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