b> or <b>/S+</b> because this will be misinterpreted.
! 473: </P>
! 474: <P>
! 475: If JIT studying is successful, the compiled JIT code will automatically be used
! 476: when <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> is run, except when incompatible run-time options
! 477: are specified. For more details, see the
1.1 misho 478: <a href="pcrejit.html"><b>pcrejit</b></a>
479: documentation. See also the <b>\J</b> escape sequence below for a way of
480: setting the size of the JIT stack.
481: </P>
482: <P>
483: The <b>/T</b> modifier must be followed by a single digit. It causes a specific
1.1.1.2 misho 484: set of built-in character tables to be passed to <b>pcre[16]_compile()</b>. It
485: is used in the standard PCRE tests to check behaviour with different character
1.1 misho 486: tables. The digit specifies the tables as follows:
487: <pre>
488: 0 the default ASCII tables, as distributed in
489: pcre_chartables.c.dist
490: 1 a set of tables defining ISO 8859 characters
491: </pre>
492: In table 1, some characters whose codes are greater than 128 are identified as
493: letters, digits, spaces, etc.
494: </P>
495: <br><b>
496: Using the POSIX wrapper API
497: </b><br>
498: <P>
499: The <b>/P</b> modifier causes <b>pcretest</b> to call PCRE via the POSIX wrapper
1.1.1.2 misho 500: API rather than its native API. This supports only the 8-bit library. When
501: <b>/P</b> is set, the following modifiers set options for the <b>regcomp()</b>
502: function:
1.1 misho 503: <pre>
504: /i REG_ICASE
505: /m REG_NEWLINE
506: /N REG_NOSUB
507: /s REG_DOTALL )
508: /U REG_UNGREEDY ) These options are not part of
509: /W REG_UCP ) the POSIX standard
510: /8 REG_UTF8 )
511: </pre>
512: The <b>/+</b> modifier works as described above. All other modifiers are
513: ignored.
514: </P>
1.1.1.2 misho 515: <br><a name="SEC6" href="#TOC1">DATA LINES</a><br>
1.1 misho 516: <P>
1.1.1.2 misho 517: Before each data line is passed to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b>, leading and trailing
1.1 misho 518: white space is removed, and it is then scanned for \ escapes. Some of these
519: are pretty esoteric features, intended for checking out some of the more
520: complicated features of PCRE. If you are just testing "ordinary" regular
521: expressions, you probably don't need any of these. The following escapes are
522: recognized:
523: <pre>
524: \a alarm (BEL, \x07)
525: \b backspace (\x08)
526: \e escape (\x27)
527: \f form feed (\x0c)
528: \n newline (\x0a)
529: \qdd set the PCRE_MATCH_LIMIT limit to dd (any number of digits)
530: \r carriage return (\x0d)
531: \t tab (\x09)
532: \v vertical tab (\x0b)
1.1.1.2 misho 533: \nnn octal character (up to 3 octal digits); always
534: a byte unless > 255 in UTF-8 or 16-bit mode
1.1 misho 535: \xhh hexadecimal byte (up to 2 hex digits)
1.1.1.2 misho 536: \x{hh...} hexadecimal character (any number of hex digits)
537: \A pass the PCRE_ANCHORED option to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>
538: \B pass the PCRE_NOTBOL option to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>
539: \Cdd call pcre[16]_copy_substring() for substring dd after a successful match (number less than 32)
540: \Cname call pcre[16]_copy_named_substring() for substring "name" after a successful match (name termin-
1.1 misho 541: ated by next non alphanumeric character)
542: \C+ show the current captured substrings at callout time
543: \C- do not supply a callout function
544: \C!n return 1 instead of 0 when callout number n is reached
545: \C!n!m return 1 instead of 0 when callout number n is reached for the nth time
546: \C*n pass the number n (may be negative) as callout data; this is used as the callout return value
1.1.1.2 misho 547: \D use the <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b> match function
548: \F only shortest match for <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>
549: \Gdd call pcre[16]_get_substring() for substring dd after a successful match (number less than 32)
550: \Gname call pcre[16]_get_named_substring() for substring "name" after a successful match (name termin-
1.1 misho 551: ated by next non-alphanumeric character)
552: \Jdd set up a JIT stack of dd kilobytes maximum (any number of digits)
1.1.1.2 misho 553: \L call pcre[16]_get_substringlist() after a successful match
1.1 misho 554: \M discover the minimum MATCH_LIMIT and MATCH_LIMIT_RECURSION settings
1.1.1.2 misho 555: \N pass the PCRE_NOTEMPTY option to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>; if used twice, pass the
1.1 misho 556: PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART option
1.1.1.2 misho 557: \Odd set the size of the output vector passed to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> to dd (any number of digits)
558: \P pass the PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT option to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>; if used twice, pass the
1.1 misho 559: PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD option
560: \Qdd set the PCRE_MATCH_LIMIT_RECURSION limit to dd (any number of digits)
1.1.1.2 misho 561: \R pass the PCRE_DFA_RESTART option to <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>
1.1 misho 562: \S output details of memory get/free calls during matching
1.1.1.2 misho 563: \Y pass the PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE option to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>
564: \Z pass the PCRE_NOTEOL option to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>
565: \? pass the PCRE_NO_UTF[8|16]_CHECK option to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>
1.1 misho 566: \>dd start the match at offset dd (optional "-"; then any number of digits); this sets the <i>startoffset</i>
1.1.1.2 misho 567: argument for <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>
568: \<cr> pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_CR option to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>
569: \<lf> pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_LF option to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>
570: \<crlf> pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF option to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>
571: \<anycrlf> pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF option to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>
572: \<any> pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_ANY option to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>
573: </pre>
574: The use of \x{hh...} is not dependent on the use of the <b>/8</b> modifier on
575: the pattern. It is recognized always. There may be any number of hexadecimal
576: digits inside the braces; invalid values provoke error messages.
577: </P>
578: <P>
579: Note that \xhh specifies one byte rather than one character in UTF-8 mode;
580: this makes it possible to construct invalid UTF-8 sequences for testing
581: purposes. On the other hand, \x{hh} is interpreted as a UTF-8 character in
582: UTF-8 mode, generating more than one byte if the value is greater than 127.
583: When testing the 8-bit library not in UTF-8 mode, \x{hh} generates one byte
584: for values less than 256, and causes an error for greater values.
585: </P>
586: <P>
587: In UTF-16 mode, all 4-digit \x{hhhh} values are accepted. This makes it
588: possible to construct invalid UTF-16 sequences for testing purposes.
1.1 misho 589: </P>
590: <P>
591: The escapes that specify line ending sequences are literal strings, exactly as
592: shown. No more than one newline setting should be present in any data line.
593: </P>
594: <P>
595: A backslash followed by anything else just escapes the anything else. If
596: the very last character is a backslash, it is ignored. This gives a way of
597: passing an empty line as data, since a real empty line terminates the data
598: input.
599: </P>
600: <P>
601: The <b>\J</b> escape provides a way of setting the maximum stack size that is
602: used by the just-in-time optimization code. It is ignored if JIT optimization
603: is not being used. Providing a stack that is larger than the default 32K is
604: necessary only for very complicated patterns.
605: </P>
606: <P>
1.1.1.2 misho 607: If \M is present, <b>pcretest</b> calls <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> several times,
608: with different values in the <i>match_limit</i> and <i>match_limit_recursion</i>
609: fields of the <b>pcre[16]_extra</b> data structure, until it finds the minimum
610: numbers for each parameter that allow <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> to complete without
1.1 misho 611: error. Because this is testing a specific feature of the normal interpretive
1.1.1.2 misho 612: <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> execution, the use of any JIT optimization that might
613: have been set up by the <b>/S+</b> qualifier of <b>-s+</b> option is disabled.
1.1 misho 614: </P>
615: <P>
616: The <i>match_limit</i> number is a measure of the amount of backtracking
617: that takes place, and checking it out can be instructive. For most simple
618: matches, the number is quite small, but for patterns with very large numbers of
619: matching possibilities, it can become large very quickly with increasing length
620: of subject string. The <i>match_limit_recursion</i> number is a measure of how
621: much stack (or, if PCRE is compiled with NO_RECURSE, how much heap) memory is
622: needed to complete the match attempt.
623: </P>
624: <P>
625: When \O is used, the value specified may be higher or lower than the size set
626: by the <b>-O</b> command line option (or defaulted to 45); \O applies only to
1.1.1.2 misho 627: the call of <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> for the line in which it appears.
1.1 misho 628: </P>
629: <P>
630: If the <b>/P</b> modifier was present on the pattern, causing the POSIX wrapper
631: API to be used, the only option-setting sequences that have any effect are \B,
632: \N, and \Z, causing REG_NOTBOL, REG_NOTEMPTY, and REG_NOTEOL, respectively,
633: to be passed to <b>regexec()</b>.
634: </P>
1.1.1.2 misho 635: <br><a name="SEC7" href="#TOC1">THE ALTERNATIVE MATCHING FUNCTION</a><br>
1.1 misho 636: <P>
637: By default, <b>pcretest</b> uses the standard PCRE matching function,
1.1.1.2 misho 638: <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> to match each data line. PCRE also supports an
639: alternative matching function, <b>pcre[16]_dfa_test()</b>, which operates in a
1.1 misho 640: different way, and has some restrictions. The differences between the two
641: functions are described in the
642: <a href="pcrematching.html"><b>pcrematching</b></a>
643: documentation.
644: </P>
645: <P>
646: If a data line contains the \D escape sequence, or if the command line
1.1.1.2 misho 647: contains the <b>-dfa</b> option, the alternative matching function is used.
1.1 misho 648: This function finds all possible matches at a given point. If, however, the \F
649: escape sequence is present in the data line, it stops after the first match is
650: found. This is always the shortest possible match.
651: </P>
1.1.1.2 misho 652: <br><a name="SEC8" href="#TOC1">DEFAULT OUTPUT FROM PCRETEST</a><br>
1.1 misho 653: <P>
654: This section describes the output when the normal matching function,
1.1.1.2 misho 655: <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b>, is being used.
1.1 misho 656: </P>
657: <P>
658: When a match succeeds, <b>pcretest</b> outputs the list of captured substrings
1.1.1.2 misho 659: that <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> returns, starting with number 0 for the string that
1.1 misho 660: matched the whole pattern. Otherwise, it outputs "No match" when the return is
661: PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH, and "Partial match:" followed by the partially matching
1.1.1.2 misho 662: substring when <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> returns PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL. (Note that
663: this is the entire substring that was inspected during the partial match; it
664: may include characters before the actual match start if a lookbehind assertion,
1.1 misho 665: \K, \b, or \B was involved.) For any other return, <b>pcretest</b> outputs
666: the PCRE negative error number and a short descriptive phrase. If the error is
1.1.1.2 misho 667: a failed UTF string check, the offset of the start of the failing character and
668: the reason code are also output, provided that the size of the output vector is
669: at least two. Here is an example of an interactive <b>pcretest</b> run.
1.1 misho 670: <pre>
671: $ pcretest
672: PCRE version 8.13 2011-04-30
673:
674: re> /^abc(\d+)/
675: data> abc123
676: 0: abc123
677: 1: 123
678: data> xyz
679: No match
680: </pre>
681: Unset capturing substrings that are not followed by one that is set are not
1.1.1.2 misho 682: returned by <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b>, and are not shown by <b>pcretest</b>. In the
1.1 misho 683: following example, there are two capturing substrings, but when the first data
684: line is matched, the second, unset substring is not shown. An "internal" unset
685: substring is shown as "<unset>", as for the second data line.
686: <pre>
687: re> /(a)|(b)/
688: data> a
689: 0: a
690: 1: a
691: data> b
692: 0: b
693: 1: <unset>
694: 2: b
695: </pre>
1.1.1.2 misho 696: If the strings contain any non-printing characters, they are output as \xhh
697: escapes if the value is less than 256 and UTF mode is not set. Otherwise they
698: are output as \x{hh...} escapes. See below for the definition of non-printing
699: characters. If the pattern has the <b>/+</b> modifier, the output for substring
700: 0 is followed by the the rest of the subject string, identified by "0+" like
701: this:
1.1 misho 702: <pre>
703: re> /cat/+
704: data> cataract
705: 0: cat
706: 0+ aract
707: </pre>
708: If the pattern has the <b>/g</b> or <b>/G</b> modifier, the results of successive
709: matching attempts are output in sequence, like this:
710: <pre>
711: re> /\Bi(\w\w)/g
712: data> Mississippi
713: 0: iss
714: 1: ss
715: 0: iss
716: 1: ss
717: 0: ipp
718: 1: pp
719: </pre>
720: "No match" is output only if the first match attempt fails. Here is an example
721: of a failure message (the offset 4 that is specified by \>4 is past the end of
722: the subject string):
723: <pre>
724: re> /xyz/
725: data> xyz\>4
726: Error -24 (bad offset value)
727: </PRE>
728: </P>
729: <P>
730: If any of the sequences <b>\C</b>, <b>\G</b>, or <b>\L</b> are present in a
731: data line that is successfully matched, the substrings extracted by the
732: convenience functions are output with C, G, or L after the string number
733: instead of a colon. This is in addition to the normal full list. The string
734: length (that is, the return from the extraction function) is given in
735: parentheses after each string for <b>\C</b> and <b>\G</b>.
736: </P>
737: <P>
738: Note that whereas patterns can be continued over several lines (a plain ">"
739: prompt is used for continuations), data lines may not. However newlines can be
740: included in data by means of the \n escape (or \r, \r\n, etc., depending on
741: the newline sequence setting).
742: </P>
1.1.1.2 misho 743: <br><a name="SEC9" href="#TOC1">OUTPUT FROM THE ALTERNATIVE MATCHING FUNCTION</a><br>
1.1 misho 744: <P>
1.1.1.2 misho 745: When the alternative matching function, <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>, is used (by
1.1 misho 746: means of the \D escape sequence or the <b>-dfa</b> command line option), the
747: output consists of a list of all the matches that start at the first point in
748: the subject where there is at least one match. For example:
749: <pre>
750: re> /(tang|tangerine|tan)/
751: data> yellow tangerine\D
752: 0: tangerine
753: 1: tang
754: 2: tan
755: </pre>
756: (Using the normal matching function on this data finds only "tang".) The
757: longest matching string is always given first (and numbered zero). After a
758: PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL return, the output is "Partial match:", followed by the
759: partially matching substring. (Note that this is the entire substring that was
760: inspected during the partial match; it may include characters before the actual
761: match start if a lookbehind assertion, \K, \b, or \B was involved.)
762: </P>
763: <P>
764: If <b>/g</b> is present on the pattern, the search for further matches resumes
765: at the end of the longest match. For example:
766: <pre>
767: re> /(tang|tangerine|tan)/g
768: data> yellow tangerine and tangy sultana\D
769: 0: tangerine
770: 1: tang
771: 2: tan
772: 0: tang
773: 1: tan
774: 0: tan
775: </pre>
776: Since the matching function does not support substring capture, the escape
777: sequences that are concerned with captured substrings are not relevant.
778: </P>
1.1.1.2 misho 779: <br><a name="SEC10" href="#TOC1">RESTARTING AFTER A PARTIAL MATCH</a><br>
1.1 misho 780: <P>
781: When the alternative matching function has given the PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL return,
782: indicating that the subject partially matched the pattern, you can restart the
783: match with additional subject data by means of the \R escape sequence. For
784: example:
785: <pre>
786: re> /^\d?\d(jan|feb|mar|apr|may|jun|jul|aug|sep|oct|nov|dec)\d\d$/
787: data> 23ja\P\D
788: Partial match: 23ja
789: data> n05\R\D
790: 0: n05
791: </pre>
792: For further information about partial matching, see the
793: <a href="pcrepartial.html"><b>pcrepartial</b></a>
794: documentation.
795: </P>
1.1.1.2 misho 796: <br><a name="SEC11" href="#TOC1">CALLOUTS</a><br>
1.1 misho 797: <P>
798: If the pattern contains any callout requests, <b>pcretest</b>'s callout function
799: is called during matching. This works with both matching functions. By default,
800: the called function displays the callout number, the start and current
801: positions in the text at the callout time, and the next pattern item to be
1.1.1.2 misho 802: tested. For example:
1.1 misho 803: <pre>
804: --->pqrabcdef
805: 0 ^ ^ \d
806: </pre>
1.1.1.2 misho 807: This output indicates that callout number 0 occurred for a match attempt
808: starting at the fourth character of the subject string, when the pointer was at
809: the seventh character of the data, and when the next pattern item was \d. Just
810: one circumflex is output if the start and current positions are the same.
1.1 misho 811: </P>
812: <P>
813: Callouts numbered 255 are assumed to be automatic callouts, inserted as a
814: result of the <b>/C</b> pattern modifier. In this case, instead of showing the
815: callout number, the offset in the pattern, preceded by a plus, is output. For
816: example:
817: <pre>
818: re> /\d?[A-E]\*/C
819: data> E*
820: --->E*
821: +0 ^ \d?
822: +3 ^ [A-E]
823: +8 ^^ \*
824: +10 ^ ^
825: 0: E*
826: </pre>
827: If a pattern contains (*MARK) items, an additional line is output whenever
828: a change of latest mark is passed to the callout function. For example:
829: <pre>
830: re> /a(*MARK:X)bc/C
831: data> abc
832: --->abc
833: +0 ^ a
834: +1 ^^ (*MARK:X)
835: +10 ^^ b
836: Latest Mark: X
837: +11 ^ ^ c
838: +12 ^ ^
839: 0: abc
840: </pre>
841: The mark changes between matching "a" and "b", but stays the same for the rest
842: of the match, so nothing more is output. If, as a result of backtracking, the
843: mark reverts to being unset, the text "<unset>" is output.
844: </P>
845: <P>
846: The callout function in <b>pcretest</b> returns zero (carry on matching) by
847: default, but you can use a \C item in a data line (as described above) to
848: change this and other parameters of the callout.
849: </P>
850: <P>
851: Inserting callouts can be helpful when using <b>pcretest</b> to check
852: complicated regular expressions. For further information about callouts, see
853: the
854: <a href="pcrecallout.html"><b>pcrecallout</b></a>
855: documentation.
856: </P>
1.1.1.2 misho 857: <br><a name="SEC12" href="#TOC1">NON-PRINTING CHARACTERS</a><br>
1.1 misho 858: <P>
859: When <b>pcretest</b> is outputting text in the compiled version of a pattern,
860: bytes other than 32-126 are always treated as non-printing characters are are
861: therefore shown as hex escapes.
862: </P>
863: <P>
864: When <b>pcretest</b> is outputting text that is a matched part of a subject
865: string, it behaves in the same way, unless a different locale has been set for
866: the pattern (using the <b>/L</b> modifier). In this case, the <b>isprint()</b>
867: function to distinguish printing and non-printing characters.
868: </P>
1.1.1.2 misho 869: <br><a name="SEC13" href="#TOC1">SAVING AND RELOADING COMPILED PATTERNS</a><br>
1.1 misho 870: <P>
871: The facilities described in this section are not available when the POSIX
872: interface to PCRE is being used, that is, when the <b>/P</b> pattern modifier is
873: specified.
874: </P>
875: <P>
876: When the POSIX interface is not in use, you can cause <b>pcretest</b> to write a
877: compiled pattern to a file, by following the modifiers with > and a file name.
878: For example:
879: <pre>
880: /pattern/im >/some/file
881: </pre>
882: See the
883: <a href="pcreprecompile.html"><b>pcreprecompile</b></a>
884: documentation for a discussion about saving and re-using compiled patterns.
885: Note that if the pattern was successfully studied with JIT optimization, the
886: JIT data cannot be saved.
887: </P>
888: <P>
889: The data that is written is binary. The first eight bytes are the length of the
890: compiled pattern data followed by the length of the optional study data, each
891: written as four bytes in big-endian order (most significant byte first). If
892: there is no study data (either the pattern was not studied, or studying did not
893: return any data), the second length is zero. The lengths are followed by an
894: exact copy of the compiled pattern. If there is additional study data, this
895: (excluding any JIT data) follows immediately after the compiled pattern. After
896: writing the file, <b>pcretest</b> expects to read a new pattern.
897: </P>
898: <P>
899: A saved pattern can be reloaded into <b>pcretest</b> by specifying < and a file
900: name instead of a pattern. The name of the file must not contain a < character,
901: as otherwise <b>pcretest</b> will interpret the line as a pattern delimited by <
902: characters.
903: For example:
904: <pre>
905: re> </some/file
906: Compiled pattern loaded from /some/file
907: No study data
908: </pre>
909: If the pattern was previously studied with the JIT optimization, the JIT
910: information cannot be saved and restored, and so is lost. When the pattern has
911: been loaded, <b>pcretest</b> proceeds to read data lines in the usual way.
912: </P>
913: <P>
914: You can copy a file written by <b>pcretest</b> to a different host and reload it
915: there, even if the new host has opposite endianness to the one on which the
916: pattern was compiled. For example, you can compile on an i86 machine and run on
1.1.1.2 misho 917: a SPARC machine. When a pattern is reloaded on a host with different
918: endianness, the confirmation message is changed to:
919: <pre>
920: Compiled pattern (byte-inverted) loaded from /some/file
921: </pre>
922: The test suite contains some saved pre-compiled patterns with different
923: endianness. These are reloaded using "<!" instead of just "<". This suppresses
924: the "(byte-inverted)" text so that the output is the same on all hosts. It also
925: forces debugging output once the pattern has been reloaded.
1.1 misho 926: </P>
927: <P>
928: File names for saving and reloading can be absolute or relative, but note that
929: the shell facility of expanding a file name that starts with a tilde (~) is not
930: available.
931: </P>
932: <P>
933: The ability to save and reload files in <b>pcretest</b> is intended for testing
934: and experimentation. It is not intended for production use because only a
935: single pattern can be written to a file. Furthermore, there is no facility for
936: supplying custom character tables for use with a reloaded pattern. If the
937: original pattern was compiled with custom tables, an attempt to match a subject
938: string using a reloaded pattern is likely to cause <b>pcretest</b> to crash.
939: Finally, if you attempt to load a file that is not in the correct format, the
940: result is undefined.
941: </P>
1.1.1.2 misho 942: <br><a name="SEC14" href="#TOC1">SEE ALSO</a><br>
1.1 misho 943: <P>
1.1.1.2 misho 944: <b>pcre</b>(3), <b>pcre16</b>(3), <b>pcreapi</b>(3), <b>pcrecallout</b>(3),
945: <b>pcrejit</b>, <b>pcrematching</b>(3), <b>pcrepartial</b>(d),
946: <b>pcrepattern</b>(3), <b>pcreprecompile</b>(3).
1.1 misho 947: </P>
1.1.1.2 misho 948: <br><a name="SEC15" href="#TOC1">AUTHOR</a><br>
1.1 misho 949: <P>
950: Philip Hazel
951: <br>
952: University Computing Service
953: <br>
954: Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
955: <br>
956: </P>
1.1.1.2 misho 957: <br><a name="SEC16" href="#TOC1">REVISION</a><br>
1.1 misho 958: <P>
1.1.1.3 ! misho 959: Last updated: 21 February 2012
1.1 misho 960: <br>
1.1.1.2 misho 961: Copyright © 1997-2012 University of Cambridge.
1.1 misho 962: <br>
963: <p>
964: Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
965: </p>
FreeBSD-CVSweb <freebsd-cvsweb@FreeBSD.org>