Annotation of embedaddon/pcre/doc/html/pcretest.html, revision 1.1.1.5
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>
1.1.1.4 misho 17: <li><a name="TOC2" href="#SEC2">INPUT DATA FORMAT</a>
18: <li><a name="TOC3" href="#SEC3">PCRE's 8-BIT, 16-BIT AND 32-BIT LIBRARIES</a>
19: <li><a name="TOC4" href="#SEC4">COMMAND LINE OPTIONS</a>
20: <li><a name="TOC5" href="#SEC5">DESCRIPTION</a>
21: <li><a name="TOC6" href="#SEC6">PATTERN MODIFIERS</a>
22: <li><a name="TOC7" href="#SEC7">DATA LINES</a>
23: <li><a name="TOC8" href="#SEC8">THE ALTERNATIVE MATCHING FUNCTION</a>
24: <li><a name="TOC9" href="#SEC9">DEFAULT OUTPUT FROM PCRETEST</a>
25: <li><a name="TOC10" href="#SEC10">OUTPUT FROM THE ALTERNATIVE MATCHING FUNCTION</a>
26: <li><a name="TOC11" href="#SEC11">RESTARTING AFTER A PARTIAL MATCH</a>
27: <li><a name="TOC12" href="#SEC12">CALLOUTS</a>
28: <li><a name="TOC13" href="#SEC13">NON-PRINTING CHARACTERS</a>
29: <li><a name="TOC14" href="#SEC14">SAVING AND RELOADING COMPILED PATTERNS</a>
30: <li><a name="TOC15" href="#SEC15">SEE ALSO</a>
31: <li><a name="TOC16" href="#SEC16">AUTHOR</a>
32: <li><a name="TOC17" href="#SEC17">REVISION</a>
1.1 misho 33: </ul>
34: <br><a name="SEC1" href="#TOC1">SYNOPSIS</a><br>
35: <P>
36: <b>pcretest [options] [input file [output file]]</b>
37: <br>
38: <br>
39: <b>pcretest</b> was written as a test program for the PCRE regular expression
40: library itself, but it can also be used for experimenting with regular
41: expressions. This document describes the features of the test program; for
42: details of the regular expressions themselves, see the
43: <a href="pcrepattern.html"><b>pcrepattern</b></a>
44: documentation. For details of the PCRE library function calls and their
45: options, see the
46: <a href="pcreapi.html"><b>pcreapi</b></a>
1.1.1.4 misho 47: ,
1.1.1.2 misho 48: <a href="pcre16.html"><b>pcre16</b></a>
1.1.1.4 misho 49: and
50: <a href="pcre32.html"><b>pcre32</b></a>
51: documentation.
1.1 misho 52: </P>
1.1.1.4 misho 53: <P>
54: The input for <b>pcretest</b> is a sequence of regular expression patterns and
55: strings to be matched, as described below. The output shows the result of each
56: match. Options on the command line and the patterns control PCRE options and
57: exactly what is output.
58: </P>
59: <P>
60: As PCRE has evolved, it has acquired many different features, and as a result,
61: <b>pcretest</b> now has rather a lot of obscure options for testing every
62: possible feature. Some of these options are specifically designed for use in
63: conjunction with the test script and data files that are distributed as part of
64: PCRE, and are unlikely to be of use otherwise. They are all documented here,
65: but without much justification.
66: </P>
67: <br><a name="SEC2" href="#TOC1">INPUT DATA FORMAT</a><br>
68: <P>
69: Input to <b>pcretest</b> is processed line by line, either by calling the C
70: library's <b>fgets()</b> function, or via the <b>libreadline</b> library (see
71: below). In Unix-like environments, <b>fgets()</b> treats any bytes other than
72: newline as data characters. However, in some Windows environments character 26
73: (hex 1A) causes an immediate end of file, and no further data is read. For
74: maximum portability, therefore, it is safest to use only ASCII characters in
75: <b>pcretest</b> input files.
76: </P>
77: <br><a name="SEC3" href="#TOC1">PCRE's 8-BIT, 16-BIT AND 32-BIT LIBRARIES</a><br>
1.1.1.2 misho 78: <P>
79: From release 8.30, two separate PCRE libraries can be built. The original one
80: supports 8-bit character strings, whereas the newer 16-bit library supports
1.1.1.4 misho 81: character strings encoded in 16-bit units. From release 8.32, a third library
82: can be built, supporting character strings encoded in 32-bit units. The
83: <b>pcretest</b> program can be used to test all three libraries. However, it is
84: itself still an 8-bit program, reading 8-bit input and writing 8-bit output.
85: When testing the 16-bit or 32-bit library, the patterns and data strings are
86: converted to 16- or 32-bit format before being passed to the PCRE library
87: functions. Results are converted to 8-bit for output.
88: </P>
89: <P>
90: References to functions and structures of the form <b>pcre[16|32]_xx</b> below
91: mean "<b>pcre_xx</b> when using the 8-bit library, <b>pcre16_xx</b> when using
92: the 16-bit library, or <b>pcre32_xx</b> when using the 32-bit library".
93: </P>
94: <br><a name="SEC4" href="#TOC1">COMMAND LINE OPTIONS</a><br>
95: <P>
96: <b>-8</b>
97: If both the 8-bit library has been built, this option causes the 8-bit library
98: to be used (which is the default); if the 8-bit library has not been built,
99: this option causes an error.
1.1.1.2 misho 100: </P>
101: <P>
1.1.1.4 misho 102: <b>-16</b>
103: If both the 8-bit or the 32-bit, and the 16-bit libraries have been built, this
104: option causes the 16-bit library to be used. If only the 16-bit library has been
105: built, this is the default (so has no effect). If only the 8-bit or the 32-bit
106: library has been built, this option causes an error.
1.1.1.2 misho 107: </P>
108: <P>
1.1.1.4 misho 109: <b>-32</b>
110: If both the 8-bit or the 16-bit, and the 32-bit libraries have been built, this
111: option causes the 32-bit library to be used. If only the 32-bit library has been
112: built, this is the default (so has no effect). If only the 8-bit or the 16-bit
113: library has been built, this option causes an error.
1.1.1.2 misho 114: </P>
1.1 misho 115: <P>
116: <b>-b</b>
117: Behave as if each pattern has the <b>/B</b> (show byte code) modifier; the
118: internal form is output after compilation.
119: </P>
120: <P>
121: <b>-C</b>
122: Output the version number of the PCRE library, and all available information
1.1.1.4 misho 123: about the optional features that are included, and then exit with zero exit
124: code. All other options are ignored.
1.1.1.2 misho 125: </P>
126: <P>
127: <b>-C</b> <i>option</i>
128: Output information about a specific build-time option, then exit. This
129: functionality is intended for use in scripts such as <b>RunTest</b>. The
1.1.1.4 misho 130: following options output the value and set the exit code as indicated:
1.1.1.2 misho 131: <pre>
1.1.1.4 misho 132: ebcdic-nl the code for LF (= NL) in an EBCDIC environment:
133: 0x15 or 0x25
134: 0 if used in an ASCII environment
135: exit code is always 0
136: linksize the configured internal link size (2, 3, or 4)
137: exit code is set to the link size
1.1.1.2 misho 138: newline the default newline setting:
139: CR, LF, CRLF, ANYCRLF, or ANY
1.1.1.4 misho 140: exit code is always 0
1.1.1.2 misho 141: </pre>
1.1.1.4 misho 142: The following options output 1 for true or 0 for false, and set the exit code
143: to the same value:
1.1.1.2 misho 144: <pre>
1.1.1.4 misho 145: ebcdic compiled for an EBCDIC environment
1.1.1.2 misho 146: jit just-in-time support is available
147: pcre16 the 16-bit library was built
1.1.1.4 misho 148: pcre32 the 32-bit library was built
1.1.1.2 misho 149: pcre8 the 8-bit library was built
150: ucp Unicode property support is available
1.1.1.4 misho 151: utf UTF-8 and/or UTF-16 and/or UTF-32 support
152: is available
153: </pre>
154: If an unknown option is given, an error message is output; the exit code is 0.
1.1 misho 155: </P>
156: <P>
157: <b>-d</b>
158: Behave as if each pattern has the <b>/D</b> (debug) modifier; the internal
159: form and information about the compiled pattern is output after compilation;
160: <b>-d</b> is equivalent to <b>-b -i</b>.
161: </P>
162: <P>
163: <b>-dfa</b>
164: Behave as if each data line contains the \D escape sequence; this causes the
1.1.1.4 misho 165: alternative matching function, <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b>, to be used instead
166: of the standard <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> function (more detail is given below).
1.1 misho 167: </P>
168: <P>
169: <b>-help</b>
170: Output a brief summary these options and then exit.
171: </P>
172: <P>
173: <b>-i</b>
174: Behave as if each pattern has the <b>/I</b> modifier; information about the
175: compiled pattern is given after compilation.
176: </P>
177: <P>
178: <b>-M</b>
179: Behave as if each data line contains the \M escape sequence; this causes
180: PCRE to discover the minimum MATCH_LIMIT and MATCH_LIMIT_RECURSION settings by
1.1.1.4 misho 181: calling <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> repeatedly with different limits.
1.1 misho 182: </P>
183: <P>
184: <b>-m</b>
185: Output the size of each compiled pattern after it has been compiled. This is
1.1.1.2 misho 186: equivalent to adding <b>/M</b> to each regular expression. The size is given in
187: bytes for both libraries.
1.1 misho 188: </P>
189: <P>
1.1.1.5 ! misho 190: <b>-O</b>
! 191: Behave as if each pattern has the <b>/O</b> modifier, that is disable
! 192: auto-possessification for all patterns.
! 193: </P>
! 194: <P>
1.1 misho 195: <b>-o</b> <i>osize</i>
196: Set the number of elements in the output vector that is used when calling
1.1.1.4 misho 197: <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b> to be <i>osize</i>. The
1.1.1.2 misho 198: default value is 45, which is enough for 14 capturing subexpressions for
1.1.1.4 misho 199: <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> or 22 different matches for
200: <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b>.
1.1.1.2 misho 201: The vector size can be changed for individual matching calls by including \O
202: in the data line (see below).
1.1 misho 203: </P>
204: <P>
205: <b>-p</b>
206: Behave as if each pattern has the <b>/P</b> modifier; the POSIX wrapper API is
207: used to call PCRE. None of the other options has any effect when <b>-p</b> is
1.1.1.2 misho 208: set. This option can be used only with the 8-bit library.
1.1 misho 209: </P>
210: <P>
211: <b>-q</b>
212: Do not output the version number of <b>pcretest</b> at the start of execution.
213: </P>
214: <P>
215: <b>-S</b> <i>size</i>
216: On Unix-like systems, set the size of the run-time stack to <i>size</i>
217: megabytes.
218: </P>
219: <P>
220: <b>-s</b> or <b>-s+</b>
221: Behave as if each pattern has the <b>/S</b> modifier; in other words, force each
1.1.1.3 misho 222: pattern to be studied. If <b>-s+</b> is used, all the JIT compile options are
1.1.1.4 misho 223: passed to <b>pcre[16|32]_study()</b>, causing just-in-time optimization to be set
1.1.1.3 misho 224: up if it is available, for both full and partial matching. Specific JIT compile
225: options can be selected by following <b>-s+</b> with a digit in the range 1 to
226: 7, which selects the JIT compile modes as follows:
227: <pre>
228: 1 normal match only
229: 2 soft partial match only
230: 3 normal match and soft partial match
231: 4 hard partial match only
232: 6 soft and hard partial match
233: 7 all three modes (default)
234: </pre>
235: If <b>-s++</b> is used instead of <b>-s+</b> (with or without a following digit),
236: the text "(JIT)" is added to the first output line after a match or no match
237: when JIT-compiled code was actually used.
1.1.1.4 misho 238: <br>
239: <br>
240: Note that there are pattern options that can override <b>-s</b>, either
241: specifying no studying at all, or suppressing JIT compilation.
242: <br>
243: <br>
1.1.1.3 misho 244: If the <b>/I</b> or <b>/D</b> option is present on a pattern (requesting output
245: about the compiled pattern), information about the result of studying is not
246: included when studying is caused only by <b>-s</b> and neither <b>-i</b> nor
247: <b>-d</b> is present on the command line. This behaviour means that the output
248: from tests that are run with and without <b>-s</b> should be identical, except
249: when options that output information about the actual running of a match are
250: set.
1.1.1.2 misho 251: <br>
252: <br>
253: The <b>-M</b>, <b>-t</b>, and <b>-tm</b> options, which give information about
254: resources used, are likely to produce different output with and without
255: <b>-s</b>. Output may also differ if the <b>/C</b> option is present on an
256: individual pattern. This uses callouts to trace the the matching process, and
257: this may be different between studied and non-studied patterns. If the pattern
258: contains (*MARK) items there may also be differences, for the same reason. The
259: <b>-s</b> command line option can be overridden for specific patterns that
260: should never be studied (see the <b>/S</b> pattern modifier below).
1.1 misho 261: </P>
262: <P>
263: <b>-t</b>
1.1.1.5 ! misho 264: Run each compile, study, and match many times with a timer, and output the
! 265: resulting times per compile, study, or match (in milliseconds). Do not set
! 266: <b>-m</b> with <b>-t</b>, because you will then get the size output a zillion
! 267: times, and the timing will be distorted. You can control the number of
! 268: iterations that are used for timing by following <b>-t</b> with a number (as a
! 269: separate item on the command line). For example, "-t 1000" iterates 1000 times.
! 270: The default is to iterate 500000 times.
1.1 misho 271: </P>
272: <P>
273: <b>-tm</b>
274: This is like <b>-t</b> except that it times only the matching phase, not the
275: compile or study phases.
276: </P>
1.1.1.5 ! misho 277: <P>
! 278: <b>-T</b> <b>-TM</b>
! 279: These behave like <b>-t</b> and <b>-tm</b>, but in addition, at the end of a run,
! 280: the total times for all compiles, studies, and matches are output.
! 281: </P>
1.1.1.4 misho 282: <br><a name="SEC5" href="#TOC1">DESCRIPTION</a><br>
1.1 misho 283: <P>
284: If <b>pcretest</b> is given two filename arguments, it reads from the first and
285: writes to the second. If it is given only one filename argument, it reads from
286: that file and writes to stdout. Otherwise, it reads from stdin and writes to
287: stdout, and prompts for each line of input, using "re>" to prompt for regular
288: expressions, and "data>" to prompt for data lines.
289: </P>
290: <P>
291: When <b>pcretest</b> is built, a configuration option can specify that it should
292: be linked with the <b>libreadline</b> library. When this is done, if the input
293: is from a terminal, it is read using the <b>readline()</b> function. This
294: provides line-editing and history facilities. The output from the <b>-help</b>
295: option states whether or not <b>readline()</b> will be used.
296: </P>
297: <P>
298: The program handles any number of sets of input on a single input file. Each
299: set starts with a regular expression, and continues with any number of data
1.1.1.5 ! misho 300: lines to be matched against that pattern.
1.1 misho 301: </P>
302: <P>
303: Each data line is matched separately and independently. If you want to do
304: multi-line matches, you have to use the \n escape sequence (or \r or \r\n,
305: etc., depending on the newline setting) in a single line of input to encode the
306: newline sequences. There is no limit on the length of data lines; the input
307: buffer is automatically extended if it is too small.
308: </P>
309: <P>
310: An empty line signals the end of the data lines, at which point a new regular
311: expression is read. The regular expressions are given enclosed in any
312: non-alphanumeric delimiters other than backslash, for example:
313: <pre>
314: /(a|bc)x+yz/
315: </pre>
316: White space before the initial delimiter is ignored. A regular expression may
317: be continued over several input lines, in which case the newline characters are
318: included within it. It is possible to include the delimiter within the pattern
319: by escaping it, for example
320: <pre>
321: /abc\/def/
322: </pre>
323: If you do so, the escape and the delimiter form part of the pattern, but since
324: delimiters are always non-alphanumeric, this does not affect its interpretation.
325: If the terminating delimiter is immediately followed by a backslash, for
326: example,
327: <pre>
328: /abc/\
329: </pre>
330: then a backslash is added to the end of the pattern. This is done to provide a
331: way of testing the error condition that arises if a pattern finishes with a
332: backslash, because
333: <pre>
334: /abc\/
335: </pre>
336: is interpreted as the first line of a pattern that starts with "abc/", causing
337: pcretest to read the next line as a continuation of the regular expression.
338: </P>
1.1.1.4 misho 339: <br><a name="SEC6" href="#TOC1">PATTERN MODIFIERS</a><br>
1.1 misho 340: <P>
341: A pattern may be followed by any number of modifiers, which are mostly single
1.1.1.4 misho 342: characters, though some of these can be qualified by further characters.
343: Following Perl usage, these are referred to below as, for example, "the
344: <b>/i</b> modifier", even though the delimiter of the pattern need not always be
345: a slash, and no slash is used when writing modifiers. White space may appear
346: between the final pattern delimiter and the first modifier, and between the
347: modifiers themselves. For reference, here is a complete list of modifiers. They
348: fall into several groups that are described in detail in the following
349: sections.
350: <pre>
351: <b>/8</b> set UTF mode
352: <b>/9</b> set PCRE_NEVER_UTF (locks out UTF mode)
353: <b>/?</b> disable UTF validity check
354: <b>/+</b> show remainder of subject after match
355: <b>/=</b> show all captures (not just those that are set)
356:
357: <b>/A</b> set PCRE_ANCHORED
358: <b>/B</b> show compiled code
359: <b>/C</b> set PCRE_AUTO_CALLOUT
360: <b>/D</b> same as <b>/B</b> plus <b>/I</b>
361: <b>/E</b> set PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY
362: <b>/F</b> flip byte order in compiled pattern
363: <b>/f</b> set PCRE_FIRSTLINE
364: <b>/G</b> find all matches (shorten string)
365: <b>/g</b> find all matches (use startoffset)
366: <b>/I</b> show information about pattern
367: <b>/i</b> set PCRE_CASELESS
368: <b>/J</b> set PCRE_DUPNAMES
369: <b>/K</b> show backtracking control names
370: <b>/L</b> set locale
371: <b>/M</b> show compiled memory size
372: <b>/m</b> set PCRE_MULTILINE
373: <b>/N</b> set PCRE_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE
1.1.1.5 ! misho 374: <b>/O</b> set PCRE_NO_AUTO_POSSESS
1.1.1.4 misho 375: <b>/P</b> use the POSIX wrapper
376: <b>/S</b> study the pattern after compilation
377: <b>/s</b> set PCRE_DOTALL
378: <b>/T</b> select character tables
379: <b>/U</b> set PCRE_UNGREEDY
380: <b>/W</b> set PCRE_UCP
381: <b>/X</b> set PCRE_EXTRA
382: <b>/x</b> set PCRE_EXTENDED
383: <b>/Y</b> set PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE
384: <b>/Z</b> don't show lengths in <b>/B</b> output
385:
386: <b>/<any></b> set PCRE_NEWLINE_ANY
387: <b>/<anycrlf></b> set PCRE_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF
388: <b>/<cr></b> set PCRE_NEWLINE_CR
389: <b>/<crlf></b> set PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF
390: <b>/<lf></b> set PCRE_NEWLINE_LF
391: <b>/<bsr_anycrlf></b> set PCRE_BSR_ANYCRLF
392: <b>/<bsr_unicode></b> set PCRE_BSR_UNICODE
393: <b>/<JS></b> set PCRE_JAVASCRIPT_COMPAT
394:
395: </PRE>
1.1 misho 396: </P>
1.1.1.4 misho 397: <br><b>
398: Perl-compatible modifiers
399: </b><br>
1.1 misho 400: <P>
401: The <b>/i</b>, <b>/m</b>, <b>/s</b>, and <b>/x</b> modifiers set the PCRE_CASELESS,
402: PCRE_MULTILINE, PCRE_DOTALL, or PCRE_EXTENDED options, respectively, when
1.1.1.4 misho 403: <b>pcre[16|32]_compile()</b> is called. These four modifier letters have the same
1.1 misho 404: effect as they do in Perl. For example:
405: <pre>
406: /caseless/i
1.1.1.4 misho 407:
408: </PRE>
409: </P>
410: <br><b>
411: Modifiers for other PCRE options
412: </b><br>
413: <P>
1.1 misho 414: The following table shows additional modifiers for setting PCRE compile-time
415: options that do not correspond to anything in Perl:
416: <pre>
1.1.1.2 misho 417: <b>/8</b> PCRE_UTF8 ) when using the 8-bit
418: <b>/?</b> PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK ) library
419:
420: <b>/8</b> PCRE_UTF16 ) when using the 16-bit
421: <b>/?</b> PCRE_NO_UTF16_CHECK ) library
422:
1.1.1.4 misho 423: <b>/8</b> PCRE_UTF32 ) when using the 32-bit
424: <b>/?</b> PCRE_NO_UTF32_CHECK ) library
425:
426: <b>/9</b> PCRE_NEVER_UTF
1.1 misho 427: <b>/A</b> PCRE_ANCHORED
428: <b>/C</b> PCRE_AUTO_CALLOUT
429: <b>/E</b> PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY
430: <b>/f</b> PCRE_FIRSTLINE
431: <b>/J</b> PCRE_DUPNAMES
432: <b>/N</b> PCRE_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE
1.1.1.5 ! misho 433: <b>/O</b> PCRE_NO_AUTO_POSSESS
1.1 misho 434: <b>/U</b> PCRE_UNGREEDY
435: <b>/W</b> PCRE_UCP
436: <b>/X</b> PCRE_EXTRA
437: <b>/Y</b> PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE
1.1.1.4 misho 438: <b>/<any></b> PCRE_NEWLINE_ANY
439: <b>/<anycrlf></b> PCRE_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF
1.1 misho 440: <b>/<cr></b> PCRE_NEWLINE_CR
441: <b>/<crlf></b> PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF
1.1.1.4 misho 442: <b>/<lf></b> PCRE_NEWLINE_LF
1.1 misho 443: <b>/<bsr_anycrlf></b> PCRE_BSR_ANYCRLF
444: <b>/<bsr_unicode></b> PCRE_BSR_UNICODE
1.1.1.4 misho 445: <b>/<JS></b> PCRE_JAVASCRIPT_COMPAT
1.1 misho 446: </pre>
447: The modifiers that are enclosed in angle brackets are literal strings as shown,
448: including the angle brackets, but the letters within can be in either case.
449: This example sets multiline matching with CRLF as the line ending sequence:
450: <pre>
451: /^abc/m<CRLF>
452: </pre>
1.1.1.4 misho 453: As well as turning on the PCRE_UTF8/16/32 option, the <b>/8</b> modifier causes
1.1.1.2 misho 454: all non-printing characters in output strings to be printed using the
455: \x{hh...} notation. Otherwise, those less than 0x100 are output in hex without
456: the curly brackets.
457: </P>
458: <P>
459: Full details of the PCRE options are given in the
1.1 misho 460: <a href="pcreapi.html"><b>pcreapi</b></a>
461: documentation.
462: </P>
463: <br><b>
464: Finding all matches in a string
465: </b><br>
466: <P>
467: Searching for all possible matches within each subject string can be requested
468: by the <b>/g</b> or <b>/G</b> modifier. After finding a match, PCRE is called
469: again to search the remainder of the subject string. The difference between
470: <b>/g</b> and <b>/G</b> is that the former uses the <i>startoffset</i> argument to
1.1.1.4 misho 471: <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> to start searching at a new point within the entire
1.1.1.2 misho 472: string (which is in effect what Perl does), whereas the latter passes over a
473: shortened substring. This makes a difference to the matching process if the
474: pattern begins with a lookbehind assertion (including \b or \B).
1.1 misho 475: </P>
476: <P>
1.1.1.4 misho 477: If any call to <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> in a <b>/g</b> or <b>/G</b> sequence matches
1.1.1.2 misho 478: an empty string, the next call is done with the PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART and
1.1 misho 479: PCRE_ANCHORED flags set in order to search for another, non-empty, match at the
480: same point. If this second match fails, the start offset is advanced, and the
481: normal match is retried. This imitates the way Perl handles such cases when
482: using the <b>/g</b> modifier or the <b>split()</b> function. Normally, the start
483: offset is advanced by one character, but if the newline convention recognizes
484: CRLF as a newline, and the current character is CR followed by LF, an advance
485: of two is used.
486: </P>
487: <br><b>
488: Other modifiers
489: </b><br>
490: <P>
491: There are yet more modifiers for controlling the way <b>pcretest</b>
492: operates.
493: </P>
494: <P>
495: The <b>/+</b> modifier requests that as well as outputting the substring that
496: matched the entire pattern, <b>pcretest</b> should in addition output the
497: remainder of the subject string. This is useful for tests where the subject
498: contains multiple copies of the same substring. If the <b>+</b> modifier appears
499: twice, the same action is taken for captured substrings. In each case the
500: remainder is output on the following line with a plus character following the
501: capture number. Note that this modifier must not immediately follow the /S
1.1.1.3 misho 502: modifier because /S+ and /S++ have other meanings.
1.1 misho 503: </P>
504: <P>
505: The <b>/=</b> modifier requests that the values of all potential captured
1.1.1.2 misho 506: parentheses be output after a match. By default, only those up to the highest
507: one actually used in the match are output (corresponding to the return code
1.1.1.4 misho 508: from <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b>). Values in the offsets vector corresponding to
1.1.1.2 misho 509: higher numbers should be set to -1, and these are output as "<unset>". This
510: modifier gives a way of checking that this is happening.
1.1 misho 511: </P>
512: <P>
513: The <b>/B</b> modifier is a debugging feature. It requests that <b>pcretest</b>
1.1.1.2 misho 514: output a representation of the compiled code after compilation. Normally this
515: information contains length and offset values; however, if <b>/Z</b> is also
516: present, this data is replaced by spaces. This is a special feature for use in
517: the automatic test scripts; it ensures that the same output is generated for
518: different internal link sizes.
1.1 misho 519: </P>
520: <P>
521: The <b>/D</b> modifier is a PCRE debugging feature, and is equivalent to
522: <b>/BI</b>, that is, both the <b>/B</b> and the <b>/I</b> modifiers.
523: </P>
524: <P>
525: The <b>/F</b> modifier causes <b>pcretest</b> to flip the byte order of the
1.1.1.2 misho 526: 2-byte and 4-byte fields in the compiled pattern. This facility is for testing
527: the feature in PCRE that allows it to execute patterns that were compiled on a
528: host with a different endianness. This feature is not available when the POSIX
529: interface to PCRE is being used, that is, when the <b>/P</b> pattern modifier is
530: specified. See also the section about saving and reloading compiled patterns
531: below.
1.1 misho 532: </P>
533: <P>
534: The <b>/I</b> modifier requests that <b>pcretest</b> output information about the
535: compiled pattern (whether it is anchored, has a fixed first character, and
1.1.1.4 misho 536: so on). It does this by calling <b>pcre[16|32]_fullinfo()</b> after compiling a
1.1 misho 537: pattern. If the pattern is studied, the results of that are also output.
538: </P>
539: <P>
540: The <b>/K</b> modifier requests <b>pcretest</b> to show names from backtracking
1.1.1.4 misho 541: control verbs that are returned from calls to <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b>. It causes
542: <b>pcretest</b> to create a <b>pcre[16|32]_extra</b> block if one has not already
543: been created by a call to <b>pcre[16|32]_study()</b>, and to set the
1.1.1.2 misho 544: PCRE_EXTRA_MARK flag and the <b>mark</b> field within it, every time that
1.1.1.4 misho 545: <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> is called. If the variable that the <b>mark</b> field
1.1.1.2 misho 546: points to is non-NULL for a match, non-match, or partial match, <b>pcretest</b>
547: prints the string to which it points. For a match, this is shown on a line by
548: itself, tagged with "MK:". For a non-match it is added to the message.
1.1 misho 549: </P>
550: <P>
551: The <b>/L</b> modifier must be followed directly by the name of a locale, for
552: example,
553: <pre>
554: /pattern/Lfr_FR
555: </pre>
556: For this reason, it must be the last modifier. The given locale is set,
1.1.1.4 misho 557: <b>pcre[16|32]_maketables()</b> is called to build a set of character tables for
558: the locale, and this is then passed to <b>pcre[16|32]_compile()</b> when compiling
1.1.1.2 misho 559: the regular expression. Without an <b>/L</b> (or <b>/T</b>) modifier, NULL is
560: passed as the tables pointer; that is, <b>/L</b> applies only to the expression
561: on which it appears.
1.1 misho 562: </P>
563: <P>
1.1.1.2 misho 564: The <b>/M</b> modifier causes the size in bytes of the memory block used to hold
565: the compiled pattern to be output. This does not include the size of the
1.1.1.4 misho 566: <b>pcre[16|32]</b> block; it is just the actual compiled data. If the pattern is
1.1.1.2 misho 567: successfully studied with the PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE option, the size of the
568: JIT compiled code is also output.
1.1 misho 569: </P>
570: <P>
1.1.1.4 misho 571: The <b>/S</b> modifier causes <b>pcre[16|32]_study()</b> to be called after the
572: expression has been compiled, and the results used when the expression is
573: matched. There are a number of qualifying characters that may follow <b>/S</b>.
574: They may appear in any order.
575: </P>
576: <P>
1.1.1.5 ! misho 577: If <b>/S</b> is followed by an exclamation mark, <b>pcre[16|32]_study()</b> is
! 578: called with the PCRE_STUDY_EXTRA_NEEDED option, causing it always to return a
1.1.1.4 misho 579: <b>pcre_extra</b> block, even when studying discovers no useful information.
580: </P>
581: <P>
582: If <b>/S</b> is followed by a second S character, it suppresses studying, even
1.1 misho 583: if it was requested externally by the <b>-s</b> command line option. This makes
584: it possible to specify that certain patterns are always studied, and others are
585: never studied, independently of <b>-s</b>. This feature is used in the test
586: files in a few cases where the output is different when the pattern is studied.
587: </P>
588: <P>
1.1.1.4 misho 589: If the <b>/S</b> modifier is followed by a + character, the call to
590: <b>pcre[16|32]_study()</b> is made with all the JIT study options, requesting
1.1.1.3 misho 591: just-in-time optimization support if it is available, for both normal and
592: partial matching. If you want to restrict the JIT compiling modes, you can
593: follow <b>/S+</b> with a digit in the range 1 to 7:
594: <pre>
595: 1 normal match only
596: 2 soft partial match only
597: 3 normal match and soft partial match
598: 4 hard partial match only
599: 6 soft and hard partial match
600: 7 all three modes (default)
601: </pre>
602: If <b>/S++</b> is used instead of <b>/S+</b> (with or without a following digit),
603: the text "(JIT)" is added to the first output line after a match or no match
604: when JIT-compiled code was actually used.
605: </P>
606: <P>
607: Note that there is also an independent <b>/+</b> modifier; it must not be given
608: immediately after <b>/S</b> or <b>/S+</b> because this will be misinterpreted.
609: </P>
610: <P>
611: If JIT studying is successful, the compiled JIT code will automatically be used
1.1.1.4 misho 612: when <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> is run, except when incompatible run-time options
1.1.1.3 misho 613: are specified. For more details, see the
1.1 misho 614: <a href="pcrejit.html"><b>pcrejit</b></a>
615: documentation. See also the <b>\J</b> escape sequence below for a way of
616: setting the size of the JIT stack.
617: </P>
618: <P>
1.1.1.4 misho 619: Finally, if <b>/S</b> is followed by a minus character, JIT compilation is
620: suppressed, even if it was requested externally by the <b>-s</b> command line
621: option. This makes it possible to specify that JIT is never to be used for
622: certain patterns.
623: </P>
624: <P>
1.1 misho 625: The <b>/T</b> modifier must be followed by a single digit. It causes a specific
1.1.1.4 misho 626: set of built-in character tables to be passed to <b>pcre[16|32]_compile()</b>. It
1.1.1.2 misho 627: is used in the standard PCRE tests to check behaviour with different character
1.1 misho 628: tables. The digit specifies the tables as follows:
629: <pre>
630: 0 the default ASCII tables, as distributed in
631: pcre_chartables.c.dist
632: 1 a set of tables defining ISO 8859 characters
633: </pre>
634: In table 1, some characters whose codes are greater than 128 are identified as
635: letters, digits, spaces, etc.
636: </P>
637: <br><b>
638: Using the POSIX wrapper API
639: </b><br>
640: <P>
641: The <b>/P</b> modifier causes <b>pcretest</b> to call PCRE via the POSIX wrapper
1.1.1.2 misho 642: API rather than its native API. This supports only the 8-bit library. When
643: <b>/P</b> is set, the following modifiers set options for the <b>regcomp()</b>
644: function:
1.1 misho 645: <pre>
646: /i REG_ICASE
647: /m REG_NEWLINE
648: /N REG_NOSUB
649: /s REG_DOTALL )
650: /U REG_UNGREEDY ) These options are not part of
651: /W REG_UCP ) the POSIX standard
652: /8 REG_UTF8 )
653: </pre>
654: The <b>/+</b> modifier works as described above. All other modifiers are
655: ignored.
656: </P>
1.1.1.5 ! misho 657: <br><b>
! 658: Locking out certain modifiers
! 659: </b><br>
! 660: <P>
! 661: PCRE can be compiled with or without support for certain features such as
! 662: UTF-8/16/32 or Unicode properties. Accordingly, the standard tests are split up
! 663: into a number of different files that are selected for running depending on
! 664: which features are available. When updating the tests, it is all too easy to
! 665: put a new test into the wrong file by mistake; for example, to put a test that
! 666: requires UTF support into a file that is used when it is not available. To help
! 667: detect such mistakes as early as possible, there is a facility for locking out
! 668: specific modifiers. If an input line for <b>pcretest</b> starts with the string
! 669: "< forbid " the following sequence of characters is taken as a list of
! 670: forbidden modifiers. For example, in the test files that must not use UTF or
! 671: Unicode property support, this line appears:
! 672: <pre>
! 673: < forbid 8W
! 674: </pre>
! 675: This locks out the /8 and /W modifiers. An immediate error is given if they are
! 676: subsequently encountered. If the character string contains < but not >, all the
! 677: multi-character modifiers that begin with < are locked out. Otherwise, such
! 678: modifiers must be explicitly listed, for example:
! 679: <pre>
! 680: < forbid <JS><cr>
! 681: </pre>
! 682: There must be a single space between < and "forbid" for this feature to be
! 683: recognised. If there is not, the line is interpreted either as a request to
! 684: re-load a pre-compiled pattern (see "SAVING AND RELOADING COMPILED PATTERNS"
! 685: below) or, if there is a another < character, as a pattern that uses < as its
! 686: delimiter.
! 687: </P>
1.1.1.4 misho 688: <br><a name="SEC7" href="#TOC1">DATA LINES</a><br>
1.1 misho 689: <P>
1.1.1.4 misho 690: Before each data line is passed to <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b>, leading and trailing
1.1 misho 691: white space is removed, and it is then scanned for \ escapes. Some of these
692: are pretty esoteric features, intended for checking out some of the more
693: complicated features of PCRE. If you are just testing "ordinary" regular
694: expressions, you probably don't need any of these. The following escapes are
695: recognized:
696: <pre>
697: \a alarm (BEL, \x07)
698: \b backspace (\x08)
699: \e escape (\x27)
700: \f form feed (\x0c)
701: \n newline (\x0a)
702: \qdd set the PCRE_MATCH_LIMIT limit to dd (any number of digits)
703: \r carriage return (\x0d)
704: \t tab (\x09)
705: \v vertical tab (\x0b)
1.1.1.2 misho 706: \nnn octal character (up to 3 octal digits); always
1.1.1.4 misho 707: a byte unless > 255 in UTF-8 or 16-bit or 32-bit mode
1.1.1.5 ! misho 708: \o{dd...} octal character (any number of octal digits}
1.1 misho 709: \xhh hexadecimal byte (up to 2 hex digits)
1.1.1.2 misho 710: \x{hh...} hexadecimal character (any number of hex digits)
1.1.1.4 misho 711: \A pass the PCRE_ANCHORED option to <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b>
712: \B pass the PCRE_NOTBOL option to <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b>
713: \Cdd call pcre[16|32]_copy_substring() for substring dd after a successful match (number less than 32)
714: \Cname call pcre[16|32]_copy_named_substring() for substring "name" after a successful match (name termin-
1.1 misho 715: ated by next non alphanumeric character)
716: \C+ show the current captured substrings at callout time
717: \C- do not supply a callout function
718: \C!n return 1 instead of 0 when callout number n is reached
719: \C!n!m return 1 instead of 0 when callout number n is reached for the nth time
720: \C*n pass the number n (may be negative) as callout data; this is used as the callout return value
1.1.1.4 misho 721: \D use the <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b> match function
722: \F only shortest match for <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b>
723: \Gdd call pcre[16|32]_get_substring() for substring dd after a successful match (number less than 32)
724: \Gname call pcre[16|32]_get_named_substring() for substring "name" after a successful match (name termin-
1.1 misho 725: ated by next non-alphanumeric character)
726: \Jdd set up a JIT stack of dd kilobytes maximum (any number of digits)
1.1.1.4 misho 727: \L call pcre[16|32]_get_substringlist() after a successful match
1.1 misho 728: \M discover the minimum MATCH_LIMIT and MATCH_LIMIT_RECURSION settings
1.1.1.4 misho 729: \N pass the PCRE_NOTEMPTY option to <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b>; if used twice, pass the
1.1 misho 730: PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART option
1.1.1.4 misho 731: \Odd set the size of the output vector passed to <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> to dd (any number of digits)
732: \P pass the PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT option to <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b>; if used twice, pass the
1.1 misho 733: PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD option
734: \Qdd set the PCRE_MATCH_LIMIT_RECURSION limit to dd (any number of digits)
1.1.1.4 misho 735: \R pass the PCRE_DFA_RESTART option to <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b>
1.1 misho 736: \S output details of memory get/free calls during matching
1.1.1.4 misho 737: \Y pass the PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE option to <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b>
738: \Z pass the PCRE_NOTEOL option to <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b>
739: \? pass the PCRE_NO_UTF[8|16|32]_CHECK option to <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b>
1.1 misho 740: \>dd start the match at offset dd (optional "-"; then any number of digits); this sets the <i>startoffset</i>
1.1.1.4 misho 741: argument for <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b>
742: \<cr> pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_CR option to <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b>
743: \<lf> pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_LF option to <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b>
744: \<crlf> pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF option to <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b>
745: \<anycrlf> pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF option to <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b>
746: \<any> pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_ANY option to <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> or <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b>
1.1.1.2 misho 747: </pre>
748: The use of \x{hh...} is not dependent on the use of the <b>/8</b> modifier on
749: the pattern. It is recognized always. There may be any number of hexadecimal
750: digits inside the braces; invalid values provoke error messages.
751: </P>
752: <P>
753: Note that \xhh specifies one byte rather than one character in UTF-8 mode;
754: this makes it possible to construct invalid UTF-8 sequences for testing
755: purposes. On the other hand, \x{hh} is interpreted as a UTF-8 character in
756: UTF-8 mode, generating more than one byte if the value is greater than 127.
757: When testing the 8-bit library not in UTF-8 mode, \x{hh} generates one byte
758: for values less than 256, and causes an error for greater values.
759: </P>
760: <P>
761: In UTF-16 mode, all 4-digit \x{hhhh} values are accepted. This makes it
762: possible to construct invalid UTF-16 sequences for testing purposes.
1.1 misho 763: </P>
764: <P>
1.1.1.4 misho 765: In UTF-32 mode, all 4- to 8-digit \x{...} values are accepted. This makes it
766: possible to construct invalid UTF-32 sequences for testing purposes.
767: </P>
768: <P>
1.1 misho 769: The escapes that specify line ending sequences are literal strings, exactly as
770: shown. No more than one newline setting should be present in any data line.
771: </P>
772: <P>
773: A backslash followed by anything else just escapes the anything else. If
774: the very last character is a backslash, it is ignored. This gives a way of
775: passing an empty line as data, since a real empty line terminates the data
776: input.
777: </P>
778: <P>
779: The <b>\J</b> escape provides a way of setting the maximum stack size that is
780: used by the just-in-time optimization code. It is ignored if JIT optimization
781: is not being used. Providing a stack that is larger than the default 32K is
782: necessary only for very complicated patterns.
783: </P>
784: <P>
1.1.1.4 misho 785: If \M is present, <b>pcretest</b> calls <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> several times,
1.1.1.2 misho 786: with different values in the <i>match_limit</i> and <i>match_limit_recursion</i>
1.1.1.4 misho 787: fields of the <b>pcre[16|32]_extra</b> data structure, until it finds the minimum
788: numbers for each parameter that allow <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> to complete without
1.1 misho 789: error. Because this is testing a specific feature of the normal interpretive
1.1.1.4 misho 790: <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> execution, the use of any JIT optimization that might
1.1.1.2 misho 791: have been set up by the <b>/S+</b> qualifier of <b>-s+</b> option is disabled.
1.1 misho 792: </P>
793: <P>
794: The <i>match_limit</i> number is a measure of the amount of backtracking
795: that takes place, and checking it out can be instructive. For most simple
796: matches, the number is quite small, but for patterns with very large numbers of
797: matching possibilities, it can become large very quickly with increasing length
798: of subject string. The <i>match_limit_recursion</i> number is a measure of how
799: much stack (or, if PCRE is compiled with NO_RECURSE, how much heap) memory is
800: needed to complete the match attempt.
801: </P>
802: <P>
803: When \O is used, the value specified may be higher or lower than the size set
804: by the <b>-O</b> command line option (or defaulted to 45); \O applies only to
1.1.1.4 misho 805: the call of <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> for the line in which it appears.
1.1 misho 806: </P>
807: <P>
808: If the <b>/P</b> modifier was present on the pattern, causing the POSIX wrapper
809: API to be used, the only option-setting sequences that have any effect are \B,
810: \N, and \Z, causing REG_NOTBOL, REG_NOTEMPTY, and REG_NOTEOL, respectively,
811: to be passed to <b>regexec()</b>.
812: </P>
1.1.1.4 misho 813: <br><a name="SEC8" href="#TOC1">THE ALTERNATIVE MATCHING FUNCTION</a><br>
1.1 misho 814: <P>
815: By default, <b>pcretest</b> uses the standard PCRE matching function,
1.1.1.4 misho 816: <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> to match each data line. PCRE also supports an
817: alternative matching function, <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_test()</b>, which operates in a
1.1 misho 818: different way, and has some restrictions. The differences between the two
819: functions are described in the
820: <a href="pcrematching.html"><b>pcrematching</b></a>
821: documentation.
822: </P>
823: <P>
824: If a data line contains the \D escape sequence, or if the command line
1.1.1.2 misho 825: contains the <b>-dfa</b> option, the alternative matching function is used.
1.1 misho 826: This function finds all possible matches at a given point. If, however, the \F
827: escape sequence is present in the data line, it stops after the first match is
828: found. This is always the shortest possible match.
829: </P>
1.1.1.4 misho 830: <br><a name="SEC9" href="#TOC1">DEFAULT OUTPUT FROM PCRETEST</a><br>
1.1 misho 831: <P>
832: This section describes the output when the normal matching function,
1.1.1.4 misho 833: <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b>, is being used.
1.1 misho 834: </P>
835: <P>
836: When a match succeeds, <b>pcretest</b> outputs the list of captured substrings
1.1.1.4 misho 837: that <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> returns, starting with number 0 for the string that
1.1 misho 838: matched the whole pattern. Otherwise, it outputs "No match" when the return is
839: PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH, and "Partial match:" followed by the partially matching
1.1.1.4 misho 840: substring when <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> returns PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL. (Note that
1.1.1.2 misho 841: this is the entire substring that was inspected during the partial match; it
842: may include characters before the actual match start if a lookbehind assertion,
1.1 misho 843: \K, \b, or \B was involved.) For any other return, <b>pcretest</b> outputs
844: the PCRE negative error number and a short descriptive phrase. If the error is
1.1.1.2 misho 845: a failed UTF string check, the offset of the start of the failing character and
846: the reason code are also output, provided that the size of the output vector is
847: at least two. Here is an example of an interactive <b>pcretest</b> run.
1.1 misho 848: <pre>
849: $ pcretest
850: PCRE version 8.13 2011-04-30
851:
852: re> /^abc(\d+)/
853: data> abc123
854: 0: abc123
855: 1: 123
856: data> xyz
857: No match
858: </pre>
859: Unset capturing substrings that are not followed by one that is set are not
1.1.1.4 misho 860: returned by <b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b>, and are not shown by <b>pcretest</b>. In the
1.1 misho 861: following example, there are two capturing substrings, but when the first data
862: line is matched, the second, unset substring is not shown. An "internal" unset
863: substring is shown as "<unset>", as for the second data line.
864: <pre>
865: re> /(a)|(b)/
866: data> a
867: 0: a
868: 1: a
869: data> b
870: 0: b
871: 1: <unset>
872: 2: b
873: </pre>
1.1.1.2 misho 874: If the strings contain any non-printing characters, they are output as \xhh
875: escapes if the value is less than 256 and UTF mode is not set. Otherwise they
876: are output as \x{hh...} escapes. See below for the definition of non-printing
877: characters. If the pattern has the <b>/+</b> modifier, the output for substring
878: 0 is followed by the the rest of the subject string, identified by "0+" like
879: this:
1.1 misho 880: <pre>
881: re> /cat/+
882: data> cataract
883: 0: cat
884: 0+ aract
885: </pre>
886: If the pattern has the <b>/g</b> or <b>/G</b> modifier, the results of successive
887: matching attempts are output in sequence, like this:
888: <pre>
889: re> /\Bi(\w\w)/g
890: data> Mississippi
891: 0: iss
892: 1: ss
893: 0: iss
894: 1: ss
895: 0: ipp
896: 1: pp
897: </pre>
898: "No match" is output only if the first match attempt fails. Here is an example
899: of a failure message (the offset 4 that is specified by \>4 is past the end of
900: the subject string):
901: <pre>
902: re> /xyz/
903: data> xyz\>4
904: Error -24 (bad offset value)
905: </PRE>
906: </P>
907: <P>
908: If any of the sequences <b>\C</b>, <b>\G</b>, or <b>\L</b> are present in a
909: data line that is successfully matched, the substrings extracted by the
910: convenience functions are output with C, G, or L after the string number
911: instead of a colon. This is in addition to the normal full list. The string
912: length (that is, the return from the extraction function) is given in
913: parentheses after each string for <b>\C</b> and <b>\G</b>.
914: </P>
915: <P>
916: Note that whereas patterns can be continued over several lines (a plain ">"
917: prompt is used for continuations), data lines may not. However newlines can be
918: included in data by means of the \n escape (or \r, \r\n, etc., depending on
919: the newline sequence setting).
920: </P>
1.1.1.4 misho 921: <br><a name="SEC10" href="#TOC1">OUTPUT FROM THE ALTERNATIVE MATCHING FUNCTION</a><br>
1.1 misho 922: <P>
1.1.1.4 misho 923: When the alternative matching function, <b>pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec()</b>, is used (by
1.1 misho 924: means of the \D escape sequence or the <b>-dfa</b> command line option), the
925: output consists of a list of all the matches that start at the first point in
926: the subject where there is at least one match. For example:
927: <pre>
928: re> /(tang|tangerine|tan)/
929: data> yellow tangerine\D
930: 0: tangerine
931: 1: tang
932: 2: tan
933: </pre>
934: (Using the normal matching function on this data finds only "tang".) The
935: longest matching string is always given first (and numbered zero). After a
936: PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL return, the output is "Partial match:", followed by the
937: partially matching substring. (Note that this is the entire substring that was
938: inspected during the partial match; it may include characters before the actual
939: match start if a lookbehind assertion, \K, \b, or \B was involved.)
940: </P>
941: <P>
942: If <b>/g</b> is present on the pattern, the search for further matches resumes
943: at the end of the longest match. For example:
944: <pre>
945: re> /(tang|tangerine|tan)/g
946: data> yellow tangerine and tangy sultana\D
947: 0: tangerine
948: 1: tang
949: 2: tan
950: 0: tang
951: 1: tan
952: 0: tan
953: </pre>
954: Since the matching function does not support substring capture, the escape
955: sequences that are concerned with captured substrings are not relevant.
956: </P>
1.1.1.4 misho 957: <br><a name="SEC11" href="#TOC1">RESTARTING AFTER A PARTIAL MATCH</a><br>
1.1 misho 958: <P>
959: When the alternative matching function has given the PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL return,
960: indicating that the subject partially matched the pattern, you can restart the
961: match with additional subject data by means of the \R escape sequence. For
962: example:
963: <pre>
964: re> /^\d?\d(jan|feb|mar|apr|may|jun|jul|aug|sep|oct|nov|dec)\d\d$/
965: data> 23ja\P\D
966: Partial match: 23ja
967: data> n05\R\D
968: 0: n05
969: </pre>
970: For further information about partial matching, see the
971: <a href="pcrepartial.html"><b>pcrepartial</b></a>
972: documentation.
973: </P>
1.1.1.4 misho 974: <br><a name="SEC12" href="#TOC1">CALLOUTS</a><br>
1.1 misho 975: <P>
976: If the pattern contains any callout requests, <b>pcretest</b>'s callout function
977: is called during matching. This works with both matching functions. By default,
978: the called function displays the callout number, the start and current
979: positions in the text at the callout time, and the next pattern item to be
1.1.1.2 misho 980: tested. For example:
1.1 misho 981: <pre>
982: --->pqrabcdef
983: 0 ^ ^ \d
984: </pre>
1.1.1.2 misho 985: This output indicates that callout number 0 occurred for a match attempt
986: starting at the fourth character of the subject string, when the pointer was at
987: the seventh character of the data, and when the next pattern item was \d. Just
988: one circumflex is output if the start and current positions are the same.
1.1 misho 989: </P>
990: <P>
991: Callouts numbered 255 are assumed to be automatic callouts, inserted as a
992: result of the <b>/C</b> pattern modifier. In this case, instead of showing the
993: callout number, the offset in the pattern, preceded by a plus, is output. For
994: example:
995: <pre>
996: re> /\d?[A-E]\*/C
997: data> E*
998: --->E*
999: +0 ^ \d?
1000: +3 ^ [A-E]
1001: +8 ^^ \*
1002: +10 ^ ^
1003: 0: E*
1004: </pre>
1005: If a pattern contains (*MARK) items, an additional line is output whenever
1006: a change of latest mark is passed to the callout function. For example:
1007: <pre>
1008: re> /a(*MARK:X)bc/C
1009: data> abc
1010: --->abc
1011: +0 ^ a
1012: +1 ^^ (*MARK:X)
1013: +10 ^^ b
1014: Latest Mark: X
1015: +11 ^ ^ c
1016: +12 ^ ^
1017: 0: abc
1018: </pre>
1019: The mark changes between matching "a" and "b", but stays the same for the rest
1020: of the match, so nothing more is output. If, as a result of backtracking, the
1021: mark reverts to being unset, the text "<unset>" is output.
1022: </P>
1023: <P>
1024: The callout function in <b>pcretest</b> returns zero (carry on matching) by
1025: default, but you can use a \C item in a data line (as described above) to
1026: change this and other parameters of the callout.
1027: </P>
1028: <P>
1029: Inserting callouts can be helpful when using <b>pcretest</b> to check
1030: complicated regular expressions. For further information about callouts, see
1031: the
1032: <a href="pcrecallout.html"><b>pcrecallout</b></a>
1033: documentation.
1034: </P>
1.1.1.4 misho 1035: <br><a name="SEC13" href="#TOC1">NON-PRINTING CHARACTERS</a><br>
1.1 misho 1036: <P>
1037: When <b>pcretest</b> is outputting text in the compiled version of a pattern,
1038: bytes other than 32-126 are always treated as non-printing characters are are
1039: therefore shown as hex escapes.
1040: </P>
1041: <P>
1042: When <b>pcretest</b> is outputting text that is a matched part of a subject
1043: string, it behaves in the same way, unless a different locale has been set for
1044: the pattern (using the <b>/L</b> modifier). In this case, the <b>isprint()</b>
1045: function to distinguish printing and non-printing characters.
1046: </P>
1.1.1.4 misho 1047: <br><a name="SEC14" href="#TOC1">SAVING AND RELOADING COMPILED PATTERNS</a><br>
1.1 misho 1048: <P>
1049: The facilities described in this section are not available when the POSIX
1050: interface to PCRE is being used, that is, when the <b>/P</b> pattern modifier is
1051: specified.
1052: </P>
1053: <P>
1054: When the POSIX interface is not in use, you can cause <b>pcretest</b> to write a
1055: compiled pattern to a file, by following the modifiers with > and a file name.
1056: For example:
1057: <pre>
1058: /pattern/im >/some/file
1059: </pre>
1060: See the
1061: <a href="pcreprecompile.html"><b>pcreprecompile</b></a>
1062: documentation for a discussion about saving and re-using compiled patterns.
1063: Note that if the pattern was successfully studied with JIT optimization, the
1064: JIT data cannot be saved.
1065: </P>
1066: <P>
1067: The data that is written is binary. The first eight bytes are the length of the
1068: compiled pattern data followed by the length of the optional study data, each
1069: written as four bytes in big-endian order (most significant byte first). If
1070: there is no study data (either the pattern was not studied, or studying did not
1071: return any data), the second length is zero. The lengths are followed by an
1072: exact copy of the compiled pattern. If there is additional study data, this
1073: (excluding any JIT data) follows immediately after the compiled pattern. After
1074: writing the file, <b>pcretest</b> expects to read a new pattern.
1075: </P>
1076: <P>
1077: A saved pattern can be reloaded into <b>pcretest</b> by specifying < and a file
1.1.1.5 ! misho 1078: name instead of a pattern. There must be no space between < and the file name,
! 1079: which must not contain a < character, as otherwise <b>pcretest</b> will
! 1080: interpret the line as a pattern delimited by < characters. For example:
1.1 misho 1081: <pre>
1082: re> </some/file
1083: Compiled pattern loaded from /some/file
1084: No study data
1085: </pre>
1086: If the pattern was previously studied with the JIT optimization, the JIT
1087: information cannot be saved and restored, and so is lost. When the pattern has
1088: been loaded, <b>pcretest</b> proceeds to read data lines in the usual way.
1089: </P>
1090: <P>
1091: You can copy a file written by <b>pcretest</b> to a different host and reload it
1092: there, even if the new host has opposite endianness to the one on which the
1093: pattern was compiled. For example, you can compile on an i86 machine and run on
1.1.1.2 misho 1094: a SPARC machine. When a pattern is reloaded on a host with different
1095: endianness, the confirmation message is changed to:
1096: <pre>
1097: Compiled pattern (byte-inverted) loaded from /some/file
1098: </pre>
1099: The test suite contains some saved pre-compiled patterns with different
1100: endianness. These are reloaded using "<!" instead of just "<". This suppresses
1101: the "(byte-inverted)" text so that the output is the same on all hosts. It also
1102: forces debugging output once the pattern has been reloaded.
1.1 misho 1103: </P>
1104: <P>
1105: File names for saving and reloading can be absolute or relative, but note that
1106: the shell facility of expanding a file name that starts with a tilde (~) is not
1107: available.
1108: </P>
1109: <P>
1110: The ability to save and reload files in <b>pcretest</b> is intended for testing
1111: and experimentation. It is not intended for production use because only a
1112: single pattern can be written to a file. Furthermore, there is no facility for
1113: supplying custom character tables for use with a reloaded pattern. If the
1114: original pattern was compiled with custom tables, an attempt to match a subject
1115: string using a reloaded pattern is likely to cause <b>pcretest</b> to crash.
1116: Finally, if you attempt to load a file that is not in the correct format, the
1117: result is undefined.
1118: </P>
1.1.1.4 misho 1119: <br><a name="SEC15" href="#TOC1">SEE ALSO</a><br>
1.1 misho 1120: <P>
1.1.1.4 misho 1121: <b>pcre</b>(3), <b>pcre16</b>(3), <b>pcre32</b>(3), <b>pcreapi</b>(3),
1122: <b>pcrecallout</b>(3),
1.1.1.2 misho 1123: <b>pcrejit</b>, <b>pcrematching</b>(3), <b>pcrepartial</b>(d),
1124: <b>pcrepattern</b>(3), <b>pcreprecompile</b>(3).
1.1 misho 1125: </P>
1.1.1.4 misho 1126: <br><a name="SEC16" href="#TOC1">AUTHOR</a><br>
1.1 misho 1127: <P>
1128: Philip Hazel
1129: <br>
1130: University Computing Service
1131: <br>
1132: Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
1133: <br>
1134: </P>
1.1.1.4 misho 1135: <br><a name="SEC17" href="#TOC1">REVISION</a><br>
1.1 misho 1136: <P>
1.1.1.5 ! misho 1137: Last updated: 12 November 2013
1.1 misho 1138: <br>
1.1.1.4 misho 1139: Copyright © 1997-2013 University of Cambridge.
1.1 misho 1140: <br>
1141: <p>
1142: Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
1143: </p>
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