--- embedaddon/pcre/doc/pcre.txt 2012/02/21 23:05:52 1.1.1.1 +++ embedaddon/pcre/doc/pcre.txt 2013/07/22 08:25:56 1.1.1.4 @@ -8,13 +8,13 @@ pcretest commands. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -PCRE(3) PCRE(3) +PCRE(3) Library Functions Manual PCRE(3) + NAME PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions - INTRODUCTION The PCRE library is a set of functions that implement regular expres- @@ -25,11 +25,35 @@ INTRODUCTION items, and there is an option for requesting some minor changes that give better JavaScript compatibility. + Starting with release 8.30, it is possible to compile two separate PCRE + libraries: the original, which supports 8-bit character strings + (including UTF-8 strings), and a second library that supports 16-bit + character strings (including UTF-16 strings). The build process allows + either one or both to be built. The majority of the work to make this + possible was done by Zoltan Herczeg. + + Starting with release 8.32 it is possible to compile a third separate + PCRE library that supports 32-bit character strings (including UTF-32 + strings). The build process allows any combination of the 8-, 16- and + 32-bit libraries. The work to make this possible was done by Christian + Persch. + + The three libraries contain identical sets of functions, except that + the names in the 16-bit library start with pcre16_ instead of pcre_, + and the names in the 32-bit library start with pcre32_ instead of + pcre_. To avoid over-complication and reduce the documentation mainte- + nance load, most of the documentation describes the 8-bit library, with + the differences for the 16-bit and 32-bit libraries described sepa- + rately in the pcre16 and pcre32 pages. References to functions or + structures of the form pcre[16|32]_xxx should be read as meaning + "pcre_xxx when using the 8-bit library, pcre16_xxx when using the + 16-bit library, or pcre32_xxx when using the 32-bit library". + The current implementation of PCRE corresponds approximately with Perl - 5.12, including support for UTF-8 encoded strings and Unicode general - category properties. However, UTF-8 and Unicode support has to be - explicitly enabled; it is not the default. The Unicode tables corre- - spond to Unicode release 6.0.0. + 5.12, including support for UTF-8/16/32 encoded strings and Unicode + general category properties. However, UTF-8/16/32 and Unicode support + has to be explicitly enabled; it is not the default. The Unicode tables + correspond to Unicode release 6.2.0. In addition to the Perl-compatible matching function, PCRE contains an alternative function that matches the same compiled patterns in a dif- @@ -39,52 +63,88 @@ INTRODUCTION PCRE is written in C and released as a C library. A number of people have written wrappers and interfaces of various kinds. In particular, - Google Inc. have provided a comprehensive C++ wrapper. This is now - included as part of the PCRE distribution. The pcrecpp page has details - of this interface. Other people's contributions can be found in the - Contrib directory at the primary FTP site, which is: + Google Inc. have provided a comprehensive C++ wrapper for the 8-bit + library. This is now included as part of the PCRE distribution. The + pcrecpp page has details of this interface. Other people's contribu- + tions can be found in the Contrib directory at the primary FTP site, + which is: ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre - Details of exactly which Perl regular expression features are and are + Details of exactly which Perl regular expression features are and are not supported by PCRE are given in separate documents. See the pcrepat- - tern and pcrecompat pages. There is a syntax summary in the pcresyntax + tern and pcrecompat pages. There is a syntax summary in the pcresyntax page. - Some features of PCRE can be included, excluded, or changed when the - library is built. The pcre_config() function makes it possible for a - client to discover which features are available. The features them- - selves are described in the pcrebuild page. Documentation about build- - ing PCRE for various operating systems can be found in the README and - NON-UNIX-USE files in the source distribution. + Some features of PCRE can be included, excluded, or changed when the + library is built. The pcre_config() function makes it possible for a + client to discover which features are available. The features them- + selves are described in the pcrebuild page. Documentation about build- + ing PCRE for various operating systems can be found in the README and + NON-AUTOTOOLS_BUILD files in the source distribution. - The library contains a number of undocumented internal functions and - data tables that are used by more than one of the exported external - functions, but which are not intended for use by external callers. - Their names all begin with "_pcre_", which hopefully will not provoke - any name clashes. In some environments, it is possible to control which - external symbols are exported when a shared library is built, and in - these cases the undocumented symbols are not exported. + The libraries contains a number of undocumented internal functions and + data tables that are used by more than one of the exported external + functions, but which are not intended for use by external callers. + Their names all begin with "_pcre_" or "_pcre16_" or "_pcre32_", which + hopefully will not provoke any name clashes. In some environments, it + is possible to control which external symbols are exported when a + shared library is built, and in these cases the undocumented symbols + are not exported. +SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS + + If you are using PCRE in a non-UTF application that permits users to + supply arbitrary patterns for compilation, you should be aware of a + feature that allows users to turn on UTF support from within a pattern, + provided that PCRE was built with UTF support. For example, an 8-bit + pattern that begins with "(*UTF8)" or "(*UTF)" turns on UTF-8 mode, + which interprets patterns and subjects as strings of UTF-8 characters + instead of individual 8-bit characters. This causes both the pattern + and any data against which it is matched to be checked for UTF-8 valid- + ity. If the data string is very long, such a check might use suffi- + ciently many resources as to cause your application to lose perfor- + mance. + + One way of guarding against this possibility is to use the + pcre_fullinfo() function to check the compiled pattern's options for + UTF. Alternatively, from release 8.33, you can set the PCRE_NEVER_UTF + option at compile time. This causes an compile time error if a pattern + contains a UTF-setting sequence. + + If your application is one that supports UTF, be aware that validity + checking can take time. If the same data string is to be matched many + times, you can use the PCRE_NO_UTF[8|16|32]_CHECK option for the second + and subsequent matches to save redundant checks. + + Another way that performance can be hit is by running a pattern that + has a very large search tree against a string that will never match. + Nested unlimited repeats in a pattern are a common example. PCRE pro- + vides some protection against this: see the PCRE_EXTRA_MATCH_LIMIT fea- + ture in the pcreapi page. + + USER DOCUMENTATION - The user documentation for PCRE comprises a number of different sec- - tions. In the "man" format, each of these is a separate "man page". In - the HTML format, each is a separate page, linked from the index page. - In the plain text format, all the sections, except the pcredemo sec- + The user documentation for PCRE comprises a number of different sec- + tions. In the "man" format, each of these is a separate "man page". In + the HTML format, each is a separate page, linked from the index page. + In the plain text format, all the sections, except the pcredemo sec- tion, are concatenated, for ease of searching. The sections are as fol- lows: pcre this document pcre-config show PCRE installation configuration information + pcre16 details of the 16-bit library + pcre32 details of the 32-bit library pcreapi details of PCRE's native C API - pcrebuild options for building PCRE + pcrebuild building PCRE pcrecallout details of the callout feature pcrecompat discussion of Perl compatibility - pcrecpp details of the C++ wrapper + pcrecpp details of the C++ wrapper for the 8-bit library pcredemo a demonstration C program that uses PCRE - pcregrep description of the pcregrep command + pcregrep description of the pcregrep command (8-bit only) pcrejit discussion of the just-in-time optimization support pcrelimits details of size and other limits pcrematching discussion of the two matching algorithms @@ -92,15 +152,15 @@ USER DOCUMENTATION pcrepattern syntax and semantics of supported regular expressions pcreperform discussion of performance issues - pcreposix the POSIX-compatible C API + pcreposix the POSIX-compatible C API for the 8-bit library pcreprecompile details of saving and re-using precompiled patterns pcresample discussion of the pcredemo program pcrestack discussion of stack usage pcresyntax quick syntax reference pcretest description of the pcretest testing command - pcreunicode discussion of Unicode and UTF-8 support + pcreunicode discussion of Unicode and UTF-8/16/32 support - In addition, in the "man" and HTML formats, there is a short page for + In addition, in the "man" and HTML formats, there is a short page for each C library function, listing its arguments and results. @@ -110,59 +170,762 @@ AUTHOR University Computing Service Cambridge CB2 3QH, England. - Putting an actual email address here seems to have been a spam magnet, - so I've taken it away. If you want to email me, use my two initials, + Putting an actual email address here seems to have been a spam magnet, + so I've taken it away. If you want to email me, use my two initials, followed by the two digits 10, at the domain cam.ac.uk. REVISION - Last updated: 24 August 2011 - Copyright (c) 1997-2011 University of Cambridge. + Last updated: 13 May 2013 + Copyright (c) 1997-2013 University of Cambridge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -PCREBUILD(3) PCREBUILD(3) +PCRE(3) Library Functions Manual PCRE(3) + NAME PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions + #include + +PCRE 16-BIT API BASIC FUNCTIONS + + pcre16 *pcre16_compile(PCRE_SPTR16 pattern, int options, + const char **errptr, int *erroffset, + const unsigned char *tableptr); + + pcre16 *pcre16_compile2(PCRE_SPTR16 pattern, int options, + int *errorcodeptr, + const char **errptr, int *erroffset, + const unsigned char *tableptr); + + pcre16_extra *pcre16_study(const pcre16 *code, int options, + const char **errptr); + + void pcre16_free_study(pcre16_extra *extra); + + int pcre16_exec(const pcre16 *code, const pcre16_extra *extra, + PCRE_SPTR16 subject, int length, int startoffset, + int options, int *ovector, int ovecsize); + + int pcre16_dfa_exec(const pcre16 *code, const pcre16_extra *extra, + PCRE_SPTR16 subject, int length, int startoffset, + int options, int *ovector, int ovecsize, + int *workspace, int wscount); + + +PCRE 16-BIT API STRING EXTRACTION FUNCTIONS + + int pcre16_copy_named_substring(const pcre16 *code, + PCRE_SPTR16 subject, int *ovector, + int stringcount, PCRE_SPTR16 stringname, + PCRE_UCHAR16 *buffer, int buffersize); + + int pcre16_copy_substring(PCRE_SPTR16 subject, int *ovector, + int stringcount, int stringnumber, PCRE_UCHAR16 *buffer, + int buffersize); + + int pcre16_get_named_substring(const pcre16 *code, + PCRE_SPTR16 subject, int *ovector, + int stringcount, PCRE_SPTR16 stringname, + PCRE_SPTR16 *stringptr); + + int pcre16_get_stringnumber(const pcre16 *code, + PCRE_SPTR16 name); + + int pcre16_get_stringtable_entries(const pcre16 *code, + PCRE_SPTR16 name, PCRE_UCHAR16 **first, PCRE_UCHAR16 **last); + + int pcre16_get_substring(PCRE_SPTR16 subject, int *ovector, + int stringcount, int stringnumber, + PCRE_SPTR16 *stringptr); + + int pcre16_get_substring_list(PCRE_SPTR16 subject, + int *ovector, int stringcount, PCRE_SPTR16 **listptr); + + void pcre16_free_substring(PCRE_SPTR16 stringptr); + + void pcre16_free_substring_list(PCRE_SPTR16 *stringptr); + + +PCRE 16-BIT API AUXILIARY FUNCTIONS + + pcre16_jit_stack *pcre16_jit_stack_alloc(int startsize, int maxsize); + + void pcre16_jit_stack_free(pcre16_jit_stack *stack); + + void pcre16_assign_jit_stack(pcre16_extra *extra, + pcre16_jit_callback callback, void *data); + + const unsigned char *pcre16_maketables(void); + + int pcre16_fullinfo(const pcre16 *code, const pcre16_extra *extra, + int what, void *where); + + int pcre16_refcount(pcre16 *code, int adjust); + + int pcre16_config(int what, void *where); + + const char *pcre16_version(void); + + int pcre16_pattern_to_host_byte_order(pcre16 *code, + pcre16_extra *extra, const unsigned char *tables); + + +PCRE 16-BIT API INDIRECTED FUNCTIONS + + void *(*pcre16_malloc)(size_t); + + void (*pcre16_free)(void *); + + void *(*pcre16_stack_malloc)(size_t); + + void (*pcre16_stack_free)(void *); + + int (*pcre16_callout)(pcre16_callout_block *); + + +PCRE 16-BIT API 16-BIT-ONLY FUNCTION + + int pcre16_utf16_to_host_byte_order(PCRE_UCHAR16 *output, + PCRE_SPTR16 input, int length, int *byte_order, + int keep_boms); + + +THE PCRE 16-BIT LIBRARY + + Starting with release 8.30, it is possible to compile a PCRE library + that supports 16-bit character strings, including UTF-16 strings, as + well as or instead of the original 8-bit library. The majority of the + work to make this possible was done by Zoltan Herczeg. The two + libraries contain identical sets of functions, used in exactly the same + way. Only the names of the functions and the data types of their argu- + ments and results are different. To avoid over-complication and reduce + the documentation maintenance load, most of the PCRE documentation + describes the 8-bit library, with only occasional references to the + 16-bit library. This page describes what is different when you use the + 16-bit library. + + WARNING: A single application can be linked with both libraries, but + you must take care when processing any particular pattern to use func- + tions from just one library. For example, if you want to study a pat- + tern that was compiled with pcre16_compile(), you must do so with + pcre16_study(), not pcre_study(), and you must free the study data with + pcre16_free_study(). + + +THE HEADER FILE + + There is only one header file, pcre.h. It contains prototypes for all + the functions in all libraries, as well as definitions of flags, struc- + tures, error codes, etc. + + +THE LIBRARY NAME + + In Unix-like systems, the 16-bit library is called libpcre16, and can + normally be accesss by adding -lpcre16 to the command for linking an + application that uses PCRE. + + +STRING TYPES + + In the 8-bit library, strings are passed to PCRE library functions as + vectors of bytes with the C type "char *". In the 16-bit library, + strings are passed as vectors of unsigned 16-bit quantities. The macro + PCRE_UCHAR16 specifies an appropriate data type, and PCRE_SPTR16 is + defined as "const PCRE_UCHAR16 *". In very many environments, "short + int" is a 16-bit data type. When PCRE is built, it defines PCRE_UCHAR16 + as "unsigned short int", but checks that it really is a 16-bit data + type. If it is not, the build fails with an error message telling the + maintainer to modify the definition appropriately. + + +STRUCTURE TYPES + + The types of the opaque structures that are used for compiled 16-bit + patterns and JIT stacks are pcre16 and pcre16_jit_stack respectively. + The type of the user-accessible structure that is returned by + pcre16_study() is pcre16_extra, and the type of the structure that is + used for passing data to a callout function is pcre16_callout_block. + These structures contain the same fields, with the same names, as their + 8-bit counterparts. The only difference is that pointers to character + strings are 16-bit instead of 8-bit types. + + +16-BIT FUNCTIONS + + For every function in the 8-bit library there is a corresponding func- + tion in the 16-bit library with a name that starts with pcre16_ instead + of pcre_. The prototypes are listed above. In addition, there is one + extra function, pcre16_utf16_to_host_byte_order(). This is a utility + function that converts a UTF-16 character string to host byte order if + necessary. The other 16-bit functions expect the strings they are + passed to be in host byte order. + + The input and output arguments of pcre16_utf16_to_host_byte_order() may + point to the same address, that is, conversion in place is supported. + The output buffer must be at least as long as the input. + + The length argument specifies the number of 16-bit data units in the + input string; a negative value specifies a zero-terminated string. + + If byte_order is NULL, it is assumed that the string starts off in host + byte order. This may be changed by byte-order marks (BOMs) anywhere in + the string (commonly as the first character). + + If byte_order is not NULL, a non-zero value of the integer to which it + points means that the input starts off in host byte order, otherwise + the opposite order is assumed. Again, BOMs in the string can change + this. The final byte order is passed back at the end of processing. + + If keep_boms is not zero, byte-order mark characters (0xfeff) are + copied into the output string. Otherwise they are discarded. + + The result of the function is the number of 16-bit units placed into + the output buffer, including the zero terminator if the string was + zero-terminated. + + +SUBJECT STRING OFFSETS + + The lengths and starting offsets of subject strings must be specified + in 16-bit data units, and the offsets within subject strings that are + returned by the matching functions are in also 16-bit units rather than + bytes. + + +NAMED SUBPATTERNS + + The name-to-number translation table that is maintained for named sub- + patterns uses 16-bit characters. The pcre16_get_stringtable_entries() + function returns the length of each entry in the table as the number of + 16-bit data units. + + +OPTION NAMES + + There are two new general option names, PCRE_UTF16 and + PCRE_NO_UTF16_CHECK, which correspond to PCRE_UTF8 and + PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK in the 8-bit library. In fact, these new options + define the same bits in the options word. There is a discussion about + the validity of UTF-16 strings in the pcreunicode page. + + For the pcre16_config() function there is an option PCRE_CONFIG_UTF16 + that returns 1 if UTF-16 support is configured, otherwise 0. If this + option is given to pcre_config() or pcre32_config(), or if the + PCRE_CONFIG_UTF8 or PCRE_CONFIG_UTF32 option is given to pcre16_con- + fig(), the result is the PCRE_ERROR_BADOPTION error. + + +CHARACTER CODES + + In 16-bit mode, when PCRE_UTF16 is not set, character values are + treated in the same way as in 8-bit, non UTF-8 mode, except, of course, + that they can range from 0 to 0xffff instead of 0 to 0xff. Character + types for characters less than 0xff can therefore be influenced by the + locale in the same way as before. Characters greater than 0xff have + only one case, and no "type" (such as letter or digit). + + In UTF-16 mode, the character code is Unicode, in the range 0 to + 0x10ffff, with the exception of values in the range 0xd800 to 0xdfff + because those are "surrogate" values that are used in pairs to encode + values greater than 0xffff. + + A UTF-16 string can indicate its endianness by special code knows as a + byte-order mark (BOM). The PCRE functions do not handle this, expecting + strings to be in host byte order. A utility function called + pcre16_utf16_to_host_byte_order() is provided to help with this (see + above). + + +ERROR NAMES + + The errors PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF16_OFFSET and PCRE_ERROR_SHORTUTF16 corre- + spond to their 8-bit counterparts. The error PCRE_ERROR_BADMODE is + given when a compiled pattern is passed to a function that processes + patterns in the other mode, for example, if a pattern compiled with + pcre_compile() is passed to pcre16_exec(). + + There are new error codes whose names begin with PCRE_UTF16_ERR for + invalid UTF-16 strings, corresponding to the PCRE_UTF8_ERR codes for + UTF-8 strings that are described in the section entitled "Reason codes + for invalid UTF-8 strings" in the main pcreapi page. The UTF-16 errors + are: + + PCRE_UTF16_ERR1 Missing low surrogate at end of string + PCRE_UTF16_ERR2 Invalid low surrogate follows high surrogate + PCRE_UTF16_ERR3 Isolated low surrogate + PCRE_UTF16_ERR4 Non-character + + +ERROR TEXTS + + If there is an error while compiling a pattern, the error text that is + passed back by pcre16_compile() or pcre16_compile2() is still an 8-bit + character string, zero-terminated. + + +CALLOUTS + + The subject and mark fields in the callout block that is passed to a + callout function point to 16-bit vectors. + + +TESTING + + The pcretest program continues to operate with 8-bit input and output + files, but it can be used for testing the 16-bit library. If it is run + with the command line option -16, patterns and subject strings are con- + verted from 8-bit to 16-bit before being passed to PCRE, and the 16-bit + library functions are used instead of the 8-bit ones. Returned 16-bit + strings are converted to 8-bit for output. If both the 8-bit and the + 32-bit libraries were not compiled, pcretest defaults to 16-bit and the + -16 option is ignored. + + When PCRE is being built, the RunTest script that is called by "make + check" uses the pcretest -C option to discover which of the 8-bit, + 16-bit and 32-bit libraries has been built, and runs the tests appro- + priately. + + +NOT SUPPORTED IN 16-BIT MODE + + Not all the features of the 8-bit library are available with the 16-bit + library. The C++ and POSIX wrapper functions support only the 8-bit + library, and the pcregrep program is at present 8-bit only. + + +AUTHOR + + Philip Hazel + University Computing Service + Cambridge CB2 3QH, England. + + +REVISION + + Last updated: 12 May 2013 + Copyright (c) 1997-2013 University of Cambridge. +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + +PCRE(3) Library Functions Manual PCRE(3) + + + +NAME + PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions + + #include + + +PCRE 32-BIT API BASIC FUNCTIONS + + pcre32 *pcre32_compile(PCRE_SPTR32 pattern, int options, + const char **errptr, int *erroffset, + const unsigned char *tableptr); + + pcre32 *pcre32_compile2(PCRE_SPTR32 pattern, int options, + int *errorcodeptr, + const char **errptr, int *erroffset, + const unsigned char *tableptr); + + pcre32_extra *pcre32_study(const pcre32 *code, int options, + const char **errptr); + + void pcre32_free_study(pcre32_extra *extra); + + int pcre32_exec(const pcre32 *code, const pcre32_extra *extra, + PCRE_SPTR32 subject, int length, int startoffset, + int options, int *ovector, int ovecsize); + + int pcre32_dfa_exec(const pcre32 *code, const pcre32_extra *extra, + PCRE_SPTR32 subject, int length, int startoffset, + int options, int *ovector, int ovecsize, + int *workspace, int wscount); + + +PCRE 32-BIT API STRING EXTRACTION FUNCTIONS + + int pcre32_copy_named_substring(const pcre32 *code, + PCRE_SPTR32 subject, int *ovector, + int stringcount, PCRE_SPTR32 stringname, + PCRE_UCHAR32 *buffer, int buffersize); + + int pcre32_copy_substring(PCRE_SPTR32 subject, int *ovector, + int stringcount, int stringnumber, PCRE_UCHAR32 *buffer, + int buffersize); + + int pcre32_get_named_substring(const pcre32 *code, + PCRE_SPTR32 subject, int *ovector, + int stringcount, PCRE_SPTR32 stringname, + PCRE_SPTR32 *stringptr); + + int pcre32_get_stringnumber(const pcre32 *code, + PCRE_SPTR32 name); + + int pcre32_get_stringtable_entries(const pcre32 *code, + PCRE_SPTR32 name, PCRE_UCHAR32 **first, PCRE_UCHAR32 **last); + + int pcre32_get_substring(PCRE_SPTR32 subject, int *ovector, + int stringcount, int stringnumber, + PCRE_SPTR32 *stringptr); + + int pcre32_get_substring_list(PCRE_SPTR32 subject, + int *ovector, int stringcount, PCRE_SPTR32 **listptr); + + void pcre32_free_substring(PCRE_SPTR32 stringptr); + + void pcre32_free_substring_list(PCRE_SPTR32 *stringptr); + + +PCRE 32-BIT API AUXILIARY FUNCTIONS + + pcre32_jit_stack *pcre32_jit_stack_alloc(int startsize, int maxsize); + + void pcre32_jit_stack_free(pcre32_jit_stack *stack); + + void pcre32_assign_jit_stack(pcre32_extra *extra, + pcre32_jit_callback callback, void *data); + + const unsigned char *pcre32_maketables(void); + + int pcre32_fullinfo(const pcre32 *code, const pcre32_extra *extra, + int what, void *where); + + int pcre32_refcount(pcre32 *code, int adjust); + + int pcre32_config(int what, void *where); + + const char *pcre32_version(void); + + int pcre32_pattern_to_host_byte_order(pcre32 *code, + pcre32_extra *extra, const unsigned char *tables); + + +PCRE 32-BIT API INDIRECTED FUNCTIONS + + void *(*pcre32_malloc)(size_t); + + void (*pcre32_free)(void *); + + void *(*pcre32_stack_malloc)(size_t); + + void (*pcre32_stack_free)(void *); + + int (*pcre32_callout)(pcre32_callout_block *); + + +PCRE 32-BIT API 32-BIT-ONLY FUNCTION + + int pcre32_utf32_to_host_byte_order(PCRE_UCHAR32 *output, + PCRE_SPTR32 input, int length, int *byte_order, + int keep_boms); + + +THE PCRE 32-BIT LIBRARY + + Starting with release 8.32, it is possible to compile a PCRE library + that supports 32-bit character strings, including UTF-32 strings, as + well as or instead of the original 8-bit library. This work was done by + Christian Persch, based on the work done by Zoltan Herczeg for the + 16-bit library. All three libraries contain identical sets of func- + tions, used in exactly the same way. Only the names of the functions + and the data types of their arguments and results are different. To + avoid over-complication and reduce the documentation maintenance load, + most of the PCRE documentation describes the 8-bit library, with only + occasional references to the 16-bit and 32-bit libraries. This page + describes what is different when you use the 32-bit library. + + WARNING: A single application can be linked with all or any of the + three libraries, but you must take care when processing any particular + pattern to use functions from just one library. For example, if you + want to study a pattern that was compiled with pcre32_compile(), you + must do so with pcre32_study(), not pcre_study(), and you must free the + study data with pcre32_free_study(). + + +THE HEADER FILE + + There is only one header file, pcre.h. It contains prototypes for all + the functions in all libraries, as well as definitions of flags, struc- + tures, error codes, etc. + + +THE LIBRARY NAME + + In Unix-like systems, the 32-bit library is called libpcre32, and can + normally be accesss by adding -lpcre32 to the command for linking an + application that uses PCRE. + + +STRING TYPES + + In the 8-bit library, strings are passed to PCRE library functions as + vectors of bytes with the C type "char *". In the 32-bit library, + strings are passed as vectors of unsigned 32-bit quantities. The macro + PCRE_UCHAR32 specifies an appropriate data type, and PCRE_SPTR32 is + defined as "const PCRE_UCHAR32 *". In very many environments, "unsigned + int" is a 32-bit data type. When PCRE is built, it defines PCRE_UCHAR32 + as "unsigned int", but checks that it really is a 32-bit data type. If + it is not, the build fails with an error message telling the maintainer + to modify the definition appropriately. + + +STRUCTURE TYPES + + The types of the opaque structures that are used for compiled 32-bit + patterns and JIT stacks are pcre32 and pcre32_jit_stack respectively. + The type of the user-accessible structure that is returned by + pcre32_study() is pcre32_extra, and the type of the structure that is + used for passing data to a callout function is pcre32_callout_block. + These structures contain the same fields, with the same names, as their + 8-bit counterparts. The only difference is that pointers to character + strings are 32-bit instead of 8-bit types. + + +32-BIT FUNCTIONS + + For every function in the 8-bit library there is a corresponding func- + tion in the 32-bit library with a name that starts with pcre32_ instead + of pcre_. The prototypes are listed above. In addition, there is one + extra function, pcre32_utf32_to_host_byte_order(). This is a utility + function that converts a UTF-32 character string to host byte order if + necessary. The other 32-bit functions expect the strings they are + passed to be in host byte order. + + The input and output arguments of pcre32_utf32_to_host_byte_order() may + point to the same address, that is, conversion in place is supported. + The output buffer must be at least as long as the input. + + The length argument specifies the number of 32-bit data units in the + input string; a negative value specifies a zero-terminated string. + + If byte_order is NULL, it is assumed that the string starts off in host + byte order. This may be changed by byte-order marks (BOMs) anywhere in + the string (commonly as the first character). + + If byte_order is not NULL, a non-zero value of the integer to which it + points means that the input starts off in host byte order, otherwise + the opposite order is assumed. Again, BOMs in the string can change + this. The final byte order is passed back at the end of processing. + + If keep_boms is not zero, byte-order mark characters (0xfeff) are + copied into the output string. Otherwise they are discarded. + + The result of the function is the number of 32-bit units placed into + the output buffer, including the zero terminator if the string was + zero-terminated. + + +SUBJECT STRING OFFSETS + + The lengths and starting offsets of subject strings must be specified + in 32-bit data units, and the offsets within subject strings that are + returned by the matching functions are in also 32-bit units rather than + bytes. + + +NAMED SUBPATTERNS + + The name-to-number translation table that is maintained for named sub- + patterns uses 32-bit characters. The pcre32_get_stringtable_entries() + function returns the length of each entry in the table as the number of + 32-bit data units. + + +OPTION NAMES + + There are two new general option names, PCRE_UTF32 and + PCRE_NO_UTF32_CHECK, which correspond to PCRE_UTF8 and + PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK in the 8-bit library. In fact, these new options + define the same bits in the options word. There is a discussion about + the validity of UTF-32 strings in the pcreunicode page. + + For the pcre32_config() function there is an option PCRE_CONFIG_UTF32 + that returns 1 if UTF-32 support is configured, otherwise 0. If this + option is given to pcre_config() or pcre16_config(), or if the + PCRE_CONFIG_UTF8 or PCRE_CONFIG_UTF16 option is given to pcre32_con- + fig(), the result is the PCRE_ERROR_BADOPTION error. + + +CHARACTER CODES + + In 32-bit mode, when PCRE_UTF32 is not set, character values are + treated in the same way as in 8-bit, non UTF-8 mode, except, of course, + that they can range from 0 to 0x7fffffff instead of 0 to 0xff. Charac- + ter types for characters less than 0xff can therefore be influenced by + the locale in the same way as before. Characters greater than 0xff + have only one case, and no "type" (such as letter or digit). + + In UTF-32 mode, the character code is Unicode, in the range 0 to + 0x10ffff, with the exception of values in the range 0xd800 to 0xdfff + because those are "surrogate" values that are ill-formed in UTF-32. + + A UTF-32 string can indicate its endianness by special code knows as a + byte-order mark (BOM). The PCRE functions do not handle this, expecting + strings to be in host byte order. A utility function called + pcre32_utf32_to_host_byte_order() is provided to help with this (see + above). + + +ERROR NAMES + + The error PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF32 corresponds to its 8-bit counterpart. + The error PCRE_ERROR_BADMODE is given when a compiled pattern is passed + to a function that processes patterns in the other mode, for example, + if a pattern compiled with pcre_compile() is passed to pcre32_exec(). + + There are new error codes whose names begin with PCRE_UTF32_ERR for + invalid UTF-32 strings, corresponding to the PCRE_UTF8_ERR codes for + UTF-8 strings that are described in the section entitled "Reason codes + for invalid UTF-8 strings" in the main pcreapi page. The UTF-32 errors + are: + + PCRE_UTF32_ERR1 Surrogate character (range from 0xd800 to 0xdfff) + PCRE_UTF32_ERR2 Non-character + PCRE_UTF32_ERR3 Character > 0x10ffff + + +ERROR TEXTS + + If there is an error while compiling a pattern, the error text that is + passed back by pcre32_compile() or pcre32_compile2() is still an 8-bit + character string, zero-terminated. + + +CALLOUTS + + The subject and mark fields in the callout block that is passed to a + callout function point to 32-bit vectors. + + +TESTING + + The pcretest program continues to operate with 8-bit input and output + files, but it can be used for testing the 32-bit library. If it is run + with the command line option -32, patterns and subject strings are con- + verted from 8-bit to 32-bit before being passed to PCRE, and the 32-bit + library functions are used instead of the 8-bit ones. Returned 32-bit + strings are converted to 8-bit for output. If both the 8-bit and the + 16-bit libraries were not compiled, pcretest defaults to 32-bit and the + -32 option is ignored. + + When PCRE is being built, the RunTest script that is called by "make + check" uses the pcretest -C option to discover which of the 8-bit, + 16-bit and 32-bit libraries has been built, and runs the tests appro- + priately. + + +NOT SUPPORTED IN 32-BIT MODE + + Not all the features of the 8-bit library are available with the 32-bit + library. The C++ and POSIX wrapper functions support only the 8-bit + library, and the pcregrep program is at present 8-bit only. + + +AUTHOR + + Philip Hazel + University Computing Service + Cambridge CB2 3QH, England. + + +REVISION + + Last updated: 12 May 2013 + Copyright (c) 1997-2013 University of Cambridge. +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + +PCREBUILD(3) Library Functions Manual PCREBUILD(3) + + + +NAME + PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions + +BUILDING PCRE + + PCRE is distributed with a configure script that can be used to build + the library in Unix-like environments using the applications known as + Autotools. Also in the distribution are files to support building + using CMake instead of configure. The text file README contains general + information about building with Autotools (some of which is repeated + below), and also has some comments about building on various operating + systems. There is a lot more information about building PCRE without + using Autotools (including information about using CMake and building + "by hand") in the text file called NON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD. You should + consult this file as well as the README file if you are building in a + non-Unix-like environment. + + PCRE BUILD-TIME OPTIONS - This document describes the optional features of PCRE that can be - selected when the library is compiled. It assumes use of the configure - script, where the optional features are selected or deselected by pro- - viding options to configure before running the make command. However, - the same options can be selected in both Unix-like and non-Unix-like - environments using the GUI facility of cmake-gui if you are using CMake - instead of configure to build PCRE. + The rest of this document describes the optional features of PCRE that + can be selected when the library is compiled. It assumes use of the + configure script, where the optional features are selected or dese- + lected by providing options to configure before running the make com- + mand. However, the same options can be selected in both Unix-like and + non-Unix-like environments using the GUI facility of cmake-gui if you + are using CMake instead of configure to build PCRE. - There is a lot more information about building PCRE in non-Unix-like - environments in the file called NON_UNIX_USE, which is part of the PCRE - distribution. You should consult this file as well as the README file - if you are building in a non-Unix-like environment. + If you are not using Autotools or CMake, option selection can be done + by editing the config.h file, or by passing parameter settings to the + compiler, as described in NON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD. The complete list of options for configure (which includes the standard - ones such as the selection of the installation directory) can be + ones such as the selection of the installation directory) can be obtained by running ./configure --help - The following sections include descriptions of options whose names + The following sections include descriptions of options whose names begin with --enable or --disable. These settings specify changes to the - defaults for the configure command. Because of the way that configure - works, --enable and --disable always come in pairs, so the complemen- - tary option always exists as well, but as it specifies the default, it + defaults for the configure command. Because of the way that configure + works, --enable and --disable always come in pairs, so the complemen- + tary option always exists as well, but as it specifies the default, it is not described. +BUILDING 8-BIT, 16-BIT AND 32-BIT LIBRARIES + + By default, a library called libpcre is built, containing functions + that take string arguments contained in vectors of bytes, either as + single-byte characters, or interpreted as UTF-8 strings. You can also + build a separate library, called libpcre16, in which strings are con- + tained in vectors of 16-bit data units and interpreted either as sin- + gle-unit characters or UTF-16 strings, by adding + + --enable-pcre16 + + to the configure command. You can also build yet another separate + library, called libpcre32, in which strings are contained in vectors of + 32-bit data units and interpreted either as single-unit characters or + UTF-32 strings, by adding + + --enable-pcre32 + + to the configure command. If you do not want the 8-bit library, add + + --disable-pcre8 + + as well. At least one of the three libraries must be built. Note that + the C++ and POSIX wrappers are for the 8-bit library only, and that + pcregrep is an 8-bit program. None of these are built if you select + only the 16-bit or 32-bit libraries. + + BUILDING SHARED AND STATIC LIBRARIES - The PCRE building process uses libtool to build both shared and static - Unix libraries by default. You can suppress one of these by adding one - of + The Autotools PCRE building process uses libtool to build both shared + and static libraries by default. You can suppress one of these by + adding one of --disable-shared --disable-static @@ -172,48 +935,59 @@ BUILDING SHARED AND STATIC LIBRARIES C++ SUPPORT - By default, the configure script will search for a C++ compiler and C++ - header files. If it finds them, it automatically builds the C++ wrapper - library for PCRE. You can disable this by adding + By default, if the 8-bit library is being built, the configure script + will search for a C++ compiler and C++ header files. If it finds them, + it automatically builds the C++ wrapper library (which supports only + 8-bit strings). You can disable this by adding --disable-cpp to the configure command. -UTF-8 SUPPORT +UTF-8, UTF-16 AND UTF-32 SUPPORT - To build PCRE with support for UTF-8 Unicode character strings, add + To build PCRE with support for UTF Unicode character strings, add - --enable-utf8 + --enable-utf - to the configure command. Of itself, this does not make PCRE treat - strings as UTF-8. As well as compiling PCRE with this option, you also - have have to set the PCRE_UTF8 option when you call the pcre_compile() - or pcre_compile2() functions. + to the configure command. This setting applies to all three libraries, + adding support for UTF-8 to the 8-bit library, support for UTF-16 to + the 16-bit library, and support for UTF-32 to the to the 32-bit + library. There are no separate options for enabling UTF-8, UTF-16 and + UTF-32 independently because that would allow ridiculous settings such + as requesting UTF-16 support while building only the 8-bit library. It + is not possible to build one library with UTF support and another with- + out in the same configuration. (For backwards compatibility, --enable- + utf8 is a synonym of --enable-utf.) - If you set --enable-utf8 when compiling in an EBCDIC environment, PCRE - expects its input to be either ASCII or UTF-8 (depending on the runtime - option). It is not possible to support both EBCDIC and UTF-8 codes in - the same version of the library. Consequently, --enable-utf8 and + Of itself, this setting does not make PCRE treat strings as UTF-8, + UTF-16 or UTF-32. As well as compiling PCRE with this option, you also + have have to set the PCRE_UTF8, PCRE_UTF16 or PCRE_UTF32 option (as + appropriate) when you call one of the pattern compiling functions. + + If you set --enable-utf when compiling in an EBCDIC environment, PCRE + expects its input to be either ASCII or UTF-8 (depending on the run- + time option). It is not possible to support both EBCDIC and UTF-8 codes + in the same version of the library. Consequently, --enable-utf and --enable-ebcdic are mutually exclusive. UNICODE CHARACTER PROPERTY SUPPORT - UTF-8 support allows PCRE to process character values greater than 255 - in the strings that it handles. On its own, however, it does not pro- - vide any facilities for accessing the properties of such characters. If - you want to be able to use the pattern escapes \P, \p, and \X, which - refer to Unicode character properties, you must add + UTF support allows the libraries to process character codepoints up to + 0x10ffff in the strings that they handle. On its own, however, it does + not provide any facilities for accessing the properties of such charac- + ters. If you want to be able to use the pattern escapes \P, \p, and \X, + which refer to Unicode character properties, you must add --enable-unicode-properties - to the configure command. This implies UTF-8 support, even if you have + to the configure command. This implies UTF support, even if you have not explicitly requested it. - Including Unicode property support adds around 30K of tables to the - PCRE library. Only the general category properties such as Lu and Nd + Including Unicode property support adds around 30K of tables to the + PCRE library. Only the general category properties such as Lu and Nd are supported. Details are given in the pcrepattern documentation. @@ -223,9 +997,9 @@ JUST-IN-TIME COMPILER SUPPORT --enable-jit - This support is available only for certain hardware architectures. If - this option is set for an unsupported architecture, a compile time - error occurs. See the pcrejit documentation for a discussion of JIT + This support is available only for certain hardware architectures. If + this option is set for an unsupported architecture, a compile time + error occurs. See the pcrejit documentation for a discussion of JIT usage. When JIT support is enabled, pcregrep automatically makes use of it, unless you add @@ -236,14 +1010,14 @@ JUST-IN-TIME COMPILER SUPPORT CODE VALUE OF NEWLINE - By default, PCRE interprets the linefeed (LF) character as indicating - the end of a line. This is the normal newline character on Unix-like - systems. You can compile PCRE to use carriage return (CR) instead, by + By default, PCRE interprets the linefeed (LF) character as indicating + the end of a line. This is the normal newline character on Unix-like + systems. You can compile PCRE to use carriage return (CR) instead, by adding --enable-newline-is-cr - to the configure command. There is also a --enable-newline-is-lf + to the configure command. There is also a --enable-newline-is-lf option, which explicitly specifies linefeed as the newline character. Alternatively, you can specify that line endings are to be indicated by @@ -255,41 +1029,41 @@ CODE VALUE OF NEWLINE --enable-newline-is-anycrlf - which causes PCRE to recognize any of the three sequences CR, LF, or + which causes PCRE to recognize any of the three sequences CR, LF, or CRLF as indicating a line ending. Finally, a fifth option, specified by --enable-newline-is-any causes PCRE to recognize any Unicode newline sequence. - Whatever line ending convention is selected when PCRE is built can be - overridden when the library functions are called. At build time it is + Whatever line ending convention is selected when PCRE is built can be + overridden when the library functions are called. At build time it is conventional to use the standard for your operating system. WHAT \R MATCHES - By default, the sequence \R in a pattern matches any Unicode newline - sequence, whatever has been selected as the line ending sequence. If + By default, the sequence \R in a pattern matches any Unicode newline + sequence, whatever has been selected as the line ending sequence. If you specify --enable-bsr-anycrlf - the default is changed so that \R matches only CR, LF, or CRLF. What- - ever is selected when PCRE is built can be overridden when the library + the default is changed so that \R matches only CR, LF, or CRLF. What- + ever is selected when PCRE is built can be overridden when the library functions are called. POSIX MALLOC USAGE - When PCRE is called through the POSIX interface (see the pcreposix doc- - umentation), additional working storage is required for holding the - pointers to capturing substrings, because PCRE requires three integers - per substring, whereas the POSIX interface provides only two. If the - number of expected substrings is small, the wrapper function uses space - on the stack, because this is faster than using malloc() for each call. - The default threshold above which the stack is no longer used is 10; it - can be changed by adding a setting such as + When the 8-bit library is called through the POSIX interface (see the + pcreposix documentation), additional working storage is required for + holding the pointers to capturing substrings, because PCRE requires + three integers per substring, whereas the POSIX interface provides only + two. If the number of expected substrings is small, the wrapper func- + tion uses space on the stack, because this is faster than using mal- + loc() for each call. The default threshold above which the stack is no + longer used is 10; it can be changed by adding a setting such as --with-posix-malloc-threshold=20 @@ -298,20 +1072,23 @@ POSIX MALLOC USAGE HANDLING VERY LARGE PATTERNS - Within a compiled pattern, offset values are used to point from one - part to another (for example, from an opening parenthesis to an alter- - nation metacharacter). By default, two-byte values are used for these - offsets, leading to a maximum size for a compiled pattern of around - 64K. This is sufficient to handle all but the most gigantic patterns. - Nevertheless, some people do want to process truyl enormous patterns, - so it is possible to compile PCRE to use three-byte or four-byte off- - sets by adding a setting such as + Within a compiled pattern, offset values are used to point from one + part to another (for example, from an opening parenthesis to an alter- + nation metacharacter). By default, in the 8-bit and 16-bit libraries, + two-byte values are used for these offsets, leading to a maximum size + for a compiled pattern of around 64K. This is sufficient to handle all + but the most gigantic patterns. Nevertheless, some people do want to + process truly enormous patterns, so it is possible to compile PCRE to + use three-byte or four-byte offsets by adding a setting such as --with-link-size=3 - to the configure command. The value given must be 2, 3, or 4. Using - longer offsets slows down the operation of PCRE because it has to load - additional bytes when handling them. + to the configure command. The value given must be 2, 3, or 4. For the + 16-bit library, a value of 3 is rounded up to 4. In these libraries, + using longer offsets slows down the operation of PCRE because it has to + load additional data when handling them. For the 32-bit library the + value is always 4 and cannot be overridden; the value of --with-link- + size is ignored. AVOIDING EXCESSIVE STACK USAGE @@ -385,9 +1162,9 @@ CREATING CHARACTER TABLES AT BUILD TIME to the configure command, the distributed tables are no longer used. Instead, a program called dftables is compiled and run. This outputs the source for new set of tables, created in the default locale of your - C runtime system. (This method of replacing the tables does not work if - you are cross compiling, because dftables is run on the local host. If - you need to create alternative tables when cross compiling, you will + C run-time system. (This method of replacing the tables does not work + if you are cross compiling, because dftables is run on the local host. + If you need to create alternative tables when cross compiling, you will have to do so "by hand".) @@ -403,9 +1180,24 @@ USING EBCDIC CODE to the configure command. This setting implies --enable-rebuild-charta- bles. You should only use it if you know that you are in an EBCDIC environment (for example, an IBM mainframe operating system). The - --enable-ebcdic option is incompatible with --enable-utf8. + --enable-ebcdic option is incompatible with --enable-utf. + The EBCDIC character that corresponds to an ASCII LF is assumed to have + the value 0x15 by default. However, in some EBCDIC environments, 0x25 + is used. In such an environment you should use + --enable-ebcdic-nl25 + + as well as, or instead of, --enable-ebcdic. The EBCDIC character for CR + has the same value as in ASCII, namely, 0x0d. Whichever of 0x15 and + 0x25 is not chosen as LF is made to correspond to the Unicode NEL char- + acter (which, in Unicode, is 0x85). + + The options that select newline behaviour, such as --enable-newline-is- + cr, and equivalent run-time options, refer to these character values in + an EBCDIC environment. + + PCREGREP OPTIONS FOR COMPRESSED FILE SUPPORT By default, pcregrep reads all files as plain text. You can build it so @@ -416,18 +1208,18 @@ PCREGREP OPTIONS FOR COMPRESSED FILE SUPPORT --enable-pcregrep-libbz2 to the configure command. These options naturally require that the rel- - evant libraries are installed on your system. Configuration will fail + evant libraries are installed on your system. Configuration will fail if they are not. PCREGREP BUFFER SIZE - pcregrep uses an internal buffer to hold a "window" on the file it is + pcregrep uses an internal buffer to hold a "window" on the file it is scanning, in order to be able to output "before" and "after" lines when - it finds a match. The size of the buffer is controlled by a parameter + it finds a match. The size of the buffer is controlled by a parameter whose default value is 20K. The buffer itself is three times this size, but because of the way it is used for holding "before" lines, the long- - est line that is guaranteed to be processable is the parameter size. + est line that is guaranteed to be processable is the parameter size. You can change the default parameter value by adding, for example, --with-pcregrep-bufsize=50K @@ -442,24 +1234,24 @@ PCRETEST OPTION FOR LIBREADLINE SUPPORT --enable-pcretest-libreadline - to the configure command, pcretest is linked with the libreadline - library, and when its input is from a terminal, it reads it using the + to the configure command, pcretest is linked with the libreadline + library, and when its input is from a terminal, it reads it using the readline() function. This provides line-editing and history facilities. Note that libreadline is GPL-licensed, so if you distribute a binary of pcretest linked in this way, there may be licensing issues. - Setting this option causes the -lreadline option to be added to the - pcretest build. In many operating environments with a sytem-installed + Setting this option causes the -lreadline option to be added to the + pcretest build. In many operating environments with a sytem-installed libreadline this is sufficient. However, in some environments (e.g. if - an unmodified distribution version of readline is in use), some extra - configuration may be necessary. The INSTALL file for libreadline says + an unmodified distribution version of readline is in use), some extra + configuration may be necessary. The INSTALL file for libreadline says this: "Readline uses the termcap functions, but does not link with the termcap or curses library itself, allowing applications which link with readline the to choose an appropriate library." - If your environment has not been set up so that an appropriate library + If your environment has not been set up so that an appropriate library is automatically included, you may need to add something like LIBS="-ncurses" @@ -467,9 +1259,77 @@ PCRETEST OPTION FOR LIBREADLINE SUPPORT immediately before the configure command. +DEBUGGING WITH VALGRIND SUPPORT + + By adding the + + --enable-valgrind + + option to to the configure command, PCRE will use valgrind annotations + to mark certain memory regions as unaddressable. This allows it to + detect invalid memory accesses, and is mostly useful for debugging PCRE + itself. + + +CODE COVERAGE REPORTING + + If your C compiler is gcc, you can build a version of PCRE that can + generate a code coverage report for its test suite. To enable this, you + must install lcov version 1.6 or above. Then specify + + --enable-coverage + + to the configure command and build PCRE in the usual way. + + Note that using ccache (a caching C compiler) is incompatible with code + coverage reporting. If you have configured ccache to run automatically + on your system, you must set the environment variable + + CCACHE_DISABLE=1 + + before running make to build PCRE, so that ccache is not used. + + When --enable-coverage is used, the following addition targets are + added to the Makefile: + + make coverage + + This creates a fresh coverage report for the PCRE test suite. It is + equivalent to running "make coverage-reset", "make coverage-baseline", + "make check", and then "make coverage-report". + + make coverage-reset + + This zeroes the coverage counters, but does nothing else. + + make coverage-baseline + + This captures baseline coverage information. + + make coverage-report + + This creates the coverage report. + + make coverage-clean-report + + This removes the generated coverage report without cleaning the cover- + age data itself. + + make coverage-clean-data + + This removes the captured coverage data without removing the coverage + files created at compile time (*.gcno). + + make coverage-clean + + This cleans all coverage data including the generated coverage report. + For more information about code coverage, see the gcov and lcov docu- + mentation. + + SEE ALSO - pcreapi(3), pcre_config(3). + pcreapi(3), pcre16, pcre32, pcre_config(3). AUTHOR @@ -481,30 +1341,34 @@ AUTHOR REVISION - Last updated: 06 September 2011 - Copyright (c) 1997-2011 University of Cambridge. + Last updated: 12 May 2013 + Copyright (c) 1997-2013 University of Cambridge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -PCREMATCHING(3) PCREMATCHING(3) +PCREMATCHING(3) Library Functions Manual PCREMATCHING(3) + NAME PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions - PCRE MATCHING ALGORITHMS This document describes the two different algorithms that are available in PCRE for matching a compiled regular expression against a given sub- ject string. The "standard" algorithm is the one provided by the - pcre_exec() function. This works in the same was as Perl's matching - function, and provides a Perl-compatible matching operation. + pcre_exec(), pcre16_exec() and pcre32_exec() functions. These work in + the same as as Perl's matching function, and provide a Perl-compatible + matching operation. The just-in-time (JIT) optimization that is + described in the pcrejit documentation is compatible with these func- + tions. - An alternative algorithm is provided by the pcre_dfa_exec() function; - this operates in a different way, and is not Perl-compatible. It has - advantages and disadvantages compared with the standard algorithm, and - these are described below. + An alternative algorithm is provided by the pcre_dfa_exec(), + pcre16_dfa_exec() and pcre32_dfa_exec() functions; they operate in a + different way, and are not Perl-compatible. This alternative has advan- + tages and disadvantages compared with the standard algorithm, and these + are described below. When there is only one possible way in which a given subject string can match a pattern, the two algorithms give the same answer. A difference @@ -632,42 +1496,43 @@ THE ALTERNATIVE MATCHING ALGORITHM 6. Callouts are supported, but the value of the capture_top field is always 1, and the value of the capture_last field is always -1. - 7. The \C escape sequence, which (in the standard algorithm) matches a - single byte, even in UTF-8 mode, is not supported in UTF-8 mode, - because the alternative algorithm moves through the subject string one - character at a time, for all active paths through the tree. + 7. The \C escape sequence, which (in the standard algorithm) always + matches a single data unit, even in UTF-8, UTF-16 or UTF-32 modes, is + not supported in these modes, because the alternative algorithm moves + through the subject string one character (not data unit) at a time, for + all active paths through the tree. - 8. Except for (*FAIL), the backtracking control verbs such as (*PRUNE) - are not supported. (*FAIL) is supported, and behaves like a failing + 8. Except for (*FAIL), the backtracking control verbs such as (*PRUNE) + are not supported. (*FAIL) is supported, and behaves like a failing negative assertion. ADVANTAGES OF THE ALTERNATIVE ALGORITHM - Using the alternative matching algorithm provides the following advan- + Using the alternative matching algorithm provides the following advan- tages: 1. All possible matches (at a single point in the subject) are automat- - ically found, and in particular, the longest match is found. To find + ically found, and in particular, the longest match is found. To find more than one match using the standard algorithm, you have to do kludgy things with callouts. - 2. Because the alternative algorithm scans the subject string just - once, and never needs to backtrack, it is possible to pass very long - subject strings to the matching function in several pieces, checking - for partial matching each time. Although it is possible to do multi- - segment matching using the standard algorithm (pcre_exec()), by retain- - ing partially matched substrings, it is more complicated. The pcrepar- - tial documentation gives details of partial matching and discusses - multi-segment matching. + 2. Because the alternative algorithm scans the subject string just + once, and never needs to backtrack (except for lookbehinds), it is pos- + sible to pass very long subject strings to the matching function in + several pieces, checking for partial matching each time. Although it is + possible to do multi-segment matching using the standard algorithm by + retaining partially matched substrings, it is more complicated. The + pcrepartial documentation gives details of partial matching and dis- + cusses multi-segment matching. DISADVANTAGES OF THE ALTERNATIVE ALGORITHM The alternative algorithm suffers from a number of disadvantages: - 1. It is substantially slower than the standard algorithm. This is - partly because it has to search for all possible matches, but is also + 1. It is substantially slower than the standard algorithm. This is + partly because it has to search for all possible matches, but is also because it is less susceptible to optimization. 2. Capturing parentheses and back references are not supported. @@ -685,22 +1550,23 @@ AUTHOR REVISION - Last updated: 19 November 2011 - Copyright (c) 1997-2010 University of Cambridge. + Last updated: 08 January 2012 + Copyright (c) 1997-2012 University of Cambridge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -PCREAPI(3) PCREAPI(3) +PCREAPI(3) Library Functions Manual PCREAPI(3) + NAME PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions + #include + PCRE NATIVE API BASIC FUNCTIONS - #include - pcre *pcre_compile(const char *pattern, int options, const char **errptr, int *erroffset, const unsigned char *tableptr); @@ -719,21 +1585,14 @@ PCRE NATIVE API BASIC FUNCTIONS const char *subject, int length, int startoffset, int options, int *ovector, int ovecsize); - -PCRE NATIVE API AUXILIARY FUNCTIONS - - pcre_jit_stack *pcre_jit_stack_alloc(int startsize, int maxsize); - - void pcre_jit_stack_free(pcre_jit_stack *stack); - - void pcre_assign_jit_stack(pcre_extra *extra, - pcre_jit_callback callback, void *data); - int pcre_dfa_exec(const pcre *code, const pcre_extra *extra, const char *subject, int length, int startoffset, int options, int *ovector, int ovecsize, int *workspace, int wscount); + +PCRE NATIVE API STRING EXTRACTION FUNCTIONS + int pcre_copy_named_substring(const pcre *code, const char *subject, int *ovector, int stringcount, const char *stringname, @@ -765,20 +1624,36 @@ PCRE NATIVE API AUXILIARY FUNCTIONS void pcre_free_substring_list(const char **stringptr); + +PCRE NATIVE API AUXILIARY FUNCTIONS + + int pcre_jit_exec(const pcre *code, const pcre_extra *extra, + const char *subject, int length, int startoffset, + int options, int *ovector, int ovecsize, + pcre_jit_stack *jstack); + + pcre_jit_stack *pcre_jit_stack_alloc(int startsize, int maxsize); + + void pcre_jit_stack_free(pcre_jit_stack *stack); + + void pcre_assign_jit_stack(pcre_extra *extra, + pcre_jit_callback callback, void *data); + const unsigned char *pcre_maketables(void); int pcre_fullinfo(const pcre *code, const pcre_extra *extra, int what, void *where); - int pcre_info(const pcre *code, int *optptr, int *firstcharptr); - int pcre_refcount(pcre *code, int adjust); int pcre_config(int what, void *where); - char *pcre_version(void); + const char *pcre_version(void); + int pcre_pattern_to_host_byte_order(pcre *code, + pcre_extra *extra, const unsigned char *tables); + PCRE NATIVE API INDIRECTED FUNCTIONS void *(*pcre_malloc)(size_t); @@ -792,47 +1667,76 @@ PCRE NATIVE API INDIRECTED FUNCTIONS int (*pcre_callout)(pcre_callout_block *); +PCRE 8-BIT, 16-BIT, AND 32-BIT LIBRARIES + + As well as support for 8-bit character strings, PCRE also supports + 16-bit strings (from release 8.30) and 32-bit strings (from release + 8.32), by means of two additional libraries. They can be built as well + as, or instead of, the 8-bit library. To avoid too much complication, + this document describes the 8-bit versions of the functions, with only + occasional references to the 16-bit and 32-bit libraries. + + The 16-bit and 32-bit functions operate in the same way as their 8-bit + counterparts; they just use different data types for their arguments + and results, and their names start with pcre16_ or pcre32_ instead of + pcre_. For every option that has UTF8 in its name (for example, + PCRE_UTF8), there are corresponding 16-bit and 32-bit names with UTF8 + replaced by UTF16 or UTF32, respectively. This facility is in fact just + cosmetic; the 16-bit and 32-bit option names define the same bit val- + ues. + + References to bytes and UTF-8 in this document should be read as refer- + ences to 16-bit data units and UTF-16 when using the 16-bit library, or + 32-bit data units and UTF-32 when using the 32-bit library, unless + specified otherwise. More details of the specific differences for the + 16-bit and 32-bit libraries are given in the pcre16 and pcre32 pages. + + PCRE API OVERVIEW PCRE has its own native API, which is described in this document. There - are also some wrapper functions that correspond to the POSIX regular - expression API, but they do not give access to all the functionality. - They are described in the pcreposix documentation. Both of these APIs - define a set of C function calls. A C++ wrapper is also distributed - with PCRE. It is documented in the pcrecpp page. + are also some wrapper functions (for the 8-bit library only) that cor- + respond to the POSIX regular expression API, but they do not give + access to all the functionality. They are described in the pcreposix + documentation. Both of these APIs define a set of C function calls. A + C++ wrapper (again for the 8-bit library only) is also distributed with + PCRE. It is documented in the pcrecpp page. - The native API C function prototypes are defined in the header file - pcre.h, and on Unix systems the library itself is called libpcre. It - can normally be accessed by adding -lpcre to the command for linking an - application that uses PCRE. The header file defines the macros - PCRE_MAJOR and PCRE_MINOR to contain the major and minor release num- - bers for the library. Applications can use these to include support + The native API C function prototypes are defined in the header file + pcre.h, and on Unix-like systems the (8-bit) library itself is called + libpcre. It can normally be accessed by adding -lpcre to the command + for linking an application that uses PCRE. The header file defines the + macros PCRE_MAJOR and PCRE_MINOR to contain the major and minor release + numbers for the library. Applications can use these to include support for different releases of PCRE. In a Windows environment, if you want to statically link an application - program against a non-dll pcre.a file, you must define PCRE_STATIC - before including pcre.h or pcrecpp.h, because otherwise the pcre_mal- + program against a non-dll pcre.a file, you must define PCRE_STATIC + before including pcre.h or pcrecpp.h, because otherwise the pcre_mal- loc() and pcre_free() exported functions will be declared __declspec(dllimport), with unwanted results. - The functions pcre_compile(), pcre_compile2(), pcre_study(), and - pcre_exec() are used for compiling and matching regular expressions in - a Perl-compatible manner. A sample program that demonstrates the sim- - plest way of using them is provided in the file called pcredemo.c in + The functions pcre_compile(), pcre_compile2(), pcre_study(), and + pcre_exec() are used for compiling and matching regular expressions in + a Perl-compatible manner. A sample program that demonstrates the sim- + plest way of using them is provided in the file called pcredemo.c in the PCRE source distribution. A listing of this program is given in the - pcredemo documentation, and the pcresample documentation describes how + pcredemo documentation, and the pcresample documentation describes how to compile and run it. - Just-in-time compiler support is an optional feature of PCRE that can + Just-in-time compiler support is an optional feature of PCRE that can be built in appropriate hardware environments. It greatly speeds up the - matching performance of many patterns. Simple programs can easily - request that it be used if available, by setting an option that is - ignored when it is not relevant. More complicated programs might need - to make use of the functions pcre_jit_stack_alloc(), - pcre_jit_stack_free(), and pcre_assign_jit_stack() in order to control - the JIT code's memory usage. These functions are discussed in the - pcrejit documentation. + matching performance of many patterns. Simple programs can easily + request that it be used if available, by setting an option that is + ignored when it is not relevant. More complicated programs might need + to make use of the functions pcre_jit_stack_alloc(), + pcre_jit_stack_free(), and pcre_assign_jit_stack() in order to control + the JIT code's memory usage. + From release 8.32 there is also a direct interface for JIT execution, + which gives improved performance. The JIT-specific functions are dis- + cussed in the pcrejit documentation. + A second matching function, pcre_dfa_exec(), which is not Perl-compati- ble, is also provided. This uses a different algorithm for the match- ing. The alternative algorithm finds all possible matches (at a given @@ -865,10 +1769,8 @@ PCRE API OVERVIEW built are used. The function pcre_fullinfo() is used to find out information about a - compiled pattern; pcre_info() is an obsolete version that returns only - some of the available information, but is retained for backwards com- - patibility. The function pcre_version() returns a pointer to a string - containing the version of PCRE and its date of release. + compiled pattern. The function pcre_version() returns a pointer to a + string containing the version of PCRE and its date of release. The function pcre_refcount() maintains a reference count in a data block containing a compiled pattern. This is provided for the benefit @@ -907,7 +1809,7 @@ NEWLINES feed) character, the two-character sequence CRLF, any of the three pre- ceding, or any Unicode newline sequence. The Unicode newline sequences are the three just mentioned, plus the single characters VT (vertical - tab, U+000B), FF (formfeed, U+000C), NEL (next line, U+0085), LS (line + tab, U+000B), FF (form feed, U+000C), NEL (next line, U+0085), LS (line separator, U+2028), and PS (paragraph separator, U+2029). Each of the first three conventions is used by at least one operating @@ -955,30 +1857,52 @@ SAVING PRECOMPILED PATTERNS FOR LATER USE The compiled form of a regular expression can be saved and re-used at a later time, possibly by a different program, and even on a host other than the one on which it was compiled. Details are given in the - pcreprecompile documentation. However, compiling a regular expression - with one version of PCRE for use with a different version is not guar- - anteed to work and may cause crashes. + pcreprecompile documentation, which includes a description of the + pcre_pattern_to_host_byte_order() function. However, compiling a regu- + lar expression with one version of PCRE for use with a different ver- + sion is not guaranteed to work and may cause crashes. CHECKING BUILD-TIME OPTIONS int pcre_config(int what, void *where); - The function pcre_config() makes it possible for a PCRE client to dis- + The function pcre_config() makes it possible for a PCRE client to dis- cover which optional features have been compiled into the PCRE library. - The pcrebuild documentation has more details about these optional fea- + The pcrebuild documentation has more details about these optional fea- tures. - The first argument for pcre_config() is an integer, specifying which + The first argument for pcre_config() is an integer, specifying which information is required; the second argument is a pointer to a variable - into which the information is placed. The following information is + into which the information is placed. The returned value is zero on + success, or the negative error code PCRE_ERROR_BADOPTION if the value + in the first argument is not recognized. The following information is available: PCRE_CONFIG_UTF8 - The output is an integer that is set to one if UTF-8 support is avail- - able; otherwise it is set to zero. + The output is an integer that is set to one if UTF-8 support is avail- + able; otherwise it is set to zero. This value should normally be given + to the 8-bit version of this function, pcre_config(). If it is given to + the 16-bit or 32-bit version of this function, the result is + PCRE_ERROR_BADOPTION. + PCRE_CONFIG_UTF16 + + The output is an integer that is set to one if UTF-16 support is avail- + able; otherwise it is set to zero. This value should normally be given + to the 16-bit version of this function, pcre16_config(). If it is given + to the 8-bit or 32-bit version of this function, the result is + PCRE_ERROR_BADOPTION. + + PCRE_CONFIG_UTF32 + + The output is an integer that is set to one if UTF-32 support is avail- + able; otherwise it is set to zero. This value should normally be given + to the 32-bit version of this function, pcre32_config(). If it is given + to the 8-bit or 16-bit version of this function, the result is + PCRE_ERROR_BADOPTION. + PCRE_CONFIG_UNICODE_PROPERTIES The output is an integer that is set to one if support for Unicode @@ -989,13 +1913,23 @@ CHECKING BUILD-TIME OPTIONS The output is an integer that is set to one if support for just-in-time compiling is available; otherwise it is set to zero. + PCRE_CONFIG_JITTARGET + + The output is a pointer to a zero-terminated "const char *" string. If + JIT support is available, the string contains the name of the architec- + ture for which the JIT compiler is configured, for example "x86 32bit + (little endian + unaligned)". If JIT support is not available, the + result is NULL. + PCRE_CONFIG_NEWLINE The output is an integer whose value specifies the default character - sequence that is recognized as meaning "newline". The four values that - are supported are: 10 for LF, 13 for CR, 3338 for CRLF, -2 for ANYCRLF, - and -1 for ANY. Though they are derived from ASCII, the same values - are returned in EBCDIC environments. The default should normally corre- + sequence that is recognized as meaning "newline". The values that are + supported in ASCII/Unicode environments are: 10 for LF, 13 for CR, 3338 + for CRLF, -2 for ANYCRLF, and -1 for ANY. In EBCDIC environments, CR, + ANYCRLF, and ANY yield the same values. However, the value for LF is + normally 21, though some EBCDIC environments use 37. The corresponding + values for CRLF are 3349 and 3365. The default should normally corre- spond to the standard sequence for your operating system. PCRE_CONFIG_BSR @@ -1009,39 +1943,42 @@ CHECKING BUILD-TIME OPTIONS PCRE_CONFIG_LINK_SIZE The output is an integer that contains the number of bytes used for - internal linkage in compiled regular expressions. The value is 2, 3, or - 4. Larger values allow larger regular expressions to be compiled, at - the expense of slower matching. The default value of 2 is sufficient - for all but the most massive patterns, since it allows the compiled - pattern to be up to 64K in size. + internal linkage in compiled regular expressions. For the 8-bit + library, the value can be 2, 3, or 4. For the 16-bit library, the value + is either 2 or 4 and is still a number of bytes. For the 32-bit + library, the value is either 2 or 4 and is still a number of bytes. The + default value of 2 is sufficient for all but the most massive patterns, + since it allows the compiled pattern to be up to 64K in size. Larger + values allow larger regular expressions to be compiled, at the expense + of slower matching. PCRE_CONFIG_POSIX_MALLOC_THRESHOLD - The output is an integer that contains the threshold above which the - POSIX interface uses malloc() for output vectors. Further details are + The output is an integer that contains the threshold above which the + POSIX interface uses malloc() for output vectors. Further details are given in the pcreposix documentation. PCRE_CONFIG_MATCH_LIMIT - The output is a long integer that gives the default limit for the num- - ber of internal matching function calls in a pcre_exec() execution. + The output is a long integer that gives the default limit for the num- + ber of internal matching function calls in a pcre_exec() execution. Further details are given with pcre_exec() below. PCRE_CONFIG_MATCH_LIMIT_RECURSION The output is a long integer that gives the default limit for the depth - of recursion when calling the internal matching function in a - pcre_exec() execution. Further details are given with pcre_exec() + of recursion when calling the internal matching function in a + pcre_exec() execution. Further details are given with pcre_exec() below. PCRE_CONFIG_STACKRECURSE - The output is an integer that is set to one if internal recursion when + The output is an integer that is set to one if internal recursion when running pcre_exec() is implemented by recursive function calls that use - the stack to remember their state. This is the usual way that PCRE is + the stack to remember their state. This is the usual way that PCRE is compiled. The output is zero if PCRE was compiled to use blocks of data - on the heap instead of recursive function calls. In this case, - pcre_stack_malloc and pcre_stack_free are called to manage memory + on the heap instead of recursive function calls. In this case, + pcre_stack_malloc and pcre_stack_free are called to manage memory blocks on the heap, thus avoiding the use of the stack. @@ -1058,51 +1995,52 @@ COMPILING A PATTERN Either of the functions pcre_compile() or pcre_compile2() can be called to compile a pattern into an internal form. The only difference between - the two interfaces is that pcre_compile2() has an additional argument, - errorcodeptr, via which a numerical error code can be returned. To - avoid too much repetition, we refer just to pcre_compile() below, but + the two interfaces is that pcre_compile2() has an additional argument, + errorcodeptr, via which a numerical error code can be returned. To + avoid too much repetition, we refer just to pcre_compile() below, but the information applies equally to pcre_compile2(). The pattern is a C string terminated by a binary zero, and is passed in - the pattern argument. A pointer to a single block of memory that is - obtained via pcre_malloc is returned. This contains the compiled code + the pattern argument. A pointer to a single block of memory that is + obtained via pcre_malloc is returned. This contains the compiled code and related data. The pcre type is defined for the returned block; this is a typedef for a structure whose contents are not externally defined. It is up to the caller to free the memory (via pcre_free) when it is no longer required. - Although the compiled code of a PCRE regex is relocatable, that is, it + Although the compiled code of a PCRE regex is relocatable, that is, it does not depend on memory location, the complete pcre data block is not - fully relocatable, because it may contain a copy of the tableptr argu- + fully relocatable, because it may contain a copy of the tableptr argu- ment, which is an address (see below). The options argument contains various bit settings that affect the com- - pilation. It should be zero if no options are required. The available - options are described below. Some of them (in particular, those that - are compatible with Perl, but some others as well) can also be set and - unset from within the pattern (see the detailed description in the - pcrepattern documentation). For those options that can be different in - different parts of the pattern, the contents of the options argument + pilation. It should be zero if no options are required. The available + options are described below. Some of them (in particular, those that + are compatible with Perl, but some others as well) can also be set and + unset from within the pattern (see the detailed description in the + pcrepattern documentation). For those options that can be different in + different parts of the pattern, the contents of the options argument specifies their settings at the start of compilation and execution. The - PCRE_ANCHORED, PCRE_BSR_xxx, PCRE_NEWLINE_xxx, PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK, and - PCRE_NO_START_OPT options can be set at the time of matching as well as - at compile time. + PCRE_ANCHORED, PCRE_BSR_xxx, PCRE_NEWLINE_xxx, PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK, and + PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE options can be set at the time of matching as + well as at compile time. If errptr is NULL, pcre_compile() returns NULL immediately. Otherwise, - if compilation of a pattern fails, pcre_compile() returns NULL, and + if compilation of a pattern fails, pcre_compile() returns NULL, and sets the variable pointed to by errptr to point to a textual error mes- sage. This is a static string that is part of the library. You must not - try to free it. Normally, the offset from the start of the pattern to - the byte that was being processed when the error was discovered is - placed in the variable pointed to by erroffset, which must not be NULL - (if it is, an immediate error is given). However, for an invalid UTF-8 - string, the offset is that of the first byte of the failing character. - Also, some errors are not detected until checks are carried out when - the whole pattern has been scanned; in these cases the offset passed - back is the length of the pattern. + try to free it. Normally, the offset from the start of the pattern to + the data unit that was being processed when the error was discovered is + placed in the variable pointed to by erroffset, which must not be NULL + (if it is, an immediate error is given). However, for an invalid UTF-8 + or UTF-16 string, the offset is that of the first data unit of the + failing character. - Note that the offset is in bytes, not characters, even in UTF-8 mode. - It may sometimes point into the middle of a UTF-8 character. + Some errors are not detected until the whole pattern has been scanned; + in these cases, the offset passed back is the length of the pattern. + Note that the offset is in data units, not characters, even in a UTF + mode. It may sometimes point into the middle of a UTF-8 or UTF-16 char- + acter. If pcre_compile2() is used instead of pcre_compile(), and the error- codeptr argument is not NULL, a non-zero error code number is returned @@ -1199,8 +2137,8 @@ COMPILING A PATTERN PCRE_EXTENDED - If this bit is set, whitespace data characters in the pattern are - totally ignored except when escaped or inside a character class. White- + If this bit is set, white space data characters in the pattern are + totally ignored except when escaped or inside a character class. White space does not include the VT character (code 11). In addition, charac- ters between an unescaped # outside a character class and the next new- line, inclusive, are also ignored. This is equivalent to Perl's /x @@ -1216,7 +2154,7 @@ COMPILING A PATTERN This option makes it possible to include comments inside complicated patterns. Note, however, that this applies only to data characters. - Whitespace characters may never appear within special character + White space characters may never appear within special character sequences in a pattern, for example within the sequence (?( that intro- duces a conditional subpattern. @@ -1272,21 +2210,33 @@ COMPILING A PATTERN PCRE_MULTILINE - By default, PCRE treats the subject string as consisting of a single - line of characters (even if it actually contains newlines). The "start - of line" metacharacter (^) matches only at the start of the string, - while the "end of line" metacharacter ($) matches only at the end of - the string, or before a terminating newline (unless PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY - is set). This is the same as Perl. + By default, for the purposes of matching "start of line" and "end of + line", PCRE treats the subject string as consisting of a single line of + characters, even if it actually contains newlines. The "start of line" + metacharacter (^) matches only at the start of the string, and the "end + of line" metacharacter ($) matches only at the end of the string, or + before a terminating newline (except when PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY is set). + Note, however, that unless PCRE_DOTALL is set, the "any character" + metacharacter (.) does not match at a newline. This behaviour (for ^, + $, and dot) is the same as Perl. - When PCRE_MULTILINE it is set, the "start of line" and "end of line" - constructs match immediately following or immediately before internal - newlines in the subject string, respectively, as well as at the very - start and end. This is equivalent to Perl's /m option, and it can be + When PCRE_MULTILINE it is set, the "start of line" and "end of line" + constructs match immediately following or immediately before internal + newlines in the subject string, respectively, as well as at the very + start and end. This is equivalent to Perl's /m option, and it can be changed within a pattern by a (?m) option setting. If there are no new- - lines in a subject string, or no occurrences of ^ or $ in a pattern, + lines in a subject string, or no occurrences of ^ or $ in a pattern, setting PCRE_MULTILINE has no effect. + PCRE_NEVER_UTF + + This option locks out interpretation of the pattern as UTF-8 (or UTF-16 + or UTF-32 in the 16-bit and 32-bit libraries). In particular, it pre- + vents the creator of the pattern from switching to UTF interpretation + by starting the pattern with (*UTF). This may be useful in applications + that process patterns from external sources. The combination of + PCRE_UTF8 and PCRE_NEVER_UTF also causes an error. + PCRE_NEWLINE_CR PCRE_NEWLINE_LF PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF @@ -1300,25 +2250,34 @@ COMPILING A PATTERN two-character CRLF sequence. Setting PCRE_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF specifies that any of the three preceding sequences should be recognized. Setting PCRE_NEWLINE_ANY specifies that any Unicode newline sequence should be - recognized. The Unicode newline sequences are the three just mentioned, - plus the single characters VT (vertical tab, U+000B), FF (formfeed, - U+000C), NEL (next line, U+0085), LS (line separator, U+2028), and PS - (paragraph separator, U+2029). The last two are recognized only in - UTF-8 mode. + recognized. - The newline setting in the options word uses three bits that are + In an ASCII/Unicode environment, the Unicode newline sequences are the + three just mentioned, plus the single characters VT (vertical tab, + U+000B), FF (form feed, U+000C), NEL (next line, U+0085), LS (line sep- + arator, U+2028), and PS (paragraph separator, U+2029). For the 8-bit + library, the last two are recognized only in UTF-8 mode. + + When PCRE is compiled to run in an EBCDIC (mainframe) environment, the + code for CR is 0x0d, the same as ASCII. However, the character code for + LF is normally 0x15, though in some EBCDIC environments 0x25 is used. + Whichever of these is not LF is made to correspond to Unicode's NEL + character. EBCDIC codes are all less than 256. For more details, see + the pcrebuild documentation. + + The newline setting in the options word uses three bits that are treated as a number, giving eight possibilities. Currently only six are - used (default plus the five values above). This means that if you set - more than one newline option, the combination may or may not be sensi- + used (default plus the five values above). This means that if you set + more than one newline option, the combination may or may not be sensi- ble. For example, PCRE_NEWLINE_CR with PCRE_NEWLINE_LF is equivalent to - PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF, but other combinations may yield unused numbers and + PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF, but other combinations may yield unused numbers and cause an error. - The only time that a line break in a pattern is specially recognized - when compiling is when PCRE_EXTENDED is set. CR and LF are whitespace - characters, and so are ignored in this mode. Also, an unescaped # out- - side a character class indicates a comment that lasts until after the - next line break sequence. In other circumstances, line break sequences + The only time that a line break in a pattern is specially recognized + when compiling is when PCRE_EXTENDED is set. CR and LF are white space + characters, and so are ignored in this mode. Also, an unescaped # out- + side a character class indicates a comment that lasts until after the + next line break sequence. In other circumstances, line break sequences in patterns are treated as literal data. The newline option that is set at compile time becomes the default that @@ -1327,18 +2286,19 @@ COMPILING A PATTERN PCRE_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE If this option is set, it disables the use of numbered capturing paren- - theses in the pattern. Any opening parenthesis that is not followed by - ? behaves as if it were followed by ?: but named parentheses can still - be used for capturing (and they acquire numbers in the usual way). + theses in the pattern. Any opening parenthesis that is not followed by + ? behaves as if it were followed by ?: but named parentheses can still + be used for capturing (and they acquire numbers in the usual way). There is no equivalent of this option in Perl. - NO_START_OPTIMIZE + PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE - This is an option that acts at matching time; that is, it is really an - option for pcre_exec() or pcre_dfa_exec(). If it is set at compile - time, it is remembered with the compiled pattern and assumed at match- - ing time. For details see the discussion of PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE - below. + This is an option that acts at matching time; that is, it is really an + option for pcre_exec() or pcre_dfa_exec(). If it is set at compile + time, it is remembered with the compiled pattern and assumed at match- + ing time. This is necessary if you want to use JIT execution, because + the JIT compiler needs to know whether or not this option is set. For + details see the discussion of PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE below. PCRE_UCP @@ -1361,32 +2321,35 @@ COMPILING A PATTERN PCRE_UTF8 This option causes PCRE to regard both the pattern and the subject as - strings of UTF-8 characters instead of single-byte character strings. - However, it is available only when PCRE is built to include UTF-8 sup- - port. If not, the use of this option provokes an error. Details of how - this option changes the behaviour of PCRE are given in the pcreunicode - page. + strings of UTF-8 characters instead of single-byte strings. However, it + is available only when PCRE is built to include UTF support. If not, + the use of this option provokes an error. Details of how this option + changes the behaviour of PCRE are given in the pcreunicode page. PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK When PCRE_UTF8 is set, the validity of the pattern as a UTF-8 string is - automatically checked. There is a discussion about the validity of - UTF-8 strings in the main pcre page. If an invalid UTF-8 sequence of - bytes is found, pcre_compile() returns an error. If you already know - that your pattern is valid, and you want to skip this check for perfor- - mance reasons, you can set the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK option. When it is - set, the effect of passing an invalid UTF-8 string as a pattern is - undefined. It may cause your program to crash. Note that this option - can also be passed to pcre_exec() and pcre_dfa_exec(), to suppress the - UTF-8 validity checking of subject strings. + automatically checked. There is a discussion about the validity of + UTF-8 strings in the pcreunicode page. If an invalid UTF-8 sequence is + found, pcre_compile() returns an error. If you already know that your + pattern is valid, and you want to skip this check for performance rea- + sons, you can set the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK option. When it is set, the + effect of passing an invalid UTF-8 string as a pattern is undefined. It + may cause your program to crash. Note that this option can also be + passed to pcre_exec() and pcre_dfa_exec(), to suppress the validity + checking of subject strings only. If the same string is being matched + many times, the option can be safely set for the second and subsequent + matchings to improve performance. COMPILATION ERROR CODES - The following table lists the error codes than may be returned by - pcre_compile2(), along with the error messages that may be returned by - both compiling functions. As PCRE has developed, some error codes have - fallen out of use. To avoid confusion, they have not been re-used. + The following table lists the error codes than may be returned by + pcre_compile2(), along with the error messages that may be returned by + both compiling functions. Note that error messages are always 8-bit + ASCII strings, even in 16-bit or 32-bit mode. As PCRE has developed, + some error codes have fallen out of use. To avoid confusion, they have + not been re-used. 0 no error 1 \ at end of pattern @@ -1420,7 +2383,7 @@ COMPILATION ERROR CODES 29 (?R or (?[+-]digits must be followed by ) 30 unknown POSIX class name 31 POSIX collating elements are not supported - 32 this version of PCRE is not compiled with PCRE_UTF8 support + 32 this version of PCRE is compiled without UTF support 33 [this code is not in use] 34 character value in \x{...} sequence is too large 35 invalid condition (?(0) @@ -1432,14 +2395,14 @@ COMPILATION ERROR CODES 41 unrecognized character after (?P 42 syntax error in subpattern name (missing terminator) 43 two named subpatterns have the same name - 44 invalid UTF-8 string + 44 invalid UTF-8 string (specifically UTF-8) 45 support for \P, \p, and \X has not been compiled 46 malformed \P or \p sequence 47 unknown property name after \P or \p 48 subpattern name is too long (maximum 32 characters) 49 too many named subpatterns (maximum 10000) 50 [this code is not in use] - 51 octal value is greater than \377 (not in UTF-8 mode) + 51 octal value is greater than \377 in 8-bit non-UTF-8 mode 52 internal error: overran compiling workspace 53 internal error: previously-checked referenced subpattern not found @@ -1450,7 +2413,7 @@ COMPILATION ERROR CODES name/number or by a plain number 58 a numbered reference must not be zero 59 an argument is not allowed for (*ACCEPT), (*FAIL), or (*COMMIT) - 60 (*VERB) not recognized + 60 (*VERB) not recognized or malformed 61 number is too big 62 subpattern name expected 63 digit expected after (?+ @@ -1458,11 +2421,20 @@ COMPILATION ERROR CODES 65 different names for subpatterns of the same number are not allowed 66 (*MARK) must have an argument - 67 this version of PCRE is not compiled with PCRE_UCP support + 67 this version of PCRE is not compiled with Unicode property + support 68 \c must be followed by an ASCII character 69 \k is not followed by a braced, angle-bracketed, or quoted name + 70 internal error: unknown opcode in find_fixedlength() + 71 \N is not supported in a class + 72 too many forward references + 73 disallowed Unicode code point (>= 0xd800 && <= 0xdfff) + 74 invalid UTF-16 string (specifically UTF-16) + 75 name is too long in (*MARK), (*PRUNE), (*SKIP), or (*THEN) + 76 character value in \u.... sequence is too large + 77 invalid UTF-32 string (specifically UTF-32) - The numbers 32 and 10000 in errors 48 and 49 are defaults; different + The numbers 32 and 10000 in errors 48 and 49 are defaults; different values may be used if the limits were changed when PCRE was built. @@ -1471,54 +2443,64 @@ STUDYING A PATTERN pcre_extra *pcre_study(const pcre *code, int options const char **errptr); - If a compiled pattern is going to be used several times, it is worth + If a compiled pattern is going to be used several times, it is worth spending more time analyzing it in order to speed up the time taken for - matching. The function pcre_study() takes a pointer to a compiled pat- + matching. The function pcre_study() takes a pointer to a compiled pat- tern as its first argument. If studying the pattern produces additional - information that will help speed up matching, pcre_study() returns a - pointer to a pcre_extra block, in which the study_data field points to + information that will help speed up matching, pcre_study() returns a + pointer to a pcre_extra block, in which the study_data field points to the results of the study. The returned value from pcre_study() can be passed directly to - pcre_exec() or pcre_dfa_exec(). However, a pcre_extra block also con- - tains other fields that can be set by the caller before the block is + pcre_exec() or pcre_dfa_exec(). However, a pcre_extra block also con- + tains other fields that can be set by the caller before the block is passed; these are described below in the section on matching a pattern. - If studying the pattern does not produce any useful information, - pcre_study() returns NULL. In that circumstance, if the calling program - wants to pass any of the other fields to pcre_exec() or - pcre_dfa_exec(), it must set up its own pcre_extra block. + If studying the pattern does not produce any useful information, + pcre_study() returns NULL by default. In that circumstance, if the + calling program wants to pass any of the other fields to pcre_exec() or + pcre_dfa_exec(), it must set up its own pcre_extra block. However, if + pcre_study() is called with the PCRE_STUDY_EXTRA_NEEDED option, it + returns a pcre_extra block even if studying did not find any additional + information. It may still return NULL, however, if an error occurs in + pcre_study(). - The second argument of pcre_study() contains option bits. There is only - one option: PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE. If this is set, and the just-in- - time compiler is available, the pattern is further compiled into - machine code that executes much faster than the pcre_exec() matching - function. If the just-in-time compiler is not available, this option is - ignored. All other bits in the options argument must be zero. + The second argument of pcre_study() contains option bits. There are + three further options in addition to PCRE_STUDY_EXTRA_NEEDED: - JIT compilation is a heavyweight optimization. It can take some time - for patterns to be analyzed, and for one-off matches and simple pat- - terns the benefit of faster execution might be offset by a much slower + PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE + PCRE_STUDY_JIT_PARTIAL_HARD_COMPILE + PCRE_STUDY_JIT_PARTIAL_SOFT_COMPILE + + If any of these are set, and the just-in-time compiler is available, + the pattern is further compiled into machine code that executes much + faster than the pcre_exec() interpretive matching function. If the + just-in-time compiler is not available, these options are ignored. All + undefined bits in the options argument must be zero. + + JIT compilation is a heavyweight optimization. It can take some time + for patterns to be analyzed, and for one-off matches and simple pat- + terns the benefit of faster execution might be offset by a much slower study time. Not all patterns can be optimized by the JIT compiler. For - those that cannot be handled, matching automatically falls back to the - pcre_exec() interpreter. For more details, see the pcrejit documenta- + those that cannot be handled, matching automatically falls back to the + pcre_exec() interpreter. For more details, see the pcrejit documenta- tion. - The third argument for pcre_study() is a pointer for an error message. - If studying succeeds (even if no data is returned), the variable it - points to is set to NULL. Otherwise it is set to point to a textual + The third argument for pcre_study() is a pointer for an error message. + If studying succeeds (even if no data is returned), the variable it + points to is set to NULL. Otherwise it is set to point to a textual error message. This is a static string that is part of the library. You - must not try to free it. You should test the error pointer for NULL + must not try to free it. You should test the error pointer for NULL after calling pcre_study(), to be sure that it has run successfully. - When you are finished with a pattern, you can free the memory used for + When you are finished with a pattern, you can free the memory used for the study data by calling pcre_free_study(). This function was added to - the API for release 8.20. For earlier versions, the memory could be - freed with pcre_free(), just like the pattern itself. This will still - work in cases where PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE is not used, but it is - advisable to change to the new function when convenient. + the API for release 8.20. For earlier versions, the memory could be + freed with pcre_free(), just like the pattern itself. This will still + work in cases where JIT optimization is not used, but it is advisable + to change to the new function when convenient. - This is a typical way in which pcre_study() is used (except that in a + This is a typical way in which pcre_study() is used (except that in a real application there should be tests for errors): int rc; @@ -1538,27 +2520,34 @@ STUDYING A PATTERN Studying a pattern does two things: first, a lower bound for the length of subject string that is needed to match the pattern is computed. This does not mean that there are any strings of that length that match, but - it does guarantee that no shorter strings match. The value is used by - pcre_exec() and pcre_dfa_exec() to avoid wasting time by trying to - match strings that are shorter than the lower bound. You can find out - the value in a calling program via the pcre_fullinfo() function. + it does guarantee that no shorter strings match. The value is used to + avoid wasting time by trying to match strings that are shorter than the + lower bound. You can find out the value in a calling program via the + pcre_fullinfo() function. Studying a pattern is also useful for non-anchored patterns that do not - have a single fixed starting character. A bitmap of possible starting - bytes is created. This speeds up finding a position in the subject at - which to start matching. + have a single fixed starting character. A bitmap of possible starting + bytes is created. This speeds up finding a position in the subject at + which to start matching. (In 16-bit mode, the bitmap is used for 16-bit + values less than 256. In 32-bit mode, the bitmap is used for 32-bit + values less than 256.) - These two optimizations apply to both pcre_exec() and pcre_dfa_exec(). - However, they are not used by pcre_exec() if pcre_study() is called - with the PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE option, and just-in-time compiling is - successful. The optimizations can be disabled by setting the - PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE option when calling pcre_exec() or - pcre_dfa_exec(). You might want to do this if your pattern contains - callouts or (*MARK) (which cannot be handled by the JIT compiler), and - you want to make use of these facilities in cases where matching fails. - See the discussion of PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE below. + These two optimizations apply to both pcre_exec() and pcre_dfa_exec(), + and the information is also used by the JIT compiler. The optimiza- + tions can be disabled by setting the PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE option. + You might want to do this if your pattern contains callouts or (*MARK) + and you want to make use of these facilities in cases where matching + fails. + PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE can be specified at either compile time or exe- + cution time. However, if PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE is passed to + pcre_exec(), (that is, after any JIT compilation has happened) JIT exe- + cution is disabled. For JIT execution to work with PCRE_NO_START_OPTI- + MIZE, the option must be set at compile time. + There is a longer discussion of PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE below. + + LOCALE SUPPORT PCRE handles caseless matching, and determines whether characters are @@ -1623,8 +2612,8 @@ INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN int what, void *where); The pcre_fullinfo() function returns information about a compiled pat- - tern. It replaces the obsolete pcre_info() function, which is neverthe- - less retained for backwards compability (and is documented below). + tern. It replaces the pcre_info() function, which was removed from the + library at version 8.30, after more than 10 years of obsolescence. The first argument for pcre_fullinfo() is a pointer to the compiled pattern. The second argument is the result of pcre_study(), or NULL if @@ -1633,15 +2622,19 @@ INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN variable to receive the data. The yield of the function is zero for success, or one of the following negative numbers: - PCRE_ERROR_NULL the argument code was NULL - the argument where was NULL - PCRE_ERROR_BADMAGIC the "magic number" was not found - PCRE_ERROR_BADOPTION the value of what was invalid + PCRE_ERROR_NULL the argument code was NULL + the argument where was NULL + PCRE_ERROR_BADMAGIC the "magic number" was not found + PCRE_ERROR_BADENDIANNESS the pattern was compiled with different + endianness + PCRE_ERROR_BADOPTION the value of what was invalid + PCRE_ERROR_UNSET the requested field is not set The "magic number" is placed at the start of each compiled pattern as - an simple check against passing an arbitrary memory pointer. Here is a - typical call of pcre_fullinfo(), to obtain the length of the compiled - pattern: + an simple check against passing an arbitrary memory pointer. The endi- + anness error can occur if a compiled pattern is saved and reloaded on a + different host. Here is a typical call of pcre_fullinfo(), to obtain + the length of the compiled pattern: int rc; size_t length; @@ -1651,38 +2644,43 @@ INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN PCRE_INFO_SIZE, /* what is required */ &length); /* where to put the data */ - The possible values for the third argument are defined in pcre.h, and + The possible values for the third argument are defined in pcre.h, and are as follows: PCRE_INFO_BACKREFMAX - Return the number of the highest back reference in the pattern. The - fourth argument should point to an int variable. Zero is returned if + Return the number of the highest back reference in the pattern. The + fourth argument should point to an int variable. Zero is returned if there are no back references. PCRE_INFO_CAPTURECOUNT - Return the number of capturing subpatterns in the pattern. The fourth + Return the number of capturing subpatterns in the pattern. The fourth argument should point to an int variable. PCRE_INFO_DEFAULT_TABLES - Return a pointer to the internal default character tables within PCRE. - The fourth argument should point to an unsigned char * variable. This + Return a pointer to the internal default character tables within PCRE. + The fourth argument should point to an unsigned char * variable. This information call is provided for internal use by the pcre_study() func- - tion. External callers can cause PCRE to use its internal tables by + tion. External callers can cause PCRE to use its internal tables by passing a NULL table pointer. PCRE_INFO_FIRSTBYTE - Return information about the first byte of any matched string, for a - non-anchored pattern. The fourth argument should point to an int vari- - able. (This option used to be called PCRE_INFO_FIRSTCHAR; the old name - is still recognized for backwards compatibility.) + Return information about the first data unit of any matched string, for + a non-anchored pattern. (The name of this option refers to the 8-bit + library, where data units are bytes.) The fourth argument should point + to an int variable. - If there is a fixed first byte, for example, from a pattern such as - (cat|cow|coyote), its value is returned. Otherwise, if either + If there is a fixed first value, for example, the letter "c" from a + pattern such as (cat|cow|coyote), its value is returned. In the 8-bit + library, the value is always less than 256. In the 16-bit library the + value can be up to 0xffff. In the 32-bit library the value can be up to + 0x10ffff. + If there is no fixed first value, and if either + (a) the pattern was compiled with the PCRE_MULTILINE option, and every branch starts with "^", or @@ -1693,105 +2691,140 @@ INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN of a subject string or after any newline within the string. Otherwise -2 is returned. For anchored patterns, -2 is returned. + Since for the 32-bit library using the non-UTF-32 mode, this function + is unable to return the full 32-bit range of the character, this value + is deprecated; instead the PCRE_INFO_FIRSTCHARACTERFLAGS and + PCRE_INFO_FIRSTCHARACTER values should be used. + PCRE_INFO_FIRSTTABLE - If the pattern was studied, and this resulted in the construction of a - 256-bit table indicating a fixed set of bytes for the first byte in any - matching string, a pointer to the table is returned. Otherwise NULL is - returned. The fourth argument should point to an unsigned char * vari- - able. + If the pattern was studied, and this resulted in the construction of a + 256-bit table indicating a fixed set of values for the first data unit + in any matching string, a pointer to the table is returned. Otherwise + NULL is returned. The fourth argument should point to an unsigned char + * variable. PCRE_INFO_HASCRORLF - Return 1 if the pattern contains any explicit matches for CR or LF - characters, otherwise 0. The fourth argument should point to an int - variable. An explicit match is either a literal CR or LF character, or + Return 1 if the pattern contains any explicit matches for CR or LF + characters, otherwise 0. The fourth argument should point to an int + variable. An explicit match is either a literal CR or LF character, or \r or \n. PCRE_INFO_JCHANGED - Return 1 if the (?J) or (?-J) option setting is used in the pattern, - otherwise 0. The fourth argument should point to an int variable. (?J) + Return 1 if the (?J) or (?-J) option setting is used in the pattern, + otherwise 0. The fourth argument should point to an int variable. (?J) and (?-J) set and unset the local PCRE_DUPNAMES option, respectively. PCRE_INFO_JIT - Return 1 if the pattern was studied with the PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE - option, and just-in-time compiling was successful. The fourth argument - should point to an int variable. A return value of 0 means that JIT - support is not available in this version of PCRE, or that the pattern - was not studied with the PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE option, or that the JIT - compiler could not handle this particular pattern. See the pcrejit doc- - umentation for details of what can and cannot be handled. + Return 1 if the pattern was studied with one of the JIT options, and + just-in-time compiling was successful. The fourth argument should point + to an int variable. A return value of 0 means that JIT support is not + available in this version of PCRE, or that the pattern was not studied + with a JIT option, or that the JIT compiler could not handle this par- + ticular pattern. See the pcrejit documentation for details of what can + and cannot be handled. PCRE_INFO_JITSIZE - If the pattern was successfully studied with the PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE - option, return the size of the JIT compiled code, otherwise return - zero. The fourth argument should point to a size_t variable. + If the pattern was successfully studied with a JIT option, return the + size of the JIT compiled code, otherwise return zero. The fourth argu- + ment should point to a size_t variable. PCRE_INFO_LASTLITERAL - Return the value of the rightmost literal byte that must exist in any - matched string, other than at its start, if such a byte has been + Return the value of the rightmost literal data unit that must exist in + any matched string, other than at its start, if such a value has been recorded. The fourth argument should point to an int variable. If there - is no such byte, -1 is returned. For anchored patterns, a last literal - byte is recorded only if it follows something of variable length. For + is no such value, -1 is returned. For anchored patterns, a last literal + value is recorded only if it follows something of variable length. For example, for the pattern /^a\d+z\d+/ the returned value is "z", but for /^a\dz\d/ the returned value is -1. + Since for the 32-bit library using the non-UTF-32 mode, this function + is unable to return the full 32-bit range of the character, this value + is deprecated; instead the PCRE_INFO_REQUIREDCHARFLAGS and + PCRE_INFO_REQUIREDCHAR values should be used. + + PCRE_INFO_MATCHLIMIT + + If the pattern set a match limit by including an item of the form + (*LIMIT_MATCH=nnnn) at the start, the value is returned. The fourth + argument should point to an unsigned 32-bit integer. If no such value + has been set, the call to pcre_fullinfo() returns the error + PCRE_ERROR_UNSET. + + PCRE_INFO_MAXLOOKBEHIND + + Return the number of characters (NB not data units) in the longest + lookbehind assertion in the pattern. This information is useful when + doing multi-segment matching using the partial matching facilities. + Note that the simple assertions \b and \B require a one-character look- + behind. \A also registers a one-character lookbehind, though it does + not actually inspect the previous character. This is to ensure that at + least one character from the old segment is retained when a new segment + is processed. Otherwise, if there are no lookbehinds in the pattern, \A + might match incorrectly at the start of a new segment. + PCRE_INFO_MINLENGTH If the pattern was studied and a minimum length for matching subject strings was computed, its value is returned. Otherwise the returned - value is -1. The value is a number of characters, not bytes (this may - be relevant in UTF-8 mode). The fourth argument should point to an int - variable. A non-negative value is a lower bound to the length of any - matching string. There may not be any strings of that length that do - actually match, but every string that does match is at least that long. + value is -1. The value is a number of characters, which in UTF mode may + be different from the number of data units. The fourth argument should + point to an int variable. A non-negative value is a lower bound to the + length of any matching string. There may not be any strings of that + length that do actually match, but every string that does match is at + least that long. PCRE_INFO_NAMECOUNT PCRE_INFO_NAMEENTRYSIZE PCRE_INFO_NAMETABLE - PCRE supports the use of named as well as numbered capturing parenthe- - ses. The names are just an additional way of identifying the parenthe- + PCRE supports the use of named as well as numbered capturing parenthe- + ses. The names are just an additional way of identifying the parenthe- ses, which still acquire numbers. Several convenience functions such as - pcre_get_named_substring() are provided for extracting captured sub- - strings by name. It is also possible to extract the data directly, by - first converting the name to a number in order to access the correct + pcre_get_named_substring() are provided for extracting captured sub- + strings by name. It is also possible to extract the data directly, by + first converting the name to a number in order to access the correct pointers in the output vector (described with pcre_exec() below). To do - the conversion, you need to use the name-to-number map, which is + the conversion, you need to use the name-to-number map, which is described by these three values. The map consists of a number of fixed-size entries. PCRE_INFO_NAMECOUNT gives the number of entries, and PCRE_INFO_NAMEENTRYSIZE gives the size - of each entry; both of these return an int value. The entry size - depends on the length of the longest name. PCRE_INFO_NAMETABLE returns - a pointer to the first entry of the table (a pointer to char). The - first two bytes of each entry are the number of the capturing parenthe- - sis, most significant byte first. The rest of the entry is the corre- - sponding name, zero terminated. + of each entry; both of these return an int value. The entry size + depends on the length of the longest name. PCRE_INFO_NAMETABLE returns + a pointer to the first entry of the table. This is a pointer to char in + the 8-bit library, where the first two bytes of each entry are the num- + ber of the capturing parenthesis, most significant byte first. In the + 16-bit library, the pointer points to 16-bit data units, the first of + which contains the parenthesis number. In the 32-bit library, the + pointer points to 32-bit data units, the first of which contains the + parenthesis number. The rest of the entry is the corresponding name, + zero terminated. - The names are in alphabetical order. Duplicate names may appear if (?| + The names are in alphabetical order. Duplicate names may appear if (?| is used to create multiple groups with the same number, as described in - the section on duplicate subpattern numbers in the pcrepattern page. - Duplicate names for subpatterns with different numbers are permitted - only if PCRE_DUPNAMES is set. In all cases of duplicate names, they - appear in the table in the order in which they were found in the pat- - tern. In the absence of (?| this is the order of increasing number; + the section on duplicate subpattern numbers in the pcrepattern page. + Duplicate names for subpatterns with different numbers are permitted + only if PCRE_DUPNAMES is set. In all cases of duplicate names, they + appear in the table in the order in which they were found in the pat- + tern. In the absence of (?| this is the order of increasing number; when (?| is used this is not necessarily the case because later subpat- terns may have lower numbers. - As a simple example of the name/number table, consider the following - pattern (assume PCRE_EXTENDED is set, so white space - including new- - lines - is ignored): + As a simple example of the name/number table, consider the following + pattern after compilation by the 8-bit library (assume PCRE_EXTENDED is + set, so white space - including newlines - is ignored): (? (?(\d\d)?\d\d) - (?\d\d) - (?\d\d) ) - There are four named subpatterns, so the table has four entries, and - each entry in the table is eight bytes long. The table is as follows, + There are four named subpatterns, so the table has four entries, and + each entry in the table is eight bytes long. The table is as follows, with non-printing bytes shows in hexadecimal, and undefined bytes shown as ??: @@ -1800,31 +2833,31 @@ INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN 00 04 m o n t h 00 00 02 y e a r 00 ?? - When writing code to extract data from named subpatterns using the - name-to-number map, remember that the length of the entries is likely + When writing code to extract data from named subpatterns using the + name-to-number map, remember that the length of the entries is likely to be different for each compiled pattern. PCRE_INFO_OKPARTIAL - Return 1 if the pattern can be used for partial matching with - pcre_exec(), otherwise 0. The fourth argument should point to an int - variable. From release 8.00, this always returns 1, because the - restrictions that previously applied to partial matching have been - lifted. The pcrepartial documentation gives details of partial match- + Return 1 if the pattern can be used for partial matching with + pcre_exec(), otherwise 0. The fourth argument should point to an int + variable. From release 8.00, this always returns 1, because the + restrictions that previously applied to partial matching have been + lifted. The pcrepartial documentation gives details of partial match- ing. PCRE_INFO_OPTIONS - Return a copy of the options with which the pattern was compiled. The - fourth argument should point to an unsigned long int variable. These + Return a copy of the options with which the pattern was compiled. The + fourth argument should point to an unsigned long int variable. These option bits are those specified in the call to pcre_compile(), modified by any top-level option settings at the start of the pattern itself. In - other words, they are the options that will be in force when matching - starts. For example, if the pattern /(?im)abc(?-i)d/ is compiled with - the PCRE_EXTENDED option, the result is PCRE_CASELESS, PCRE_MULTILINE, + other words, they are the options that will be in force when matching + starts. For example, if the pattern /(?im)abc(?-i)d/ is compiled with + the PCRE_EXTENDED option, the result is PCRE_CASELESS, PCRE_MULTILINE, and PCRE_EXTENDED. - A pattern is automatically anchored by PCRE if all of its top-level + A pattern is automatically anchored by PCRE if all of its top-level alternatives begin with one of the following: ^ unless PCRE_MULTILINE is set @@ -1836,70 +2869,122 @@ INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN For such patterns, the PCRE_ANCHORED bit is set in the options returned by pcre_fullinfo(). + PCRE_INFO_RECURSIONLIMIT + + If the pattern set a recursion limit by including an item of the form + (*LIMIT_RECURSION=nnnn) at the start, the value is returned. The fourth + argument should point to an unsigned 32-bit integer. If no such value + has been set, the call to pcre_fullinfo() returns the error + PCRE_ERROR_UNSET. + PCRE_INFO_SIZE - Return the size of the compiled pattern. The fourth argument should - point to a size_t variable. This value does not include the size of the - pcre structure that is returned by pcre_compile(). The value that is - passed as the argument to pcre_malloc() when pcre_compile() is getting - memory in which to place the compiled data is the value returned by - this option plus the size of the pcre structure. Studying a compiled - pattern, with or without JIT, does not alter the value returned by this - option. + Return the size of the compiled pattern in bytes (for all three + libraries). The fourth argument should point to a size_t variable. This + value does not include the size of the pcre structure that is returned + by pcre_compile(). The value that is passed as the argument to + pcre_malloc() when pcre_compile() is getting memory in which to place + the compiled data is the value returned by this option plus the size of + the pcre structure. Studying a compiled pattern, with or without JIT, + does not alter the value returned by this option. PCRE_INFO_STUDYSIZE - Return the size of the data block pointed to by the study_data field in - a pcre_extra block. If pcre_extra is NULL, or there is no study data, - zero is returned. The fourth argument should point to a size_t vari- - able. The study_data field is set by pcre_study() to record informa- - tion that will speed up matching (see the section entitled "Studying a - pattern" above). The format of the study_data block is private, but its - length is made available via this option so that it can be saved and - restored (see the pcreprecompile documentation for details). + Return the size in bytes (for all three libraries) of the data block + pointed to by the study_data field in a pcre_extra block. If pcre_extra + is NULL, or there is no study data, zero is returned. The fourth argu- + ment should point to a size_t variable. The study_data field is set by + pcre_study() to record information that will speed up matching (see the + section entitled "Studying a pattern" above). The format of the + study_data block is private, but its length is made available via this + option so that it can be saved and restored (see the pcreprecompile + documentation for details). + PCRE_INFO_FIRSTCHARACTERFLAGS -OBSOLETE INFO FUNCTION + Return information about the first data unit of any matched string, for + a non-anchored pattern. The fourth argument should point to an int + variable. - int pcre_info(const pcre *code, int *optptr, int *firstcharptr); + If there is a fixed first value, for example, the letter "c" from a + pattern such as (cat|cow|coyote), 1 is returned, and the character + value can be retrieved using PCRE_INFO_FIRSTCHARACTER. - The pcre_info() function is now obsolete because its interface is too - restrictive to return all the available data about a compiled pattern. - New programs should use pcre_fullinfo() instead. The yield of - pcre_info() is the number of capturing subpatterns, or one of the fol- - lowing negative numbers: + If there is no fixed first value, and if either - PCRE_ERROR_NULL the argument code was NULL - PCRE_ERROR_BADMAGIC the "magic number" was not found + (a) the pattern was compiled with the PCRE_MULTILINE option, and every + branch starts with "^", or - If the optptr argument is not NULL, a copy of the options with which - the pattern was compiled is placed in the integer it points to (see - PCRE_INFO_OPTIONS above). + (b) every branch of the pattern starts with ".*" and PCRE_DOTALL is not + set (if it were set, the pattern would be anchored), - If the pattern is not anchored and the firstcharptr argument is not - NULL, it is used to pass back information about the first character of - any matched string (see PCRE_INFO_FIRSTBYTE above). + 2 is returned, indicating that the pattern matches only at the start of + a subject string or after any newline within the string. Otherwise 0 is + returned. For anchored patterns, 0 is returned. + PCRE_INFO_FIRSTCHARACTER + Return the fixed first character value, if PCRE_INFO_FIRSTCHARACTER- + FLAGS returned 1; otherwise returns 0. The fourth argument should point + to an uint_t variable. + + In the 8-bit library, the value is always less than 256. In the 16-bit + library the value can be up to 0xffff. In the 32-bit library in UTF-32 + mode the value can be up to 0x10ffff, and up to 0xffffffff when not + using UTF-32 mode. + + If there is no fixed first value, and if either + + (a) the pattern was compiled with the PCRE_MULTILINE option, and every + branch starts with "^", or + + (b) every branch of the pattern starts with ".*" and PCRE_DOTALL is not + set (if it were set, the pattern would be anchored), + + -1 is returned, indicating that the pattern matches only at the start + of a subject string or after any newline within the string. Otherwise + -2 is returned. For anchored patterns, -2 is returned. + + PCRE_INFO_REQUIREDCHARFLAGS + + Returns 1 if there is a rightmost literal data unit that must exist in + any matched string, other than at its start. The fourth argument should + point to an int variable. If there is no such value, 0 is returned. If + returning 1, the character value itself can be retrieved using + PCRE_INFO_REQUIREDCHAR. + + For anchored patterns, a last literal value is recorded only if it fol- + lows something of variable length. For example, for the pattern + /^a\d+z\d+/ the returned value 1 (with "z" returned from + PCRE_INFO_REQUIREDCHAR), but for /^a\dz\d/ the returned value is 0. + + PCRE_INFO_REQUIREDCHAR + + Return the value of the rightmost literal data unit that must exist in + any matched string, other than at its start, if such a value has been + recorded. The fourth argument should point to an uint32_t variable. If + there is no such value, 0 is returned. + + REFERENCE COUNTS int pcre_refcount(pcre *code, int adjust); - The pcre_refcount() function is used to maintain a reference count in + The pcre_refcount() function is used to maintain a reference count in the data block that contains a compiled pattern. It is provided for the - benefit of applications that operate in an object-oriented manner, + benefit of applications that operate in an object-oriented manner, where different parts of the application may be using the same compiled pattern, but you want to free the block when they are all done. When a pattern is compiled, the reference count field is initialized to - zero. It is changed only by calling this function, whose action is to - add the adjust value (which may be positive or negative) to it. The + zero. It is changed only by calling this function, whose action is to + add the adjust value (which may be positive or negative) to it. The yield of the function is the new value. However, the value of the count - is constrained to lie between 0 and 65535, inclusive. If the new value + is constrained to lie between 0 and 65535, inclusive. If the new value is outside these limits, it is forced to the appropriate limit value. - Except when it is zero, the reference count is not correctly preserved - if a pattern is compiled on one host and then transferred to a host + Except when it is zero, the reference count is not correctly preserved + if a pattern is compiled on one host and then transferred to a host whose byte-order is different. (This seems a highly unlikely scenario.) @@ -1909,22 +2994,22 @@ MATCHING A PATTERN: THE TRADITIONAL FUNCTION const char *subject, int length, int startoffset, int options, int *ovector, int ovecsize); - The function pcre_exec() is called to match a subject string against a - compiled pattern, which is passed in the code argument. If the pattern - was studied, the result of the study should be passed in the extra - argument. You can call pcre_exec() with the same code and extra argu- - ments as many times as you like, in order to match different subject + The function pcre_exec() is called to match a subject string against a + compiled pattern, which is passed in the code argument. If the pattern + was studied, the result of the study should be passed in the extra + argument. You can call pcre_exec() with the same code and extra argu- + ments as many times as you like, in order to match different subject strings with the same pattern. - This function is the main matching facility of the library, and it - operates in a Perl-like manner. For specialist use there is also an - alternative matching function, which is described below in the section + This function is the main matching facility of the library, and it + operates in a Perl-like manner. For specialist use there is also an + alternative matching function, which is described below in the section about the pcre_dfa_exec() function. - In most applications, the pattern will have been compiled (and option- - ally studied) in the same process that calls pcre_exec(). However, it + In most applications, the pattern will have been compiled (and option- + ally studied) in the same process that calls pcre_exec(). However, it is possible to save compiled patterns and study data, and then use them - later in different processes, possibly even on different hosts. For a + later in different processes, possibly even on different hosts. For a discussion about this, see the pcreprecompile documentation. Here is an example of a simple call to pcre_exec(): @@ -1943,10 +3028,10 @@ MATCHING A PATTERN: THE TRADITIONAL FUNCTION Extra data for pcre_exec() - If the extra argument is not NULL, it must point to a pcre_extra data - block. The pcre_study() function returns such a block (when it doesn't - return NULL), but you can also create one for yourself, and pass addi- - tional information in it. The pcre_extra block contains the following + If the extra argument is not NULL, it must point to a pcre_extra data + block. The pcre_study() function returns such a block (when it doesn't + return NULL), but you can also create one for yourself, and pass addi- + tional information in it. The pcre_extra block contains the following fields (not necessarily in this order): unsigned long int flags; @@ -1958,50 +3043,65 @@ MATCHING A PATTERN: THE TRADITIONAL FUNCTION const unsigned char *tables; unsigned char **mark; - The flags field is a bitmap that specifies which of the other fields - are set. The flag bits are: + In the 16-bit version of this structure, the mark field has type + "PCRE_UCHAR16 **". - PCRE_EXTRA_STUDY_DATA + In the 32-bit version of this structure, the mark field has type + "PCRE_UCHAR32 **". + + The flags field is used to specify which of the other fields are set. + The flag bits are: + + PCRE_EXTRA_CALLOUT_DATA PCRE_EXTRA_EXECUTABLE_JIT + PCRE_EXTRA_MARK PCRE_EXTRA_MATCH_LIMIT PCRE_EXTRA_MATCH_LIMIT_RECURSION - PCRE_EXTRA_CALLOUT_DATA + PCRE_EXTRA_STUDY_DATA PCRE_EXTRA_TABLES - PCRE_EXTRA_MARK - Other flag bits should be set to zero. The study_data field and some- - times the executable_jit field are set in the pcre_extra block that is - returned by pcre_study(), together with the appropriate flag bits. You - should not set these yourself, but you may add to the block by setting - the other fields and their corresponding flag bits. + Other flag bits should be set to zero. The study_data field and some- + times the executable_jit field are set in the pcre_extra block that is + returned by pcre_study(), together with the appropriate flag bits. You + should not set these yourself, but you may add to the block by setting + other fields and their corresponding flag bits. The match_limit field provides a means of preventing PCRE from using up - a vast amount of resources when running patterns that are not going to - match, but which have a very large number of possibilities in their - search trees. The classic example is a pattern that uses nested unlim- + a vast amount of resources when running patterns that are not going to + match, but which have a very large number of possibilities in their + search trees. The classic example is a pattern that uses nested unlim- ited repeats. - Internally, pcre_exec() uses a function called match(), which it calls - repeatedly (sometimes recursively). The limit set by match_limit is - imposed on the number of times this function is called during a match, - which has the effect of limiting the amount of backtracking that can + Internally, pcre_exec() uses a function called match(), which it calls + repeatedly (sometimes recursively). The limit set by match_limit is + imposed on the number of times this function is called during a match, + which has the effect of limiting the amount of backtracking that can take place. For patterns that are not anchored, the count restarts from zero for each position in the subject string. When pcre_exec() is called with a pattern that was successfully studied - with the PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE option, the way that the matching is - executed is entirely different. However, there is still the possibility - of runaway matching that goes on for a very long time, and so the - match_limit value is also used in this case (but in a different way) to - limit how long the matching can continue. + with a JIT option, the way that the matching is executed is entirely + different. However, there is still the possibility of runaway matching + that goes on for a very long time, and so the match_limit value is also + used in this case (but in a different way) to limit how long the match- + ing can continue. - The default value for the limit can be set when PCRE is built; the - default default is 10 million, which handles all but the most extreme - cases. You can override the default by suppling pcre_exec() with a - pcre_extra block in which match_limit is set, and - PCRE_EXTRA_MATCH_LIMIT is set in the flags field. If the limit is + The default value for the limit can be set when PCRE is built; the + default default is 10 million, which handles all but the most extreme + cases. You can override the default by suppling pcre_exec() with a + pcre_extra block in which match_limit is set, and + PCRE_EXTRA_MATCH_LIMIT is set in the flags field. If the limit is exceeded, pcre_exec() returns PCRE_ERROR_MATCHLIMIT. + A value for the match limit may also be supplied by an item at the + start of a pattern of the form + + (*LIMIT_MATCH=d) + + where d is a decimal number. However, such a setting is ignored unless + d is less than the limit set by the caller of pcre_exec() or, if no + such limit is set, less than the default. + The match_limit_recursion field is similar to match_limit, but instead of limiting the total number of times that match() is called, it limits the depth of recursion. The recursion depth is a smaller number than @@ -2011,8 +3111,8 @@ MATCHING A PATTERN: THE TRADITIONAL FUNCTION Limiting the recursion depth limits the amount of machine stack that can be used, or, when PCRE has been compiled to use memory on the heap instead of the stack, the amount of heap memory that can be used. This - limit is not relevant, and is ignored, if the pattern was successfully - studied with PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE. + limit is not relevant, and is ignored, when matching is done using JIT + compiled code. The default value for match_limit_recursion can be set when PCRE is built; the default default is the same value as the default for @@ -2021,60 +3121,69 @@ MATCHING A PATTERN: THE TRADITIONAL FUNCTION PCRE_EXTRA_MATCH_LIMIT_RECURSION is set in the flags field. If the limit is exceeded, pcre_exec() returns PCRE_ERROR_RECURSIONLIMIT. - The callout_data field is used in conjunction with the "callout" fea- + A value for the recursion limit may also be supplied by an item at the + start of a pattern of the form + + (*LIMIT_RECURSION=d) + + where d is a decimal number. However, such a setting is ignored unless + d is less than the limit set by the caller of pcre_exec() or, if no + such limit is set, less than the default. + + The callout_data field is used in conjunction with the "callout" fea- ture, and is described in the pcrecallout documentation. - The tables field is used to pass a character tables pointer to - pcre_exec(); this overrides the value that is stored with the compiled - pattern. A non-NULL value is stored with the compiled pattern only if - custom tables were supplied to pcre_compile() via its tableptr argu- + The tables field is used to pass a character tables pointer to + pcre_exec(); this overrides the value that is stored with the compiled + pattern. A non-NULL value is stored with the compiled pattern only if + custom tables were supplied to pcre_compile() via its tableptr argu- ment. If NULL is passed to pcre_exec() using this mechanism, it forces - PCRE's internal tables to be used. This facility is helpful when re- - using patterns that have been saved after compiling with an external - set of tables, because the external tables might be at a different - address when pcre_exec() is called. See the pcreprecompile documenta- + PCRE's internal tables to be used. This facility is helpful when re- + using patterns that have been saved after compiling with an external + set of tables, because the external tables might be at a different + address when pcre_exec() is called. See the pcreprecompile documenta- tion for a discussion of saving compiled patterns for later use. - If PCRE_EXTRA_MARK is set in the flags field, the mark field must be - set to point to a char * variable. If the pattern contains any back- - tracking control verbs such as (*MARK:NAME), and the execution ends up - with a name to pass back, a pointer to the name string (zero termi- - nated) is placed in the variable pointed to by the mark field. The - names are within the compiled pattern; if you wish to retain such a - name you must copy it before freeing the memory of a compiled pattern. - If there is no name to pass back, the variable pointed to by the mark - field set to NULL. For details of the backtracking control verbs, see - the section entitled "Backtracking control" in the pcrepattern documen- - tation. + If PCRE_EXTRA_MARK is set in the flags field, the mark field must be + set to point to a suitable variable. If the pattern contains any back- + tracking control verbs such as (*MARK:NAME), and the execution ends up + with a name to pass back, a pointer to the name string (zero termi- + nated) is placed in the variable pointed to by the mark field. The + names are within the compiled pattern; if you wish to retain such a + name you must copy it before freeing the memory of a compiled pattern. + If there is no name to pass back, the variable pointed to by the mark + field is set to NULL. For details of the backtracking control verbs, + see the section entitled "Backtracking control" in the pcrepattern doc- + umentation. Option bits for pcre_exec() - The unused bits of the options argument for pcre_exec() must be zero. - The only bits that may be set are PCRE_ANCHORED, PCRE_NEWLINE_xxx, - PCRE_NOTBOL, PCRE_NOTEOL, PCRE_NOTEMPTY, PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART, - PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE, PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK, PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT, and - PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD. + The unused bits of the options argument for pcre_exec() must be zero. + The only bits that may be set are PCRE_ANCHORED, PCRE_NEWLINE_xxx, + PCRE_NOTBOL, PCRE_NOTEOL, PCRE_NOTEMPTY, PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART, + PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE, PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK, PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD, and + PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT. - If the pattern was successfully studied with the PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE - option, the only supported options for JIT execution are - PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK, PCRE_NOTBOL, PCRE_NOTEOL, PCRE_NOTEMPTY, and - PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART. Note in particular that partial matching is not - supported. If an unsupported option is used, JIT execution is disabled - and the normal interpretive code in pcre_exec() is run. + If the pattern was successfully studied with one of the just-in-time + (JIT) compile options, the only supported options for JIT execution are + PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK, PCRE_NOTBOL, PCRE_NOTEOL, PCRE_NOTEMPTY, + PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART, PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD, and PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT. If an + unsupported option is used, JIT execution is disabled and the normal + interpretive code in pcre_exec() is run. PCRE_ANCHORED - The PCRE_ANCHORED option limits pcre_exec() to matching at the first - matching position. If a pattern was compiled with PCRE_ANCHORED, or - turned out to be anchored by virtue of its contents, it cannot be made + The PCRE_ANCHORED option limits pcre_exec() to matching at the first + matching position. If a pattern was compiled with PCRE_ANCHORED, or + turned out to be anchored by virtue of its contents, it cannot be made unachored at matching time. PCRE_BSR_ANYCRLF PCRE_BSR_UNICODE These options (which are mutually exclusive) control what the \R escape - sequence matches. The choice is either to match only CR, LF, or CRLF, - or to match any Unicode newline sequence. These options override the + sequence matches. The choice is either to match only CR, LF, or CRLF, + or to match any Unicode newline sequence. These options override the choice that was made or defaulted when the pattern was compiled. PCRE_NEWLINE_CR @@ -2083,107 +3192,110 @@ MATCHING A PATTERN: THE TRADITIONAL FUNCTION PCRE_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF PCRE_NEWLINE_ANY - These options override the newline definition that was chosen or - defaulted when the pattern was compiled. For details, see the descrip- - tion of pcre_compile() above. During matching, the newline choice - affects the behaviour of the dot, circumflex, and dollar metacharac- - ters. It may also alter the way the match position is advanced after a + These options override the newline definition that was chosen or + defaulted when the pattern was compiled. For details, see the descrip- + tion of pcre_compile() above. During matching, the newline choice + affects the behaviour of the dot, circumflex, and dollar metacharac- + ters. It may also alter the way the match position is advanced after a match failure for an unanchored pattern. - When PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF, PCRE_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF, or PCRE_NEWLINE_ANY is - set, and a match attempt for an unanchored pattern fails when the cur- - rent position is at a CRLF sequence, and the pattern contains no - explicit matches for CR or LF characters, the match position is + When PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF, PCRE_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF, or PCRE_NEWLINE_ANY is + set, and a match attempt for an unanchored pattern fails when the cur- + rent position is at a CRLF sequence, and the pattern contains no + explicit matches for CR or LF characters, the match position is advanced by two characters instead of one, in other words, to after the CRLF. The above rule is a compromise that makes the most common cases work as - expected. For example, if the pattern is .+A (and the PCRE_DOTALL + expected. For example, if the pattern is .+A (and the PCRE_DOTALL option is not set), it does not match the string "\r\nA" because, after - failing at the start, it skips both the CR and the LF before retrying. - However, the pattern [\r\n]A does match that string, because it con- + failing at the start, it skips both the CR and the LF before retrying. + However, the pattern [\r\n]A does match that string, because it con- tains an explicit CR or LF reference, and so advances only by one char- acter after the first failure. An explicit match for CR of LF is either a literal appearance of one of - those characters, or one of the \r or \n escape sequences. Implicit - matches such as [^X] do not count, nor does \s (which includes CR and + those characters, or one of the \r or \n escape sequences. Implicit + matches such as [^X] do not count, nor does \s (which includes CR and LF in the characters that it matches). - Notwithstanding the above, anomalous effects may still occur when CRLF + Notwithstanding the above, anomalous effects may still occur when CRLF is a valid newline sequence and explicit \r or \n escapes appear in the pattern. PCRE_NOTBOL This option specifies that first character of the subject string is not - the beginning of a line, so the circumflex metacharacter should not - match before it. Setting this without PCRE_MULTILINE (at compile time) - causes circumflex never to match. This option affects only the behav- + the beginning of a line, so the circumflex metacharacter should not + match before it. Setting this without PCRE_MULTILINE (at compile time) + causes circumflex never to match. This option affects only the behav- iour of the circumflex metacharacter. It does not affect \A. PCRE_NOTEOL This option specifies that the end of the subject string is not the end - of a line, so the dollar metacharacter should not match it nor (except - in multiline mode) a newline immediately before it. Setting this with- + of a line, so the dollar metacharacter should not match it nor (except + in multiline mode) a newline immediately before it. Setting this with- out PCRE_MULTILINE (at compile time) causes dollar never to match. This - option affects only the behaviour of the dollar metacharacter. It does + option affects only the behaviour of the dollar metacharacter. It does not affect \Z or \z. PCRE_NOTEMPTY An empty string is not considered to be a valid match if this option is - set. If there are alternatives in the pattern, they are tried. If all - the alternatives match the empty string, the entire match fails. For + set. If there are alternatives in the pattern, they are tried. If all + the alternatives match the empty string, the entire match fails. For example, if the pattern a?b? - is applied to a string not beginning with "a" or "b", it matches an - empty string at the start of the subject. With PCRE_NOTEMPTY set, this + is applied to a string not beginning with "a" or "b", it matches an + empty string at the start of the subject. With PCRE_NOTEMPTY set, this match is not valid, so PCRE searches further into the string for occur- rences of "a" or "b". PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART - This is like PCRE_NOTEMPTY, except that an empty string match that is - not at the start of the subject is permitted. If the pattern is + This is like PCRE_NOTEMPTY, except that an empty string match that is + not at the start of the subject is permitted. If the pattern is anchored, such a match can occur only if the pattern contains \K. - Perl has no direct equivalent of PCRE_NOTEMPTY or - PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART, but it does make a special case of a pattern - match of the empty string within its split() function, and when using - the /g modifier. It is possible to emulate Perl's behaviour after + Perl has no direct equivalent of PCRE_NOTEMPTY or + PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART, but it does make a special case of a pattern + match of the empty string within its split() function, and when using + the /g modifier. It is possible to emulate Perl's behaviour after matching a null string by first trying the match again at the same off- - set with PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART and PCRE_ANCHORED, and then if that + set with PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART and PCRE_ANCHORED, and then if that fails, by advancing the starting offset (see below) and trying an ordi- - nary match again. There is some code that demonstrates how to do this - in the pcredemo sample program. In the most general case, you have to - check to see if the newline convention recognizes CRLF as a newline, - and if so, and the current character is CR followed by LF, advance the + nary match again. There is some code that demonstrates how to do this + in the pcredemo sample program. In the most general case, you have to + check to see if the newline convention recognizes CRLF as a newline, + and if so, and the current character is CR followed by LF, advance the starting offset by two characters instead of one. PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE - There are a number of optimizations that pcre_exec() uses at the start - of a match, in order to speed up the process. For example, if it is + There are a number of optimizations that pcre_exec() uses at the start + of a match, in order to speed up the process. For example, if it is known that an unanchored match must start with a specific character, it - searches the subject for that character, and fails immediately if it - cannot find it, without actually running the main matching function. + searches the subject for that character, and fails immediately if it + cannot find it, without actually running the main matching function. This means that a special item such as (*COMMIT) at the start of a pat- - tern is not considered until after a suitable starting point for the - match has been found. When callouts or (*MARK) items are in use, these - "start-up" optimizations can cause them to be skipped if the pattern is - never actually used. The start-up optimizations are in effect a pre- - scan of the subject that takes place before the pattern is run. + tern is not considered until after a suitable starting point for the + match has been found. Also, when callouts or (*MARK) items are in use, + these "start-up" optimizations can cause them to be skipped if the pat- + tern is never actually used. The start-up optimizations are in effect a + pre-scan of the subject that takes place before the pattern is run. - The PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE option disables the start-up optimizations, - possibly causing performance to suffer, but ensuring that in cases - where the result is "no match", the callouts do occur, and that items + The PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE option disables the start-up optimizations, + possibly causing performance to suffer, but ensuring that in cases + where the result is "no match", the callouts do occur, and that items such as (*COMMIT) and (*MARK) are considered at every possible starting - position in the subject string. If PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE is set at - compile time, it cannot be unset at matching time. + position in the subject string. If PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE is set at + compile time, it cannot be unset at matching time. The use of + PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE at matching time (that is, passing it to + pcre_exec()) disables JIT execution; in this situation, matching is + always done using interpretively. Setting PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE can change the outcome of a matching operation. Consider the pattern @@ -2217,18 +3329,18 @@ MATCHING A PATTERN: THE TRADITIONAL FUNCTION When PCRE_UTF8 is set at compile time, the validity of the subject as a UTF-8 string is automatically checked when pcre_exec() is subsequently - called. The value of startoffset is also checked to ensure that it - points to the start of a UTF-8 character. There is a discussion about - the validity of UTF-8 strings in the section on UTF-8 support in the - main pcre page. If an invalid UTF-8 sequence of bytes is found, - pcre_exec() returns the error PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8 or, if PCRE_PAR- - TIAL_HARD is set and the problem is a truncated UTF-8 character at the - end of the subject, PCRE_ERROR_SHORTUTF8. In both cases, information - about the precise nature of the error may also be returned (see the - descriptions of these errors in the section entitled Error return val- - ues from pcre_exec() below). If startoffset contains a value that does - not point to the start of a UTF-8 character (or to the end of the sub- - ject), PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8_OFFSET is returned. + called. The entire string is checked before any other processing takes + place. The value of startoffset is also checked to ensure that it + points to the start of a UTF-8 character. There is a discussion about + the validity of UTF-8 strings in the pcreunicode page. If an invalid + sequence of bytes is found, pcre_exec() returns the error + PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8 or, if PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD is set and the problem is a + truncated character at the end of the subject, PCRE_ERROR_SHORTUTF8. In + both cases, information about the precise nature of the error may also + be returned (see the descriptions of these errors in the section enti- + tled Error return values from pcre_exec() below). If startoffset con- + tains a value that does not point to the start of a UTF-8 character (or + to the end of the subject), PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8_OFFSET is returned. If you already know that your subject is valid, and you want to skip these checks for performance reasons, you can set the @@ -2236,10 +3348,10 @@ MATCHING A PATTERN: THE TRADITIONAL FUNCTION do this for the second and subsequent calls to pcre_exec() if you are making repeated calls to find all the matches in a single subject string. However, you should be sure that the value of startoffset - points to the start of a UTF-8 character (or the end of the subject). - When PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK is set, the effect of passing an invalid UTF-8 - string as a subject or an invalid value of startoffset is undefined. - Your program may crash. + points to the start of a character (or the end of the subject). When + PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK is set, the effect of passing an invalid string as a + subject or an invalid value of startoffset is undefined. Your program + may crash. PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT @@ -2269,149 +3381,156 @@ MATCHING A PATTERN: THE TRADITIONAL FUNCTION The string to be matched by pcre_exec() The subject string is passed to pcre_exec() as a pointer in subject, a - length (in bytes) in length, and a starting byte offset in startoffset. - If this is negative or greater than the length of the subject, + length in length, and a starting offset in startoffset. The units for + length and startoffset are bytes for the 8-bit library, 16-bit data + items for the 16-bit library, and 32-bit data items for the 32-bit + library. + + If startoffset is negative or greater than the length of the subject, pcre_exec() returns PCRE_ERROR_BADOFFSET. When the starting offset is zero, the search for a match starts at the beginning of the subject, - and this is by far the most common case. In UTF-8 mode, the byte offset - must point to the start of a UTF-8 character (or the end of the sub- - ject). Unlike the pattern string, the subject may contain binary zero - bytes. + and this is by far the most common case. In UTF-8 or UTF-16 mode, the + offset must point to the start of a character, or the end of the sub- + ject (in UTF-32 mode, one data unit equals one character, so all off- + sets are valid). Unlike the pattern string, the subject may contain + binary zeroes. - A non-zero starting offset is useful when searching for another match - in the same subject by calling pcre_exec() again after a previous suc- - cess. Setting startoffset differs from just passing over a shortened - string and setting PCRE_NOTBOL in the case of a pattern that begins + A non-zero starting offset is useful when searching for another match + in the same subject by calling pcre_exec() again after a previous suc- + cess. Setting startoffset differs from just passing over a shortened + string and setting PCRE_NOTBOL in the case of a pattern that begins with any kind of lookbehind. For example, consider the pattern \Biss\B - which finds occurrences of "iss" in the middle of words. (\B matches - only if the current position in the subject is not a word boundary.) - When applied to the string "Mississipi" the first call to pcre_exec() - finds the first occurrence. If pcre_exec() is called again with just - the remainder of the subject, namely "issipi", it does not match, + which finds occurrences of "iss" in the middle of words. (\B matches + only if the current position in the subject is not a word boundary.) + When applied to the string "Mississipi" the first call to pcre_exec() + finds the first occurrence. If pcre_exec() is called again with just + the remainder of the subject, namely "issipi", it does not match, because \B is always false at the start of the subject, which is deemed - to be a word boundary. However, if pcre_exec() is passed the entire + to be a word boundary. However, if pcre_exec() is passed the entire string again, but with startoffset set to 4, it finds the second occur- - rence of "iss" because it is able to look behind the starting point to + rence of "iss" because it is able to look behind the starting point to discover that it is preceded by a letter. - Finding all the matches in a subject is tricky when the pattern can + Finding all the matches in a subject is tricky when the pattern can match an empty string. It is possible to emulate Perl's /g behaviour by - first trying the match again at the same offset, with the - PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART and PCRE_ANCHORED options, and then if that - fails, advancing the starting offset and trying an ordinary match + first trying the match again at the same offset, with the + PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART and PCRE_ANCHORED options, and then if that + fails, advancing the starting offset and trying an ordinary match again. There is some code that demonstrates how to do this in the pcre- demo sample program. In the most general case, you have to check to see - if the newline convention recognizes CRLF as a newline, and if so, and + if the newline convention recognizes CRLF as a newline, and if so, and the current character is CR followed by LF, advance the starting offset by two characters instead of one. - If a non-zero starting offset is passed when the pattern is anchored, + If a non-zero starting offset is passed when the pattern is anchored, one attempt to match at the given offset is made. This can only succeed - if the pattern does not require the match to be at the start of the + if the pattern does not require the match to be at the start of the subject. How pcre_exec() returns captured substrings - In general, a pattern matches a certain portion of the subject, and in - addition, further substrings from the subject may be picked out by - parts of the pattern. Following the usage in Jeffrey Friedl's book, - this is called "capturing" in what follows, and the phrase "capturing - subpattern" is used for a fragment of a pattern that picks out a sub- - string. PCRE supports several other kinds of parenthesized subpattern + In general, a pattern matches a certain portion of the subject, and in + addition, further substrings from the subject may be picked out by + parts of the pattern. Following the usage in Jeffrey Friedl's book, + this is called "capturing" in what follows, and the phrase "capturing + subpattern" is used for a fragment of a pattern that picks out a sub- + string. PCRE supports several other kinds of parenthesized subpattern that do not cause substrings to be captured. Captured substrings are returned to the caller via a vector of integers - whose address is passed in ovector. The number of elements in the vec- - tor is passed in ovecsize, which must be a non-negative number. Note: + whose address is passed in ovector. The number of elements in the vec- + tor is passed in ovecsize, which must be a non-negative number. Note: this argument is NOT the size of ovector in bytes. - The first two-thirds of the vector is used to pass back captured sub- - strings, each substring using a pair of integers. The remaining third - of the vector is used as workspace by pcre_exec() while matching cap- - turing subpatterns, and is not available for passing back information. - The number passed in ovecsize should always be a multiple of three. If + The first two-thirds of the vector is used to pass back captured sub- + strings, each substring using a pair of integers. The remaining third + of the vector is used as workspace by pcre_exec() while matching cap- + turing subpatterns, and is not available for passing back information. + The number passed in ovecsize should always be a multiple of three. If it is not, it is rounded down. - When a match is successful, information about captured substrings is - returned in pairs of integers, starting at the beginning of ovector, - and continuing up to two-thirds of its length at the most. The first - element of each pair is set to the byte offset of the first character - in a substring, and the second is set to the byte offset of the first - character after the end of a substring. Note: these values are always - byte offsets, even in UTF-8 mode. They are not character counts. + When a match is successful, information about captured substrings is + returned in pairs of integers, starting at the beginning of ovector, + and continuing up to two-thirds of its length at the most. The first + element of each pair is set to the offset of the first character in a + substring, and the second is set to the offset of the first character + after the end of a substring. These values are always data unit off- + sets, even in UTF mode. They are byte offsets in the 8-bit library, + 16-bit data item offsets in the 16-bit library, and 32-bit data item + offsets in the 32-bit library. Note: they are not character counts. - The first pair of integers, ovector[0] and ovector[1], identify the - portion of the subject string matched by the entire pattern. The next - pair is used for the first capturing subpattern, and so on. The value + The first pair of integers, ovector[0] and ovector[1], identify the + portion of the subject string matched by the entire pattern. The next + pair is used for the first capturing subpattern, and so on. The value returned by pcre_exec() is one more than the highest numbered pair that - has been set. For example, if two substrings have been captured, the - returned value is 3. If there are no capturing subpatterns, the return + has been set. For example, if two substrings have been captured, the + returned value is 3. If there are no capturing subpatterns, the return value from a successful match is 1, indicating that just the first pair of offsets has been set. If a capturing subpattern is matched repeatedly, it is the last portion of the string that it matched that is returned. - If the vector is too small to hold all the captured substring offsets, + If the vector is too small to hold all the captured substring offsets, it is used as far as possible (up to two-thirds of its length), and the - function returns a value of zero. If neither the actual string matched - not any captured substrings are of interest, pcre_exec() may be called - with ovector passed as NULL and ovecsize as zero. However, if the pat- - tern contains back references and the ovector is not big enough to - remember the related substrings, PCRE has to get additional memory for - use during matching. Thus it is usually advisable to supply an ovector + function returns a value of zero. If neither the actual string matched + nor any captured substrings are of interest, pcre_exec() may be called + with ovector passed as NULL and ovecsize as zero. However, if the pat- + tern contains back references and the ovector is not big enough to + remember the related substrings, PCRE has to get additional memory for + use during matching. Thus it is usually advisable to supply an ovector of reasonable size. - There are some cases where zero is returned (indicating vector over- - flow) when in fact the vector is exactly the right size for the final + There are some cases where zero is returned (indicating vector over- + flow) when in fact the vector is exactly the right size for the final match. For example, consider the pattern (a)(?:(b)c|bd) - If a vector of 6 elements (allowing for only 1 captured substring) is + If a vector of 6 elements (allowing for only 1 captured substring) is given with subject string "abd", pcre_exec() will try to set the second captured string, thereby recording a vector overflow, before failing to - match "c" and backing up to try the second alternative. The zero - return, however, does correctly indicate that the maximum number of + match "c" and backing up to try the second alternative. The zero + return, however, does correctly indicate that the maximum number of slots (namely 2) have been filled. In similar cases where there is tem- - porary overflow, but the final number of used slots is actually less + porary overflow, but the final number of used slots is actually less than the maximum, a non-zero value is returned. The pcre_fullinfo() function can be used to find out how many capturing - subpatterns there are in a compiled pattern. The smallest size for - ovector that will allow for n captured substrings, in addition to the + subpatterns there are in a compiled pattern. The smallest size for + ovector that will allow for n captured substrings, in addition to the offsets of the substring matched by the whole pattern, is (n+1)*3. - It is possible for capturing subpattern number n+1 to match some part + It is possible for capturing subpattern number n+1 to match some part of the subject when subpattern n has not been used at all. For example, - if the string "abc" is matched against the pattern (a|(z))(bc) the + if the string "abc" is matched against the pattern (a|(z))(bc) the return from the function is 4, and subpatterns 1 and 3 are matched, but - 2 is not. When this happens, both values in the offset pairs corre- + 2 is not. When this happens, both values in the offset pairs corre- sponding to unused subpatterns are set to -1. - Offset values that correspond to unused subpatterns at the end of the - expression are also set to -1. For example, if the string "abc" is - matched against the pattern (abc)(x(yz)?)? subpatterns 2 and 3 are not - matched. The return from the function is 2, because the highest used - capturing subpattern number is 1, and the offsets for for the second - and third capturing subpatterns (assuming the vector is large enough, + Offset values that correspond to unused subpatterns at the end of the + expression are also set to -1. For example, if the string "abc" is + matched against the pattern (abc)(x(yz)?)? subpatterns 2 and 3 are not + matched. The return from the function is 2, because the highest used + capturing subpattern number is 1, and the offsets for for the second + and third capturing subpatterns (assuming the vector is large enough, of course) are set to -1. - Note: Elements in the first two-thirds of ovector that do not corre- - spond to capturing parentheses in the pattern are never changed. That - is, if a pattern contains n capturing parentheses, no more than ovec- - tor[0] to ovector[2n+1] are set by pcre_exec(). The other elements (in + Note: Elements in the first two-thirds of ovector that do not corre- + spond to capturing parentheses in the pattern are never changed. That + is, if a pattern contains n capturing parentheses, no more than ovec- + tor[0] to ovector[2n+1] are set by pcre_exec(). The other elements (in the first two-thirds) retain whatever values they previously had. - Some convenience functions are provided for extracting the captured + Some convenience functions are provided for extracting the captured substrings as separate strings. These are described below. Error return values from pcre_exec() - If pcre_exec() fails, it returns a negative number. The following are + If pcre_exec() fails, it returns a negative number. The following are defined in the header file: PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH (-1) @@ -2420,7 +3539,7 @@ MATCHING A PATTERN: THE TRADITIONAL FUNCTION PCRE_ERROR_NULL (-2) - Either code or subject was passed as NULL, or ovector was NULL and + Either code or subject was passed as NULL, or ovector was NULL and ovecsize was not zero. PCRE_ERROR_BADOPTION (-3) @@ -2429,82 +3548,82 @@ MATCHING A PATTERN: THE TRADITIONAL FUNCTION PCRE_ERROR_BADMAGIC (-4) - PCRE stores a 4-byte "magic number" at the start of the compiled code, + PCRE stores a 4-byte "magic number" at the start of the compiled code, to catch the case when it is passed a junk pointer and to detect when a pattern that was compiled in an environment of one endianness is run in - an environment with the other endianness. This is the error that PCRE + an environment with the other endianness. This is the error that PCRE gives when the magic number is not present. PCRE_ERROR_UNKNOWN_OPCODE (-5) While running the pattern match, an unknown item was encountered in the - compiled pattern. This error could be caused by a bug in PCRE or by + compiled pattern. This error could be caused by a bug in PCRE or by overwriting of the compiled pattern. PCRE_ERROR_NOMEMORY (-6) - If a pattern contains back references, but the ovector that is passed + If a pattern contains back references, but the ovector that is passed to pcre_exec() is not big enough to remember the referenced substrings, - PCRE gets a block of memory at the start of matching to use for this - purpose. If the call via pcre_malloc() fails, this error is given. The + PCRE gets a block of memory at the start of matching to use for this + purpose. If the call via pcre_malloc() fails, this error is given. The memory is automatically freed at the end of matching. - This error is also given if pcre_stack_malloc() fails in pcre_exec(). - This can happen only when PCRE has been compiled with --disable-stack- + This error is also given if pcre_stack_malloc() fails in pcre_exec(). + This can happen only when PCRE has been compiled with --disable-stack- for-recursion. PCRE_ERROR_NOSUBSTRING (-7) - This error is used by the pcre_copy_substring(), pcre_get_substring(), + This error is used by the pcre_copy_substring(), pcre_get_substring(), and pcre_get_substring_list() functions (see below). It is never returned by pcre_exec(). PCRE_ERROR_MATCHLIMIT (-8) - The backtracking limit, as specified by the match_limit field in a - pcre_extra structure (or defaulted) was reached. See the description + The backtracking limit, as specified by the match_limit field in a + pcre_extra structure (or defaulted) was reached. See the description above. PCRE_ERROR_CALLOUT (-9) This error is never generated by pcre_exec() itself. It is provided for - use by callout functions that want to yield a distinctive error code. + use by callout functions that want to yield a distinctive error code. See the pcrecallout documentation for details. PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8 (-10) - A string that contains an invalid UTF-8 byte sequence was passed as a - subject, and the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK option was not set. If the size of - the output vector (ovecsize) is at least 2, the byte offset to the - start of the the invalid UTF-8 character is placed in the first ele- - ment, and a reason code is placed in the second element. The reason + A string that contains an invalid UTF-8 byte sequence was passed as a + subject, and the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK option was not set. If the size of + the output vector (ovecsize) is at least 2, the byte offset to the + start of the the invalid UTF-8 character is placed in the first ele- + ment, and a reason code is placed in the second element. The reason codes are listed in the following section. For backward compatibility, - if PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD is set and the problem is a truncated UTF-8 char- - acter at the end of the subject (reason codes 1 to 5), + if PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD is set and the problem is a truncated UTF-8 char- + acter at the end of the subject (reason codes 1 to 5), PCRE_ERROR_SHORTUTF8 is returned instead of PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8. PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8_OFFSET (-11) - The UTF-8 byte sequence that was passed as a subject was checked and - found to be valid (the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK option was not set), but the - value of startoffset did not point to the beginning of a UTF-8 charac- + The UTF-8 byte sequence that was passed as a subject was checked and + found to be valid (the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK option was not set), but the + value of startoffset did not point to the beginning of a UTF-8 charac- ter or the end of the subject. PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL (-12) - The subject string did not match, but it did match partially. See the + The subject string did not match, but it did match partially. See the pcrepartial documentation for details of partial matching. PCRE_ERROR_BADPARTIAL (-13) - This code is no longer in use. It was formerly returned when the - PCRE_PARTIAL option was used with a compiled pattern containing items - that were not supported for partial matching. From release 8.00 + This code is no longer in use. It was formerly returned when the + PCRE_PARTIAL option was used with a compiled pattern containing items + that were not supported for partial matching. From release 8.00 onwards, there are no restrictions on partial matching. PCRE_ERROR_INTERNAL (-14) - An unexpected internal error has occurred. This error could be caused + An unexpected internal error has occurred. This error could be caused by a bug in PCRE or by overwriting of the compiled pattern. PCRE_ERROR_BADCOUNT (-15) @@ -2514,7 +3633,7 @@ MATCHING A PATTERN: THE TRADITIONAL FUNCTION PCRE_ERROR_RECURSIONLIMIT (-21) The internal recursion limit, as specified by the match_limit_recursion - field in a pcre_extra structure (or defaulted) was reached. See the + field in a pcre_extra structure (or defaulted) was reached. See the description above. PCRE_ERROR_BADNEWLINE (-23) @@ -2528,40 +3647,70 @@ MATCHING A PATTERN: THE TRADITIONAL FUNCTION PCRE_ERROR_SHORTUTF8 (-25) - This error is returned instead of PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8 when the subject - string ends with a truncated UTF-8 character and the PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD - option is set. Information about the failure is returned as for - PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8. It is in fact sufficient to detect this case, but - this special error code for PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD precedes the implementa- - tion of returned information; it is retained for backwards compatibil- + This error is returned instead of PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8 when the subject + string ends with a truncated UTF-8 character and the PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD + option is set. Information about the failure is returned as for + PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8. It is in fact sufficient to detect this case, but + this special error code for PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD precedes the implementa- + tion of returned information; it is retained for backwards compatibil- ity. PCRE_ERROR_RECURSELOOP (-26) This error is returned when pcre_exec() detects a recursion loop within - the pattern. Specifically, it means that either the whole pattern or a - subpattern has been called recursively for the second time at the same + the pattern. Specifically, it means that either the whole pattern or a + subpattern has been called recursively for the second time at the same position in the subject string. Some simple patterns that might do this - are detected and faulted at compile time, but more complicated cases, + are detected and faulted at compile time, but more complicated cases, in particular mutual recursions between two different subpatterns, can- not be detected until run time. PCRE_ERROR_JIT_STACKLIMIT (-27) + This error is returned when a pattern that was successfully studied + using a JIT compile option is being matched, but the memory available + for the just-in-time processing stack is not large enough. See the + pcrejit documentation for more details. + + PCRE_ERROR_BADMODE (-28) + + This error is given if a pattern that was compiled by the 8-bit library + is passed to a 16-bit or 32-bit library function, or vice versa. + + PCRE_ERROR_BADENDIANNESS (-29) + + This error is given if a pattern that was compiled and saved is + reloaded on a host with different endianness. The utility function + pcre_pattern_to_host_byte_order() can be used to convert such a pattern + so that it runs on the new host. + + PCRE_ERROR_JIT_BADOPTION + This error is returned when a pattern that was successfully studied - using the PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE option is being matched, but the mem- - ory available for the just-in-time processing stack is not large - enough. See the pcrejit documentation for more details. + using a JIT compile option is being matched, but the matching mode + (partial or complete match) does not correspond to any JIT compilation + mode. When the JIT fast path function is used, this error may be also + given for invalid options. See the pcrejit documentation for more + details. - Error numbers -16 to -20 and -22 are not used by pcre_exec(). + PCRE_ERROR_BADLENGTH (-32) + This error is given if pcre_exec() is called with a negative value for + the length argument. + + Error numbers -16 to -20, -22, and 30 are not used by pcre_exec(). + Reason codes for invalid UTF-8 strings + This section applies only to the 8-bit library. The corresponding + information for the 16-bit and 32-bit libraries is given in the pcre16 + and pcre32 pages. + When pcre_exec() returns either PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8 or PCRE_ERROR_SHORT- - UTF8, and the size of the output vector (ovecsize) is at least 2, the - offset of the start of the invalid UTF-8 character is placed in the + UTF8, and the size of the output vector (ovecsize) is at least 2, the + offset of the start of the invalid UTF-8 character is placed in the first output vector element (ovector[0]) and a reason code is placed in - the second element (ovector[1]). The reason codes are given names in + the second element (ovector[1]). The reason codes are given names in the pcre.h header file: PCRE_UTF8_ERR1 @@ -2570,10 +3719,10 @@ MATCHING A PATTERN: THE TRADITIONAL FUNCTION PCRE_UTF8_ERR4 PCRE_UTF8_ERR5 - The string ends with a truncated UTF-8 character; the code specifies - how many bytes are missing (1 to 5). Although RFC 3629 restricts UTF-8 - characters to be no longer than 4 bytes, the encoding scheme (origi- - nally defined by RFC 2279) allows for up to 6 bytes, and this is + The string ends with a truncated UTF-8 character; the code specifies + how many bytes are missing (1 to 5). Although RFC 3629 restricts UTF-8 + characters to be no longer than 4 bytes, the encoding scheme (origi- + nally defined by RFC 2279) allows for up to 6 bytes, and this is checked first; hence the possibility of 4 or 5 missing bytes. PCRE_UTF8_ERR6 @@ -2583,24 +3732,24 @@ MATCHING A PATTERN: THE TRADITIONAL FUNCTION PCRE_UTF8_ERR10 The two most significant bits of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th byte of - the character do not have the binary value 0b10 (that is, either the + the character do not have the binary value 0b10 (that is, either the most significant bit is 0, or the next bit is 1). PCRE_UTF8_ERR11 PCRE_UTF8_ERR12 - A character that is valid by the RFC 2279 rules is either 5 or 6 bytes + A character that is valid by the RFC 2279 rules is either 5 or 6 bytes long; these code points are excluded by RFC 3629. PCRE_UTF8_ERR13 - A 4-byte character has a value greater than 0x10fff; these code points + A 4-byte character has a value greater than 0x10fff; these code points are excluded by RFC 3629. PCRE_UTF8_ERR14 - A 3-byte character has a value in the range 0xd800 to 0xdfff; this - range of code points are reserved by RFC 3629 for use with UTF-16, and + A 3-byte character has a value in the range 0xd800 to 0xdfff; this + range of code points are reserved by RFC 3629 for use with UTF-16, and so are excluded from UTF-8. PCRE_UTF8_ERR15 @@ -2609,24 +3758,31 @@ MATCHING A PATTERN: THE TRADITIONAL FUNCTION PCRE_UTF8_ERR18 PCRE_UTF8_ERR19 - A 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, or 6-byte character is "overlong", that is, it codes - for a value that can be represented by fewer bytes, which is invalid. - For example, the two bytes 0xc0, 0xae give the value 0x2e, whose cor- + A 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, or 6-byte character is "overlong", that is, it codes + for a value that can be represented by fewer bytes, which is invalid. + For example, the two bytes 0xc0, 0xae give the value 0x2e, whose cor- rect coding uses just one byte. PCRE_UTF8_ERR20 The two most significant bits of the first byte of a character have the - binary value 0b10 (that is, the most significant bit is 1 and the sec- - ond is 0). Such a byte can only validly occur as the second or subse- + binary value 0b10 (that is, the most significant bit is 1 and the sec- + ond is 0). Such a byte can only validly occur as the second or subse- quent byte of a multi-byte character. PCRE_UTF8_ERR21 - The first byte of a character has the value 0xfe or 0xff. These values + The first byte of a character has the value 0xfe or 0xff. These values can never occur in a valid UTF-8 string. + PCRE_UTF8_ERR22 + This error code was formerly used when the presence of a so-called + "non-character" caused an error. Unicode corrigendum #9 makes it clear + that such characters should not cause a string to be rejected, and so + this code is no longer in use and is never returned. + + EXTRACTING CAPTURED SUBSTRINGS BY NUMBER int pcre_copy_substring(const char *subject, int *ovector, @@ -2824,6 +3980,31 @@ FINDING ALL POSSIBLE MATCHES matches, pcre_exec() will yield PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH. +OBTAINING AN ESTIMATE OF STACK USAGE + + Matching certain patterns using pcre_exec() can use a lot of process + stack, which in certain environments can be rather limited in size. + Some users find it helpful to have an estimate of the amount of stack + that is used by pcre_exec(), to help them set recursion limits, as + described in the pcrestack documentation. The estimate that is output + by pcretest when called with the -m and -C options is obtained by call- + ing pcre_exec with the values NULL, NULL, NULL, -999, and -999 for its + first five arguments. + + Normally, if its first argument is NULL, pcre_exec() immediately + returns the negative error code PCRE_ERROR_NULL, but with this special + combination of arguments, it returns instead a negative number whose + absolute value is the approximate stack frame size in bytes. (A nega- + tive number is used so that it is clear that no match has happened.) + The value is approximate because in some cases, recursive calls to + pcre_exec() occur when there are one or two additional variables on the + stack. + + If PCRE has been compiled to use the heap instead of the stack for + recursion, the value returned is the size of each block that is + obtained from the heap. + + MATCHING A PATTERN: THE ALTERNATIVE FUNCTION int pcre_dfa_exec(const pcre *code, const pcre_extra *extra, @@ -2988,11 +4169,19 @@ MATCHING A PATTERN: THE ALTERNATIVE FUNCTION This error is given if the output vector is not large enough. This should be extremely rare, as a vector of size 1000 is used. + PCRE_ERROR_DFA_BADRESTART (-30) + When pcre_dfa_exec() is called with the PCRE_DFA_RESTART option, some + plausibility checks are made on the contents of the workspace, which + should contain data about the previous partial match. If any of these + checks fail, this error is given. + + SEE ALSO - pcrebuild(3), pcrecallout(3), pcrecpp(3)(3), pcrematching(3), pcrepar- - tial(3), pcreposix(3), pcreprecompile(3), pcresample(3), pcrestack(3). + pcre16(3), pcre32(3), pcrebuild(3), pcrecallout(3), pcrecpp(3)(3), + pcrematching(3), pcrepartial(3), pcreposix(3), pcreprecompile(3), pcre- + sample(3), pcrestack(3). AUTHOR @@ -3004,40 +4193,50 @@ AUTHOR REVISION - Last updated: 02 December 2011 - Copyright (c) 1997-2011 University of Cambridge. + Last updated: 12 May 2013 + Copyright (c) 1997-2013 University of Cambridge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -PCRECALLOUT(3) PCRECALLOUT(3) +PCRECALLOUT(3) Library Functions Manual PCRECALLOUT(3) + NAME PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions +SYNOPSIS -PCRE CALLOUTS + #include int (*pcre_callout)(pcre_callout_block *); + int (*pcre16_callout)(pcre16_callout_block *); + + int (*pcre32_callout)(pcre32_callout_block *); + + +DESCRIPTION + PCRE provides a feature called "callout", which is a means of temporar- ily passing control to the caller of PCRE in the middle of pattern matching. The caller of PCRE provides an external function by putting - its entry point in the global variable pcre_callout. By default, this - variable contains NULL, which disables all calling out. + its entry point in the global variable pcre_callout (pcre16_callout for + the 16-bit library, pcre32_callout for the 32-bit library). By default, + this variable contains NULL, which disables all calling out. - Within a regular expression, (?C) indicates the points at which the - external function is to be called. Different callout points can be - identified by putting a number less than 256 after the letter C. The - default value is zero. For example, this pattern has two callout + Within a regular expression, (?C) indicates the points at which the + external function is to be called. Different callout points can be + identified by putting a number less than 256 after the letter C. The + default value is zero. For example, this pattern has two callout points: (?C1)abc(?C2)def - If the PCRE_AUTO_CALLOUT option bit is set when pcre_compile() or - pcre_compile2() is called, PCRE automatically inserts callouts, all - with number 255, before each item in the pattern. For example, if - PCRE_AUTO_CALLOUT is used with the pattern + If the PCRE_AUTO_CALLOUT option bit is set when a pattern is compiled, + PCRE automatically inserts callouts, all with number 255, before each + item in the pattern. For example, if PCRE_AUTO_CALLOUT is used with the + pattern A(\d{2}|--) @@ -3045,133 +4244,146 @@ PCRE CALLOUTS (?C255)A(?C255)((?C255)\d{2}(?C255)|(?C255)-(?C255)-(?C255))(?C255) - Notice that there is a callout before and after each parenthesis and - alternation bar. Automatic callouts can be used for tracking the - progress of pattern matching. The pcretest command has an option that - sets automatic callouts; when it is used, the output indicates how the - pattern is matched. This is useful information when you are trying to - optimize the performance of a particular pattern. + Notice that there is a callout before and after each parenthesis and + alternation bar. If the pattern contains a conditional group whose con- + dition is an assertion, an automatic callout is inserted immediately + before the condition. Such a callout may also be inserted explicitly, + for example: - The use of callouts in a pattern makes it ineligible for optimization - by the just-in-time compiler. Studying such a pattern with the - PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE option always fails. + (?(?C9)(?=a)ab|de) + This applies only to assertion conditions (because they are themselves + independent groups). + Automatic callouts can be used for tracking the progress of pattern + matching. The pcretest command has an option that sets automatic call- + outs; when it is used, the output indicates how the pattern is matched. + This is useful information when you are trying to optimize the perfor- + mance of a particular pattern. + + MISSING CALLOUTS - You should be aware that, because of optimizations in the way PCRE - matches patterns by default, callouts sometimes do not happen. For + You should be aware that, because of optimizations in the way PCRE + matches patterns by default, callouts sometimes do not happen. For example, if the pattern is ab(?C4)cd PCRE knows that any matching string must contain the letter "d". If the - subject string is "abyz", the lack of "d" means that matching doesn't - ever start, and the callout is never reached. However, with "abyd", + subject string is "abyz", the lack of "d" means that matching doesn't + ever start, and the callout is never reached. However, with "abyd", though the result is still no match, the callout is obeyed. - If the pattern is studied, PCRE knows the minimum length of a matching - string, and will immediately give a "no match" return without actually - running a match if the subject is not long enough, or, for unanchored + If the pattern is studied, PCRE knows the minimum length of a matching + string, and will immediately give a "no match" return without actually + running a match if the subject is not long enough, or, for unanchored patterns, if it has been scanned far enough. - You can disable these optimizations by passing the PCRE_NO_START_OPTI- - MIZE option to pcre_compile(), pcre_exec(), or pcre_dfa_exec(), or by - starting the pattern with (*NO_START_OPT). This slows down the matching - process, but does ensure that callouts such as the example above are - obeyed. + You can disable these optimizations by passing the PCRE_NO_START_OPTI- + MIZE option to the matching function, or by starting the pattern with + (*NO_START_OPT). This slows down the matching process, but does ensure + that callouts such as the example above are obeyed. THE CALLOUT INTERFACE During matching, when PCRE reaches a callout point, the external func- - tion defined by pcre_callout is called (if it is set). This applies to - both the pcre_exec() and the pcre_dfa_exec() matching functions. The - only argument to the callout function is a pointer to a pcre_callout - block. This structure contains the following fields: + tion defined by pcre_callout or pcre[16|32]_callout is called (if it is + set). This applies to both normal and DFA matching. The only argument + to the callout function is a pointer to a pcre_callout or + pcre[16|32]_callout block. These structures contains the following + fields: - int version; - int callout_number; - int *offset_vector; - const char *subject; - int subject_length; - int start_match; - int current_position; - int capture_top; - int capture_last; - void *callout_data; - int pattern_position; - int next_item_length; - const unsigned char *mark; + int version; + int callout_number; + int *offset_vector; + const char *subject; (8-bit version) + PCRE_SPTR16 subject; (16-bit version) + PCRE_SPTR32 subject; (32-bit version) + int subject_length; + int start_match; + int current_position; + int capture_top; + int capture_last; + void *callout_data; + int pattern_position; + int next_item_length; + const unsigned char *mark; (8-bit version) + const PCRE_UCHAR16 *mark; (16-bit version) + const PCRE_UCHAR32 *mark; (32-bit version) - The version field is an integer containing the version number of the - block format. The initial version was 0; the current version is 2. The - version number will change again in future if additional fields are + The version field is an integer containing the version number of the + block format. The initial version was 0; the current version is 2. The + version number will change again in future if additional fields are added, but the intention is never to remove any of the existing fields. - The callout_number field contains the number of the callout, as com- - piled into the pattern (that is, the number after ?C for manual call- + The callout_number field contains the number of the callout, as com- + piled into the pattern (that is, the number after ?C for manual call- outs, and 255 for automatically generated callouts). - The offset_vector field is a pointer to the vector of offsets that was - passed by the caller to pcre_exec() or pcre_dfa_exec(). When - pcre_exec() is used, the contents can be inspected in order to extract - substrings that have been matched so far, in the same way as for - extracting substrings after a match has completed. For pcre_dfa_exec() - this field is not useful. + The offset_vector field is a pointer to the vector of offsets that was + passed by the caller to the matching function. When pcre_exec() or + pcre[16|32]_exec() is used, the contents can be inspected, in order to + extract substrings that have been matched so far, in the same way as + for extracting substrings after a match has completed. For the DFA + matching functions, this field is not useful. The subject and subject_length fields contain copies of the values that - were passed to pcre_exec(). + were passed to the matching function. - The start_match field normally contains the offset within the subject - at which the current match attempt started. However, if the escape - sequence \K has been encountered, this value is changed to reflect the - modified starting point. If the pattern is not anchored, the callout + The start_match field normally contains the offset within the subject + at which the current match attempt started. However, if the escape + sequence \K has been encountered, this value is changed to reflect the + modified starting point. If the pattern is not anchored, the callout function may be called several times from the same point in the pattern for different starting points in the subject. - The current_position field contains the offset within the subject of + The current_position field contains the offset within the subject of the current match pointer. - When the pcre_exec() function is used, the capture_top field contains - one more than the number of the highest numbered captured substring so - far. If no substrings have been captured, the value of capture_top is - one. This is always the case when pcre_dfa_exec() is used, because it - does not support captured substrings. + When the pcre_exec() or pcre[16|32]_exec() is used, the capture_top + field contains one more than the number of the highest numbered cap- + tured substring so far. If no substrings have been captured, the value + of capture_top is one. This is always the case when the DFA functions + are used, because they do not support captured substrings. - The capture_last field contains the number of the most recently cap- - tured substring. If no substrings have been captured, its value is -1. - This is always the case when pcre_dfa_exec() is used. + The capture_last field contains the number of the most recently cap- + tured substring. However, when a recursion exits, the value reverts to + what it was outside the recursion, as do the values of all captured + substrings. If no substrings have been captured, the value of cap- + ture_last is -1. This is always the case for the DFA matching func- + tions. - The callout_data field contains a value that is passed to pcre_exec() - or pcre_dfa_exec() specifically so that it can be passed back in call- - outs. It is passed in the pcre_callout field of the pcre_extra data - structure. If no such data was passed, the value of callout_data in a - pcre_callout block is NULL. There is a description of the pcre_extra + The callout_data field contains a value that is passed to a matching + function specifically so that it can be passed back in callouts. It is + passed in the callout_data field of a pcre_extra or pcre[16|32]_extra + data structure. If no such data was passed, the value of callout_data + in a callout block is NULL. There is a description of the pcre_extra structure in the pcreapi documentation. - The pattern_position field is present from version 1 of the pcre_call- - out structure. It contains the offset to the next item to be matched in - the pattern string. + The pattern_position field is present from version 1 of the callout + structure. It contains the offset to the next item to be matched in the + pattern string. - The next_item_length field is present from version 1 of the pcre_call- - out structure. It contains the length of the next item to be matched in - the pattern string. When the callout immediately precedes an alterna- - tion bar, a closing parenthesis, or the end of the pattern, the length - is zero. When the callout precedes an opening parenthesis, the length - is that of the entire subpattern. + The next_item_length field is present from version 1 of the callout + structure. It contains the length of the next item to be matched in the + pattern string. When the callout immediately precedes an alternation + bar, a closing parenthesis, or the end of the pattern, the length is + zero. When the callout precedes an opening parenthesis, the length is + that of the entire subpattern. The pattern_position and next_item_length fields are intended to help in distinguishing between different automatic callouts, which all have the same callout number. However, they are set for all callouts. - The mark field is present from version 2 of the pcre_callout structure. - In callouts from pcre_exec() it contains a pointer to the zero-termi- - nated name of the most recently passed (*MARK), (*PRUNE), or (*THEN) - item in the match, or NULL if no such items have been passed. Instances - of (*PRUNE) or (*THEN) without a name do not obliterate a previous - (*MARK). In callouts from pcre_dfa_exec() this field always contains - NULL. + The mark field is present from version 2 of the callout structure. In + callouts from pcre_exec() or pcre[16|32]_exec() it contains a pointer + to the zero-terminated name of the most recently passed (*MARK), + (*PRUNE), or (*THEN) item in the match, or NULL if no such items have + been passed. Instances of (*PRUNE) or (*THEN) without a name do not + obliterate a previous (*MARK). In callouts from the DFA matching func- + tions this field always contains NULL. RETURN VALUES @@ -3180,8 +4392,8 @@ RETURN VALUES is zero, matching proceeds as normal. If the value is greater than zero, matching fails at the current point, but the testing of other matching possibilities goes ahead, just as if a lookahead assertion had - failed. If the value is less than zero, the match is abandoned, and - pcre_exec() or pcre_dfa_exec() returns the negative value. + failed. If the value is less than zero, the match is abandoned, the + matching function returns the negative value. Negative values should normally be chosen from the set of PCRE_ERROR_xxx values. In particular, PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH forces a stan- @@ -3199,26 +4411,26 @@ AUTHOR REVISION - Last updated: 30 November 2011 - Copyright (c) 1997-2011 University of Cambridge. + Last updated: 03 March 2013 + Copyright (c) 1997-2013 University of Cambridge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -PCRECOMPAT(3) PCRECOMPAT(3) +PCRECOMPAT(3) Library Functions Manual PCRECOMPAT(3) + NAME PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions - DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PCRE AND PERL This document describes the differences in the ways that PCRE and Perl handle regular expressions. The differences described here are with respect to Perl versions 5.10 and above. - 1. PCRE has only a subset of Perl's UTF-8 and Unicode support. Details - of what it does have are given in the pcreunicode page. + 1. PCRE has only a subset of Perl's Unicode support. Details of what it + does have are given in the pcreunicode page. 2. PCRE allows repeat quantifiers only on parenthesized assertions, but they do not mean what you might think. For example, (?!a){3} does not @@ -3229,10 +4441,8 @@ DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PCRE AND PERL 3. Capturing subpatterns that occur inside negative lookahead asser- tions are counted, but their entries in the offsets vector are never - set. Perl sets its numerical variables from any such patterns that are - matched before the assertion fails to match something (thereby succeed- - ing), but only if the negative lookahead assertion contains just one - branch. + set. Perl sometimes (but not always) sets its numerical variables from + inside negative assertions. 4. Though binary zero characters are supported in the subject string, they are not allowed in a pattern string because it is passed as a nor- @@ -3258,15 +4468,10 @@ DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PCRE AND PERL tion of Unicode characters, there is no need to implement the somewhat messy concept of surrogates." - 7. PCRE implements a simpler version of \X than Perl, which changed to - make \X match what Unicode calls an "extended grapheme cluster". This - is more complicated than an extended Unicode sequence, which is what - PCRE matches. - - 8. PCRE does support the \Q...\E escape for quoting substrings. Charac- - ters in between are treated as literals. This is slightly different - from Perl in that $ and @ are also handled as literals inside the - quotes. In Perl, they cause variable interpolation (but of course PCRE + 7. PCRE does support the \Q...\E escape for quoting substrings. Charac- + ters in between are treated as literals. This is slightly different + from Perl in that $ and @ are also handled as literals inside the + quotes. In Perl, they cause variable interpolation (but of course PCRE does not have variables). Note the following examples: Pattern PCRE matches Perl matches @@ -3276,48 +4481,69 @@ DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PCRE AND PERL \Qabc\$xyz\E abc\$xyz abc\$xyz \Qabc\E\$\Qxyz\E abc$xyz abc$xyz - The \Q...\E sequence is recognized both inside and outside character + The \Q...\E sequence is recognized both inside and outside character classes. - 9. Fairly obviously, PCRE does not support the (?{code}) and (??{code}) - constructions. However, there is support for recursive patterns. This - is not available in Perl 5.8, but it is in Perl 5.10. Also, the PCRE - "callout" feature allows an external function to be called during pat- + 8. Fairly obviously, PCRE does not support the (?{code}) and (??{code}) + constructions. However, there is support for recursive patterns. This + is not available in Perl 5.8, but it is in Perl 5.10. Also, the PCRE + "callout" feature allows an external function to be called during pat- tern matching. See the pcrecallout documentation for details. - 10. Subpatterns that are called as subroutines (whether or not recur- - sively) are always treated as atomic groups in PCRE. This is like - Python, but unlike Perl. Captured values that are set outside a sub- - routine call can be reference from inside in PCRE, but not in Perl. + 9. Subpatterns that are called as subroutines (whether or not recur- + sively) are always treated as atomic groups in PCRE. This is like + Python, but unlike Perl. Captured values that are set outside a sub- + routine call can be reference from inside in PCRE, but not in Perl. There is a discussion that explains these differences in more detail in the section on recursion differences from Perl in the pcrepattern page. - 11. If (*THEN) is present in a group that is called as a subroutine, - its action is limited to that group, even if the group does not contain - any | characters. + 10. If any of the backtracking control verbs are used in a subpattern + that is called as a subroutine (whether or not recursively), their + effect is confined to that subpattern; it does not extend to the sur- + rounding pattern. This is not always the case in Perl. In particular, + if (*THEN) is present in a group that is called as a subroutine, its + action is limited to that group, even if the group does not contain any + | characters. Note that such subpatterns are processed as anchored at + the point where they are tested. - 12. There are some differences that are concerned with the settings of - captured strings when part of a pattern is repeated. For example, - matching "aba" against the pattern /^(a(b)?)+$/ in Perl leaves $2 + 11. If a pattern contains more than one backtracking control verb, the + first one that is backtracked onto acts. For example, in the pattern + A(*COMMIT)B(*PRUNE)C a failure in B triggers (*COMMIT), but a failure + in C triggers (*PRUNE). Perl's behaviour is more complex; in many cases + it is the same as PCRE, but there are examples where it differs. + + 12. Most backtracking verbs in assertions have their normal actions. + They are not confined to the assertion. + + 13. There are some differences that are concerned with the settings of + captured strings when part of a pattern is repeated. For example, + matching "aba" against the pattern /^(a(b)?)+$/ in Perl leaves $2 unset, but in PCRE it is set to "b". - 13. PCRE's handling of duplicate subpattern numbers and duplicate sub- + 14. PCRE's handling of duplicate subpattern numbers and duplicate sub- pattern names is not as general as Perl's. This is a consequence of the fact the PCRE works internally just with numbers, using an external ta- - ble to translate between numbers and names. In particular, a pattern - such as (?|(?A)|(?A)|(?\r\n|\n|\x0b|\f|\r|\x85) - This is an example of an "atomic group", details of which are given + This is an example of an "atomic group", details of which are given below. This particular group matches either the two-character sequence - CR followed by LF, or one of the single characters LF (linefeed, - U+000A), VT (vertical tab, U+000B), FF (formfeed, U+000C), CR (carriage - return, U+000D), or NEL (next line, U+0085). The two-character sequence - is treated as a single unit that cannot be split. + CR followed by LF, or one of the single characters LF (linefeed, + U+000A), VT (vertical tab, U+000B), FF (form feed, U+000C), CR (car- + riage return, U+000D), or NEL (next line, U+0085). The two-character + sequence is treated as a single unit that cannot be split. - In UTF-8 mode, two additional characters whose codepoints are greater + In other modes, two additional characters whose codepoints are greater than 255 are added: LS (line separator, U+2028) and PS (paragraph sepa- - rator, U+2029). Unicode character property support is not needed for + rator, U+2029). Unicode character property support is not needed for these characters to be recognized. It is possible to restrict \R to match only CR, LF, or CRLF (instead of - the complete set of Unicode line endings) by setting the option + the complete set of Unicode line endings) by setting the option PCRE_BSR_ANYCRLF either at compile time or when the pattern is matched. (BSR is an abbrevation for "backslash R".) This can be made the default - when PCRE is built; if this is the case, the other behaviour can be - requested via the PCRE_BSR_UNICODE option. It is also possible to - specify these settings by starting a pattern string with one of the + when PCRE is built; if this is the case, the other behaviour can be + requested via the PCRE_BSR_UNICODE option. It is also possible to + specify these settings by starting a pattern string with one of the following sequences: (*BSR_ANYCRLF) CR, LF, or CRLF only (*BSR_UNICODE) any Unicode newline sequence - These override the default and the options given to pcre_compile() or - pcre_compile2(), but they can be overridden by options given to - pcre_exec() or pcre_dfa_exec(). Note that these special settings, which - are not Perl-compatible, are recognized only at the very start of a - pattern, and that they must be in upper case. If more than one of them - is present, the last one is used. They can be combined with a change of + These override the default and the options given to the compiling func- + tion, but they can themselves be overridden by options given to a + matching function. Note that these special settings, which are not + Perl-compatible, are recognized only at the very start of a pattern, + and that they must be in upper case. If more than one of them is + present, the last one is used. They can be combined with a change of newline convention; for example, a pattern can start with: (*ANY)(*BSR_ANYCRLF) - They can also be combined with the (*UTF8) or (*UCP) special sequences. - Inside a character class, \R is treated as an unrecognized escape - sequence, and so matches the letter "R" by default, but causes an error - if PCRE_EXTRA is set. + They can also be combined with the (*UTF8), (*UTF16), (*UTF32), (*UTF) + or (*UCP) special sequences. Inside a character class, \R is treated as + an unrecognized escape sequence, and so matches the letter "R" by + default, but causes an error if PCRE_EXTRA is set. Unicode character properties When PCRE is built with Unicode character property support, three addi- - tional escape sequences that match characters with specific properties - are available. When not in UTF-8 mode, these sequences are of course - limited to testing characters whose codepoints are less than 256, but - they do work in this mode. The extra escape sequences are: + tional escape sequences that match characters with specific properties + are available. When in 8-bit non-UTF-8 mode, these sequences are of + course limited to testing characters whose codepoints are less than + 256, but they do work in this mode. The extra escape sequences are: \p{xx} a character with the xx property \P{xx} a character without the xx property - \X an extended Unicode sequence + \X a Unicode extended grapheme cluster - The property names represented by xx above are limited to the Unicode + The property names represented by xx above are limited to the Unicode script names, the general category properties, "Any", which matches any - character (including newline), and some special PCRE properties - (described in the next section). Other Perl properties such as "InMu- - sicalSymbols" are not currently supported by PCRE. Note that \P{Any} + character (including newline), and some special PCRE properties + (described in the next section). Other Perl properties such as "InMu- + sicalSymbols" are not currently supported by PCRE. Note that \P{Any} does not match any characters, so always causes a match failure. Sets of Unicode characters are defined as belonging to certain scripts. - A character from one of these sets can be matched using a script name. + A character from one of these sets can be matched using a script name. For example: \p{Greek} \P{Han} - Those that are not part of an identified script are lumped together as + Those that are not part of an identified script are lumped together as "Common". The current list of scripts is: - Arabic, Armenian, Avestan, Balinese, Bamum, Bengali, Bopomofo, Braille, - Buginese, Buhid, Canadian_Aboriginal, Carian, Cham, Cherokee, Common, - Coptic, Cuneiform, Cypriot, Cyrillic, Deseret, Devanagari, Egyp- - tian_Hieroglyphs, Ethiopic, Georgian, Glagolitic, Gothic, Greek, - Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Han, Hangul, Hanunoo, Hebrew, Hiragana, Impe- - rial_Aramaic, Inherited, Inscriptional_Pahlavi, Inscriptional_Parthian, - Javanese, Kaithi, Kannada, Katakana, Kayah_Li, Kharoshthi, Khmer, Lao, - Latin, Lepcha, Limbu, Linear_B, Lisu, Lycian, Lydian, Malayalam, - Meetei_Mayek, Mongolian, Myanmar, New_Tai_Lue, Nko, Ogham, Old_Italic, - Old_Persian, Old_South_Arabian, Old_Turkic, Ol_Chiki, Oriya, Osmanya, - Phags_Pa, Phoenician, Rejang, Runic, Samaritan, Saurashtra, Shavian, - Sinhala, Sundanese, Syloti_Nagri, Syriac, Tagalog, Tagbanwa, Tai_Le, - Tai_Tham, Tai_Viet, Tamil, Telugu, Thaana, Thai, Tibetan, Tifinagh, - Ugaritic, Vai, Yi. + Arabic, Armenian, Avestan, Balinese, Bamum, Batak, Bengali, Bopomofo, + Brahmi, Braille, Buginese, Buhid, Canadian_Aboriginal, Carian, Chakma, + Cham, Cherokee, Common, Coptic, Cuneiform, Cypriot, Cyrillic, Deseret, + Devanagari, Egyptian_Hieroglyphs, Ethiopic, Georgian, Glagolitic, + Gothic, Greek, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Han, Hangul, Hanunoo, Hebrew, Hira- + gana, Imperial_Aramaic, Inherited, Inscriptional_Pahlavi, Inscrip- + tional_Parthian, Javanese, Kaithi, Kannada, Katakana, Kayah_Li, + Kharoshthi, Khmer, Lao, Latin, Lepcha, Limbu, Linear_B, Lisu, Lycian, + Lydian, Malayalam, Mandaic, Meetei_Mayek, Meroitic_Cursive, + Meroitic_Hieroglyphs, Miao, Mongolian, Myanmar, New_Tai_Lue, Nko, + Ogham, Old_Italic, Old_Persian, Old_South_Arabian, Old_Turkic, + Ol_Chiki, Oriya, Osmanya, Phags_Pa, Phoenician, Rejang, Runic, Samari- + tan, Saurashtra, Sharada, Shavian, Sinhala, Sora_Sompeng, Sundanese, + Syloti_Nagri, Syriac, Tagalog, Tagbanwa, Tai_Le, Tai_Tham, Tai_Viet, + Takri, Tamil, Telugu, Thaana, Thai, Tibetan, Tifinagh, Ugaritic, Vai, + Yi. Each character has exactly one Unicode general category property, spec- - ified by a two-letter abbreviation. For compatibility with Perl, nega- - tion can be specified by including a circumflex between the opening - brace and the property name. For example, \p{^Lu} is the same as + ified by a two-letter abbreviation. For compatibility with Perl, nega- + tion can be specified by including a circumflex between the opening + brace and the property name. For example, \p{^Lu} is the same as \P{Lu}. If only one letter is specified with \p or \P, it includes all the gen- - eral category properties that start with that letter. In this case, in - the absence of negation, the curly brackets in the escape sequence are + eral category properties that start with that letter. In this case, in + the absence of negation, the curly brackets in the escape sequence are optional; these two examples have the same effect: \p{L} @@ -3960,15 +5264,16 @@ BACKSLASH Zp Paragraph separator Zs Space separator - The special property L& is also supported: it matches a character that - has the Lu, Ll, or Lt property, in other words, a letter that is not + The special property L& is also supported: it matches a character that + has the Lu, Ll, or Lt property, in other words, a letter that is not classified as a modifier or "other". - The Cs (Surrogate) property applies only to characters in the range - U+D800 to U+DFFF. Such characters are not valid in UTF-8 strings (see - RFC 3629) and so cannot be tested by PCRE, unless UTF-8 validity check- - ing has been turned off (see the discussion of PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK in - the pcreapi page). Perl does not support the Cs property. + The Cs (Surrogate) property applies only to characters in the range + U+D800 to U+DFFF. Such characters are not valid in Unicode strings and + so cannot be tested by PCRE, unless UTF validity checking has been + turned off (see the discussion of PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK, + PCRE_NO_UTF16_CHECK and PCRE_NO_UTF32_CHECK in the pcreapi page). Perl + does not support the Cs property. The long synonyms for property names that Perl supports (such as \p{Letter}) are not supported by PCRE, nor is it permitted to prefix @@ -3979,78 +5284,117 @@ BACKSLASH in the Unicode table. Specifying caseless matching does not affect these escape sequences. - For example, \p{Lu} always matches only upper case letters. + For example, \p{Lu} always matches only upper case letters. This is + different from the behaviour of current versions of Perl. + Matching characters by Unicode property is not fast, because PCRE has + to do a multistage table lookup in order to find a character's prop- + erty. That is why the traditional escape sequences such as \d and \w do + not use Unicode properties in PCRE by default, though you can make them + do so by setting the PCRE_UCP option or by starting the pattern with + (*UCP). + + Extended grapheme clusters + The \X escape matches any number of Unicode characters that form an - extended Unicode sequence. \X is equivalent to + "extended grapheme cluster", and treats the sequence as an atomic group + (see below). Up to and including release 8.31, PCRE matched an ear- + lier, simpler definition that was equivalent to (?>\PM\pM*) - That is, it matches a character without the "mark" property, followed - by zero or more characters with the "mark" property, and treats the - sequence as an atomic group (see below). Characters with the "mark" - property are typically accents that affect the preceding character. - None of them have codepoints less than 256, so in non-UTF-8 mode \X - matches any one character. + That is, it matched a character without the "mark" property, followed + by zero or more characters with the "mark" property. Characters with + the "mark" property are typically non-spacing accents that affect the + preceding character. - Note that recent versions of Perl have changed \X to match what Unicode - calls an "extended grapheme cluster", which has a more complicated def- - inition. + This simple definition was extended in Unicode to include more compli- + cated kinds of composite character by giving each character a grapheme + breaking property, and creating rules that use these properties to + define the boundaries of extended grapheme clusters. In releases of + PCRE later than 8.31, \X matches one of these clusters. - Matching characters by Unicode property is not fast, because PCRE has - to search a structure that contains data for over fifteen thousand - characters. That is why the traditional escape sequences such as \d and - \w do not use Unicode properties in PCRE by default, though you can - make them do so by setting the PCRE_UCP option for pcre_compile() or by - starting the pattern with (*UCP). + \X always matches at least one character. Then it decides whether to + add additional characters according to the following rules for ending a + cluster: + 1. End at the end of the subject string. + + 2. Do not end between CR and LF; otherwise end after any control char- + acter. + + 3. Do not break Hangul (a Korean script) syllable sequences. Hangul + characters are of five types: L, V, T, LV, and LVT. An L character may + be followed by an L, V, LV, or LVT character; an LV or V character may + be followed by a V or T character; an LVT or T character may be follwed + only by a T character. + + 4. Do not end before extending characters or spacing marks. Characters + with the "mark" property always have the "extend" grapheme breaking + property. + + 5. Do not end after prepend characters. + + 6. Otherwise, end the cluster. + PCRE's additional properties - As well as the standard Unicode properties described in the previous - section, PCRE supports four more that make it possible to convert tra- - ditional escape sequences such as \w and \s and POSIX character classes - to use Unicode properties. PCRE uses these non-standard, non-Perl prop- - erties internally when PCRE_UCP is set. They are: + As well as the standard Unicode properties described above, PCRE sup- + ports four more that make it possible to convert traditional escape + sequences such as \w and \s and POSIX character classes to use Unicode + properties. PCRE uses these non-standard, non-Perl properties inter- + nally when PCRE_UCP is set. However, they may also be used explicitly. + These properties are: Xan Any alphanumeric character Xps Any POSIX space character Xsp Any Perl space character Xwd Any Perl "word" character - Xan matches characters that have either the L (letter) or the N (num- - ber) property. Xps matches the characters tab, linefeed, vertical tab, - formfeed, or carriage return, and any other character that has the Z + Xan matches characters that have either the L (letter) or the N (num- + ber) property. Xps matches the characters tab, linefeed, vertical tab, + form feed, or carriage return, and any other character that has the Z (separator) property. Xsp is the same as Xps, except that vertical tab is excluded. Xwd matches the same characters as Xan, plus underscore. + There is another non-standard property, Xuc, which matches any charac- + ter that can be represented by a Universal Character Name in C++ and + other programming languages. These are the characters $, @, ` (grave + accent), and all characters with Unicode code points greater than or + equal to U+00A0, except for the surrogates U+D800 to U+DFFF. Note that + most base (ASCII) characters are excluded. (Universal Character Names + are of the form \uHHHH or \UHHHHHHHH where H is a hexadecimal digit. + Note that the Xuc property does not match these sequences but the char- + acters that they represent.) + Resetting the match start - The escape sequence \K causes any previously matched characters not to + The escape sequence \K causes any previously matched characters not to be included in the final matched sequence. For example, the pattern: foo\Kbar - matches "foobar", but reports that it has matched "bar". This feature - is similar to a lookbehind assertion (described below). However, in - this case, the part of the subject before the real match does not have - to be of fixed length, as lookbehind assertions do. The use of \K does - not interfere with the setting of captured substrings. For example, + matches "foobar", but reports that it has matched "bar". This feature + is similar to a lookbehind assertion (described below). However, in + this case, the part of the subject before the real match does not have + to be of fixed length, as lookbehind assertions do. The use of \K does + not interfere with the setting of captured substrings. For example, when the pattern (foo)\Kbar matches "foobar", the first substring is still set to "foo". - Perl documents that the use of \K within assertions is "not well - defined". In PCRE, \K is acted upon when it occurs inside positive + Perl documents that the use of \K within assertions is "not well + defined". In PCRE, \K is acted upon when it occurs inside positive assertions, but is ignored in negative assertions. Simple assertions - The final use of backslash is for certain simple assertions. An asser- - tion specifies a condition that has to be met at a particular point in - a match, without consuming any characters from the subject string. The - use of subpatterns for more complicated assertions is described below. + The final use of backslash is for certain simple assertions. An asser- + tion specifies a condition that has to be met at a particular point in + a match, without consuming any characters from the subject string. The + use of subpatterns for more complicated assertions is described below. The backslashed assertions are: \b matches at a word boundary @@ -4061,76 +5405,81 @@ BACKSLASH \z matches only at the end of the subject \G matches at the first matching position in the subject - Inside a character class, \b has a different meaning; it matches the - backspace character. If any other of these assertions appears in a - character class, by default it matches the corresponding literal char- + Inside a character class, \b has a different meaning; it matches the + backspace character. If any other of these assertions appears in a + character class, by default it matches the corresponding literal char- acter (for example, \B matches the letter B). However, if the - PCRE_EXTRA option is set, an "invalid escape sequence" error is gener- + PCRE_EXTRA option is set, an "invalid escape sequence" error is gener- ated instead. - A word boundary is a position in the subject string where the current - character and the previous character do not both match \w or \W (i.e. - one matches \w and the other matches \W), or the start or end of the - string if the first or last character matches \w, respectively. In - UTF-8 mode, the meanings of \w and \W can be changed by setting the - PCRE_UCP option. When this is done, it also affects \b and \B. Neither - PCRE nor Perl has a separate "start of word" or "end of word" metase- - quence. However, whatever follows \b normally determines which it is. + A word boundary is a position in the subject string where the current + character and the previous character do not both match \w or \W (i.e. + one matches \w and the other matches \W), or the start or end of the + string if the first or last character matches \w, respectively. In a + UTF mode, the meanings of \w and \W can be changed by setting the + PCRE_UCP option. When this is done, it also affects \b and \B. Neither + PCRE nor Perl has a separate "start of word" or "end of word" metase- + quence. However, whatever follows \b normally determines which it is. For example, the fragment \ba matches "a" at the start of a word. - The \A, \Z, and \z assertions differ from the traditional circumflex + The \A, \Z, and \z assertions differ from the traditional circumflex and dollar (described in the next section) in that they only ever match - at the very start and end of the subject string, whatever options are - set. Thus, they are independent of multiline mode. These three asser- + at the very start and end of the subject string, whatever options are + set. Thus, they are independent of multiline mode. These three asser- tions are not affected by the PCRE_NOTBOL or PCRE_NOTEOL options, which - affect only the behaviour of the circumflex and dollar metacharacters. - However, if the startoffset argument of pcre_exec() is non-zero, indi- + affect only the behaviour of the circumflex and dollar metacharacters. + However, if the startoffset argument of pcre_exec() is non-zero, indi- cating that matching is to start at a point other than the beginning of - the subject, \A can never match. The difference between \Z and \z is + the subject, \A can never match. The difference between \Z and \z is that \Z matches before a newline at the end of the string as well as at the very end, whereas \z matches only at the end. - The \G assertion is true only when the current matching position is at - the start point of the match, as specified by the startoffset argument - of pcre_exec(). It differs from \A when the value of startoffset is - non-zero. By calling pcre_exec() multiple times with appropriate argu- + The \G assertion is true only when the current matching position is at + the start point of the match, as specified by the startoffset argument + of pcre_exec(). It differs from \A when the value of startoffset is + non-zero. By calling pcre_exec() multiple times with appropriate argu- ments, you can mimic Perl's /g option, and it is in this kind of imple- mentation where \G can be useful. - Note, however, that PCRE's interpretation of \G, as the start of the + Note, however, that PCRE's interpretation of \G, as the start of the current match, is subtly different from Perl's, which defines it as the - end of the previous match. In Perl, these can be different when the - previously matched string was empty. Because PCRE does just one match + end of the previous match. In Perl, these can be different when the + previously matched string was empty. Because PCRE does just one match at a time, it cannot reproduce this behaviour. - If all the alternatives of a pattern begin with \G, the expression is + If all the alternatives of a pattern begin with \G, the expression is anchored to the starting match position, and the "anchored" flag is set in the compiled regular expression. CIRCUMFLEX AND DOLLAR + The circumflex and dollar metacharacters are zero-width assertions. + That is, they test for a particular condition being true without con- + suming any characters from the subject string. + Outside a character class, in the default matching mode, the circumflex - character is an assertion that is true only if the current matching - point is at the start of the subject string. If the startoffset argu- - ment of pcre_exec() is non-zero, circumflex can never match if the - PCRE_MULTILINE option is unset. Inside a character class, circumflex + character is an assertion that is true only if the current matching + point is at the start of the subject string. If the startoffset argu- + ment of pcre_exec() is non-zero, circumflex can never match if the + PCRE_MULTILINE option is unset. Inside a character class, circumflex has an entirely different meaning (see below). - Circumflex need not be the first character of the pattern if a number - of alternatives are involved, but it should be the first thing in each - alternative in which it appears if the pattern is ever to match that - branch. If all possible alternatives start with a circumflex, that is, - if the pattern is constrained to match only at the start of the sub- - ject, it is said to be an "anchored" pattern. (There are also other + Circumflex need not be the first character of the pattern if a number + of alternatives are involved, but it should be the first thing in each + alternative in which it appears if the pattern is ever to match that + branch. If all possible alternatives start with a circumflex, that is, + if the pattern is constrained to match only at the start of the sub- + ject, it is said to be an "anchored" pattern. (There are also other constructs that can cause a pattern to be anchored.) - A dollar character is an assertion that is true only if the current - matching point is at the end of the subject string, or immediately - before a newline at the end of the string (by default). Dollar need not - be the last character of the pattern if a number of alternatives are - involved, but it should be the last item in any branch in which it - appears. Dollar has no special meaning in a character class. + The dollar character is an assertion that is true only if the current + matching point is at the end of the subject string, or immediately + before a newline at the end of the string (by default). Note, however, + that it does not actually match the newline. Dollar need not be the + last character of the pattern if a number of alternatives are involved, + but it should be the last item in any branch in which it appears. Dol- + lar has no special meaning in a character class. The meaning of dollar can be changed so that it matches only at the very end of the string, by setting the PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY option at @@ -4163,63 +5512,66 @@ FULL STOP (PERIOD, DOT) AND \N Outside a character class, a dot in the pattern matches any one charac- ter in the subject string except (by default) a character that signi- - fies the end of a line. In UTF-8 mode, the matched character may be - more than one byte long. + fies the end of a line. - When a line ending is defined as a single character, dot never matches - that character; when the two-character sequence CRLF is used, dot does - not match CR if it is immediately followed by LF, but otherwise it - matches all characters (including isolated CRs and LFs). When any Uni- - code line endings are being recognized, dot does not match CR or LF or + When a line ending is defined as a single character, dot never matches + that character; when the two-character sequence CRLF is used, dot does + not match CR if it is immediately followed by LF, but otherwise it + matches all characters (including isolated CRs and LFs). When any Uni- + code line endings are being recognized, dot does not match CR or LF or any of the other line ending characters. - The behaviour of dot with regard to newlines can be changed. If the - PCRE_DOTALL option is set, a dot matches any one character, without + The behaviour of dot with regard to newlines can be changed. If the + PCRE_DOTALL option is set, a dot matches any one character, without exception. If the two-character sequence CRLF is present in the subject string, it takes two dots to match it. - The handling of dot is entirely independent of the handling of circum- - flex and dollar, the only relationship being that they both involve + The handling of dot is entirely independent of the handling of circum- + flex and dollar, the only relationship being that they both involve newlines. Dot has no special meaning in a character class. - The escape sequence \N behaves like a dot, except that it is not - affected by the PCRE_DOTALL option. In other words, it matches any - character except one that signifies the end of a line. Perl also uses + The escape sequence \N behaves like a dot, except that it is not + affected by the PCRE_DOTALL option. In other words, it matches any + character except one that signifies the end of a line. Perl also uses \N to match characters by name; PCRE does not support this. -MATCHING A SINGLE BYTE +MATCHING A SINGLE DATA UNIT - Outside a character class, the escape sequence \C matches any one byte, - both in and out of UTF-8 mode. Unlike a dot, it always matches line- - ending characters. The feature is provided in Perl in order to match - individual bytes in UTF-8 mode, but it is unclear how it can usefully - be used. Because \C breaks up characters into individual bytes, match- - ing one byte with \C in UTF-8 mode means that the rest of the string - may start with a malformed UTF-8 character. This has undefined results, - because PCRE assumes that it is dealing with valid UTF-8 strings (and - by default it checks this at the start of processing unless the - PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK option is used). + Outside a character class, the escape sequence \C matches any one data + unit, whether or not a UTF mode is set. In the 8-bit library, one data + unit is one byte; in the 16-bit library it is a 16-bit unit; in the + 32-bit library it is a 32-bit unit. Unlike a dot, \C always matches + line-ending characters. The feature is provided in Perl in order to + match individual bytes in UTF-8 mode, but it is unclear how it can use- + fully be used. Because \C breaks up characters into individual data + units, matching one unit with \C in a UTF mode means that the rest of + the string may start with a malformed UTF character. This has undefined + results, because PCRE assumes that it is dealing with valid UTF strings + (and by default it checks this at the start of processing unless the + PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK, PCRE_NO_UTF16_CHECK or PCRE_NO_UTF32_CHECK option + is used). PCRE does not allow \C to appear in lookbehind assertions (described - below) in UTF-8 mode, because this would make it impossible to calcu- + below) in a UTF mode, because this would make it impossible to calcu- late the length of the lookbehind. - In general, the \C escape sequence is best avoided in UTF-8 mode. How- - ever, one way of using it that avoids the problem of malformed UTF-8 - characters is to use a lookahead to check the length of the next char- - acter, as in this pattern (ignore white space and line breaks): + In general, the \C escape sequence is best avoided. However, one way of + using it that avoids the problem of malformed UTF characters is to use + a lookahead to check the length of the next character, as in this pat- + tern, which could be used with a UTF-8 string (ignore white space and + line breaks): (?| (?=[\x00-\x7f])(\C) | (?=[\x80-\x{7ff}])(\C)(\C) | (?=[\x{800}-\x{ffff}])(\C)(\C)(\C) | (?=[\x{10000}-\x{1fffff}])(\C)(\C)(\C)(\C)) - A group that starts with (?| resets the capturing parentheses numbers - in each alternative (see "Duplicate Subpattern Numbers" below). The - assertions at the start of each branch check the next UTF-8 character - for values whose encoding uses 1, 2, 3, or 4 bytes, respectively. The - character's individual bytes are then captured by the appropriate num- + A group that starts with (?| resets the capturing parentheses numbers + in each alternative (see "Duplicate Subpattern Numbers" below). The + assertions at the start of each branch check the next UTF-8 character + for values whose encoding uses 1, 2, 3, or 4 bytes, respectively. The + character's individual bytes are then captured by the appropriate num- ber of groups. @@ -4229,109 +5581,109 @@ SQUARE BRACKETS AND CHARACTER CLASSES closing square bracket. A closing square bracket on its own is not spe- cial by default. However, if the PCRE_JAVASCRIPT_COMPAT option is set, a lone closing square bracket causes a compile-time error. If a closing - square bracket is required as a member of the class, it should be the - first data character in the class (after an initial circumflex, if + square bracket is required as a member of the class, it should be the + first data character in the class (after an initial circumflex, if present) or escaped with a backslash. - A character class matches a single character in the subject. In UTF-8 - mode, the character may be more than one byte long. A matched character - must be in the set of characters defined by the class, unless the first - character in the class definition is a circumflex, in which case the - subject character must not be in the set defined by the class. If a - circumflex is actually required as a member of the class, ensure it is - not the first character, or escape it with a backslash. + A character class matches a single character in the subject. In a UTF + mode, the character may be more than one data unit long. A matched + character must be in the set of characters defined by the class, unless + the first character in the class definition is a circumflex, in which + case the subject character must not be in the set defined by the class. + If a circumflex is actually required as a member of the class, ensure + it is not the first character, or escape it with a backslash. - For example, the character class [aeiou] matches any lower case vowel, - while [^aeiou] matches any character that is not a lower case vowel. + For example, the character class [aeiou] matches any lower case vowel, + while [^aeiou] matches any character that is not a lower case vowel. Note that a circumflex is just a convenient notation for specifying the - characters that are in the class by enumerating those that are not. A - class that starts with a circumflex is not an assertion; it still con- - sumes a character from the subject string, and therefore it fails if + characters that are in the class by enumerating those that are not. A + class that starts with a circumflex is not an assertion; it still con- + sumes a character from the subject string, and therefore it fails if the current pointer is at the end of the string. - In UTF-8 mode, characters with values greater than 255 can be included - in a class as a literal string of bytes, or by using the \x{ escaping - mechanism. + In UTF-8 (UTF-16, UTF-32) mode, characters with values greater than 255 + (0xffff) can be included in a class as a literal string of data units, + or by using the \x{ escaping mechanism. - When caseless matching is set, any letters in a class represent both - their upper case and lower case versions, so for example, a caseless - [aeiou] matches "A" as well as "a", and a caseless [^aeiou] does not - match "A", whereas a caseful version would. In UTF-8 mode, PCRE always - understands the concept of case for characters whose values are less - than 128, so caseless matching is always possible. For characters with - higher values, the concept of case is supported if PCRE is compiled - with Unicode property support, but not otherwise. If you want to use - caseless matching in UTF8-mode for characters 128 and above, you must - ensure that PCRE is compiled with Unicode property support as well as - with UTF-8 support. + When caseless matching is set, any letters in a class represent both + their upper case and lower case versions, so for example, a caseless + [aeiou] matches "A" as well as "a", and a caseless [^aeiou] does not + match "A", whereas a caseful version would. In a UTF mode, PCRE always + understands the concept of case for characters whose values are less + than 128, so caseless matching is always possible. For characters with + higher values, the concept of case is supported if PCRE is compiled + with Unicode property support, but not otherwise. If you want to use + caseless matching in a UTF mode for characters 128 and above, you must + ensure that PCRE is compiled with Unicode property support as well as + with UTF support. - Characters that might indicate line breaks are never treated in any - special way when matching character classes, whatever line-ending - sequence is in use, and whatever setting of the PCRE_DOTALL and + Characters that might indicate line breaks are never treated in any + special way when matching character classes, whatever line-ending + sequence is in use, and whatever setting of the PCRE_DOTALL and PCRE_MULTILINE options is used. A class such as [^a] always matches one of these characters. - The minus (hyphen) character can be used to specify a range of charac- - ters in a character class. For example, [d-m] matches any letter - between d and m, inclusive. If a minus character is required in a - class, it must be escaped with a backslash or appear in a position - where it cannot be interpreted as indicating a range, typically as the + The minus (hyphen) character can be used to specify a range of charac- + ters in a character class. For example, [d-m] matches any letter + between d and m, inclusive. If a minus character is required in a + class, it must be escaped with a backslash or appear in a position + where it cannot be interpreted as indicating a range, typically as the first or last character in the class. It is not possible to have the literal character "]" as the end charac- - ter of a range. A pattern such as [W-]46] is interpreted as a class of - two characters ("W" and "-") followed by a literal string "46]", so it - would match "W46]" or "-46]". However, if the "]" is escaped with a - backslash it is interpreted as the end of range, so [W-\]46] is inter- - preted as a class containing a range followed by two other characters. - The octal or hexadecimal representation of "]" can also be used to end + ter of a range. A pattern such as [W-]46] is interpreted as a class of + two characters ("W" and "-") followed by a literal string "46]", so it + would match "W46]" or "-46]". However, if the "]" is escaped with a + backslash it is interpreted as the end of range, so [W-\]46] is inter- + preted as a class containing a range followed by two other characters. + The octal or hexadecimal representation of "]" can also be used to end a range. - Ranges operate in the collating sequence of character values. They can - also be used for characters specified numerically, for example - [\000-\037]. In UTF-8 mode, ranges can include characters whose values - are greater than 255, for example [\x{100}-\x{2ff}]. + Ranges operate in the collating sequence of character values. They can + also be used for characters specified numerically, for example + [\000-\037]. Ranges can include any characters that are valid for the + current mode. If a range that includes letters is used when caseless matching is set, it matches the letters in either case. For example, [W-c] is equivalent - to [][\\^_`wxyzabc], matched caselessly, and in non-UTF-8 mode, if - character tables for a French locale are in use, [\xc8-\xcb] matches - accented E characters in both cases. In UTF-8 mode, PCRE supports the - concept of case for characters with values greater than 128 only when + to [][\\^_`wxyzabc], matched caselessly, and in a non-UTF mode, if + character tables for a French locale are in use, [\xc8-\xcb] matches + accented E characters in both cases. In UTF modes, PCRE supports the + concept of case for characters with values greater than 128 only when it is compiled with Unicode property support. - The character escape sequences \d, \D, \h, \H, \p, \P, \s, \S, \v, \V, + The character escape sequences \d, \D, \h, \H, \p, \P, \s, \S, \v, \V, \w, and \W may appear in a character class, and add the characters that - they match to the class. For example, [\dABCDEF] matches any hexadeci- - mal digit. In UTF-8 mode, the PCRE_UCP option affects the meanings of - \d, \s, \w and their upper case partners, just as it does when they - appear outside a character class, as described in the section entitled + they match to the class. For example, [\dABCDEF] matches any hexadeci- + mal digit. In UTF modes, the PCRE_UCP option affects the meanings of + \d, \s, \w and their upper case partners, just as it does when they + appear outside a character class, as described in the section entitled "Generic character types" above. The escape sequence \b has a different - meaning inside a character class; it matches the backspace character. - The sequences \B, \N, \R, and \X are not special inside a character - class. Like any other unrecognized escape sequences, they are treated - as the literal characters "B", "N", "R", and "X" by default, but cause + meaning inside a character class; it matches the backspace character. + The sequences \B, \N, \R, and \X are not special inside a character + class. Like any other unrecognized escape sequences, they are treated + as the literal characters "B", "N", "R", and "X" by default, but cause an error if the PCRE_EXTRA option is set. - A circumflex can conveniently be used with the upper case character - types to specify a more restricted set of characters than the matching - lower case type. For example, the class [^\W_] matches any letter or + A circumflex can conveniently be used with the upper case character + types to specify a more restricted set of characters than the matching + lower case type. For example, the class [^\W_] matches any letter or digit, but not underscore, whereas [\w] includes underscore. A positive character class should be read as "something OR something OR ..." and a negative class as "NOT something AND NOT something AND NOT ...". - The only metacharacters that are recognized in character classes are - backslash, hyphen (only where it can be interpreted as specifying a - range), circumflex (only at the start), opening square bracket (only - when it can be interpreted as introducing a POSIX class name - see the - next section), and the terminating closing square bracket. However, + The only metacharacters that are recognized in character classes are + backslash, hyphen (only where it can be interpreted as specifying a + range), circumflex (only at the start), opening square bracket (only + when it can be interpreted as introducing a POSIX class name - see the + next section), and the terminating closing square bracket. However, escaping other non-alphanumeric characters does no harm. POSIX CHARACTER CLASSES Perl supports the POSIX notation for character classes. This uses names - enclosed by [: and :] within the enclosing square brackets. PCRE also + enclosed by [: and :] within the enclosing square brackets. PCRE also supports this notation. For example, [01[:alpha:]%] @@ -4354,24 +5706,24 @@ POSIX CHARACTER CLASSES word "word" characters (same as \w) xdigit hexadecimal digits - The "space" characters are HT (9), LF (10), VT (11), FF (12), CR (13), - and space (32). Notice that this list includes the VT character (code + The "space" characters are HT (9), LF (10), VT (11), FF (12), CR (13), + and space (32). Notice that this list includes the VT character (code 11). This makes "space" different to \s, which does not include VT (for Perl compatibility). - The name "word" is a Perl extension, and "blank" is a GNU extension - from Perl 5.8. Another Perl extension is negation, which is indicated + The name "word" is a Perl extension, and "blank" is a GNU extension + from Perl 5.8. Another Perl extension is negation, which is indicated by a ^ character after the colon. For example, [12[:^digit:]] - matches "1", "2", or any non-digit. PCRE (and Perl) also recognize the + matches "1", "2", or any non-digit. PCRE (and Perl) also recognize the POSIX syntax [.ch.] and [=ch=] where "ch" is a "collating element", but these are not supported, and an error is given if they are encountered. - By default, in UTF-8 mode, characters with values greater than 128 do - not match any of the POSIX character classes. However, if the PCRE_UCP - option is passed to pcre_compile(), some of the classes are changed so + By default, in UTF modes, characters with values greater than 128 do + not match any of the POSIX character classes. However, if the PCRE_UCP + option is passed to pcre_compile(), some of the classes are changed so that Unicode character properties are used. This is achieved by replac- ing the POSIX classes by other sequences, as follows: @@ -4384,31 +5736,31 @@ POSIX CHARACTER CLASSES [:upper:] becomes \p{Lu} [:word:] becomes \p{Xwd} - Negated versions, such as [:^alpha:] use \P instead of \p. The other + Negated versions, such as [:^alpha:] use \P instead of \p. The other POSIX classes are unchanged, and match only characters with code points less than 128. VERTICAL BAR - Vertical bar characters are used to separate alternative patterns. For + Vertical bar characters are used to separate alternative patterns. For example, the pattern gilbert|sullivan - matches either "gilbert" or "sullivan". Any number of alternatives may - appear, and an empty alternative is permitted (matching the empty + matches either "gilbert" or "sullivan". Any number of alternatives may + appear, and an empty alternative is permitted (matching the empty string). The matching process tries each alternative in turn, from left - to right, and the first one that succeeds is used. If the alternatives - are within a subpattern (defined below), "succeeds" means matching the + to right, and the first one that succeeds is used. If the alternatives + are within a subpattern (defined below), "succeeds" means matching the rest of the main pattern as well as the alternative in the subpattern. INTERNAL OPTION SETTING - The settings of the PCRE_CASELESS, PCRE_MULTILINE, PCRE_DOTALL, and - PCRE_EXTENDED options (which are Perl-compatible) can be changed from - within the pattern by a sequence of Perl option letters enclosed + The settings of the PCRE_CASELESS, PCRE_MULTILINE, PCRE_DOTALL, and + PCRE_EXTENDED options (which are Perl-compatible) can be changed from + within the pattern by a sequence of Perl option letters enclosed between "(?" and ")". The option letters are i for PCRE_CASELESS @@ -4418,48 +5770,52 @@ INTERNAL OPTION SETTING For example, (?im) sets caseless, multiline matching. It is also possi- ble to unset these options by preceding the letter with a hyphen, and a - combined setting and unsetting such as (?im-sx), which sets PCRE_CASE- - LESS and PCRE_MULTILINE while unsetting PCRE_DOTALL and PCRE_EXTENDED, - is also permitted. If a letter appears both before and after the + combined setting and unsetting such as (?im-sx), which sets PCRE_CASE- + LESS and PCRE_MULTILINE while unsetting PCRE_DOTALL and PCRE_EXTENDED, + is also permitted. If a letter appears both before and after the hyphen, the option is unset. - The PCRE-specific options PCRE_DUPNAMES, PCRE_UNGREEDY, and PCRE_EXTRA - can be changed in the same way as the Perl-compatible options by using + The PCRE-specific options PCRE_DUPNAMES, PCRE_UNGREEDY, and PCRE_EXTRA + can be changed in the same way as the Perl-compatible options by using the characters J, U and X respectively. - When one of these option changes occurs at top level (that is, not - inside subpattern parentheses), the change applies to the remainder of + When one of these option changes occurs at top level (that is, not + inside subpattern parentheses), the change applies to the remainder of the pattern that follows. If the change is placed right at the start of a pattern, PCRE extracts it into the global options (and it will there- fore show up in data extracted by the pcre_fullinfo() function). - An option change within a subpattern (see below for a description of - subpatterns) affects only that part of the subpattern that follows it, + An option change within a subpattern (see below for a description of + subpatterns) affects only that part of the subpattern that follows it, so (a(?i)b)c matches abc and aBc and no other strings (assuming PCRE_CASELESS is not - used). By this means, options can be made to have different settings - in different parts of the pattern. Any changes made in one alternative - do carry on into subsequent branches within the same subpattern. For + used). By this means, options can be made to have different settings + in different parts of the pattern. Any changes made in one alternative + do carry on into subsequent branches within the same subpattern. For example, (a(?i)b|c) - matches "ab", "aB", "c", and "C", even though when matching "C" the - first branch is abandoned before the option setting. This is because - the effects of option settings happen at compile time. There would be + matches "ab", "aB", "c", and "C", even though when matching "C" the + first branch is abandoned before the option setting. This is because + the effects of option settings happen at compile time. There would be some very weird behaviour otherwise. - Note: There are other PCRE-specific options that can be set by the - application when the compile or match functions are called. In some - cases the pattern can contain special leading sequences such as (*CRLF) - to override what the application has set or what has been defaulted. - Details are given in the section entitled "Newline sequences" above. - There are also the (*UTF8) and (*UCP) leading sequences that can be - used to set UTF-8 and Unicode property modes; they are equivalent to - setting the PCRE_UTF8 and the PCRE_UCP options, respectively. + Note: There are other PCRE-specific options that can be set by the + application when the compiling or matching functions are called. In + some cases the pattern can contain special leading sequences such as + (*CRLF) to override what the application has set or what has been + defaulted. Details are given in the section entitled "Newline + sequences" above. There are also the (*UTF8), (*UTF16),(*UTF32), and + (*UCP) leading sequences that can be used to set UTF and Unicode prop- + erty modes; they are equivalent to setting the PCRE_UTF8, PCRE_UTF16, + PCRE_UTF32 and the PCRE_UCP options, respectively. The (*UTF) sequence + is a generic version that can be used with any of the libraries. How- + ever, the application can set the PCRE_NEVER_UTF option, which locks + out the use of the (*UTF) sequences. SUBPATTERNS @@ -4471,17 +5827,20 @@ SUBPATTERNS cat(aract|erpillar|) - matches "cataract", "caterpillar", or "cat". Without the parentheses, + matches "cataract", "caterpillar", or "cat". Without the parentheses, it would match "cataract", "erpillar" or an empty string. - 2. It sets up the subpattern as a capturing subpattern. This means - that, when the whole pattern matches, that portion of the subject + 2. It sets up the subpattern as a capturing subpattern. This means + that, when the whole pattern matches, that portion of the subject string that matched the subpattern is passed back to the caller via the - ovector argument of pcre_exec(). Opening parentheses are counted from - left to right (starting from 1) to obtain numbers for the capturing - subpatterns. For example, if the string "the red king" is matched - against the pattern + ovector argument of the matching function. (This applies only to the + traditional matching functions; the DFA matching functions do not sup- + port capturing.) + Opening parentheses are counted from left to right (starting from 1) to + obtain numbers for the capturing subpatterns. For example, if the + string "the red king" is matched against the pattern + the ((red|white) (king|queen)) the captured substrings are "red king", "red", and "king", and are num- @@ -4636,7 +5995,7 @@ REPETITION a literal data character the dot metacharacter the \C escape sequence - the \X escape sequence (in UTF-8 mode with Unicode properties) + the \X escape sequence the \R escape sequence an escape such as \d or \pL that matches a single character a character class @@ -4668,12 +6027,12 @@ REPETITION the syntax of a quantifier, is taken as a literal character. For exam- ple, {,6} is not a quantifier, but a literal string of four characters. - In UTF-8 mode, quantifiers apply to UTF-8 characters rather than to - individual bytes. Thus, for example, \x{100}{2} matches two UTF-8 char- - acters, each of which is represented by a two-byte sequence. Similarly, - when Unicode property support is available, \X{3} matches three Unicode - extended sequences, each of which may be several bytes long (and they - may be of different lengths). + In UTF modes, quantifiers apply to characters rather than to individual + data units. Thus, for example, \x{100}{2} matches two characters, each + of which is represented by a two-byte sequence in a UTF-8 string. Simi- + larly, \X{3} matches three Unicode extended grapheme clusters, each of + which may be several data units long (and they may be of different + lengths). The quantifier {0} is permitted, causing the expression to behave as if the previous item and the quantifier were not present. This may be use- @@ -4757,7 +6116,7 @@ REPETITION lines, it is worth setting PCRE_DOTALL in order to obtain this opti- mization, or alternatively using ^ to indicate anchoring explicitly. - However, there is one situation where the optimization cannot be used. + However, there are some cases where the optimization cannot be used. When .* is inside capturing parentheses that are the subject of a back reference elsewhere in the pattern, a match at the start may fail where a later one succeeds. Consider, for example: @@ -4767,14 +6126,23 @@ REPETITION If the subject is "xyz123abc123" the match point is the fourth charac- ter. For this reason, such a pattern is not implicitly anchored. + Another case where implicit anchoring is not applied is when the lead- + ing .* is inside an atomic group. Once again, a match at the start may + fail where a later one succeeds. Consider this pattern: + + (?>.*?a)b + + It matches "ab" in the subject "aab". The use of the backtracking con- + trol verbs (*PRUNE) and (*SKIP) also disable this optimization. + When a capturing subpattern is repeated, the value captured is the sub- string that matched the final iteration. For example, after (tweedle[dume]{3}\s*)+ has matched "tweedledum tweedledee" the value of the captured substring - is "tweedledee". However, if there are nested capturing subpatterns, - the corresponding captured values may have been set in previous itera- + is "tweedledee". However, if there are nested capturing subpatterns, + the corresponding captured values may have been set in previous itera- tions. For example, after /(a|(b))+/ @@ -4784,53 +6152,53 @@ REPETITION ATOMIC GROUPING AND POSSESSIVE QUANTIFIERS - With both maximizing ("greedy") and minimizing ("ungreedy" or "lazy") - repetition, failure of what follows normally causes the repeated item - to be re-evaluated to see if a different number of repeats allows the - rest of the pattern to match. Sometimes it is useful to prevent this, - either to change the nature of the match, or to cause it fail earlier - than it otherwise might, when the author of the pattern knows there is + With both maximizing ("greedy") and minimizing ("ungreedy" or "lazy") + repetition, failure of what follows normally causes the repeated item + to be re-evaluated to see if a different number of repeats allows the + rest of the pattern to match. Sometimes it is useful to prevent this, + either to change the nature of the match, or to cause it fail earlier + than it otherwise might, when the author of the pattern knows there is no point in carrying on. - Consider, for example, the pattern \d+foo when applied to the subject + Consider, for example, the pattern \d+foo when applied to the subject line 123456bar After matching all 6 digits and then failing to match "foo", the normal - action of the matcher is to try again with only 5 digits matching the - \d+ item, and then with 4, and so on, before ultimately failing. - "Atomic grouping" (a term taken from Jeffrey Friedl's book) provides - the means for specifying that once a subpattern has matched, it is not + action of the matcher is to try again with only 5 digits matching the + \d+ item, and then with 4, and so on, before ultimately failing. + "Atomic grouping" (a term taken from Jeffrey Friedl's book) provides + the means for specifying that once a subpattern has matched, it is not to be re-evaluated in this way. - If we use atomic grouping for the previous example, the matcher gives - up immediately on failing to match "foo" the first time. The notation + If we use atomic grouping for the previous example, the matcher gives + up immediately on failing to match "foo" the first time. The notation is a kind of special parenthesis, starting with (?> as in this example: (?>\d+)foo - This kind of parenthesis "locks up" the part of the pattern it con- - tains once it has matched, and a failure further into the pattern is - prevented from backtracking into it. Backtracking past it to previous + This kind of parenthesis "locks up" the part of the pattern it con- + tains once it has matched, and a failure further into the pattern is + prevented from backtracking into it. Backtracking past it to previous items, however, works as normal. - An alternative description is that a subpattern of this type matches - the string of characters that an identical standalone pattern would + An alternative description is that a subpattern of this type matches + the string of characters that an identical standalone pattern would match, if anchored at the current point in the subject string. Atomic grouping subpatterns are not capturing subpatterns. Simple cases such as the above example can be thought of as a maximizing repeat that - must swallow everything it can. So, while both \d+ and \d+? are pre- - pared to adjust the number of digits they match in order to make the + must swallow everything it can. So, while both \d+ and \d+? are pre- + pared to adjust the number of digits they match in order to make the rest of the pattern match, (?>\d+) can only match an entire sequence of digits. - Atomic groups in general can of course contain arbitrarily complicated - subpatterns, and can be nested. However, when the subpattern for an + Atomic groups in general can of course contain arbitrarily complicated + subpatterns, and can be nested. However, when the subpattern for an atomic group is just a single repeated item, as in the example above, a - simpler notation, called a "possessive quantifier" can be used. This - consists of an additional + character following a quantifier. Using + simpler notation, called a "possessive quantifier" can be used. This + consists of an additional + character following a quantifier. Using this notation, the previous example can be rewritten as \d++foo @@ -4840,45 +6208,45 @@ ATOMIC GROUPING AND POSSESSIVE QUANTIFIERS (abc|xyz){2,3}+ - Possessive quantifiers are always greedy; the setting of the + Possessive quantifiers are always greedy; the setting of the PCRE_UNGREEDY option is ignored. They are a convenient notation for the - simpler forms of atomic group. However, there is no difference in the - meaning of a possessive quantifier and the equivalent atomic group, - though there may be a performance difference; possessive quantifiers + simpler forms of atomic group. However, there is no difference in the + meaning of a possessive quantifier and the equivalent atomic group, + though there may be a performance difference; possessive quantifiers should be slightly faster. - The possessive quantifier syntax is an extension to the Perl 5.8 syn- - tax. Jeffrey Friedl originated the idea (and the name) in the first + The possessive quantifier syntax is an extension to the Perl 5.8 syn- + tax. Jeffrey Friedl originated the idea (and the name) in the first edition of his book. Mike McCloskey liked it, so implemented it when he - built Sun's Java package, and PCRE copied it from there. It ultimately + built Sun's Java package, and PCRE copied it from there. It ultimately found its way into Perl at release 5.10. PCRE has an optimization that automatically "possessifies" certain sim- - ple pattern constructs. For example, the sequence A+B is treated as - A++B because there is no point in backtracking into a sequence of A's + ple pattern constructs. For example, the sequence A+B is treated as + A++B because there is no point in backtracking into a sequence of A's when B must follow. - When a pattern contains an unlimited repeat inside a subpattern that - can itself be repeated an unlimited number of times, the use of an - atomic group is the only way to avoid some failing matches taking a + When a pattern contains an unlimited repeat inside a subpattern that + can itself be repeated an unlimited number of times, the use of an + atomic group is the only way to avoid some failing matches taking a very long time indeed. The pattern (\D+|<\d+>)*[!?] - matches an unlimited number of substrings that either consist of non- - digits, or digits enclosed in <>, followed by either ! or ?. When it + matches an unlimited number of substrings that either consist of non- + digits, or digits enclosed in <>, followed by either ! or ?. When it matches, it runs quickly. However, if it is applied to aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa - it takes a long time before reporting failure. This is because the - string can be divided between the internal \D+ repeat and the external - * repeat in a large number of ways, and all have to be tried. (The - example uses [!?] rather than a single character at the end, because - both PCRE and Perl have an optimization that allows for fast failure - when a single character is used. They remember the last single charac- - ter that is required for a match, and fail early if it is not present - in the string.) If the pattern is changed so that it uses an atomic + it takes a long time before reporting failure. This is because the + string can be divided between the internal \D+ repeat and the external + * repeat in a large number of ways, and all have to be tried. (The + example uses [!?] rather than a single character at the end, because + both PCRE and Perl have an optimization that allows for fast failure + when a single character is used. They remember the last single charac- + ter that is required for a match, and fail early if it is not present + in the string.) If the pattern is changed so that it uses an atomic group, like this: ((?>\D+)|<\d+>)*[!?] @@ -4890,28 +6258,28 @@ BACK REFERENCES Outside a character class, a backslash followed by a digit greater than 0 (and possibly further digits) is a back reference to a capturing sub- - pattern earlier (that is, to its left) in the pattern, provided there + pattern earlier (that is, to its left) in the pattern, provided there have been that many previous capturing left parentheses. However, if the decimal number following the backslash is less than 10, - it is always taken as a back reference, and causes an error only if - there are not that many capturing left parentheses in the entire pat- - tern. In other words, the parentheses that are referenced need not be - to the left of the reference for numbers less than 10. A "forward back - reference" of this type can make sense when a repetition is involved - and the subpattern to the right has participated in an earlier itera- + it is always taken as a back reference, and causes an error only if + there are not that many capturing left parentheses in the entire pat- + tern. In other words, the parentheses that are referenced need not be + to the left of the reference for numbers less than 10. A "forward back + reference" of this type can make sense when a repetition is involved + and the subpattern to the right has participated in an earlier itera- tion. - It is not possible to have a numerical "forward back reference" to a - subpattern whose number is 10 or more using this syntax because a - sequence such as \50 is interpreted as a character defined in octal. + It is not possible to have a numerical "forward back reference" to a + subpattern whose number is 10 or more using this syntax because a + sequence such as \50 is interpreted as a character defined in octal. See the subsection entitled "Non-printing characters" above for further - details of the handling of digits following a backslash. There is no - such problem when named parentheses are used. A back reference to any + details of the handling of digits following a backslash. There is no + such problem when named parentheses are used. A back reference to any subpattern is possible using named parentheses (see below). - Another way of avoiding the ambiguity inherent in the use of digits - following a backslash is to use the \g escape sequence. This escape + Another way of avoiding the ambiguity inherent in the use of digits + following a backslash is to use the \g escape sequence. This escape must be followed by an unsigned number or a negative number, optionally enclosed in braces. These examples are all identical: @@ -4919,7 +6287,7 @@ BACK REFERENCES (ring), \g1 (ring), \g{1} - An unsigned number specifies an absolute reference without the ambigu- + An unsigned number specifies an absolute reference without the ambigu- ity that is present in the older syntax. It is also useful when literal digits follow the reference. A negative number is a relative reference. Consider this example: @@ -4928,33 +6296,33 @@ BACK REFERENCES The sequence \g{-1} is a reference to the most recently started captur- ing subpattern before \g, that is, is it equivalent to \2 in this exam- - ple. Similarly, \g{-2} would be equivalent to \1. The use of relative - references can be helpful in long patterns, and also in patterns that - are created by joining together fragments that contain references + ple. Similarly, \g{-2} would be equivalent to \1. The use of relative + references can be helpful in long patterns, and also in patterns that + are created by joining together fragments that contain references within themselves. - A back reference matches whatever actually matched the capturing sub- - pattern in the current subject string, rather than anything matching + A back reference matches whatever actually matched the capturing sub- + pattern in the current subject string, rather than anything matching the subpattern itself (see "Subpatterns as subroutines" below for a way of doing that). So the pattern (sens|respons)e and \1ibility - matches "sense and sensibility" and "response and responsibility", but - not "sense and responsibility". If caseful matching is in force at the - time of the back reference, the case of letters is relevant. For exam- + matches "sense and sensibility" and "response and responsibility", but + not "sense and responsibility". If caseful matching is in force at the + time of the back reference, the case of letters is relevant. For exam- ple, ((?i)rah)\s+\1 - matches "rah rah" and "RAH RAH", but not "RAH rah", even though the + matches "rah rah" and "RAH RAH", but not "RAH rah", even though the original capturing subpattern is matched caselessly. - There are several different ways of writing back references to named - subpatterns. The .NET syntax \k{name} and the Perl syntax \k or - \k'name' are supported, as is the Python syntax (?P=name). Perl 5.10's + There are several different ways of writing back references to named + subpatterns. The .NET syntax \k{name} and the Perl syntax \k or + \k'name' are supported, as is the Python syntax (?P=name). Perl 5.10's unified back reference syntax, in which \g can be used for both numeric - and named references, is also supported. We could rewrite the above + and named references, is also supported. We could rewrite the above example in any of the following ways: (?(?i)rah)\s+\k @@ -4962,66 +6330,67 @@ BACK REFERENCES (?P(?i)rah)\s+(?P=p1) (?(?i)rah)\s+\g{p1} - A subpattern that is referenced by name may appear in the pattern + A subpattern that is referenced by name may appear in the pattern before or after the reference. - There may be more than one back reference to the same subpattern. If a - subpattern has not actually been used in a particular match, any back + There may be more than one back reference to the same subpattern. If a + subpattern has not actually been used in a particular match, any back references to it always fail by default. For example, the pattern (a|(bc))\2 - always fails if it starts to match "a" rather than "bc". However, if + always fails if it starts to match "a" rather than "bc". However, if the PCRE_JAVASCRIPT_COMPAT option is set at compile time, a back refer- ence to an unset value matches an empty string. - Because there may be many capturing parentheses in a pattern, all dig- - its following a backslash are taken as part of a potential back refer- - ence number. If the pattern continues with a digit character, some - delimiter must be used to terminate the back reference. If the - PCRE_EXTENDED option is set, this can be whitespace. Otherwise, the \g{ - syntax or an empty comment (see "Comments" below) can be used. + Because there may be many capturing parentheses in a pattern, all dig- + its following a backslash are taken as part of a potential back refer- + ence number. If the pattern continues with a digit character, some + delimiter must be used to terminate the back reference. If the + PCRE_EXTENDED option is set, this can be white space. Otherwise, the + \g{ syntax or an empty comment (see "Comments" below) can be used. Recursive back references - A back reference that occurs inside the parentheses to which it refers - fails when the subpattern is first used, so, for example, (a\1) never - matches. However, such references can be useful inside repeated sub- + A back reference that occurs inside the parentheses to which it refers + fails when the subpattern is first used, so, for example, (a\1) never + matches. However, such references can be useful inside repeated sub- patterns. For example, the pattern (a|b\1)+ matches any number of "a"s and also "aba", "ababbaa" etc. At each iter- - ation of the subpattern, the back reference matches the character - string corresponding to the previous iteration. In order for this to - work, the pattern must be such that the first iteration does not need - to match the back reference. This can be done using alternation, as in + ation of the subpattern, the back reference matches the character + string corresponding to the previous iteration. In order for this to + work, the pattern must be such that the first iteration does not need + to match the back reference. This can be done using alternation, as in the example above, or by a quantifier with a minimum of zero. - Back references of this type cause the group that they reference to be - treated as an atomic group. Once the whole group has been matched, a - subsequent matching failure cannot cause backtracking into the middle + Back references of this type cause the group that they reference to be + treated as an atomic group. Once the whole group has been matched, a + subsequent matching failure cannot cause backtracking into the middle of the group. ASSERTIONS - An assertion is a test on the characters following or preceding the - current matching point that does not actually consume any characters. - The simple assertions coded as \b, \B, \A, \G, \Z, \z, ^ and $ are + An assertion is a test on the characters following or preceding the + current matching point that does not actually consume any characters. + The simple assertions coded as \b, \B, \A, \G, \Z, \z, ^ and $ are described above. - More complicated assertions are coded as subpatterns. There are two - kinds: those that look ahead of the current position in the subject - string, and those that look behind it. An assertion subpattern is - matched in the normal way, except that it does not cause the current + More complicated assertions are coded as subpatterns. There are two + kinds: those that look ahead of the current position in the subject + string, and those that look behind it. An assertion subpattern is + matched in the normal way, except that it does not cause the current matching position to be changed. - Assertion subpatterns are not capturing subpatterns. If such an asser- - tion contains capturing subpatterns within it, these are counted for - the purposes of numbering the capturing subpatterns in the whole pat- - tern. However, substring capturing is carried out only for positive - assertions, because it does not make sense for negative assertions. + Assertion subpatterns are not capturing subpatterns. If such an asser- + tion contains capturing subpatterns within it, these are counted for + the purposes of numbering the capturing subpatterns in the whole pat- + tern. However, substring capturing is carried out only for positive + assertions. (Perl sometimes, but not always, does do capturing in nega- + tive assertions.) For compatibility with Perl, assertion subpatterns may be repeated; though it makes no sense to assert the same thing several times, the @@ -5109,11 +6478,11 @@ ASSERTIONS then try to match. If there are insufficient characters before the cur- rent position, the assertion fails. - In UTF-8 mode, PCRE does not allow the \C escape (which matches a sin- - gle byte, even in UTF-8 mode) to appear in lookbehind assertions, + In a UTF mode, PCRE does not allow the \C escape (which matches a sin- + gle data unit even in a UTF mode) to appear in lookbehind assertions, because it makes it impossible to calculate the length of the lookbe- - hind. The \X and \R escapes, which can match different numbers of - bytes, are also not permitted. + hind. The \X and \R escapes, which can match different numbers of data + units, are also not permitted. "Subroutine" calls (see below) such as (?2) or (?&X) are permitted in lookbehinds, as long as the subpattern matches a fixed-length string. @@ -5292,7 +6661,7 @@ CONDITIONAL SUBPATTERNS DEFINE is that it can be used to define subroutines that can be refer- enced from elsewhere. (The use of subroutines is described below.) For example, a pattern to match an IPv4 address such as "192.168.23.245" - could be written like this (ignore whitespace and line breaks): + could be written like this (ignore white space and line breaks): (?(DEFINE) (? 2[0-4]\d | 25[0-5] | 1\d\d | [1-9]?\d) ) \b (?&byte) (\.(?&byte)){3} \b @@ -5338,12 +6707,12 @@ COMMENTS comment, which in this case continues to immediately after the next newline character or character sequence in the pattern. Which charac- ters are interpreted as newlines is controlled by the options passed to - pcre_compile() or by a special sequence at the start of the pattern, as - described in the section entitled "Newline conventions" above. Note - that the end of this type of comment is a literal newline sequence in - the pattern; escape sequences that happen to represent a newline do not - count. For example, consider this pattern when PCRE_EXTENDED is set, - and the default newline convention is in force: + a compiling function or by a special sequence at the start of the pat- + tern, as described in the section entitled "Newline conventions" above. + Note that the end of this type of comment is a literal newline sequence + in the pattern; escape sequences that happen to represent a newline do + not count. For example, consider this pattern when PCRE_EXTENDED is + set, and the default newline convention is in force: abc #comment \n still comment @@ -5636,72 +7005,82 @@ CALLOUTS PCRE provides a similar feature, but of course it cannot obey arbitrary Perl code. The feature is called "callout". The caller of PCRE provides an external function by putting its entry point in the global variable - pcre_callout. By default, this variable contains NULL, which disables - all calling out. + pcre_callout (8-bit library) or pcre[16|32]_callout (16-bit or 32-bit + library). By default, this variable contains NULL, which disables all + calling out. - Within a regular expression, (?C) indicates the points at which the - external function is to be called. If you want to identify different - callout points, you can put a number less than 256 after the letter C. - The default value is zero. For example, this pattern has two callout + Within a regular expression, (?C) indicates the points at which the + external function is to be called. If you want to identify different + callout points, you can put a number less than 256 after the letter C. + The default value is zero. For example, this pattern has two callout points: (?C1)abc(?C2)def - If the PCRE_AUTO_CALLOUT flag is passed to pcre_compile(), callouts are - automatically installed before each item in the pattern. They are all - numbered 255. + If the PCRE_AUTO_CALLOUT flag is passed to a compiling function, call- + outs are automatically installed before each item in the pattern. They + are all numbered 255. If there is a conditional group in the pattern + whose condition is an assertion, an additional callout is inserted just + before the condition. An explicit callout may also be set at this posi- + tion, as in this example: - During matching, when PCRE reaches a callout point (and pcre_callout is - set), the external function is called. It is provided with the number - of the callout, the position in the pattern, and, optionally, one item - of data originally supplied by the caller of pcre_exec(). The callout - function may cause matching to proceed, to backtrack, or to fail alto- - gether. A complete description of the interface to the callout function - is given in the pcrecallout documentation. + (?(?C9)(?=a)abc|def) + Note that this applies only to assertion conditions, not to other types + of condition. -BACKTRACKING CONTROL + During matching, when PCRE reaches a callout point, the external func- + tion is called. It is provided with the number of the callout, the + position in the pattern, and, optionally, one item of data originally + supplied by the caller of the matching function. The callout function + may cause matching to proceed, to backtrack, or to fail altogether. A + complete description of the interface to the callout function is given + in the pcrecallout documentation. - Perl 5.10 introduced a number of "Special Backtracking Control Verbs", - which are described in the Perl documentation as "experimental and sub- - ject to change or removal in a future version of Perl". It goes on to - say: "Their usage in production code should be noted to avoid problems - during upgrades." The same remarks apply to the PCRE features described - in this section. - Since these verbs are specifically related to backtracking, most of - them can be used only when the pattern is to be matched using - pcre_exec(), which uses a backtracking algorithm. With the exception of - (*FAIL), which behaves like a failing negative assertion, they cause an - error if encountered by pcre_dfa_exec(). +BACKTRACKING CONTROL - If any of these verbs are used in an assertion or in a subpattern that - is called as a subroutine (whether or not recursively), their effect is - confined to that subpattern; it does not extend to the surrounding pat- - tern, with one exception: the name from a *(MARK), (*PRUNE), or (*THEN) - that is encountered in a successful positive assertion is passed back - when a match succeeds (compare capturing parentheses in assertions). - Note that such subpatterns are processed as anchored at the point where - they are tested. Note also that Perl's treatment of subroutines is dif- - ferent in some cases. + Perl 5.10 introduced a number of "Special Backtracking Control Verbs", + which are still described in the Perl documentation as "experimental + and subject to change or removal in a future version of Perl". It goes + on to say: "Their usage in production code should be noted to avoid + problems during upgrades." The same remarks apply to the PCRE features + described in this section. - The new verbs make use of what was previously invalid syntax: an open- + The new verbs make use of what was previously invalid syntax: an open- ing parenthesis followed by an asterisk. They are generally of the form - (*VERB) or (*VERB:NAME). Some may take either form, with differing be- - haviour, depending on whether or not an argument is present. A name is + (*VERB) or (*VERB:NAME). Some may take either form, possibly behaving + differently depending on whether or not a name is present. A name is any sequence of characters that does not include a closing parenthesis. - If the name is empty, that is, if the closing parenthesis immediately - follows the colon, the effect is as if the colon were not there. Any - number of these verbs may occur in a pattern. + The maximum length of name is 255 in the 8-bit library and 65535 in the + 16-bit and 32-bit libraries. If the name is empty, that is, if the + closing parenthesis immediately follows the colon, the effect is as if + the colon were not there. Any number of these verbs may occur in a + pattern. + Since these verbs are specifically related to backtracking, most of + them can be used only when the pattern is to be matched using one of + the traditional matching functions, because these use a backtracking + algorithm. With the exception of (*FAIL), which behaves like a failing + negative assertion, the backtracking control verbs cause an error if + encountered by a DFA matching function. + + The behaviour of these verbs in repeated groups, assertions, and in + subpatterns called as subroutines (whether or not recursively) is docu- + mented below. + + Optimizations that affect backtracking verbs + PCRE contains some optimizations that are used to speed up matching by running some checks at the start of each match attempt. For example, it may know the minimum length of matching subject, or that a particular - character must be present. When one of these optimizations suppresses - the running of a match, any included backtracking verbs will not, of + character must be present. When one of these optimizations bypasses the + running of a match, any included backtracking verbs will not, of course, be processed. You can suppress the start-of-match optimizations by setting the PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE option when calling pcre_com- pile() or pcre_exec(), or by starting the pattern with (*NO_START_OPT). + There is more discussion of this option in the section entitled "Option + bits for pcre_exec()" in the pcreapi documentation. Experiments with Perl suggest that it too has similar optimizations, sometimes leading to anomalous results. @@ -5716,9 +7095,13 @@ BACKTRACKING CONTROL This verb causes the match to end successfully, skipping the remainder of the pattern. However, when it is inside a subpattern that is called as a subroutine, only that subpattern is ended successfully. Matching - then continues at the outer level. If (*ACCEPT) is inside capturing - parentheses, the data so far is captured. For example: + then continues at the outer level. If (*ACCEPT) in triggered in a posi- + tive assertion, the assertion succeeds; in a negative assertion, the + assertion fails. + If (*ACCEPT) is inside capturing parentheses, the data so far is cap- + tured. For example: + A((?:A|B(*ACCEPT)|C)D) This matches "AB", "AAD", or "ACD"; when it matches "AB", "B" is cap- @@ -5750,11 +7133,12 @@ BACKTRACKING CONTROL instances of (*MARK) as you like in a pattern, and their names do not have to be unique. - When a match succeeds, the name of the last-encountered (*MARK) on the - matching path is passed back to the caller via the pcre_extra data - structure, as described in the section on pcre_extra in the pcreapi - documentation. Here is an example of pcretest output, where the /K mod- - ifier requests the retrieval and outputting of (*MARK) data: + When a match succeeds, the name of the last-encountered (*MARK:NAME), + (*PRUNE:NAME), or (*THEN:NAME) on the matching path is passed back to + the caller as described in the section entitled "Extra data for + pcre_exec()" in the pcreapi documentation. Here is an example of + pcretest output, where the /K modifier requests the retrieval and out- + putting of (*MARK) data: re> /X(*MARK:A)Y|X(*MARK:B)Z/K data> XY @@ -5765,49 +7149,58 @@ BACKTRACKING CONTROL MK: B The (*MARK) name is tagged with "MK:" in this output, and in this exam- - ple it indicates which of the two alternatives matched. This is a more - efficient way of obtaining this information than putting each alterna- + ple it indicates which of the two alternatives matched. This is a more + efficient way of obtaining this information than putting each alterna- tive in its own capturing parentheses. - If (*MARK) is encountered in a positive assertion, its name is recorded - and passed back if it is the last-encountered. This does not happen for - negative assertions. + If a verb with a name is encountered in a positive assertion that is + true, the name is recorded and passed back if it is the last-encoun- + tered. This does not happen for negative assertions or failing positive + assertions. - After a partial match or a failed match, the name of the last encoun- - tered (*MARK) in the entire match process is returned. For example: + After a partial match or a failed match, the last encountered name in + the entire match process is returned. For example: re> /X(*MARK:A)Y|X(*MARK:B)Z/K data> XP No match, mark = B Note that in this unanchored example the mark is retained from the - match attempt that started at the letter "X". Subsequent match attempts - starting at "P" and then with an empty string do not get as far as the - (*MARK) item, but nevertheless do not reset it. + match attempt that started at the letter "X" in the subject. Subsequent + match attempts starting at "P" and then with an empty string do not get + as far as the (*MARK) item, but nevertheless do not reset it. + If you are interested in (*MARK) values after failed matches, you + should probably set the PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE option (see above) to + ensure that the match is always attempted. + Verbs that act after backtracking The following verbs do nothing when they are encountered. Matching con- tinues with what follows, but if there is no subsequent match, causing a backtrack to the verb, a failure is forced. That is, backtracking cannot pass to the left of the verb. However, when one of these verbs - appears inside an atomic group, its effect is confined to that group, - because once the group has been matched, there is never any backtrack- - ing into it. In this situation, backtracking can "jump back" to the - left of the entire atomic group. (Remember also, as stated above, that - this localization also applies in subroutine calls and assertions.) + appears inside an atomic group or an assertion that is true, its effect + is confined to that group, because once the group has been matched, + there is never any backtracking into it. In this situation, backtrack- + ing can "jump back" to the left of the entire atomic group or asser- + tion. (Remember also, as stated above, that this localization also + applies in subroutine calls.) - These verbs differ in exactly what kind of failure occurs when back- - tracking reaches them. + These verbs differ in exactly what kind of failure occurs when back- + tracking reaches them. The behaviour described below is what happens + when the verb is not in a subroutine or an assertion. Subsequent sec- + tions cover these special cases. (*COMMIT) - This verb, which may not be followed by a name, causes the whole match - to fail outright if the rest of the pattern does not match. Even if the - pattern is unanchored, no further attempts to find a match by advancing - the starting point take place. Once (*COMMIT) has been passed, - pcre_exec() is committed to finding a match at the current starting - point, or not at all. For example: + This verb, which may not be followed by a name, causes the whole match + to fail outright if there is a later matching failure that causes back- + tracking to reach it. Even if the pattern is unanchored, no further + attempts to find a match by advancing the starting point take place. If + (*COMMIT) is the only backtracking verb that is encountered, once it + has been passed pcre_exec() is committed to finding a match at the cur- + rent starting point, or not at all. For example: a+(*COMMIT)b @@ -5816,8 +7209,13 @@ BACKTRACKING CONTROL most recently passed (*MARK) in the path is passed back when (*COMMIT) forces a match failure. - Note that (*COMMIT) at the start of a pattern is not the same as an - anchor, unless PCRE's start-of-match optimizations are turned off, as + If there is more than one backtracking verb in a pattern, a different + one that follows (*COMMIT) may be triggered first, so merely passing + (*COMMIT) during a match does not always guarantee that a match must be + at this starting point. + + Note that (*COMMIT) at the start of a pattern is not the same as an + anchor, unless PCRE's start-of-match optimizations are turned off, as shown in this pcretest example: re> /(*COMMIT)abc/ @@ -5826,26 +7224,31 @@ BACKTRACKING CONTROL xyzabc\Y No match - PCRE knows that any match must start with "a", so the optimization - skips along the subject to "a" before running the first match attempt, - which succeeds. When the optimization is disabled by the \Y escape in + PCRE knows that any match must start with "a", so the optimization + skips along the subject to "a" before running the first match attempt, + which succeeds. When the optimization is disabled by the \Y escape in the second subject, the match starts at "x" and so the (*COMMIT) causes it to fail without trying any other starting points. (*PRUNE) or (*PRUNE:NAME) - This verb causes the match to fail at the current starting position in - the subject if the rest of the pattern does not match. If the pattern - is unanchored, the normal "bumpalong" advance to the next starting - character then happens. Backtracking can occur as usual to the left of - (*PRUNE), before it is reached, or when matching to the right of - (*PRUNE), but if there is no match to the right, backtracking cannot - cross (*PRUNE). In simple cases, the use of (*PRUNE) is just an alter- - native to an atomic group or possessive quantifier, but there are some - uses of (*PRUNE) that cannot be expressed in any other way. The behav- - iour of (*PRUNE:NAME) is the same as (*MARK:NAME)(*PRUNE). In an - anchored pattern (*PRUNE) has the same effect as (*COMMIT). + This verb causes the match to fail at the current starting position in + the subject if there is a later matching failure that causes backtrack- + ing to reach it. If the pattern is unanchored, the normal "bumpalong" + advance to the next starting character then happens. Backtracking can + occur as usual to the left of (*PRUNE), before it is reached, or when + matching to the right of (*PRUNE), but if there is no match to the + right, backtracking cannot cross (*PRUNE). In simple cases, the use of + (*PRUNE) is just an alternative to an atomic group or possessive quan- + tifier, but there are some uses of (*PRUNE) that cannot be expressed in + any other way. In an anchored pattern (*PRUNE) has the same effect as + (*COMMIT). + The behaviour of (*PRUNE:NAME) is the not the same as + (*MARK:NAME)(*PRUNE). It is like (*MARK:NAME) in that the name is + remembered for passing back to the caller. However, (*SKIP:NAME) + searches only for names set with (*MARK). + (*SKIP) This verb, when given without a name, is like (*PRUNE), except that if @@ -5866,89 +7269,161 @@ BACKTRACKING CONTROL (*SKIP:NAME) - When (*SKIP) has an associated name, its behaviour is modified. If the - following pattern fails to match, the previous path through the pattern - is searched for the most recent (*MARK) that has the same name. If one - is found, the "bumpalong" advance is to the subject position that cor- - responds to that (*MARK) instead of to where (*SKIP) was encountered. - If no (*MARK) with a matching name is found, the (*SKIP) is ignored. + When (*SKIP) has an associated name, its behaviour is modified. When it + is triggered, the previous path through the pattern is searched for the + most recent (*MARK) that has the same name. If one is found, the + "bumpalong" advance is to the subject position that corresponds to that + (*MARK) instead of to where (*SKIP) was encountered. If no (*MARK) with + a matching name is found, the (*SKIP) is ignored. + Note that (*SKIP:NAME) searches only for names set by (*MARK:NAME). It + ignores names that are set by (*PRUNE:NAME) or (*THEN:NAME). + (*THEN) or (*THEN:NAME) - This verb causes a skip to the next innermost alternative if the rest - of the pattern does not match. That is, it cancels pending backtrack- - ing, but only within the current alternative. Its name comes from the - observation that it can be used for a pattern-based if-then-else block: + This verb causes a skip to the next innermost alternative when back- + tracking reaches it. That is, it cancels any further backtracking + within the current alternative. Its name comes from the observation + that it can be used for a pattern-based if-then-else block: ( COND1 (*THEN) FOO | COND2 (*THEN) BAR | COND3 (*THEN) BAZ ) ... - If the COND1 pattern matches, FOO is tried (and possibly further items - after the end of the group if FOO succeeds); on failure, the matcher - skips to the second alternative and tries COND2, without backtracking - into COND1. The behaviour of (*THEN:NAME) is exactly the same as - (*MARK:NAME)(*THEN). If (*THEN) is not inside an alternation, it acts - like (*PRUNE). + If the COND1 pattern matches, FOO is tried (and possibly further items + after the end of the group if FOO succeeds); on failure, the matcher + skips to the second alternative and tries COND2, without backtracking + into COND1. If that succeeds and BAR fails, COND3 is tried. If subse- + quently BAZ fails, there are no more alternatives, so there is a back- + track to whatever came before the entire group. If (*THEN) is not + inside an alternation, it acts like (*PRUNE). - Note that a subpattern that does not contain a | character is just a - part of the enclosing alternative; it is not a nested alternation with - only one alternative. The effect of (*THEN) extends beyond such a sub- - pattern to the enclosing alternative. Consider this pattern, where A, - B, etc. are complex pattern fragments that do not contain any | charac- - ters at this level: + The behaviour of (*THEN:NAME) is the not the same as + (*MARK:NAME)(*THEN). It is like (*MARK:NAME) in that the name is + remembered for passing back to the caller. However, (*SKIP:NAME) + searches only for names set with (*MARK). + A subpattern that does not contain a | character is just a part of the + enclosing alternative; it is not a nested alternation with only one + alternative. The effect of (*THEN) extends beyond such a subpattern to + the enclosing alternative. Consider this pattern, where A, B, etc. are + complex pattern fragments that do not contain any | characters at this + level: + A (B(*THEN)C) | D - If A and B are matched, but there is a failure in C, matching does not + If A and B are matched, but there is a failure in C, matching does not backtrack into A; instead it moves to the next alternative, that is, D. - However, if the subpattern containing (*THEN) is given an alternative, + However, if the subpattern containing (*THEN) is given an alternative, it behaves differently: A (B(*THEN)C | (*FAIL)) | D - The effect of (*THEN) is now confined to the inner subpattern. After a + The effect of (*THEN) is now confined to the inner subpattern. After a failure in C, matching moves to (*FAIL), which causes the whole subpat- - tern to fail because there are no more alternatives to try. In this + tern to fail because there are no more alternatives to try. In this case, matching does now backtrack into A. - Note also that a conditional subpattern is not considered as having two - alternatives, because only one is ever used. In other words, the | + Note that a conditional subpattern is not considered as having two + alternatives, because only one is ever used. In other words, the | character in a conditional subpattern has a different meaning. Ignoring white space, consider: ^.*? (?(?=a) a | b(*THEN)c ) - If the subject is "ba", this pattern does not match. Because .*? is - ungreedy, it initially matches zero characters. The condition (?=a) - then fails, the character "b" is matched, but "c" is not. At this - point, matching does not backtrack to .*? as might perhaps be expected - from the presence of the | character. The conditional subpattern is + If the subject is "ba", this pattern does not match. Because .*? is + ungreedy, it initially matches zero characters. The condition (?=a) + then fails, the character "b" is matched, but "c" is not. At this + point, matching does not backtrack to .*? as might perhaps be expected + from the presence of the | character. The conditional subpattern is part of the single alternative that comprises the whole pattern, and so - the match fails. (If there was a backtrack into .*?, allowing it to + the match fails. (If there was a backtrack into .*?, allowing it to match "b", the match would succeed.) - The verbs just described provide four different "strengths" of control + The verbs just described provide four different "strengths" of control when subsequent matching fails. (*THEN) is the weakest, carrying on the - match at the next alternative. (*PRUNE) comes next, failing the match - at the current starting position, but allowing an advance to the next - character (for an unanchored pattern). (*SKIP) is similar, except that + match at the next alternative. (*PRUNE) comes next, failing the match + at the current starting position, but allowing an advance to the next + character (for an unanchored pattern). (*SKIP) is similar, except that the advance may be more than one character. (*COMMIT) is the strongest, causing the entire match to fail. - If more than one such verb is present in a pattern, the "strongest" one - wins. For example, consider this pattern, where A, B, etc. are complex - pattern fragments: + More than one backtracking verb - (A(*COMMIT)B(*THEN)C|D) + If more than one backtracking verb is present in a pattern, the one + that is backtracked onto first acts. For example, consider this pat- + tern, where A, B, etc. are complex pattern fragments: - Once A has matched, PCRE is committed to this match, at the current - starting position. If subsequently B matches, but C does not, the nor- - mal (*THEN) action of trying the next alternative (that is, D) does not - happen because (*COMMIT) overrides. + (A(*COMMIT)B(*THEN)C|ABD) + If A matches but B fails, the backtrack to (*COMMIT) causes the entire + match to fail. However, if A and B match, but C fails, the backtrack to + (*THEN) causes the next alternative (ABD) to be tried. This behaviour + is consistent, but is not always the same as Perl's. It means that if + two or more backtracking verbs appear in succession, all the the last + of them has no effect. Consider this example: + ...(*COMMIT)(*PRUNE)... + + If there is a matching failure to the right, backtracking onto (*PRUNE) + cases it to be triggered, and its action is taken. There can never be a + backtrack onto (*COMMIT). + + Backtracking verbs in repeated groups + + PCRE differs from Perl in its handling of backtracking verbs in + repeated groups. For example, consider: + + /(a(*COMMIT)b)+ac/ + + If the subject is "abac", Perl matches, but PCRE fails because the + (*COMMIT) in the second repeat of the group acts. + + Backtracking verbs in assertions + + (*FAIL) in an assertion has its normal effect: it forces an immediate + backtrack. + + (*ACCEPT) in a positive assertion causes the assertion to succeed with- + out any further processing. In a negative assertion, (*ACCEPT) causes + the assertion to fail without any further processing. + + The other backtracking verbs are not treated specially if they appear + in a positive assertion. In particular, (*THEN) skips to the next + alternative in the innermost enclosing group that has alternations, + whether or not this is within the assertion. + + Negative assertions are, however, different, in order to ensure that + changing a positive assertion into a negative assertion changes its + result. Backtracking into (*COMMIT), (*SKIP), or (*PRUNE) causes a neg- + ative assertion to be true, without considering any further alternative + branches in the assertion. Backtracking into (*THEN) causes it to skip + to the next enclosing alternative within the assertion (the normal be- + haviour), but if the assertion does not have such an alternative, + (*THEN) behaves like (*PRUNE). + + Backtracking verbs in subroutines + + These behaviours occur whether or not the subpattern is called recur- + sively. Perl's treatment of subroutines is different in some cases. + + (*FAIL) in a subpattern called as a subroutine has its normal effect: + it forces an immediate backtrack. + + (*ACCEPT) in a subpattern called as a subroutine causes the subroutine + match to succeed without any further processing. Matching then contin- + ues after the subroutine call. + + (*COMMIT), (*SKIP), and (*PRUNE) in a subpattern called as a subroutine + cause the subroutine match to fail. + + (*THEN) skips to the next alternative in the innermost enclosing group + within the subpattern that has alternatives. If there is no such group + within the subpattern, (*THEN) causes the subroutine match to fail. + + SEE ALSO - pcreapi(3), pcrecallout(3), pcrematching(3), pcresyntax(3), pcre(3). + pcreapi(3), pcrecallout(3), pcrematching(3), pcresyntax(3), pcre(3), + pcre16(3), pcre32(3). AUTHOR @@ -5960,23 +7435,23 @@ AUTHOR REVISION - Last updated: 29 November 2011 - Copyright (c) 1997-2011 University of Cambridge. + Last updated: 26 April 2013 + Copyright (c) 1997-2013 University of Cambridge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -PCRESYNTAX(3) PCRESYNTAX(3) +PCRESYNTAX(3) Library Functions Manual PCRESYNTAX(3) + NAME PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions - PCRE REGULAR EXPRESSION SYNTAX SUMMARY The full syntax and semantics of the regular expressions that are sup- ported by PCRE are described in the pcrepattern documentation. This - document contains just a quick-reference summary of the syntax. + document contains a quick-reference summary of the syntax. QUOTING @@ -5990,7 +7465,7 @@ CHARACTERS \a alarm, that is, the BEL character (hex 07) \cx "control-x", where x is any ASCII character \e escape (hex 1B) - \f formfeed (hex 0C) + \f form feed (hex 0C) \n newline (hex 0A) \r carriage return (hex 0D) \t tab (hex 09) @@ -6003,25 +7478,25 @@ CHARACTER TYPES . any character except newline; in dotall mode, any character whatsoever - \C one byte, even in UTF-8 mode (best avoided) + \C one data unit, even in UTF mode (best avoided) \d a decimal digit \D a character that is not a decimal digit - \h a horizontal whitespace character - \H a character that is not a horizontal whitespace character + \h a horizontal white space character + \H a character that is not a horizontal white space character \N a character that is not a newline \p{xx} a character with the xx property \P{xx} a character without the xx property \R a newline sequence - \s a whitespace character - \S a character that is not a whitespace character - \v a vertical whitespace character - \V a character that is not a vertical whitespace character + \s a white space character + \S a character that is not a white space character + \v a vertical white space character + \V a character that is not a vertical white space character \w a "word" character \W a "non-word" character - \X an extended Unicode sequence + \X a Unicode extended grapheme cluster In PCRE, by default, \d, \D, \s, \S, \w, and \W recognize only ASCII - characters, even in UTF-8 mode. However, this can be changed by setting + characters, even in a UTF mode. However, this can be changed by setting the PCRE_UCP option. @@ -6078,25 +7553,29 @@ PCRE SPECIAL CATEGORY PROPERTIES FOR \p and \P Xan Alphanumeric: union of properties L and N Xps POSIX space: property Z or tab, NL, VT, FF, CR Xsp Perl space: property Z or tab, NL, FF, CR + Xuc Univerally-named character: one that can be + represented by a Universal Character Name Xwd Perl word: property Xan or underscore SCRIPT NAMES FOR \p AND \P - Arabic, Armenian, Avestan, Balinese, Bamum, Bengali, Bopomofo, Braille, - Buginese, Buhid, Canadian_Aboriginal, Carian, Cham, Cherokee, Common, - Coptic, Cuneiform, Cypriot, Cyrillic, Deseret, Devanagari, Egyp- - tian_Hieroglyphs, Ethiopic, Georgian, Glagolitic, Gothic, Greek, - Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Han, Hangul, Hanunoo, Hebrew, Hiragana, Impe- - rial_Aramaic, Inherited, Inscriptional_Pahlavi, Inscriptional_Parthian, - Javanese, Kaithi, Kannada, Katakana, Kayah_Li, Kharoshthi, Khmer, Lao, - Latin, Lepcha, Limbu, Linear_B, Lisu, Lycian, Lydian, Malayalam, - Meetei_Mayek, Mongolian, Myanmar, New_Tai_Lue, Nko, Ogham, Old_Italic, - Old_Persian, Old_South_Arabian, Old_Turkic, Ol_Chiki, Oriya, Osmanya, - Phags_Pa, Phoenician, Rejang, Runic, Samaritan, Saurashtra, Shavian, - Sinhala, Sundanese, Syloti_Nagri, Syriac, Tagalog, Tagbanwa, Tai_Le, - Tai_Tham, Tai_Viet, Tamil, Telugu, Thaana, Thai, Tibetan, Tifinagh, - Ugaritic, Vai, Yi. + Arabic, Armenian, Avestan, Balinese, Bamum, Batak, Bengali, Bopomofo, + Brahmi, Braille, Buginese, Buhid, Canadian_Aboriginal, Carian, Chakma, + Cham, Cherokee, Common, Coptic, Cuneiform, Cypriot, Cyrillic, Deseret, + Devanagari, Egyptian_Hieroglyphs, Ethiopic, Georgian, Glagolitic, + Gothic, Greek, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Han, Hangul, Hanunoo, Hebrew, Hira- + gana, Imperial_Aramaic, Inherited, Inscriptional_Pahlavi, Inscrip- + tional_Parthian, Javanese, Kaithi, Kannada, Katakana, Kayah_Li, + Kharoshthi, Khmer, Lao, Latin, Lepcha, Limbu, Linear_B, Lisu, Lycian, + Lydian, Malayalam, Mandaic, Meetei_Mayek, Meroitic_Cursive, + Meroitic_Hieroglyphs, Miao, Mongolian, Myanmar, New_Tai_Lue, Nko, + Ogham, Old_Italic, Old_Persian, Old_South_Arabian, Old_Turkic, + Ol_Chiki, Oriya, Osmanya, Phags_Pa, Phoenician, Rejang, Runic, Samari- + tan, Saurashtra, Sharada, Shavian, Sinhala, Sora_Sompeng, Sundanese, + Syloti_Nagri, Syriac, Tagalog, Tagbanwa, Tai_Le, Tai_Tham, Tai_Viet, + Takri, Tamil, Telugu, Thaana, Thai, Tibetan, Tifinagh, Ugaritic, Vai, + Yi. CHARACTER CLASSES @@ -6117,7 +7596,7 @@ CHARACTER CLASSES lower lower case letter print printing, including space punct printing, excluding alphanumeric - space whitespace + space white space upper upper case letter word same as \w xdigit hexadecimal digit @@ -6207,8 +7686,13 @@ OPTION SETTING The following are recognized only at the start of a pattern or after one of the newline-setting options with similar syntax: + (*LIMIT_MATCH=d) set the match limit to d (decimal number) + (*LIMIT_RECURSION=d) set the recursion limit to d (decimal number) (*NO_START_OPT) no start-match optimization (PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE) - (*UTF8) set UTF-8 mode (PCRE_UTF8) + (*UTF8) set UTF-8 mode: 8-bit library (PCRE_UTF8) + (*UTF16) set UTF-16 mode: 16-bit library (PCRE_UTF16) + (*UTF32) set UTF-32 mode: 32-bit library (PCRE_UTF32) + (*UTF) set appropriate UTF mode for the library in use (*UCP) set PCRE_UCP (use Unicode properties for \d etc) @@ -6277,6 +7761,7 @@ BACKTRACKING CONTROL (*ACCEPT) force successful match (*FAIL) force backtrack; synonym (*F) + (*MARK:NAME) set name to be passed back; synonym (*:NAME) The following act only when a subsequent match failure causes a back- track to reach them. They all force a match failure, but they differ in @@ -6285,14 +7770,18 @@ BACKTRACKING CONTROL (*COMMIT) overall failure, no advance of starting point (*PRUNE) advance to next starting character - (*SKIP) advance start to current matching position + (*PRUNE:NAME) equivalent to (*MARK:NAME)(*PRUNE) + (*SKIP) advance to current matching position + (*SKIP:NAME) advance to position corresponding to an earlier + (*MARK:NAME); if not found, the (*SKIP) is ignored (*THEN) local failure, backtrack to next alternation + (*THEN:NAME) equivalent to (*MARK:NAME)(*THEN) NEWLINE CONVENTIONS These are recognized only at the very start of the pattern or after a - (*BSR_...) or (*UTF8) or (*UCP) option. + (*BSR_...), (*UTF8), (*UTF16), (*UTF32) or (*UCP) option. (*CR) carriage return only (*LF) linefeed only @@ -6304,7 +7793,7 @@ NEWLINE CONVENTIONS WHAT \R MATCHES These are recognized only at the very start of the pattern or after a - (*...) option that sets the newline convention or UTF-8 or UCP mode. + (*...) option that sets the newline convention or a UTF or UCP mode. (*BSR_ANYCRLF) CR, LF, or CRLF (*BSR_UNICODE) any Unicode newline sequence @@ -6330,149 +7819,214 @@ AUTHOR REVISION - Last updated: 21 November 2010 - Copyright (c) 1997-2010 University of Cambridge. + Last updated: 26 April 2013 + Copyright (c) 1997-2013 University of Cambridge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -PCREUNICODE(3) PCREUNICODE(3) +PCREUNICODE(3) Library Functions Manual PCREUNICODE(3) + NAME PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions +UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32, AND UNICODE PROPERTY SUPPORT -UTF-8 AND UNICODE PROPERTY SUPPORT + As well as UTF-8 support, PCRE also supports UTF-16 (from release 8.30) + and UTF-32 (from release 8.32), by means of two additional libraries. + They can be built as well as, or instead of, the 8-bit library. - In order process UTF-8 strings, you must build PCRE to include UTF-8 - support in the code, and, in addition, you must call pcre_compile() - with the PCRE_UTF8 option flag, or the pattern must start with the - sequence (*UTF8). When either of these is the case, both the pattern + +UTF-8 SUPPORT + + In order process UTF-8 strings, you must build PCRE's 8-bit library + with UTF support, and, in addition, you must call pcre_compile() with + the PCRE_UTF8 option flag, or the pattern must start with the sequence + (*UTF8) or (*UTF). When either of these is the case, both the pattern and any subject strings that are matched against it are treated as - UTF-8 strings instead of strings of 1-byte characters. PCRE does not - support any other formats (in particular, it does not support UTF-16). + UTF-8 strings instead of strings of individual 1-byte characters. - If you compile PCRE with UTF-8 support, but do not use it at run time, - the library will be a bit bigger, but the additional run time overhead - is limited to testing the PCRE_UTF8 flag occasionally, so should not be - very big. +UTF-16 AND UTF-32 SUPPORT + + In order process UTF-16 or UTF-32 strings, you must build PCRE's 16-bit + or 32-bit library with UTF support, and, in addition, you must call + pcre16_compile() or pcre32_compile() with the PCRE_UTF16 or PCRE_UTF32 + option flag, as appropriate. Alternatively, the pattern must start with + the sequence (*UTF16), (*UTF32), as appropriate, or (*UTF), which can + be used with either library. When UTF mode is set, both the pattern and + any subject strings that are matched against it are treated as UTF-16 + or UTF-32 strings instead of strings of individual 16-bit or 32-bit + characters. + + +UTF SUPPORT OVERHEAD + + If you compile PCRE with UTF support, but do not use it at run time, + the library will be a bit bigger, but the additional run time overhead + is limited to testing the PCRE_UTF[8|16|32] flag occasionally, so + should not be very big. + + +UNICODE PROPERTY SUPPORT + If PCRE is built with Unicode character property support (which implies - UTF-8 support), the escape sequences \p{..}, \P{..}, and \X are sup- - ported. The available properties that can be tested are limited to the - general category properties such as Lu for an upper case letter or Nd - for a decimal number, the Unicode script names such as Arabic or Han, - and the derived properties Any and L&. A full list is given in the - pcrepattern documentation. Only the short names for properties are sup- - ported. For example, \p{L} matches a letter. Its Perl synonym, \p{Let- - ter}, is not supported. Furthermore, in Perl, many properties may - optionally be prefixed by "Is", for compatibility with Perl 5.6. PCRE - does not support this. + UTF support), the escape sequences \p{..}, \P{..}, and \X can be used. + The available properties that can be tested are limited to the general + category properties such as Lu for an upper case letter or Nd for a + decimal number, the Unicode script names such as Arabic or Han, and the + derived properties Any and L&. Full lists is given in the pcrepattern + and pcresyntax documentation. Only the short names for properties are + supported. For example, \p{L} matches a letter. Its Perl synonym, + \p{Letter}, is not supported. Furthermore, in Perl, many properties + may optionally be prefixed by "Is", for compatibility with Perl 5.6. + PCRE does not support this. Validity of UTF-8 strings - When you set the PCRE_UTF8 flag, the strings passed as patterns and - subjects are (by default) checked for validity on entry to the relevant - functions. From release 7.3 of PCRE, the check is according the rules - of RFC 3629, which are themselves derived from the Unicode specifica- - tion. Earlier releases of PCRE followed the rules of RFC 2279, which - allows the full range of 31-bit values (0 to 0x7FFFFFFF). The current - check allows only values in the range U+0 to U+10FFFF, excluding U+D800 - to U+DFFF. + When you set the PCRE_UTF8 flag, the byte strings passed as patterns + and subjects are (by default) checked for validity on entry to the rel- + evant functions. The entire string is checked before any other process- + ing takes place. From release 7.3 of PCRE, the check is according the + rules of RFC 3629, which are themselves derived from the Unicode speci- + fication. Earlier releases of PCRE followed the rules of RFC 2279, + which allows the full range of 31-bit values (0 to 0x7FFFFFFF). The + current check allows only values in the range U+0 to U+10FFFF, exclud- + ing the surrogate area. (From release 8.33 the so-called "non-charac- + ter" code points are no longer excluded because Unicode corrigendum #9 + makes it clear that they should not be.) - The excluded code points are the "Low Surrogate Area" of Unicode, of - which the Unicode Standard says this: "The Low Surrogate Area does not - contain any character assignments, consequently no character code - charts or namelists are provided for this area. Surrogates are reserved - for use with UTF-16 and then must be used in pairs." The code points - that are encoded by UTF-16 pairs are available as independent code - points in the UTF-8 encoding. (In other words, the whole surrogate - thing is a fudge for UTF-16 which unfortunately messes up UTF-8.) + Characters in the "Surrogate Area" of Unicode are reserved for use by + UTF-16, where they are used in pairs to encode codepoints with values + greater than 0xFFFF. The code points that are encoded by UTF-16 pairs + are available independently in the UTF-8 and UTF-32 encodings. (In + other words, the whole surrogate thing is a fudge for UTF-16 which + unfortunately messes up UTF-8 and UTF-32.) If an invalid UTF-8 string is passed to PCRE, an error return is given. At compile time, the only additional information is the offset to the - first byte of the failing character. The runtime functions pcre_exec() + first byte of the failing character. The run-time functions pcre_exec() and pcre_dfa_exec() also pass back this information, as well as a more detailed reason code if the caller has provided memory in which to do this. In some situations, you may already know that your strings are valid, and therefore want to skip these checks in order to improve perfor- - mance. If you set the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK flag at compile time or at run - time, PCRE assumes that the pattern or subject it is given (respec- - tively) contains only valid UTF-8 codes. In this case, it does not - diagnose an invalid UTF-8 string. + mance, for example in the case of a long subject string that is being + scanned repeatedly. If you set the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK flag at compile + time or at run time, PCRE assumes that the pattern or subject it is + given (respectively) contains only valid UTF-8 codes. In this case, it + does not diagnose an invalid UTF-8 string. - If you pass an invalid UTF-8 string when PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK is set, - what happens depends on why the string is invalid. If the string con- - forms to the "old" definition of UTF-8 (RFC 2279), it is processed as a - string of characters in the range 0 to 0x7FFFFFFF by pcre_dfa_exec() - and the interpreted version of pcre_exec(). In other words, apart from - the initial validity test, these functions (when in UTF-8 mode) handle - strings according to the more liberal rules of RFC 2279. However, the - just-in-time (JIT) optimization for pcre_exec() supports only RFC 3629. - If you are using JIT optimization, or if the string does not even con- - form to RFC 2279, the result is undefined. Your program may crash. + Note that passing PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK to pcre_compile() just disables + the check for the pattern; it does not also apply to subject strings. + If you want to disable the check for a subject string you must pass + this option to pcre_exec() or pcre_dfa_exec(). - If you want to process strings of values in the full range 0 to - 0x7FFFFFFF, encoded in a UTF-8-like manner as per the old RFC, you can - set PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK to bypass the more restrictive test. However, in - this situation, you will have to apply your own validity check, and - avoid the use of JIT optimization. + If you pass an invalid UTF-8 string when PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK is set, the + result is undefined and your program may crash. - General comments about UTF-8 mode + Validity of UTF-16 strings - 1. An unbraced hexadecimal escape sequence (such as \xb3) matches a - two-byte UTF-8 character if the value is greater than 127. + When you set the PCRE_UTF16 flag, the strings of 16-bit data units that + are passed as patterns and subjects are (by default) checked for valid- + ity on entry to the relevant functions. Values other than those in the + surrogate range U+D800 to U+DFFF are independent code points. Values in + the surrogate range must be used in pairs in the correct manner. - 2. Octal numbers up to \777 are recognized, and match two-byte UTF-8 - characters for values greater than \177. + If an invalid UTF-16 string is passed to PCRE, an error return is + given. At compile time, the only additional information is the offset + to the first data unit of the failing character. The run-time functions + pcre16_exec() and pcre16_dfa_exec() also pass back this information, as + well as a more detailed reason code if the caller has provided memory + in which to do this. - 3. Repeat quantifiers apply to complete UTF-8 characters, not to indi- - vidual bytes, for example: \x{100}{3}. + In some situations, you may already know that your strings are valid, + and therefore want to skip these checks in order to improve perfor- + mance. If you set the PCRE_NO_UTF16_CHECK flag at compile time or at + run time, PCRE assumes that the pattern or subject it is given (respec- + tively) contains only valid UTF-16 sequences. In this case, it does not + diagnose an invalid UTF-16 string. However, if an invalid string is + passed, the result is undefined. - 4. The dot metacharacter matches one UTF-8 character instead of a sin- - gle byte. + Validity of UTF-32 strings - 5. The escape sequence \C can be used to match a single byte in UTF-8 - mode, but its use can lead to some strange effects because it breaks up - multibyte characters (see the description of \C in the pcrepattern doc- - umentation). The use of \C is not supported in the alternative matching - function pcre_dfa_exec(), nor is it supported in UTF-8 mode by the JIT - optimization of pcre_exec(). If JIT optimization is requested for a - UTF-8 pattern that contains \C, it will not succeed, and so the match- - ing will be carried out by the normal interpretive function. + When you set the PCRE_UTF32 flag, the strings of 32-bit data units that + are passed as patterns and subjects are (by default) checked for valid- + ity on entry to the relevant functions. This check allows only values + in the range U+0 to U+10FFFF, excluding the surrogate area U+D800 to + U+DFFF. - 6. The character escapes \b, \B, \d, \D, \s, \S, \w, and \W correctly + If an invalid UTF-32 string is passed to PCRE, an error return is + given. At compile time, the only additional information is the offset + to the first data unit of the failing character. The run-time functions + pcre32_exec() and pcre32_dfa_exec() also pass back this information, as + well as a more detailed reason code if the caller has provided memory + in which to do this. + + In some situations, you may already know that your strings are valid, + and therefore want to skip these checks in order to improve perfor- + mance. If you set the PCRE_NO_UTF32_CHECK flag at compile time or at + run time, PCRE assumes that the pattern or subject it is given (respec- + tively) contains only valid UTF-32 sequences. In this case, it does not + diagnose an invalid UTF-32 string. However, if an invalid string is + passed, the result is undefined. + + General comments about UTF modes + + 1. Codepoints less than 256 can be specified in patterns by either + braced or unbraced hexadecimal escape sequences (for example, \x{b3} or + \xb3). Larger values have to use braced sequences. + + 2. Octal numbers up to \777 are recognized, and in UTF-8 mode they + match two-byte characters for values greater than \177. + + 3. Repeat quantifiers apply to complete UTF characters, not to individ- + ual data units, for example: \x{100}{3}. + + 4. The dot metacharacter matches one UTF character instead of a single + data unit. + + 5. The escape sequence \C can be used to match a single byte in UTF-8 + mode, or a single 16-bit data unit in UTF-16 mode, or a single 32-bit + data unit in UTF-32 mode, but its use can lead to some strange effects + because it breaks up multi-unit characters (see the description of \C + in the pcrepattern documentation). The use of \C is not supported in + the alternative matching function pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec(), nor is it + supported in UTF mode by the JIT optimization of pcre[16|32]_exec(). If + JIT optimization is requested for a UTF pattern that contains \C, it + will not succeed, and so the matching will be carried out by the normal + interpretive function. + + 6. The character escapes \b, \B, \d, \D, \s, \S, \w, and \W correctly test characters of any code value, but, by default, the characters that - PCRE recognizes as digits, spaces, or word characters remain the same - set as before, all with values less than 256. This remains true even - when PCRE is built to include Unicode property support, because to do - otherwise would slow down PCRE in many common cases. Note in particular - that this applies to \b and \B, because they are defined in terms of \w - and \W. If you really want to test for a wider sense of, say, "digit", - you can use explicit Unicode property tests such as \p{Nd}. Alterna- - tively, if you set the PCRE_UCP option, the way that the character - escapes work is changed so that Unicode properties are used to deter- - mine which characters match. There are more details in the section on - generic character types in the pcrepattern documentation. + PCRE recognizes as digits, spaces, or word characters remain the same + set as in non-UTF mode, all with values less than 256. This remains + true even when PCRE is built to include Unicode property support, + because to do otherwise would slow down PCRE in many common cases. Note + in particular that this applies to \b and \B, because they are defined + in terms of \w and \W. If you really want to test for a wider sense of, + say, "digit", you can use explicit Unicode property tests such as + \p{Nd}. Alternatively, if you set the PCRE_UCP option, the way that the + character escapes work is changed so that Unicode properties are used + to determine which characters match. There are more details in the sec- + tion on generic character types in the pcrepattern documentation. - 7. Similarly, characters that match the POSIX named character classes + 7. Similarly, characters that match the POSIX named character classes are all low-valued characters, unless the PCRE_UCP option is set. - 8. However, the horizontal and vertical whitespace matching escapes - (\h, \H, \v, and \V) do match all the appropriate Unicode characters, + 8. However, the horizontal and vertical white space matching escapes + (\h, \H, \v, and \V) do match all the appropriate Unicode characters, whether or not PCRE_UCP is set. - 9. Case-insensitive matching applies only to characters whose values - are less than 128, unless PCRE is built with Unicode property support. - Even when Unicode property support is available, PCRE still uses its - own character tables when checking the case of low-valued characters, - so as not to degrade performance. The Unicode property information is - used only for characters with higher values. Furthermore, PCRE supports - case-insensitive matching only when there is a one-to-one mapping - between a letter's cases. There are a small number of many-to-one map- - pings in Unicode; these are not supported by PCRE. + 9. Case-insensitive matching applies only to characters whose values + are less than 128, unless PCRE is built with Unicode property support. + A few Unicode characters such as Greek sigma have more than two code- + points that are case-equivalent. Up to and including PCRE release 8.31, + only one-to-one case mappings were supported, but later releases (with + Unicode property support) do treat as case-equivalent all versions of + characters such as Greek sigma. AUTHOR @@ -6484,35 +8038,46 @@ AUTHOR REVISION - Last updated: 19 October 2011 - Copyright (c) 1997-2011 University of Cambridge. + Last updated: 27 February 2013 + Copyright (c) 1997-2013 University of Cambridge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -PCREJIT(3) PCREJIT(3) +PCREJIT(3) Library Functions Manual PCREJIT(3) + NAME PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions - PCRE JUST-IN-TIME COMPILER SUPPORT Just-in-time compiling is a heavyweight optimization that can greatly speed up pattern matching. However, it comes at the cost of extra pro- cessing before the match is performed. Therefore, it is of most benefit when the same pattern is going to be matched many times. This does not - necessarily mean many calls of pcre_exec(); if the pattern is not - anchored, matching attempts may take place many times at various posi- - tions in the subject, even for a single call to pcre_exec(). If the + necessarily mean many calls of a matching function; if the pattern is + not anchored, matching attempts may take place many times at various + positions in the subject, even for a single call. Therefore, if the subject string is very long, it may still pay to use JIT for one-off matches. - JIT support applies only to the traditional matching function, - pcre_exec(). It does not apply when pcre_dfa_exec() is being used. The - code for this support was written by Zoltan Herczeg. + JIT support applies only to the traditional Perl-compatible matching + function. It does not apply when the DFA matching function is being + used. The code for this support was written by Zoltan Herczeg. +8-BIT, 16-BIT AND 32-BIT SUPPORT + + JIT support is available for all of the 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit PCRE + libraries. To keep this documentation simple, only the 8-bit interface + is described in what follows. If you are using the 16-bit library, sub- + stitute the 16-bit functions and 16-bit structures (for example, + pcre16_jit_stack instead of pcre_jit_stack). If you are using the + 32-bit library, substitute the 32-bit functions and 32-bit structures + (for example, pcre32_jit_stack instead of pcre_jit_stack). + + AVAILABILITY OF JIT SUPPORT JIT support is an optional feature of PCRE. The "configure" option @@ -6523,18 +8088,19 @@ AVAILABILITY OF JIT SUPPORT ARM v5, v7, and Thumb2 Intel x86 32-bit and 64-bit MIPS 32-bit - Power PC 32-bit and 64-bit (experimental) + Power PC 32-bit and 64-bit + SPARC 32-bit (experimental) - The Power PC support is designated as experimental because it has not - been fully tested. If --enable-jit is set on an unsupported platform, - compilation fails. + If --enable-jit is set on an unsupported platform, compilation fails. A program that is linked with PCRE 8.20 or later can tell if JIT sup- port is available by calling pcre_config() with the PCRE_CONFIG_JIT option. The result is 1 when JIT is available, and 0 otherwise. How- ever, a simple program does not need to check this in order to use JIT. - The API is implemented in a way that falls back to the ordinary PCRE - code if JIT is not available. + The normal API is implemented in a way that falls back to the interpre- + tive code if JIT is not available. For programs that need the best pos- + sible performance, there is also a "fast path" API that is JIT-spe- + cific. If your program may sometimes be linked with versions of PCRE that are older than 8.20, but you want to use JIT when it is available, you can @@ -6552,17 +8118,18 @@ SIMPLE USE OF JIT pcre_exec(). (2) Use pcre_free_study() to free the pcre_extra block when it is - no longer needed instead of just freeing it yourself. This - ensures that any JIT data is also freed. + no longer needed, instead of just freeing it yourself. This + ensures that + any JIT data is also freed. - For a program that may be linked with pre-8.20 versions of PCRE, you + For a program that may be linked with pre-8.20 versions of PCRE, you can insert #ifndef PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE #define PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE 0 #endif - so that no option is passed to pcre_study(), and then use something + so that no option is passed to pcre_study(), and then use something like this to free the study data: #ifdef PCRE_CONFIG_JIT @@ -6571,30 +8138,51 @@ SIMPLE USE OF JIT pcre_free(study_ptr); #endif + PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE requests the JIT compiler to generate code for + complete matches. If you want to run partial matches using the + PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD or PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT options of pcre_exec(), you + should set one or both of the following options in addition to, or + instead of, PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE when you call pcre_study(): + + PCRE_STUDY_JIT_PARTIAL_HARD_COMPILE + PCRE_STUDY_JIT_PARTIAL_SOFT_COMPILE + + The JIT compiler generates different optimized code for each of the + three modes (normal, soft partial, hard partial). When pcre_exec() is + called, the appropriate code is run if it is available. Otherwise, the + pattern is matched using interpretive code. + In some circumstances you may need to call additional functions. These are described in the section entitled "Controlling the JIT stack" below. - If JIT support is not available, PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE is ignored, and - no JIT data is set up. Otherwise, the compiled pattern is passed to the - JIT compiler, which turns it into machine code that executes much - faster than the normal interpretive code. When pcre_exec() is passed a - pcre_extra block containing a pointer to JIT code, it obeys that - instead of the normal code. The result is identical, but the code runs - much faster. + If JIT support is not available, PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE etc. are + ignored, and no JIT data is created. Otherwise, the compiled pattern is + passed to the JIT compiler, which turns it into machine code that exe- + cutes much faster than the normal interpretive code. When pcre_exec() + is passed a pcre_extra block containing a pointer to JIT code of the + appropriate mode (normal or hard/soft partial), it obeys that code + instead of running the interpreter. The result is identical, but the + compiled JIT code runs much faster. - There are some pcre_exec() options that are not supported for JIT exe- - cution. There are also some pattern items that JIT cannot handle. - Details are given below. In both cases, execution automatically falls - back to the interpretive code. + There are some pcre_exec() options that are not supported for JIT exe- + cution. There are also some pattern items that JIT cannot handle. + Details are given below. In both cases, execution automatically falls + back to the interpretive code. If you want to know whether JIT was + actually used for a particular match, you should arrange for a JIT + callback function to be set up as described in the section entitled + "Controlling the JIT stack" below, even if you do not need to supply a + non-default JIT stack. Such a callback function is called whenever JIT + code is about to be obeyed. If the execution options are not right for + JIT execution, the callback function is not obeyed. - If the JIT compiler finds an unsupported item, no JIT data is gener- - ated. You can find out if JIT execution is available after studying a - pattern by calling pcre_fullinfo() with the PCRE_INFO_JIT option. A - result of 1 means that JIT compilation was successful. A result of 0 + If the JIT compiler finds an unsupported item, no JIT data is gener- + ated. You can find out if JIT execution is available after studying a + pattern by calling pcre_fullinfo() with the PCRE_INFO_JIT option. A + result of 1 means that JIT compilation was successful. A result of 0 means that JIT support is not available, or the pattern was not studied - with PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE, or the JIT compiler was not able to handle - the pattern. + with PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE etc., or the JIT compiler was not able to + handle the pattern. Once a pattern has been studied, with or without JIT, it can be used as many times as you like for matching different subject strings. @@ -6602,86 +8190,78 @@ SIMPLE USE OF JIT UNSUPPORTED OPTIONS AND PATTERN ITEMS - The only pcre_exec() options that are supported for JIT execution are - PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK, PCRE_NOTBOL, PCRE_NOTEOL, PCRE_NOTEMPTY, and - PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART. Note in particular that partial matching is not - supported. + The only pcre_exec() options that are supported for JIT execution are + PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK, PCRE_NO_UTF16_CHECK, PCRE_NO_UTF32_CHECK, PCRE_NOT- + BOL, PCRE_NOTEOL, PCRE_NOTEMPTY, PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART, PCRE_PAR- + TIAL_HARD, and PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT. - The unsupported pattern items are: + The only unsupported pattern items are \C (match a single data unit) + when running in a UTF mode, and a callout immediately before an asser- + tion condition in a conditional group. - \C match a single byte; not supported in UTF-8 mode - (?Cn) callouts - (*COMMIT) ) - (*MARK) ) - (*PRUNE) ) the backtracking control verbs - (*SKIP) ) - (*THEN) ) - Support for some of these may be added in future. - - RETURN VALUES FROM JIT EXECUTION - When a pattern is matched using JIT execution, the return values are - the same as those given by the interpretive pcre_exec() code, with the - addition of one new error code: PCRE_ERROR_JIT_STACKLIMIT. This means - that the memory used for the JIT stack was insufficient. See "Control- + When a pattern is matched using JIT execution, the return values are + the same as those given by the interpretive pcre_exec() code, with the + addition of one new error code: PCRE_ERROR_JIT_STACKLIMIT. This means + that the memory used for the JIT stack was insufficient. See "Control- ling the JIT stack" below for a discussion of JIT stack usage. For com- - patibility with the interpretive pcre_exec() code, no more than two- - thirds of the ovector argument is used for passing back captured sub- + patibility with the interpretive pcre_exec() code, no more than two- + thirds of the ovector argument is used for passing back captured sub- strings. - The error code PCRE_ERROR_MATCHLIMIT is returned by the JIT code if - searching a very large pattern tree goes on for too long, as it is in - the same circumstance when JIT is not used, but the details of exactly - what is counted are not the same. The PCRE_ERROR_RECURSIONLIMIT error + The error code PCRE_ERROR_MATCHLIMIT is returned by the JIT code if + searching a very large pattern tree goes on for too long, as it is in + the same circumstance when JIT is not used, but the details of exactly + what is counted are not the same. The PCRE_ERROR_RECURSIONLIMIT error code is never returned by JIT execution. SAVING AND RESTORING COMPILED PATTERNS - The code that is generated by the JIT compiler is architecture-spe- - cific, and is also position dependent. For those reasons it cannot be - saved (in a file or database) and restored later like the bytecode and - other data of a compiled pattern. Saving and restoring compiled pat- - terns is not something many people do. More detail about this facility - is given in the pcreprecompile documentation. It should be possible to - run pcre_study() on a saved and restored pattern, and thereby recreate - the JIT data, but because JIT compilation uses significant resources, - it is probably not worth doing this; you might as well recompile the + The code that is generated by the JIT compiler is architecture-spe- + cific, and is also position dependent. For those reasons it cannot be + saved (in a file or database) and restored later like the bytecode and + other data of a compiled pattern. Saving and restoring compiled pat- + terns is not something many people do. More detail about this facility + is given in the pcreprecompile documentation. It should be possible to + run pcre_study() on a saved and restored pattern, and thereby recreate + the JIT data, but because JIT compilation uses significant resources, + it is probably not worth doing this; you might as well recompile the original pattern. CONTROLLING THE JIT STACK When the compiled JIT code runs, it needs a block of memory to use as a - stack. By default, it uses 32K on the machine stack. However, some - large or complicated patterns need more than this. The error - PCRE_ERROR_JIT_STACKLIMIT is given when there is not enough stack. - Three functions are provided for managing blocks of memory for use as - JIT stacks. There is further discussion about the use of JIT stacks in + stack. By default, it uses 32K on the machine stack. However, some + large or complicated patterns need more than this. The error + PCRE_ERROR_JIT_STACKLIMIT is given when there is not enough stack. + Three functions are provided for managing blocks of memory for use as + JIT stacks. There is further discussion about the use of JIT stacks in the section entitled "JIT stack FAQ" below. - The pcre_jit_stack_alloc() function creates a JIT stack. Its arguments - are a starting size and a maximum size, and it returns a pointer to an - opaque structure of type pcre_jit_stack, or NULL if there is an error. - The pcre_jit_stack_free() function can be used to free a stack that is - no longer needed. (For the technically minded: the address space is + The pcre_jit_stack_alloc() function creates a JIT stack. Its arguments + are a starting size and a maximum size, and it returns a pointer to an + opaque structure of type pcre_jit_stack, or NULL if there is an error. + The pcre_jit_stack_free() function can be used to free a stack that is + no longer needed. (For the technically minded: the address space is allocated by mmap or VirtualAlloc.) - JIT uses far less memory for recursion than the interpretive code, and - a maximum stack size of 512K to 1M should be more than enough for any + JIT uses far less memory for recursion than the interpretive code, and + a maximum stack size of 512K to 1M should be more than enough for any pattern. - The pcre_assign_jit_stack() function specifies which stack JIT code + The pcre_assign_jit_stack() function specifies which stack JIT code should use. Its arguments are as follows: pcre_extra *extra pcre_jit_callback callback void *data - The extra argument must be the result of studying a pattern with - PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE. There are three cases for the values of the + The extra argument must be the result of studying a pattern with + PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE etc. There are three cases for the values of the other two options: (1) If callback is NULL and data is NULL, an internal 32K block @@ -6690,26 +8270,38 @@ CONTROLLING THE JIT STACK (2) If callback is NULL and data is not NULL, data must be a valid JIT stack, the result of calling pcre_jit_stack_alloc(). - (3) If callback not NULL, it must point to a function that is called - with data as an argument at the start of matching, in order to - set up a JIT stack. If the result is NULL, the internal 32K stack - is used; otherwise the return value must be a valid JIT stack, - the result of calling pcre_jit_stack_alloc(). + (3) If callback is not NULL, it must point to a function that is + called with data as an argument at the start of matching, in + order to set up a JIT stack. If the return from the callback + function is NULL, the internal 32K stack is used; otherwise the + return value must be a valid JIT stack, the result of calling + pcre_jit_stack_alloc(). - You may safely assign the same JIT stack to more than one pattern, as - long as they are all matched sequentially in the same thread. In a mul- - tithread application, each thread must use its own JIT stack. + A callback function is obeyed whenever JIT code is about to be run; it + is not obeyed when pcre_exec() is called with options that are incom- + patible for JIT execution. A callback function can therefore be used to + determine whether a match operation was executed by JIT or by the + interpreter. - Strictly speaking, even more is allowed. You can assign the same stack - to any number of patterns as long as they are not used for matching by - multiple threads at the same time. For example, you can assign the same - stack to all compiled patterns, and use a global mutex in the callback - to wait until the stack is available for use. However, this is an inef- - ficient solution, and not recommended. + You may safely use the same JIT stack for more than one pattern (either + by assigning directly or by callback), as long as the patterns are all + matched sequentially in the same thread. In a multithread application, + if you do not specify a JIT stack, or if you assign or pass back NULL + from a callback, that is thread-safe, because each thread has its own + machine stack. However, if you assign or pass back a non-NULL JIT + stack, this must be a different stack for each thread so that the + application is thread-safe. - This is a suggestion for how a typical multithreaded program might - operate: + Strictly speaking, even more is allowed. You can assign the same non- + NULL stack to any number of patterns as long as they are not used for + matching by multiple threads at the same time. For example, you can + assign the same stack to all compiled patterns, and use a global mutex + in the callback to wait until the stack is available for use. However, + this is an inefficient solution, and not recommended. + This is a suggestion for how a multithreaded program that needs to set + up non-default JIT stacks might operate: + During thread initalization thread_local_var = pcre_jit_stack_alloc(...) @@ -6722,7 +8314,7 @@ CONTROLLING THE JIT STACK All the functions described in this section do nothing if JIT is not available, and pcre_assign_jit_stack() does nothing unless the extra argument is non-NULL and points to a pcre_extra block that is the - result of a successful study with PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE. + result of a successful study with PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE etc. JIT STACK FAQ @@ -6773,8 +8365,8 @@ JIT STACK FAQ No, because this is too costly in terms of resources. However, you could implement some clever idea which release the stack if it is not - used in let's say two minutes. The JIT callback can help to achive this - without keeping a list of the currently JIT studied patterns. + used in let's say two minutes. The JIT callback can help to achieve + this without keeping a list of the currently JIT studied patterns. (6) OK, the stack is for long term memory allocation. But what happens if a pattern causes stack overflow with a stack of 1M? Is that 1M kept @@ -6782,7 +8374,7 @@ JIT STACK FAQ Especially on embedded sytems, it might be a good idea to release mem- ory sometimes without freeing the stack. There is no API for this at - the moment. Probably a function call which returns with the currently + the moment. Probably a function call which returns with the currently allocated memory for any stack and another which allows releasing mem- ory (shrinking the stack) would be a good idea if someone needs this. @@ -6817,6 +8409,34 @@ EXAMPLE CODE pcre_jit_stack_free(jit_stack); +JIT FAST PATH API + + Because the API described above falls back to interpreted execution + when JIT is not available, it is convenient for programs that are writ- + ten for general use in many environments. However, calling JIT via + pcre_exec() does have a performance impact. Programs that are written + for use where JIT is known to be available, and which need the best + possible performance, can instead use a "fast path" API to call JIT + execution directly instead of calling pcre_exec() (obviously only for + patterns that have been successfully studied by JIT). + + The fast path function is called pcre_jit_exec(), and it takes exactly + the same arguments as pcre_exec(), plus one additional argument that + must point to a JIT stack. The JIT stack arrangements described above + do not apply. The return values are the same as for pcre_exec(). + + When you call pcre_exec(), as well as testing for invalid options, a + number of other sanity checks are performed on the arguments. For exam- + ple, if the subject pointer is NULL, or its length is negative, an + immediate error is given. Also, unless PCRE_NO_UTF[8|16|32] is set, a + UTF subject string is tested for validity. In the interests of speed, + these checks do not happen on the JIT fast path, and if invalid data is + passed, the result is undefined. + + Bypassing the sanity checks and the pcre_exec() wrapping can give + speedups of more than 10%. + + SEE ALSO pcreapi(3) @@ -6831,25 +8451,25 @@ AUTHOR REVISION - Last updated: 26 November 2011 - Copyright (c) 1997-2011 University of Cambridge. + Last updated: 17 March 2013 + Copyright (c) 1997-2013 University of Cambridge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -PCREPARTIAL(3) PCREPARTIAL(3) +PCREPARTIAL(3) Library Functions Manual PCREPARTIAL(3) + NAME PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions - PARTIAL MATCHING IN PCRE - In normal use of PCRE, if the subject string that is passed to - pcre_exec() or pcre_dfa_exec() matches as far as it goes, but is too - short to match the entire pattern, PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH is returned. - There are circumstances where it might be helpful to distinguish this - case from other cases in which there is no match. + In normal use of PCRE, if the subject string that is passed to a match- + ing function matches as far as it goes, but is too short to match the + entire pattern, PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH is returned. There are circumstances + where it might be helpful to distinguish this case from other cases in + which there is no match. Consider, for example, an application where a human is required to type in data for a field with specific formatting requirements. An example @@ -6867,188 +8487,201 @@ PARTIAL MATCHING IN PCRE available at once. PCRE supports partial matching by means of the PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT and - PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD options, which can be set when calling pcre_exec() or - pcre_dfa_exec(). For backwards compatibility, PCRE_PARTIAL is a synonym - for PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT. The essential difference between the two options - is whether or not a partial match is preferred to an alternative com- - plete match, though the details differ between the two matching func- - tions. If both options are set, PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD takes precedence. + PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD options, which can be set when calling any of the + matching functions. For backwards compatibility, PCRE_PARTIAL is a syn- + onym for PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT. The essential difference between the two + options is whether or not a partial match is preferred to an alterna- + tive complete match, though the details differ between the two types of + matching function. If both options are set, PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD takes + precedence. - Setting a partial matching option for pcre_exec() disables the use of - any just-in-time code that was set up by calling pcre_study() with the - PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE option. It also disables two of PCRE's standard - optimizations. PCRE remembers the last literal byte in a pattern, and - abandons matching immediately if such a byte is not present in the sub- - ject string. This optimization cannot be used for a subject string that - might match only partially. If the pattern was studied, PCRE knows the - minimum length of a matching string, and does not bother to run the - matching function on shorter strings. This optimization is also dis- + If you want to use partial matching with just-in-time optimized code, + you must call pcre_study(), pcre16_study() or pcre32_study() with one + or both of these options: + + PCRE_STUDY_JIT_PARTIAL_SOFT_COMPILE + PCRE_STUDY_JIT_PARTIAL_HARD_COMPILE + + PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE should also be set if you are going to run non- + partial matches on the same pattern. If the appropriate JIT study mode + has not been set for a match, the interpretive matching code is used. + + Setting a partial matching option disables two of PCRE's standard opti- + mizations. PCRE remembers the last literal data unit in a pattern, and + abandons matching immediately if it is not present in the subject + string. This optimization cannot be used for a subject string that + might match only partially. If the pattern was studied, PCRE knows the + minimum length of a matching string, and does not bother to run the + matching function on shorter strings. This optimization is also dis- abled for partial matching. -PARTIAL MATCHING USING pcre_exec() +PARTIAL MATCHING USING pcre_exec() OR pcre[16|32]_exec() - A partial match occurs during a call to pcre_exec() when the end of the - subject string is reached successfully, but matching cannot continue - because more characters are needed. However, at least one character in - the subject must have been inspected. This character need not form part - of the final matched string; lookbehind assertions and the \K escape - sequence provide ways of inspecting characters before the start of a - matched substring. The requirement for inspecting at least one charac- - ter exists because an empty string can always be matched; without such - a restriction there would always be a partial match of an empty string - at the end of the subject. + A partial match occurs during a call to pcre_exec() or + pcre[16|32]_exec() when the end of the subject string is reached suc- + cessfully, but matching cannot continue because more characters are + needed. However, at least one character in the subject must have been + inspected. This character need not form part of the final matched + string; lookbehind assertions and the \K escape sequence provide ways + of inspecting characters before the start of a matched substring. The + requirement for inspecting at least one character exists because an + empty string can always be matched; without such a restriction there + would always be a partial match of an empty string at the end of the + subject. - If there are at least two slots in the offsets vector when pcre_exec() - returns with a partial match, the first slot is set to the offset of - the earliest character that was inspected when the partial match was - found. For convenience, the second offset points to the end of the sub- - ject so that a substring can easily be identified. + If there are at least two slots in the offsets vector when a partial + match is returned, the first slot is set to the offset of the earliest + character that was inspected. For convenience, the second offset points + to the end of the subject so that a substring can easily be identified. + If there are at least three slots in the offsets vector, the third slot + is set to the offset of the character where matching started. - For the majority of patterns, the first offset identifies the start of - the partially matched string. However, for patterns that contain look- - behind assertions, or \K, or begin with \b or \B, earlier characters - have been inspected while carrying out the match. For example: + For the majority of patterns, the contents of the first and third slots + will be the same. However, for patterns that contain lookbehind asser- + tions, or begin with \b or \B, characters before the one where matching + started may have been inspected while carrying out the match. For exam- + ple, consider this pattern: /(?<=abc)123/ This pattern matches "123", but only if it is preceded by "abc". If the - subject string is "xyzabc12", the offsets after a partial match are for - the substring "abc12", because all these characters are needed if - another match is tried with extra characters added to the subject. + subject string is "xyzabc12", the first two offsets after a partial + match are for the substring "abc12", because all these characters were + inspected. However, the third offset is set to 6, because that is the + offset where matching began. What happens when a partial match is identified depends on which of the two partial matching options are set. - PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT with pcre_exec() + PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT WITH pcre_exec() OR pcre[16|32]_exec() - If PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT is set when pcre_exec() identifies a partial - match, the partial match is remembered, but matching continues as nor- - mal, and other alternatives in the pattern are tried. If no complete - match can be found, pcre_exec() returns PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL instead of - PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH. + If PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT is set when pcre_exec() or pcre[16|32]_exec() + identifies a partial match, the partial match is remembered, but match- + ing continues as normal, and other alternatives in the pattern are + tried. If no complete match can be found, PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL is + returned instead of PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH. - This option is "soft" because it prefers a complete match over a par- - tial match. All the various matching items in a pattern behave as if - the subject string is potentially complete. For example, \z, \Z, and $ - match at the end of the subject, as normal, and for \b and \B the end + This option is "soft" because it prefers a complete match over a par- + tial match. All the various matching items in a pattern behave as if + the subject string is potentially complete. For example, \z, \Z, and $ + match at the end of the subject, as normal, and for \b and \B the end of the subject is treated as a non-alphanumeric. - If there is more than one partial match, the first one that was found + If there is more than one partial match, the first one that was found provides the data that is returned. Consider this pattern: /123\w+X|dogY/ - If this is matched against the subject string "abc123dog", both alter- - natives fail to match, but the end of the subject is reached during - matching, so PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL is returned. The offsets are set to 3 - and 9, identifying "123dog" as the first partial match that was found. - (In this example, there are two partial matches, because "dog" on its + If this is matched against the subject string "abc123dog", both alter- + natives fail to match, but the end of the subject is reached during + matching, so PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL is returned. The offsets are set to 3 + and 9, identifying "123dog" as the first partial match that was found. + (In this example, there are two partial matches, because "dog" on its own partially matches the second alternative.) - PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD with pcre_exec() + PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD WITH pcre_exec() OR pcre[16|32]_exec() - If PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD is set for pcre_exec(), it returns PCRE_ERROR_PAR- - TIAL as soon as a partial match is found, without continuing to search - for possible complete matches. This option is "hard" because it prefers - an earlier partial match over a later complete match. For this reason, - the assumption is made that the end of the supplied subject string may - not be the true end of the available data, and so, if \z, \Z, \b, \B, - or $ are encountered at the end of the subject, the result is - PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL. + If PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD is set for pcre_exec() or pcre[16|32]_exec(), + PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL is returned as soon as a partial match is found, + without continuing to search for possible complete matches. This option + is "hard" because it prefers an earlier partial match over a later com- + plete match. For this reason, the assumption is made that the end of + the supplied subject string may not be the true end of the available + data, and so, if \z, \Z, \b, \B, or $ are encountered at the end of the + subject, the result is PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL, provided that at least one + character in the subject has been inspected. - Setting PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD also affects the way pcre_exec() checks UTF-8 - subject strings for validity. Normally, an invalid UTF-8 sequence - causes the error PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8. However, in the special case of a - truncated UTF-8 character at the end of the subject, PCRE_ERROR_SHORT- - UTF8 is returned when PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD is set. + Setting PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD also affects the way UTF-8 and UTF-16 subject + strings are checked for validity. Normally, an invalid sequence causes + the error PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF8 or PCRE_ERROR_BADUTF16. However, in the + special case of a truncated character at the end of the subject, + PCRE_ERROR_SHORTUTF8 or PCRE_ERROR_SHORTUTF16 is returned when + PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD is set. Comparing hard and soft partial matching - The difference between the two partial matching options can be illus- + The difference between the two partial matching options can be illus- trated by a pattern such as: /dog(sbody)?/ - This matches either "dog" or "dogsbody", greedily (that is, it prefers - the longer string if possible). If it is matched against the string - "dog" with PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT, it yields a complete match for "dog". + This matches either "dog" or "dogsbody", greedily (that is, it prefers + the longer string if possible). If it is matched against the string + "dog" with PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT, it yields a complete match for "dog". However, if PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD is set, the result is PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL. - On the other hand, if the pattern is made ungreedy the result is dif- + On the other hand, if the pattern is made ungreedy the result is dif- ferent: /dog(sbody)??/ - In this case the result is always a complete match because pcre_exec() - finds that first, and it never continues after finding a match. It - might be easier to follow this explanation by thinking of the two pat- - terns like this: + In this case the result is always a complete match because that is + found first, and matching never continues after finding a complete + match. It might be easier to follow this explanation by thinking of the + two patterns like this: /dog(sbody)?/ is the same as /dogsbody|dog/ /dog(sbody)??/ is the same as /dog|dogsbody/ - The second pattern will never match "dogsbody" when pcre_exec() is - used, because it will always find the shorter match first. + The second pattern will never match "dogsbody", because it will always + find the shorter match first. -PARTIAL MATCHING USING pcre_dfa_exec() +PARTIAL MATCHING USING pcre_dfa_exec() OR pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec() - The pcre_dfa_exec() function moves along the subject string character - by character, without backtracking, searching for all possible matches - simultaneously. If the end of the subject is reached before the end of - the pattern, there is the possibility of a partial match, again pro- - vided that at least one character has been inspected. + The DFA functions move along the subject string character by character, + without backtracking, searching for all possible matches simultane- + ously. If the end of the subject is reached before the end of the pat- + tern, there is the possibility of a partial match, again provided that + at least one character has been inspected. - When PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT is set, PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL is returned only if - there have been no complete matches. Otherwise, the complete matches - are returned. However, if PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD is set, a partial match - takes precedence over any complete matches. The portion of the string - that was inspected when the longest partial match was found is set as + When PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT is set, PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL is returned only if + there have been no complete matches. Otherwise, the complete matches + are returned. However, if PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD is set, a partial match + takes precedence over any complete matches. The portion of the string + that was inspected when the longest partial match was found is set as the first matching string, provided there are at least two slots in the offsets vector. - Because pcre_dfa_exec() always searches for all possible matches, and - there is no difference between greedy and ungreedy repetition, its be- - haviour is different from pcre_exec when PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD is set. Con- - sider the string "dog" matched against the ungreedy pattern shown - above: + Because the DFA functions always search for all possible matches, and + there is no difference between greedy and ungreedy repetition, their + behaviour is different from the standard functions when PCRE_PAR- + TIAL_HARD is set. Consider the string "dog" matched against the + ungreedy pattern shown above: /dog(sbody)??/ - Whereas pcre_exec() stops as soon as it finds the complete match for - "dog", pcre_dfa_exec() also finds the partial match for "dogsbody", and - so returns that when PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD is set. + Whereas the standard functions stop as soon as they find the complete + match for "dog", the DFA functions also find the partial match for + "dogsbody", and so return that when PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD is set. PARTIAL MATCHING AND WORD BOUNDARIES - If a pattern ends with one of sequences \b or \B, which test for word - boundaries, partial matching with PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT can give counter- + If a pattern ends with one of sequences \b or \B, which test for word + boundaries, partial matching with PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT can give counter- intuitive results. Consider this pattern: /\bcat\b/ This matches "cat", provided there is a word boundary at either end. If the subject string is "the cat", the comparison of the final "t" with a - following character cannot take place, so a partial match is found. - However, pcre_exec() carries on with normal matching, which matches \b - at the end of the subject when the last character is a letter, thus - finding a complete match. The result, therefore, is not PCRE_ERROR_PAR- - TIAL. The same thing happens with pcre_dfa_exec(), because it also - finds the complete match. + following character cannot take place, so a partial match is found. + However, normal matching carries on, and \b matches at the end of the + subject when the last character is a letter, so a complete match is + found. The result, therefore, is not PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL. Using + PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD in this case does yield PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL, because + then the partial match takes precedence. - Using PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD in this case does yield PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL, - because then the partial match takes precedence. - FORMERLY RESTRICTED PATTERNS For releases of PCRE prior to 8.00, because of the way certain internal optimizations were implemented in the pcre_exec() function, the PCRE_PARTIAL option (predecessor of PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT) could not be used with all patterns. From release 8.00 onwards, the restrictions no - longer apply, and partial matching with pcre_exec() can be requested - for any pattern. + longer apply, and partial matching with can be requested for any pat- + tern. Items that were formerly restricted were repeated single characters and repeated metasequences. If PCRE_PARTIAL was set for a pattern that did @@ -7080,22 +8713,22 @@ EXAMPLE OF PARTIAL MATCHING USING PCRETEST The first data string is matched completely, so pcretest shows the matched substrings. The remaining four strings do not match the com- plete pattern, but the first two are partial matches. Similar output is - obtained when pcre_dfa_exec() is used. + obtained if DFA matching is used. If the escape sequence \P is present more than once in a pcretest data line, the PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD option is set for the match. -MULTI-SEGMENT MATCHING WITH pcre_dfa_exec() +MULTI-SEGMENT MATCHING WITH pcre_dfa_exec() OR pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec() - When a partial match has been found using pcre_dfa_exec(), it is possi- - ble to continue the match by providing additional subject data and - calling pcre_dfa_exec() again with the same compiled regular expres- + When a partial match has been found using a DFA matching function, it + is possible to continue the match by providing additional subject data + and calling the function again with the same compiled regular expres- sion, this time setting the PCRE_DFA_RESTART option. You must pass the same working space as before, because this is where details of the pre- vious partial match are stored. Here is an example using pcretest, using the \R escape sequence to set the PCRE_DFA_RESTART option (\D - specifies the use of pcre_dfa_exec()): + specifies the use of the DFA matching function): re> /^\d?\d(jan|feb|mar|apr|may|jun|jul|aug|sep|oct|nov|dec)\d\d$/ data> 23ja\P\D @@ -7112,37 +8745,39 @@ MULTI-SEGMENT MATCHING WITH pcre_dfa_exec() You can set the PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT or PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD options with PCRE_DFA_RESTART to continue partial matching over multiple segments. - This facility can be used to pass very long subject strings to - pcre_dfa_exec(). + This facility can be used to pass very long subject strings to the DFA + matching functions. -MULTI-SEGMENT MATCHING WITH pcre_exec() +MULTI-SEGMENT MATCHING WITH pcre_exec() OR pcre[16|32]_exec() - From release 8.00, pcre_exec() can also be used to do multi-segment - matching. Unlike pcre_dfa_exec(), it is not possible to restart the - previous match with a new segment of data. Instead, new data must be - added to the previous subject string, and the entire match re-run, - starting from the point where the partial match occurred. Earlier data - can be discarded. It is best to use PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD in this situa- - tion, because it does not treat the end of a segment as the end of the - subject when matching \z, \Z, \b, \B, and $. Consider an unanchored - pattern that matches dates: + From release 8.00, the standard matching functions can also be used to + do multi-segment matching. Unlike the DFA functions, it is not possible + to restart the previous match with a new segment of data. Instead, new + data must be added to the previous subject string, and the entire match + re-run, starting from the point where the partial match occurred. Ear- + lier data can be discarded. + It is best to use PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD in this situation, because it does + not treat the end of a segment as the end of the subject when matching + \z, \Z, \b, \B, and $. Consider an unanchored pattern that matches + dates: + re> /\d?\d(jan|feb|mar|apr|may|jun|jul|aug|sep|oct|nov|dec)\d\d/ data> The date is 23ja\P\P Partial match: 23ja At this stage, an application could discard the text preceding "23ja", - add on text from the next segment, and call pcre_exec() again. Unlike - pcre_dfa_exec(), the entire matching string must always be available, - and the complete matching process occurs for each call, so more memory - and more processing time is needed. + add on text from the next segment, and call the matching function + again. Unlike the DFA matching functions, the entire matching string + must always be available, and the complete matching process occurs for + each call, so more memory and more processing time is needed. Note: If the pattern contains lookbehind assertions, or \K, or starts - with \b or \B, the string that is returned for a partial match will - include characters that precede the partially matched string itself, - because these must be retained when adding on more characters for a - subsequent matching attempt. + with \b or \B, the string that is returned for a partial match includes + characters that precede the start of what would be returned for a com- + plete match, because it contains all the characters that were inspected + during the partial match. ISSUES WITH MULTI-SEGMENT MATCHING @@ -7156,15 +8791,53 @@ ISSUES WITH MULTI-SEGMENT MATCHING option, but in practice when doing multi-segment matching you should be using PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD, which includes the effect of PCRE_NOTEOL. - 2. Lookbehind assertions at the start of a pattern are catered for in - the offsets that are returned for a partial match. However, in theory, - a lookbehind assertion later in the pattern could require even earlier - characters to be inspected, and it might not have been reached when a - partial match occurs. This is probably an extremely unlikely case; you - could guard against it to a certain extent by always including extra - characters at the start. + 2. Lookbehind assertions that have already been obeyed are catered for + in the offsets that are returned for a partial match. However a lookbe- + hind assertion later in the pattern could require even earlier charac- + ters to be inspected. You can handle this case by using the + PCRE_INFO_MAXLOOKBEHIND option of the pcre_fullinfo() or + pcre[16|32]_fullinfo() functions to obtain the length of the longest + lookbehind in the pattern. This length is given in characters, not + bytes. If you always retain at least that many characters before the + partially matched string, all should be well. (Of course, near the + start of the subject, fewer characters may be present; in that case all + characters should be retained.) - 3. Matching a subject string that is split into multiple segments may + From release 8.33, there is a more accurate way of deciding which char- + acters to retain. Instead of subtracting the length of the longest + lookbehind from the earliest inspected character (offsets[0]), the + match start position (offsets[2]) should be used, and the next match + attempt started at the offsets[2] character by setting the startoffset + argument of pcre_exec() or pcre_dfa_exec(). + + For example, if the pattern "(?<=123)abc" is partially matched against + the string "xx123a", the three offset values returned are 2, 6, and 5. + This indicates that the matching process that gave a partial match + started at offset 5, but the characters "123a" were all inspected. The + maximum lookbehind for that pattern is 3, so taking that away from 5 + shows that we need only keep "123a", and the next match attempt can be + started at offset 3 (that is, at "a") when further characters have been + added. When the match start is not the earliest inspected character, + pcretest shows it explicitly: + + re> "(?<=123)abc" + data> xx123a\P\P + Partial match at offset 5: 123a + + 3. Because a partial match must always contain at least one character, + what might be considered a partial match of an empty string actually + gives a "no match" result. For example: + + re> /c(?<=abc)x/ + data> ab\P + No match + + If the next segment begins "cx", a match should be found, but this will + only happen if characters from the previous segment are retained. For + this reason, a "no match" result should be interpreted as "partial + match of an empty string" when the pattern contains lookbehinds. + + 4. Matching a subject string that is split into multiple segments may not always produce exactly the same result as matching over one single long string, especially when PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT is used. The section "Partial Matching and Word Boundaries" above describes an issue that @@ -7186,17 +8859,18 @@ ISSUES WITH MULTI-SEGMENT MATCHING 0: dogsbody 1: dog - The first data line passes the string "dogsb" to pcre_exec(), setting - the PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT option. Although the string is a partial match - for "dogsbody", the result is not PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL, because the - shorter string "dog" is a complete match. Similarly, when the subject - is presented to pcre_dfa_exec() in several parts ("do" and "gsb" being - the first two) the match stops when "dog" has been found, and it is not - possible to continue. On the other hand, if "dogsbody" is presented as - a single string, pcre_dfa_exec() finds both matches. + The first data line passes the string "dogsb" to a standard matching + function, setting the PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT option. Although the string is + a partial match for "dogsbody", the result is not PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL, + because the shorter string "dog" is a complete match. Similarly, when + the subject is presented to a DFA matching function in several parts + ("do" and "gsb" being the first two) the match stops when "dog" has + been found, and it is not possible to continue. On the other hand, if + "dogsbody" is presented as a single string, a DFA matching function + finds both matches. - Because of these problems, it is best to use PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD when - matching multi-segment data. The example above then behaves differ- + Because of these problems, it is best to use PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD when + matching multi-segment data. The example above then behaves differ- ently: re> /dog(sbody)?/ @@ -7207,10 +8881,9 @@ ISSUES WITH MULTI-SEGMENT MATCHING data> gsb\R\P\P\D Partial match: gsb - 4. Patterns that contain alternatives at the top level which do not all - start with the same pattern item may not work as expected when - PCRE_DFA_RESTART is used with pcre_dfa_exec(). For example, consider - this pattern: + 5. Patterns that contain alternatives at the top level which do not all + start with the same pattern item may not work as expected when + PCRE_DFA_RESTART is used. For example, consider this pattern: 1234|3789 @@ -7227,8 +8900,8 @@ ISSUES WITH MULTI-SEGMENT MATCHING 1234|ABCD where no string can be a partial match for both alternatives. This is - not a problem if pcre_exec() is used, because the entire match has to - be rerun each time: + not a problem if a standard matching function is used, because the + entire match has to be rerun each time: re> /1234|3789/ data> ABC123\P\P @@ -7237,11 +8910,11 @@ ISSUES WITH MULTI-SEGMENT MATCHING 0: 3789 Of course, instead of using PCRE_DFA_RESTART, the same technique of re- - running the entire match can also be used with pcre_dfa_exec(). Another - possibility is to work with two buffers. If a partial match at offset n - in the first buffer is followed by "no match" when PCRE_DFA_RESTART is - used on the second buffer, you can then try a new match starting at - offset n+1 in the first buffer. + running the entire match can also be used with the DFA matching func- + tions. Another possibility is to work with two buffers. If a partial + match at offset n in the first buffer is followed by "no match" when + PCRE_DFA_RESTART is used on the second buffer, you can then try a new + match starting at offset n+1 in the first buffer. AUTHOR @@ -7253,18 +8926,18 @@ AUTHOR REVISION - Last updated: 26 August 2011 - Copyright (c) 1997-2011 University of Cambridge. + Last updated: 20 February 2013 + Copyright (c) 1997-2013 University of Cambridge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -PCREPRECOMPILE(3) PCREPRECOMPILE(3) +PCREPRECOMPILE(3) Library Functions Manual PCREPRECOMPILE(3) + NAME PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions - SAVING AND RE-USING PRECOMPILED PCRE PATTERNS If you are running an application that uses a large number of regular @@ -7273,28 +8946,31 @@ SAVING AND RE-USING PRECOMPILED PCRE PATTERNS run. If you are not using any private character tables (see the pcre_maketables() documentation), this is relatively straightforward. If you are using private tables, it is a little bit more complicated. - However, if you are using the just-in-time optimization feature of - pcre_study(), it is not possible to save and reload the JIT data. + However, if you are using the just-in-time optimization feature, it is + not possible to save and reload the JIT data. If you save compiled patterns to a file, you can copy them to a differ- - ent host and run them there. This works even if the new host has the - opposite endianness to the one on which the patterns were compiled. - There may be a small performance penalty, but it should be insignifi- - cant. However, compiling regular expressions with one version of PCRE - for use with a different version is not guaranteed to work and may - cause crashes, and saving and restoring a compiled pattern loses any - JIT optimization data. + ent host and run them there. If the two hosts have different endianness + (byte order), you should run the pcre[16|32]_pat- + tern_to_host_byte_order() function on the new host before trying to + match the pattern. The matching functions return PCRE_ERROR_BADENDIAN- + NESS if they detect a pattern with the wrong endianness. + Compiling regular expressions with one version of PCRE for use with a + different version is not guaranteed to work and may cause crashes, and + saving and restoring a compiled pattern loses any JIT optimization + data. + SAVING A COMPILED PATTERN - The value returned by pcre_compile() points to a single block of memory - that holds the compiled pattern and associated data. You can find the - length of this block in bytes by calling pcre_fullinfo() with an argu- - ment of PCRE_INFO_SIZE. You can then save the data in any appropriate - manner. Here is sample code that compiles a pattern and writes it to a - file. It assumes that the variable fd refers to a file that is open for - output: + The value returned by pcre[16|32]_compile() points to a single block of + memory that holds the compiled pattern and associated data. You can + find the length of this block in bytes by calling + pcre[16|32]_fullinfo() with an argument of PCRE_INFO_SIZE. You can then + save the data in any appropriate manner. Here is sample code for the + 8-bit library that compiles a pattern and writes it to a file. It + assumes that the variable fd refers to a file that is open for output: int erroroffset, rc, size; char *error; @@ -7307,65 +8983,66 @@ SAVING A COMPILED PATTERN rc = fwrite(re, 1, size, fd); if (rc != size) { ... handle errors ... } - In this example, the bytes that comprise the compiled pattern are - copied exactly. Note that this is binary data that may contain any of - the 256 possible byte values. On systems that make a distinction + In this example, the bytes that comprise the compiled pattern are + copied exactly. Note that this is binary data that may contain any of + the 256 possible byte values. On systems that make a distinction between binary and non-binary data, be sure that the file is opened for binary output. - If you want to write more than one pattern to a file, you will have to - devise a way of separating them. For binary data, preceding each pat- - tern with its length is probably the most straightforward approach. - Another possibility is to write out the data in hexadecimal instead of + If you want to write more than one pattern to a file, you will have to + devise a way of separating them. For binary data, preceding each pat- + tern with its length is probably the most straightforward approach. + Another possibility is to write out the data in hexadecimal instead of binary, one pattern to a line. - Saving compiled patterns in a file is only one possible way of storing - them for later use. They could equally well be saved in a database, or - in the memory of some daemon process that passes them via sockets to + Saving compiled patterns in a file is only one possible way of storing + them for later use. They could equally well be saved in a database, or + in the memory of some daemon process that passes them via sockets to the processes that want them. If the pattern has been studied, it is also possible to save the normal study data in a similar way to the compiled pattern itself. However, if the PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE was used, the just-in-time data that is cre- - ated cannot be saved because it is too dependent on the current envi- - ronment. When studying generates additional information, pcre_study() - returns a pointer to a pcre_extra data block. Its format is defined in - the section on matching a pattern in the pcreapi documentation. The - study_data field points to the binary study data, and this is what you - must save (not the pcre_extra block itself). The length of the study - data can be obtained by calling pcre_fullinfo() with an argument of - PCRE_INFO_STUDYSIZE. Remember to check that pcre_study() did return a - non-NULL value before trying to save the study data. + ated cannot be saved because it is too dependent on the current envi- + ronment. When studying generates additional information, + pcre[16|32]_study() returns a pointer to a pcre[16|32]_extra data + block. Its format is defined in the section on matching a pattern in + the pcreapi documentation. The study_data field points to the binary + study data, and this is what you must save (not the pcre[16|32]_extra + block itself). The length of the study data can be obtained by calling + pcre[16|32]_fullinfo() with an argument of PCRE_INFO_STUDYSIZE. Remem- + ber to check that pcre[16|32]_study() did return a non-NULL value + before trying to save the study data. RE-USING A PRECOMPILED PATTERN Re-using a precompiled pattern is straightforward. Having reloaded it - into main memory, you pass its pointer to pcre_exec() or - pcre_dfa_exec() in the usual way. This should work even on another - host, and even if that host has the opposite endianness to the one - where the pattern was compiled. + into main memory, called pcre[16|32]_pattern_to_host_byte_order() if + necessary, you pass its pointer to pcre[16|32]_exec() or + pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec() in the usual way. - However, if you passed a pointer to custom character tables when the - pattern was compiled (the tableptr argument of pcre_compile()), you - must now pass a similar pointer to pcre_exec() or pcre_dfa_exec(), - because the value saved with the compiled pattern will obviously be - nonsense. A field in a pcre_extra() block is used to pass this data, as - described in the section on matching a pattern in the pcreapi documen- - tation. + However, if you passed a pointer to custom character tables when the + pattern was compiled (the tableptr argument of pcre[16|32]_compile()), + you must now pass a similar pointer to pcre[16|32]_exec() or + pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec(), because the value saved with the compiled pat- + tern will obviously be nonsense. A field in a pcre[16|32]_extra() block + is used to pass this data, as described in the section on matching a + pattern in the pcreapi documentation. - If you did not provide custom character tables when the pattern was - compiled, the pointer in the compiled pattern is NULL, which causes - pcre_exec() to use PCRE's internal tables. Thus, you do not need to - take any special action at run time in this case. + If you did not provide custom character tables when the pattern was + compiled, the pointer in the compiled pattern is NULL, which causes the + matching functions to use PCRE's internal tables. Thus, you do not need + to take any special action at run time in this case. - If you saved study data with the compiled pattern, you need to create - your own pcre_extra data block and set the study_data field to point to - the reloaded study data. You must also set the PCRE_EXTRA_STUDY_DATA - bit in the flags field to indicate that study data is present. Then - pass the pcre_extra block to pcre_exec() or pcre_dfa_exec() in the - usual way. If the pattern was studied for just-in-time optimization, - that data cannot be saved, and so is lost by a save/restore cycle. + If you saved study data with the compiled pattern, you need to create + your own pcre[16|32]_extra data block and set the study_data field to + point to the reloaded study data. You must also set the + PCRE_EXTRA_STUDY_DATA bit in the flags field to indicate that study + data is present. Then pass the pcre[16|32]_extra block to the matching + function in the usual way. If the pattern was studied for just-in-time + optimization, that data cannot be saved, and so is lost by a + save/restore cycle. COMPATIBILITY WITH DIFFERENT PCRE RELEASES @@ -7384,18 +9061,18 @@ AUTHOR REVISION - Last updated: 26 August 2011 - Copyright (c) 1997-2011 University of Cambridge. + Last updated: 24 June 2012 + Copyright (c) 1997-2012 University of Cambridge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -PCREPERFORM(3) PCREPERFORM(3) +PCREPERFORM(3) Library Functions Manual PCREPERFORM(3) + NAME PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions - PCRE PERFORMANCE Two aspects of performance are discussed below: memory usage and pro- @@ -7405,12 +9082,12 @@ PCRE PERFORMANCE COMPILED PATTERN MEMORY USAGE - Patterns are compiled by PCRE into a reasonably efficient byte code, so - that most simple patterns do not use much memory. However, there is one - case where the memory usage of a compiled pattern can be unexpectedly - large. If a parenthesized subpattern has a quantifier with a minimum - greater than 1 and/or a limited maximum, the whole subpattern is - repeated in the compiled code. For example, the pattern + Patterns are compiled by PCRE into a reasonably efficient interpretive + code, so that most simple patterns do not use much memory. However, + there is one case where the memory usage of a compiled pattern can be + unexpectedly large. If a parenthesized subpattern has a quantifier with + a minimum greater than 1 and/or a limited maximum, the whole subpattern + is repeated in the compiled code. For example, the pattern (abc|def){2,4} @@ -7428,38 +9105,40 @@ COMPILED PATTERN MEMORY USAGE ((ab){1,1000}c){1,3} - uses 51K bytes when compiled. When PCRE is compiled with its default - internal pointer size of two bytes, the size limit on a compiled pat- - tern is 64K, and this is reached with the above pattern if the outer - repetition is increased from 3 to 4. PCRE can be compiled to use larger - internal pointers and thus handle larger compiled patterns, but it is - better to try to rewrite your pattern to use less memory if you can. + uses 51K bytes when compiled using the 8-bit library. When PCRE is com- + piled with its default internal pointer size of two bytes, the size + limit on a compiled pattern is 64K data units, and this is reached with + the above pattern if the outer repetition is increased from 3 to 4. + PCRE can be compiled to use larger internal pointers and thus handle + larger compiled patterns, but it is better to try to rewrite your pat- + tern to use less memory if you can. - One way of reducing the memory usage for such patterns is to make use + One way of reducing the memory usage for such patterns is to make use of PCRE's "subroutine" facility. Re-writing the above pattern as ((ab)(?2){0,999}c)(?1){0,2} reduces the memory requirements to 18K, and indeed it remains under 20K - even with the outer repetition increased to 100. However, this pattern - is not exactly equivalent, because the "subroutine" calls are treated - as atomic groups into which there can be no backtracking if there is a - subsequent matching failure. Therefore, PCRE cannot do this kind of - rewriting automatically. Furthermore, there is a noticeable loss of - speed when executing the modified pattern. Nevertheless, if the atomic - grouping is not a problem and the loss of speed is acceptable, this - kind of rewriting will allow you to process patterns that PCRE cannot + even with the outer repetition increased to 100. However, this pattern + is not exactly equivalent, because the "subroutine" calls are treated + as atomic groups into which there can be no backtracking if there is a + subsequent matching failure. Therefore, PCRE cannot do this kind of + rewriting automatically. Furthermore, there is a noticeable loss of + speed when executing the modified pattern. Nevertheless, if the atomic + grouping is not a problem and the loss of speed is acceptable, this + kind of rewriting will allow you to process patterns that PCRE cannot otherwise handle. STACK USAGE AT RUN TIME - When pcre_exec() is used for matching, certain kinds of pattern can - cause it to use large amounts of the process stack. In some environ- - ments the default process stack is quite small, and if it runs out the - result is often SIGSEGV. This issue is probably the most frequently - raised problem with PCRE. Rewriting your pattern can often help. The - pcrestack documentation discusses this issue in detail. + When pcre_exec() or pcre[16|32]_exec() is used for matching, certain + kinds of pattern can cause it to use large amounts of the process + stack. In some environments the default process stack is quite small, + and if it runs out the result is often SIGSEGV. This issue is probably + the most frequently raised problem with PCRE. Rewriting your pattern + can often help. The pcrestack documentation discusses this issue in + detail. PROCESSING TIME @@ -7474,18 +9153,18 @@ PROCESSING TIME observations about PCRE. Using Unicode character properties (the \p, \P, and \X escapes) is - slow, because PCRE has to scan a structure that contains data for over - fifteen thousand characters whenever it needs a character's property. - If you can find an alternative pattern that does not use character - properties, it will probably be faster. + slow, because PCRE has to use a multi-stage table lookup whenever it + needs a character's property. If you can find an alternative pattern + that does not use character properties, it will probably be faster. - By default, the escape sequences \b, \d, \s, and \w, and the POSIX - character classes such as [:alpha:] do not use Unicode properties, + By default, the escape sequences \b, \d, \s, and \w, and the POSIX + character classes such as [:alpha:] do not use Unicode properties, partly for backwards compatibility, and partly for performance reasons. - However, you can set PCRE_UCP if you want Unicode character properties - to be used. This can double the matching time for items such as \d, - when matched with pcre_exec(); the performance loss is less with - pcre_dfa_exec(), and in both cases there is not much difference for \b. + However, you can set PCRE_UCP if you want Unicode character properties + to be used. This can double the matching time for items such as \d, + when matched with a traditional matching function; the performance loss + is less with a DFA matching function, and in both cases there is not + much difference for \b. When a pattern begins with .* not in parentheses, or in parentheses that are not the subject of a backreference, and the PCRE_DOTALL option @@ -7552,18 +9231,18 @@ AUTHOR REVISION - Last updated: 16 May 2010 - Copyright (c) 1997-2010 University of Cambridge. + Last updated: 25 August 2012 + Copyright (c) 1997-2012 University of Cambridge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -PCREPOSIX(3) PCREPOSIX(3) +PCREPOSIX(3) Library Functions Manual PCREPOSIX(3) + NAME PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions. - SYNOPSIS OF POSIX API #include @@ -7582,9 +9261,11 @@ SYNOPSIS OF POSIX API DESCRIPTION - This set of functions provides a POSIX-style API to the PCRE regular - expression package. See the pcreapi documentation for a description of - PCRE's native API, which contains much additional functionality. + This set of functions provides a POSIX-style API for the PCRE regular + expression 8-bit library. See the pcreapi documentation for a descrip- + tion of PCRE's native API, which contains much additional functional- + ity. There is no POSIX-style wrapper for PCRE's 16-bit and 32-bit + library. The functions described here are just wrapper functions that ultimately call the PCRE native API. Their prototypes are defined in the @@ -7815,18 +9496,18 @@ AUTHOR REVISION - Last updated: 16 May 2010 - Copyright (c) 1997-2010 University of Cambridge. + Last updated: 09 January 2012 + Copyright (c) 1997-2012 University of Cambridge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -PCRECPP(3) PCRECPP(3) +PCRECPP(3) Library Functions Manual PCRECPP(3) + NAME PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions. - SYNOPSIS OF C++ WRAPPER #include @@ -7837,7 +9518,9 @@ DESCRIPTION The C++ wrapper for PCRE was provided by Google Inc. Some additional functionality was added by Giuseppe Maxia. This brief man page was con- structed from the notes in the pcrecpp.h file, which should be con- - sulted for further details. + sulted for further details. Note that the C++ wrapper supports only the + original 8-bit PCRE library. There is no 16-bit or 32-bit support at + present. MATCHING INTERFACE @@ -7995,7 +9678,7 @@ PASSING MODIFIERS TO THE REGULAR EXPRESSION ENGINE PCRE_DOTALL dot matches newlines /s PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY $ matches only at end N/A PCRE_EXTRA strict escape parsing N/A - PCRE_EXTENDED ignore whitespaces /x + PCRE_EXTENDED ignore white spaces /x PCRE_UTF8 handles UTF8 chars built-in PCRE_UNGREEDY reverses * and *? N/A PCRE_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE disables capturing parens N/A (*) @@ -8157,18 +9840,17 @@ AUTHOR REVISION - Last updated: 17 March 2009 - Minor typo fixed: 25 July 2011 + Last updated: 08 January 2012 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -PCRESAMPLE(3) PCRESAMPLE(3) +PCRESAMPLE(3) Library Functions Manual PCRESAMPLE(3) + NAME PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions - PCRE SAMPLE PROGRAM A simple, complete demonstration program, to get you started with using @@ -8177,57 +9859,58 @@ PCRE SAMPLE PROGRAM do not have a copy of the PCRE distribution, you can save this listing to re-create pcredemo.c. - The program compiles the regular expression that is its first argument, - and matches it against the subject string in its second argument. No - PCRE options are set, and default character tables are used. If match- - ing succeeds, the program outputs the portion of the subject that - matched, together with the contents of any captured substrings. + The demonstration program, which uses the original PCRE 8-bit library, + compiles the regular expression that is its first argument, and matches + it against the subject string in its second argument. No PCRE options + are set, and default character tables are used. If matching succeeds, + the program outputs the portion of the subject that matched, together + with the contents of any captured substrings. If the -g option is given on the command line, the program then goes on to check for further matches of the same regular expression in the same - subject string. The logic is a little bit tricky because of the possi- - bility of matching an empty string. Comments in the code explain what + subject string. The logic is a little bit tricky because of the possi- + bility of matching an empty string. Comments in the code explain what is going on. - If PCRE is installed in the standard include and library directories + If PCRE is installed in the standard include and library directories for your operating system, you should be able to compile the demonstra- tion program using this command: gcc -o pcredemo pcredemo.c -lpcre - If PCRE is installed elsewhere, you may need to add additional options - to the command line. For example, on a Unix-like system that has PCRE - installed in /usr/local, you can compile the demonstration program + If PCRE is installed elsewhere, you may need to add additional options + to the command line. For example, on a Unix-like system that has PCRE + installed in /usr/local, you can compile the demonstration program using a command like this: gcc -o pcredemo -I/usr/local/include pcredemo.c \ -L/usr/local/lib -lpcre - In a Windows environment, if you want to statically link the program + In a Windows environment, if you want to statically link the program against a non-dll pcre.a file, you must uncomment the line that defines - PCRE_STATIC before including pcre.h, because otherwise the pcre_mal- + PCRE_STATIC before including pcre.h, because otherwise the pcre_mal- loc() and pcre_free() exported functions will be declared __declspec(dllimport), with unwanted results. - Once you have compiled and linked the demonstration program, you can + Once you have compiled and linked the demonstration program, you can run simple tests like this: ./pcredemo 'cat|dog' 'the cat sat on the mat' ./pcredemo -g 'cat|dog' 'the dog sat on the cat' - Note that there is a much more comprehensive test program, called - pcretest, which supports many more facilities for testing regular - expressions and the PCRE library. The pcredemo program is provided as a - simple coding example. + Note that there is a much more comprehensive test program, called + pcretest, which supports many more facilities for testing regular + expressions and both PCRE libraries. The pcredemo program is provided + as a simple coding example. - If you try to run pcredemo when PCRE is not installed in the standard - library directory, you may get an error like this on some operating + If you try to run pcredemo when PCRE is not installed in the standard + library directory, you may get an error like this on some operating systems (e.g. Solaris): - ld.so.1: a.out: fatal: libpcre.so.0: open failed: No such file or + ld.so.1: a.out: fatal: libpcre.so.0: open failed: No such file or directory - This is caused by the way shared library support works on those sys- + This is caused by the way shared library support works on those sys- tems. You need to add -R/usr/local/lib @@ -8244,28 +9927,31 @@ AUTHOR REVISION - Last updated: 17 November 2010 - Copyright (c) 1997-2010 University of Cambridge. + Last updated: 10 January 2012 + Copyright (c) 1997-2012 University of Cambridge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -PCRELIMITS(3) PCRELIMITS(3) +PCRELIMITS(3) Library Functions Manual PCRELIMITS(3) + NAME PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions - SIZE AND OTHER LIMITATIONS There are some size limitations in PCRE but it is hoped that they will never in practice be relevant. - The maximum length of a compiled pattern is 65539 (sic) bytes if PCRE - is compiled with the default internal linkage size of 2. If you want to + The maximum length of a compiled pattern is approximately 64K data + units (bytes for the 8-bit library, 32-bit units for the 32-bit + library, and 32-bit units for the 32-bit library) if PCRE is compiled + with the default internal linkage size of 2 bytes. If you want to process regular expressions that are truly enormous, you can compile - PCRE with an internal linkage size of 3 or 4 (see the README file in - the source distribution and the pcrebuild documentation for details). - In these cases the limit is substantially larger. However, the speed - of execution is slower. + PCRE with an internal linkage size of 3 or 4 (when building the 16-bit + or 32-bit library, 3 is rounded up to 4). See the README file in the + source distribution and the pcrebuild documentation for details. In + these cases the limit is substantially larger. However, the speed of + execution is slower. All values in repeating quantifiers must be less than 65536. @@ -8273,18 +9959,22 @@ SIZE AND OTHER LIMITATIONS can be no more than 65535 capturing subpatterns. There is a limit to the number of forward references to subsequent sub- - patterns of around 200,000. Repeated forward references with fixed - upper limits, for example, (?2){0,100} when subpattern number 2 is to - the right, are included in the count. There is no limit to the number + patterns of around 200,000. Repeated forward references with fixed + upper limits, for example, (?2){0,100} when subpattern number 2 is to + the right, are included in the count. There is no limit to the number of backward references. The maximum length of name for a named subpattern is 32 characters, and the maximum number of named subpatterns is 10000. - The maximum length of a subject string is the largest positive number - that an integer variable can hold. However, when using the traditional + The maximum length of a name in a (*MARK), (*PRUNE), (*SKIP), or + (*THEN) verb is 255 for the 8-bit library and 65535 for the 16-bit and + 32-bit library. + + The maximum length of a subject string is the largest positive number + that an integer variable can hold. However, when using the traditional matching function, PCRE uses recursion to handle subpatterns and indef- - inite repetition. This means that the available stack space may limit + inite repetition. This means that the available stack space may limit the size of a subject string that can be processed by certain patterns. For a discussion of stack issues, see the pcrestack documentation. @@ -8298,28 +9988,28 @@ AUTHOR REVISION - Last updated: 30 November 2011 - Copyright (c) 1997-2011 University of Cambridge. + Last updated: 04 May 2012 + Copyright (c) 1997-2012 University of Cambridge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -PCRESTACK(3) PCRESTACK(3) +PCRESTACK(3) Library Functions Manual PCRESTACK(3) + NAME PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions - PCRE DISCUSSION OF STACK USAGE - When you call pcre_exec(), it makes use of an internal function called - match(). This calls itself recursively at branch points in the pattern, - in order to remember the state of the match so that it can back up and - try a different alternative if the first one fails. As matching pro- - ceeds deeper and deeper into the tree of possibilities, the recursion - depth increases. The match() function is also called in other circum- - stances, for example, whenever a parenthesized sub-pattern is entered, - and in certain cases of repetition. + When you call pcre[16|32]_exec(), it makes use of an internal function + called match(). This calls itself recursively at branch points in the + pattern, in order to remember the state of the match so that it can + back up and try a different alternative if the first one fails. As + matching proceeds deeper and deeper into the tree of possibilities, the + recursion depth increases. The match() function is also called in other + circumstances, for example, whenever a parenthesized sub-pattern is + entered, and in certain cases of repetition. Not all calls of match() increase the recursion depth; for an item such as a* it may be called several times at the same level, after matching @@ -8328,109 +10018,134 @@ PCRE DISCUSSION OF STACK USAGE result of the current call (a "tail recursion"), the function is just restarted instead. - The above comments apply when pcre_exec() is run in its normal inter- - pretive manner. If the pattern was studied with the PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COM- - PILE option, and just-in-time compiling was successful, and the options - passed to pcre_exec() were not incompatible, the matching process uses - the JIT-compiled code instead of the match() function. In this case, - the memory requirements are handled entirely differently. See the pcre- - jit documentation for details. + The above comments apply when pcre[16|32]_exec() is run in its normal + interpretive manner. If the pattern was studied with the + PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE option, and just-in-time compiling was success- + ful, and the options passed to pcre[16|32]_exec() were not incompati- + ble, the matching process uses the JIT-compiled code instead of the + match() function. In this case, the memory requirements are handled + entirely differently. See the pcrejit documentation for details. - The pcre_dfa_exec() function operates in an entirely different way, and - uses recursion only when there is a regular expression recursion or - subroutine call in the pattern. This includes the processing of asser- - tion and "once-only" subpatterns, which are handled like subroutine - calls. Normally, these are never very deep, and the limit on the com- - plexity of pcre_dfa_exec() is controlled by the amount of workspace it - is given. However, it is possible to write patterns with runaway infi- - nite recursions; such patterns will cause pcre_dfa_exec() to run out of - stack. At present, there is no protection against this. + The pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec() function operates in an entirely different + way, and uses recursion only when there is a regular expression recur- + sion or subroutine call in the pattern. This includes the processing of + assertion and "once-only" subpatterns, which are handled like subrou- + tine calls. Normally, these are never very deep, and the limit on the + complexity of pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec() is controlled by the amount of + workspace it is given. However, it is possible to write patterns with + runaway infinite recursions; such patterns will cause + pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec() to run out of stack. At present, there is no + protection against this. - The comments that follow do NOT apply to pcre_dfa_exec(); they are rel- - evant only for pcre_exec() without the JIT optimization. + The comments that follow do NOT apply to pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec(); they + are relevant only for pcre[16|32]_exec() without the JIT optimization. - Reducing pcre_exec()'s stack usage + Reducing pcre[16|32]_exec()'s stack usage - Each time that match() is actually called recursively, it uses memory - from the process stack. For certain kinds of pattern and data, very - large amounts of stack may be needed, despite the recognition of "tail - recursion". You can often reduce the amount of recursion, and there- - fore the amount of stack used, by modifying the pattern that is being + Each time that match() is actually called recursively, it uses memory + from the process stack. For certain kinds of pattern and data, very + large amounts of stack may be needed, despite the recognition of "tail + recursion". You can often reduce the amount of recursion, and there- + fore the amount of stack used, by modifying the pattern that is being matched. Consider, for example, this pattern: ([^<]|<(?!inet))+ - It matches from wherever it starts until it encounters "