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&#62;" to prompt for regular
                    224: expressions, and "data&#62;" 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>/&#60;JS&#62;</b>           PCRE_JAVASCRIPT_COMPAT
                    312:   <b>/&#60;cr&#62;</b>           PCRE_NEWLINE_CR
                    313:   <b>/&#60;lf&#62;</b>           PCRE_NEWLINE_LF
                    314:   <b>/&#60;crlf&#62;</b>         PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF
                    315:   <b>/&#60;anycrlf&#62;</b>      PCRE_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF
                    316:   <b>/&#60;any&#62;</b>          PCRE_NEWLINE_ANY
                    317:   <b>/&#60;bsr_anycrlf&#62;</b>  PCRE_BSR_ANYCRLF
                    318:   <b>/&#60;bsr_unicode&#62;</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&#60;CRLF&#62;
                    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 "&#60;unset&#62;". 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 &#62; 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:   \&#62;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:   \&#60;cr&#62;      pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_CR option to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>
                    569:   \&#60;lf&#62;      pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_LF option to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>
                    570:   \&#60;crlf&#62;    pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF option to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>
                    571:   \&#60;anycrlf&#62; pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF option to <b>pcre[16]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16]_dfa_exec()</b>
                    572:   \&#60;any&#62;     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&#62; /^abc(\d+)/
                    675:   data&#62; abc123
                    676:    0: abc123
                    677:    1: 123
                    678:   data&#62; 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 "&#60;unset&#62;", as for the second data line.
                    686: <pre>
                    687:     re&#62; /(a)|(b)/
                    688:   data&#62; a
                    689:    0: a
                    690:    1: a
                    691:   data&#62; b
                    692:    0: b
                    693:    1: &#60;unset&#62;
                    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&#62; /cat/+
                    704:   data&#62; 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&#62; /\Bi(\w\w)/g
                    712:   data&#62; 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 \&#62;4 is past the end of
                    722: the subject string):
                    723: <pre>
                    724:     re&#62; /xyz/
                    725:   data&#62; xyz\&#62;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 "&#62;"
                    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&#62; /(tang|tangerine|tan)/
                    751:   data&#62; 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&#62; /(tang|tangerine|tan)/g
                    768:   data&#62; 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&#62; /^\d?\d(jan|feb|mar|apr|may|jun|jul|aug|sep|oct|nov|dec)\d\d$/
                    787:   data&#62; 23ja\P\D
                    788:   Partial match: 23ja
                    789:   data&#62; 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:   ---&#62;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&#62; /\d?[A-E]\*/C
                    819:   data&#62; E*
                    820:   ---&#62;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&#62; /a(*MARK:X)bc/C
                    831:   data&#62; abc
                    832:   ---&#62;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 "&#60;unset&#62;" 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 &#62; and a file name.
                    878: For example:
                    879: <pre>
                    880:   /pattern/im &#62;/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 &#60; and a file
                    900: name instead of a pattern. The name of the file must not contain a &#60; character,
                    901: as otherwise <b>pcretest</b> will interpret the line as a pattern delimited by &#60;
                    902: characters.
                    903: For example:
                    904: <pre>
                    905:    re&#62; &#60;/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 "&#60;!" instead of just "&#60;". 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 &copy; 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>

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