Annotation of embedaddon/pcre/doc/pcrebuild.3, revision 1.1.1.3
1.1.1.3 ! misho 1: .TH PCREBUILD 3 "07 January 2012" "PCRE 8.30"
1.1 misho 2: .SH NAME
3: PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions
4: .
5: .
6: .SH "PCRE BUILD-TIME OPTIONS"
7: .rs
8: .sp
9: This document describes the optional features of PCRE that can be selected when
10: the library is compiled. It assumes use of the \fBconfigure\fP script, where
11: the optional features are selected or deselected by providing options to
12: \fBconfigure\fP before running the \fBmake\fP command. However, the same
13: options can be selected in both Unix-like and non-Unix-like environments using
14: the GUI facility of \fBcmake-gui\fP if you are using \fBCMake\fP instead of
15: \fBconfigure\fP to build PCRE.
16: .P
17: There is a lot more information about building PCRE in non-Unix-like
18: environments in the file called \fINON_UNIX_USE\fP, which is part of the PCRE
19: distribution. You should consult this file as well as the \fIREADME\fP file if
20: you are building in a non-Unix-like environment.
21: .P
22: The complete list of options for \fBconfigure\fP (which includes the standard
23: ones such as the selection of the installation directory) can be obtained by
24: running
25: .sp
26: ./configure --help
27: .sp
28: The following sections include descriptions of options whose names begin with
29: --enable or --disable. These settings specify changes to the defaults for the
30: \fBconfigure\fP command. Because of the way that \fBconfigure\fP works,
31: --enable and --disable always come in pairs, so the complementary option always
32: exists as well, but as it specifies the default, it is not described.
33: .
34: .
1.1.1.2 misho 35: .SH "BUILDING 8-BIT and 16-BIT LIBRARIES"
36: .rs
37: .sp
38: By default, a library called \fBlibpcre\fP is built, containing functions that
39: take string arguments contained in vectors of bytes, either as single-byte
40: characters, or interpreted as UTF-8 strings. You can also build a separate
41: library, called \fBlibpcre16\fP, in which strings are contained in vectors of
42: 16-bit data units and interpreted either as single-unit characters or UTF-16
43: strings, by adding
44: .sp
45: --enable-pcre16
46: .sp
47: to the \fBconfigure\fP command. If you do not want the 8-bit library, add
48: .sp
49: --disable-pcre8
50: .sp
51: as well. At least one of the two libraries must be built. Note that the C++ and
52: POSIX wrappers are for the 8-bit library only, and that \fBpcregrep\fP is an
53: 8-bit program. None of these are built if you select only the 16-bit library.
54: .
55: .
1.1 misho 56: .SH "BUILDING SHARED AND STATIC LIBRARIES"
57: .rs
58: .sp
59: The PCRE building process uses \fBlibtool\fP to build both shared and static
60: Unix libraries by default. You can suppress one of these by adding one of
61: .sp
62: --disable-shared
63: --disable-static
64: .sp
65: to the \fBconfigure\fP command, as required.
66: .
67: .
68: .SH "C++ SUPPORT"
69: .rs
70: .sp
1.1.1.2 misho 71: By default, if the 8-bit library is being built, the \fBconfigure\fP script
72: will search for a C++ compiler and C++ header files. If it finds them, it
73: automatically builds the C++ wrapper library (which supports only 8-bit
74: strings). You can disable this by adding
1.1 misho 75: .sp
76: --disable-cpp
77: .sp
78: to the \fBconfigure\fP command.
79: .
80: .
1.1.1.2 misho 81: .SH "UTF-8 and UTF-16 SUPPORT"
1.1 misho 82: .rs
83: .sp
1.1.1.2 misho 84: To build PCRE with support for UTF Unicode character strings, add
1.1 misho 85: .sp
1.1.1.2 misho 86: --enable-utf
1.1 misho 87: .sp
1.1.1.2 misho 88: to the \fBconfigure\fP command. This setting applies to both libraries, adding
89: support for UTF-8 to the 8-bit library and support for UTF-16 to the 16-bit
90: library. There are no separate options for enabling UTF-8 and UTF-16
91: independently because that would allow ridiculous settings such as requesting
92: UTF-16 support while building only the 8-bit library. It is not possible to
93: build one library with UTF support and the other without in the same
94: configuration. (For backwards compatibility, --enable-utf8 is a synonym of
95: --enable-utf.)
96: .P
97: Of itself, this setting does not make PCRE treat strings as UTF-8 or UTF-16. As
98: well as compiling PCRE with this option, you also have have to set the
99: PCRE_UTF8 or PCRE_UTF16 option when you call one of the pattern compiling
100: functions.
1.1 misho 101: .P
1.1.1.2 misho 102: If you set --enable-utf when compiling in an EBCDIC environment, PCRE expects
1.1.1.3 ! misho 103: its input to be either ASCII or UTF-8 (depending on the run-time option). It is
1.1 misho 104: not possible to support both EBCDIC and UTF-8 codes in the same version of the
1.1.1.2 misho 105: library. Consequently, --enable-utf and --enable-ebcdic are mutually
1.1 misho 106: exclusive.
107: .
108: .
109: .SH "UNICODE CHARACTER PROPERTY SUPPORT"
110: .rs
111: .sp
1.1.1.2 misho 112: UTF support allows the libraries to process character codepoints up to 0x10ffff
113: in the strings that they handle. On its own, however, it does not provide any
1.1 misho 114: facilities for accessing the properties of such characters. If you want to be
115: able to use the pattern escapes \eP, \ep, and \eX, which refer to Unicode
116: character properties, you must add
117: .sp
118: --enable-unicode-properties
119: .sp
1.1.1.2 misho 120: to the \fBconfigure\fP command. This implies UTF support, even if you have
1.1 misho 121: not explicitly requested it.
122: .P
123: Including Unicode property support adds around 30K of tables to the PCRE
124: library. Only the general category properties such as \fILu\fP and \fINd\fP are
125: supported. Details are given in the
126: .\" HREF
127: \fBpcrepattern\fP
128: .\"
129: documentation.
130: .
131: .
132: .SH "JUST-IN-TIME COMPILER SUPPORT"
133: .rs
134: .sp
135: Just-in-time compiler support is included in the build by specifying
136: .sp
137: --enable-jit
138: .sp
139: This support is available only for certain hardware architectures. If this
140: option is set for an unsupported architecture, a compile time error occurs.
141: See the
142: .\" HREF
143: \fBpcrejit\fP
144: .\"
145: documentation for a discussion of JIT usage. When JIT support is enabled,
146: pcregrep automatically makes use of it, unless you add
147: .sp
148: --disable-pcregrep-jit
149: .sp
150: to the "configure" command.
151: .
152: .
153: .SH "CODE VALUE OF NEWLINE"
154: .rs
155: .sp
156: By default, PCRE interprets the linefeed (LF) character as indicating the end
157: of a line. This is the normal newline character on Unix-like systems. You can
158: compile PCRE to use carriage return (CR) instead, by adding
159: .sp
160: --enable-newline-is-cr
161: .sp
162: to the \fBconfigure\fP command. There is also a --enable-newline-is-lf option,
163: which explicitly specifies linefeed as the newline character.
164: .sp
165: Alternatively, you can specify that line endings are to be indicated by the two
166: character sequence CRLF. If you want this, add
167: .sp
168: --enable-newline-is-crlf
169: .sp
170: to the \fBconfigure\fP command. There is a fourth option, specified by
171: .sp
172: --enable-newline-is-anycrlf
173: .sp
174: which causes PCRE to recognize any of the three sequences CR, LF, or CRLF as
175: indicating a line ending. Finally, a fifth option, specified by
176: .sp
177: --enable-newline-is-any
178: .sp
179: causes PCRE to recognize any Unicode newline sequence.
180: .P
181: Whatever line ending convention is selected when PCRE is built can be
182: overridden when the library functions are called. At build time it is
183: conventional to use the standard for your operating system.
184: .
185: .
186: .SH "WHAT \eR MATCHES"
187: .rs
188: .sp
189: By default, the sequence \eR in a pattern matches any Unicode newline sequence,
190: whatever has been selected as the line ending sequence. If you specify
191: .sp
192: --enable-bsr-anycrlf
193: .sp
194: the default is changed so that \eR matches only CR, LF, or CRLF. Whatever is
195: selected when PCRE is built can be overridden when the library functions are
196: called.
197: .
198: .
199: .SH "POSIX MALLOC USAGE"
200: .rs
201: .sp
1.1.1.2 misho 202: When the 8-bit library is called through the POSIX interface (see the
1.1 misho 203: .\" HREF
204: \fBpcreposix\fP
205: .\"
206: documentation), additional working storage is required for holding the pointers
207: to capturing substrings, because PCRE requires three integers per substring,
208: whereas the POSIX interface provides only two. If the number of expected
209: substrings is small, the wrapper function uses space on the stack, because this
210: is faster than using \fBmalloc()\fP for each call. The default threshold above
211: which the stack is no longer used is 10; it can be changed by adding a setting
212: such as
213: .sp
214: --with-posix-malloc-threshold=20
215: .sp
216: to the \fBconfigure\fP command.
217: .
218: .
219: .SH "HANDLING VERY LARGE PATTERNS"
220: .rs
221: .sp
222: Within a compiled pattern, offset values are used to point from one part to
223: another (for example, from an opening parenthesis to an alternation
224: metacharacter). By default, two-byte values are used for these offsets, leading
225: to a maximum size for a compiled pattern of around 64K. This is sufficient to
226: handle all but the most gigantic patterns. Nevertheless, some people do want to
1.1.1.2 misho 227: process truly enormous patterns, so it is possible to compile PCRE to use
1.1 misho 228: three-byte or four-byte offsets by adding a setting such as
229: .sp
230: --with-link-size=3
231: .sp
1.1.1.2 misho 232: to the \fBconfigure\fP command. The value given must be 2, 3, or 4. For the
233: 16-bit library, a value of 3 is rounded up to 4. Using longer offsets slows
234: down the operation of PCRE because it has to load additional data when handling
235: them.
1.1 misho 236: .
237: .
238: .SH "AVOIDING EXCESSIVE STACK USAGE"
239: .rs
240: .sp
241: When matching with the \fBpcre_exec()\fP function, PCRE implements backtracking
242: by making recursive calls to an internal function called \fBmatch()\fP. In
243: environments where the size of the stack is limited, this can severely limit
244: PCRE's operation. (The Unix environment does not usually suffer from this
245: problem, but it may sometimes be necessary to increase the maximum stack size.
246: There is a discussion in the
247: .\" HREF
248: \fBpcrestack\fP
249: .\"
250: documentation.) An alternative approach to recursion that uses memory from the
251: heap to remember data, instead of using recursive function calls, has been
252: implemented to work round the problem of limited stack size. If you want to
253: build a version of PCRE that works this way, add
254: .sp
255: --disable-stack-for-recursion
256: .sp
257: to the \fBconfigure\fP command. With this configuration, PCRE will use the
258: \fBpcre_stack_malloc\fP and \fBpcre_stack_free\fP variables to call memory
259: management functions. By default these point to \fBmalloc()\fP and
260: \fBfree()\fP, but you can replace the pointers so that your own functions are
261: used instead.
262: .P
263: Separate functions are provided rather than using \fBpcre_malloc\fP and
264: \fBpcre_free\fP because the usage is very predictable: the block sizes
265: requested are always the same, and the blocks are always freed in reverse
266: order. A calling program might be able to implement optimized functions that
267: perform better than \fBmalloc()\fP and \fBfree()\fP. PCRE runs noticeably more
268: slowly when built in this way. This option affects only the \fBpcre_exec()\fP
269: function; it is not relevant for \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP.
270: .
271: .
272: .SH "LIMITING PCRE RESOURCE USAGE"
273: .rs
274: .sp
275: Internally, PCRE has a function called \fBmatch()\fP, which it calls repeatedly
276: (sometimes recursively) when matching a pattern with the \fBpcre_exec()\fP
277: function. By controlling the maximum number of times this function may be
278: called during a single matching operation, a limit can be placed on the
279: resources used by a single call to \fBpcre_exec()\fP. The limit can be changed
280: at run time, as described in the
281: .\" HREF
282: \fBpcreapi\fP
283: .\"
284: documentation. The default is 10 million, but this can be changed by adding a
285: setting such as
286: .sp
287: --with-match-limit=500000
288: .sp
289: to the \fBconfigure\fP command. This setting has no effect on the
290: \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP matching function.
291: .P
292: In some environments it is desirable to limit the depth of recursive calls of
293: \fBmatch()\fP more strictly than the total number of calls, in order to
294: restrict the maximum amount of stack (or heap, if --disable-stack-for-recursion
295: is specified) that is used. A second limit controls this; it defaults to the
296: value that is set for --with-match-limit, which imposes no additional
297: constraints. However, you can set a lower limit by adding, for example,
298: .sp
299: --with-match-limit-recursion=10000
300: .sp
301: to the \fBconfigure\fP command. This value can also be overridden at run time.
302: .
303: .
304: .SH "CREATING CHARACTER TABLES AT BUILD TIME"
305: .rs
306: .sp
307: PCRE uses fixed tables for processing characters whose code values are less
308: than 256. By default, PCRE is built with a set of tables that are distributed
309: in the file \fIpcre_chartables.c.dist\fP. These tables are for ASCII codes
310: only. If you add
311: .sp
312: --enable-rebuild-chartables
313: .sp
314: to the \fBconfigure\fP command, the distributed tables are no longer used.
315: Instead, a program called \fBdftables\fP is compiled and run. This outputs the
1.1.1.3 ! misho 316: source for new set of tables, created in the default locale of your C run-time
1.1 misho 317: system. (This method of replacing the tables does not work if you are cross
318: compiling, because \fBdftables\fP is run on the local host. If you need to
319: create alternative tables when cross compiling, you will have to do so "by
320: hand".)
321: .
322: .
323: .SH "USING EBCDIC CODE"
324: .rs
325: .sp
326: PCRE assumes by default that it will run in an environment where the character
327: code is ASCII (or Unicode, which is a superset of ASCII). This is the case for
328: most computer operating systems. PCRE can, however, be compiled to run in an
329: EBCDIC environment by adding
330: .sp
331: --enable-ebcdic
332: .sp
333: to the \fBconfigure\fP command. This setting implies
334: --enable-rebuild-chartables. You should only use it if you know that you are in
335: an EBCDIC environment (for example, an IBM mainframe operating system). The
1.1.1.2 misho 336: --enable-ebcdic option is incompatible with --enable-utf.
1.1 misho 337: .
338: .
339: .SH "PCREGREP OPTIONS FOR COMPRESSED FILE SUPPORT"
340: .rs
341: .sp
342: By default, \fBpcregrep\fP reads all files as plain text. You can build it so
343: that it recognizes files whose names end in \fB.gz\fP or \fB.bz2\fP, and reads
344: them with \fBlibz\fP or \fBlibbz2\fP, respectively, by adding one or both of
345: .sp
346: --enable-pcregrep-libz
347: --enable-pcregrep-libbz2
348: .sp
349: to the \fBconfigure\fP command. These options naturally require that the
350: relevant libraries are installed on your system. Configuration will fail if
351: they are not.
352: .
353: .
354: .SH "PCREGREP BUFFER SIZE"
355: .rs
356: .sp
357: \fBpcregrep\fP uses an internal buffer to hold a "window" on the file it is
358: scanning, in order to be able to output "before" and "after" lines when it
359: finds a match. The size of the buffer is controlled by a parameter whose
360: default value is 20K. The buffer itself is three times this size, but because
361: of the way it is used for holding "before" lines, the longest line that is
362: guaranteed to be processable is the parameter size. You can change the default
363: parameter value by adding, for example,
364: .sp
365: --with-pcregrep-bufsize=50K
366: .sp
367: to the \fBconfigure\fP command. The caller of \fPpcregrep\fP can, however,
368: override this value by specifying a run-time option.
369: .
370: .
371: .SH "PCRETEST OPTION FOR LIBREADLINE SUPPORT"
372: .rs
373: .sp
374: If you add
375: .sp
376: --enable-pcretest-libreadline
377: .sp
378: to the \fBconfigure\fP command, \fBpcretest\fP is linked with the
379: \fBlibreadline\fP library, and when its input is from a terminal, it reads it
380: using the \fBreadline()\fP function. This provides line-editing and history
381: facilities. Note that \fBlibreadline\fP is GPL-licensed, so if you distribute a
382: binary of \fBpcretest\fP linked in this way, there may be licensing issues.
383: .P
384: Setting this option causes the \fB-lreadline\fP option to be added to the
385: \fBpcretest\fP build. In many operating environments with a sytem-installed
386: \fBlibreadline\fP this is sufficient. However, in some environments (e.g.
387: if an unmodified distribution version of readline is in use), some extra
388: configuration may be necessary. The INSTALL file for \fBlibreadline\fP says
389: this:
390: .sp
391: "Readline uses the termcap functions, but does not link with the
392: termcap or curses library itself, allowing applications which link
393: with readline the to choose an appropriate library."
394: .sp
395: If your environment has not been set up so that an appropriate library is
396: automatically included, you may need to add something like
397: .sp
398: LIBS="-ncurses"
399: .sp
400: immediately before the \fBconfigure\fP command.
401: .
402: .
403: .SH "SEE ALSO"
404: .rs
405: .sp
1.1.1.2 misho 406: \fBpcreapi\fP(3), \fBpcre16\fP, \fBpcre_config\fP(3).
1.1 misho 407: .
408: .
409: .SH AUTHOR
410: .rs
411: .sp
412: .nf
413: Philip Hazel
414: University Computing Service
415: Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
416: .fi
417: .
418: .
419: .SH REVISION
420: .rs
421: .sp
422: .nf
1.1.1.2 misho 423: Last updated: 07 January 2012
424: Copyright (c) 1997-2012 University of Cambridge.
1.1 misho 425: .fi
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