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README file for PCRE (Perl-compatible regular expressions)
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----------------------------------------------------------
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*******************************************************************************
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* IMPORTANT FOR THOSE UPGRADING FROM VERSIONS BEFORE 2.00 *
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* *
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* Please note that there has been a change in the API such that a larger *
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* ovector is required at matching time, to provide some additional workspace. *
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* The new man page has details. This change was necessary in order to support *
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* some of the new functionality in Perl 5.005. *
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* *
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* IMPORTANT FOR THOSE UPGRADING FROM VERSION 2.00 *
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* *
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* Another (I hope this is the last!) change has been made to the API for the *
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* pcre_compile() function. An additional argument has been added to make it *
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* possible to pass over a pointer to character tables built in the current *
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* locale by pcre_maketables(). To use the default tables, this new arguement *
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* should be passed as NULL. *
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*******************************************************************************
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The distribution should contain the following files:
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ChangeLog log of changes to the code
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Makefile for building PCRE
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README this file
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RunTest a shell script for running tests
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Tech.Notes notes on the encoding
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pcre.3 man page for the functions
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pcreposix.3 man page for the POSIX wrapper API
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deftables.c auxiliary program for building chartables.c
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maketables.c )
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study.c ) source of
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pcre.c ) the functions
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pcreposix.c )
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pcre.h header for the external API
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pcreposix.h header for the external POSIX wrapper API
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internal.h header for internal use
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pcretest.c test program
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pgrep.1 man page for pgrep
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pgrep.c source of a grep utility that uses PCRE
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perltest Perl test program
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testinput test data, compatible with Perl 5.004 and 5.005
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testinput2 test data for error messages and non-Perl things
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testinput3 test data, compatible with Perl 5.005
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testinput4 test data for locale-specific tests
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testoutput test results corresponding to testinput
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testoutput2 test results corresponding to testinput2
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testoutput3 test results corresponding to testinput3
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testoutput4 test results corresponding to testinput4
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To build PCRE, edit Makefile for your system (it is a fairly simple make file,
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and there are some comments at the top) and then run it. It builds two
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libraries called libpcre.a and libpcreposix.a, a test program called pcretest,
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and the pgrep command.
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To test PCRE, run the RunTest script in the pcre directory. This runs pcretest
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on each of the testinput files in turn, and compares the output with the
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contents of the corresponding testoutput file. A file called testtry is used to
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hold the output from pcretest (which is documented below).
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To run pcretest on just one of the test files, give its number as an argument
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to RunTest, for example:
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RunTest 3
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The first and third test files can also be fed directly into the perltest
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program to check that Perl gives the same results. The third file requires the
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additional features of release 5.005, which is why it is kept separate from the
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main test input, which needs only Perl 5.004. In the long run, when 5.005 is
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widespread, these two test files may get amalgamated.
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The second set of tests check pcre_info(), pcre_study(), error detection and
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run-time flags that are specific to PCRE, as well as the POSIX wrapper API.
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The fourth set of tests checks pcre_maketables(), the facility for building a
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set of character tables for a specific locale and using them instead of the
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default tables. The tests make use of the "fr" (French) locale. Before running
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the test, the script checks for the presence of this locale by running the
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"locale" command. If that command fails, or if it doesn't include "fr" in the
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list of available locales, the fourth test cannot be run, and a comment is
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output to say why. If running this test produces instances of the error
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** Failed to set locale "fr"
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in the comparison output, it means that locale is not available on your system,
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despite being listed by "locale". This does not mean that PCRE is broken.
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To install PCRE, copy libpcre.a to any suitable library directory (e.g.
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/usr/local/lib), pcre.h to any suitable include directory (e.g.
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/usr/local/include), and pcre.3 to any suitable man directory (e.g.
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/usr/local/man/man3).
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To install the pgrep command, copy it to any suitable binary directory, (e.g.
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/usr/local/bin) and pgrep.1 to any suitable man directory (e.g.
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/usr/local/man/man1).
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PCRE has its own native API, but a set of "wrapper" functions that are based on
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the POSIX API are also supplied in the library libpcreposix.a. Note that this
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just provides a POSIX calling interface to PCRE: the regular expressions
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themselves still follow Perl syntax and semantics. The header file
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for the POSIX-style functions is called pcreposix.h. The official POSIX name is
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regex.h, but I didn't want to risk possible problems with existing files of
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that name by distributing it that way. To use it with an existing program that
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uses the POSIX API, it will have to be renamed or pointed at by a link.
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Character tables
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----------------
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PCRE uses four tables for manipulating and identifying characters. The final
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argument of the pcre_compile() function is a pointer to a block of memory
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containing the concatenated tables. A call to pcre_maketables() is used to
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generate a set of tables in the current locale. However, if the final argument
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is passed as NULL, a set of default tables that is built into the binary is
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used.
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The source file called chartables.c contains the default set of tables. This is
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not supplied in the distribution, but is built by the program deftables
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(compiled from deftables.c), which uses the ANSI C character handling functions
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such as isalnum(), isalpha(), isupper(), islower(), etc. to build the table
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sources. This means that the default C locale set your system will control the
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contents of the tables. You can change the default tables by editing
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chartables.c and then re-building PCRE. If you do this, you should probably
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also edit Makefile to ensure that the file doesn't ever get re-generated.
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The first two 256-byte tables provide lower casing and case flipping functions,
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respectively. The next table consists of three 32-byte bit maps which identify
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digits, "word" characters, and white space, respectively. These are used when
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building 32-byte bit maps that represent character classes.
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The final 256-byte table has bits indicating various character types, as
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follows:
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1 white space character
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2 letter
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4 decimal digit
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8 hexadecimal digit
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16 alphanumeric or '_'
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128 regular expression metacharacter or binary zero
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You should not alter the set of characters that contain the 128 bit, as that
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will cause PCRE to malfunction.
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The pcretest program
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--------------------
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This program is intended for testing PCRE, but it can also be used for
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experimenting with regular expressions.
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If it is given two filename arguments, it reads from the first and writes to
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the second. If it is given only one filename argument, it reads from that file
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and writes to stdout. Otherwise, it reads from stdin and writes to stdout, and
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prompts for each line of input.
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The program handles any number of sets of input on a single input file. Each
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set starts with a regular expression, and continues with any number of data
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lines to be matched against the pattern. An empty line signals the end of the
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set. The regular expressions are given enclosed in any non-alphameric
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delimiters, for example
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/(a|bc)x+yz/
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and may be followed by i, m, s, or x to set the PCRE_CASELESS, PCRE_MULTILINE,
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PCRE_DOTALL, or PCRE_EXTENDED options, respectively. These options have the
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same effect as they do in Perl.
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There are also some upper case options that do not match Perl options: /A, /E,
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and /X set PCRE_ANCHORED, PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY, and PCRE_EXTRA respectively.
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The /L option must be followed directly by the name of a locale, for example,
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/pattern/Lfr
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For this reason, it must be the last option letter. The given locale is set,
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pcre_maketables() is called to build a set of character tables for the locale,
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and this is then passed to pcre_compile() when compiling the regular
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expression. Without an /L option, NULL is passed as the tables pointer; that
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is, /L applies only to the expression on which it appears.
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The /I option requests that pcretest output information about the compiled
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expression (whether it is anchored, has a fixed first character, and so on). It
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does this by calling pcre_info() after compiling an expression, and outputting
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the information it gets back. If the pattern is studied, the results of that
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are also output.
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The /D option is a PCRE debugging feature, which also assumes /I. It causes the
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internal form of compiled regular expressions to be output after compilation.
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The /S option causes pcre_study() to be called after the expression has been
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compiled, and the results used when the expression is matched.
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Finally, the /P option causes pcretest to call PCRE via the POSIX wrapper API
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rather than its native API. When this is done, all other options except /i and
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/m are ignored. REG_ICASE is set if /i is present, and REG_NEWLINE is set if /m
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is present. The wrapper functions force PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY always, and
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PCRE_DOTALL unless REG_NEWLINE is set.
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A regular expression can extend over several lines of input; the newlines are
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included in it. See the testinput files for many examples.
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Before each data line is passed to pcre_exec(), leading and trailing whitespace
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is removed, and it is then scanned for \ escapes. The following are recognized:
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\a alarm (= BEL)
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\b backspace
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\e escape
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\f formfeed
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\n newline
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\r carriage return
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\t tab
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\v vertical tab
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\nnn octal character (up to 3 octal digits)
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\xhh hexadecimal character (up to 2 hex digits)
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\A pass the PCRE_ANCHORED option to pcre_exec()
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\B pass the PCRE_NOTBOL option to pcre_exec()
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\Odd set the size of the output vector passed to pcre_exec() to dd
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(any number of decimal digits)
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\Z pass the PCRE_NOTEOL option to pcre_exec()
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A backslash followed by anything else just escapes the anything else. If the
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very last character is a backslash, it is ignored. This gives a way of passing
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an empty line as data, since a real empty line terminates the data input.
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If /P was present on the regex, causing the POSIX wrapper API to be used, only
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\B, and \Z have any effect, causing REG_NOTBOL and REG_NOTEOL to be passed to
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regexec() respectively.
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When a match succeeds, pcretest outputs the list of identified substrings that
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pcre_exec() returns, starting with number 0 for the string that matched the
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whole pattern. Here is an example of an interactive pcretest run.
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$ pcretest
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Testing Perl-Compatible Regular Expressions
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PCRE version 0.90 08-Sep-1997
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re> /^abc(\d+)/
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data> abc123
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0: abc123
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1: 123
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data> xyz
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No match
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Note that while patterns can be continued over several lines (a plain ">"
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prompt is used for continuations), data lines may not. However newlines can be
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included in data by means of the \n escape.
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If the -p option is given to pcretest, it is equivalent to adding /P to each
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regular expression: the POSIX wrapper API is used to call PCRE. None of the
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following flags has any effect in this case.
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If the option -d is given to pcretest, it is equivalent to adding /D to each
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regular expression: the internal form is output after compilation.
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If the option -i is given to pcretest, it is equivalent to adding /I to each
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regular expression: information about the compiled pattern is given after
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compilation.
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If the option -s is given to pcretest, it outputs the size of each compiled
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pattern after it has been compiled.
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If the -t option is given, each compile, study, and match is run 10000 times
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while being timed, and the resulting time per compile or match is output in
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milliseconds. Do not set -t with -s, because you will then get the size output
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10000 times and the timing will be distorted. If you want to change the number
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of repetitions used for timing, edit the definition of LOOPREPEAT at the top of
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pcretest.c
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The perltest program
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--------------------
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The perltest program tests Perl's regular expressions; it has the same
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specification as pcretest, and so can be given identical input, except that
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input patterns can be followed only by Perl's lower case options. The contents
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of testinput and testinput3 meet this condition.
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The data lines are processed as Perl strings, so if they contain $ or @
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characters, these have to be escaped. For this reason, all such characters in
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the testinput file are escaped so that it can be used for perltest as well as
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for pcretest, and the special upper case options such as /A that pcretest
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recognizes are not used in this file. The output should be identical, apart
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from the initial identifying banner.
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The testinput2 and testinput4 files are not suitable for feeding to Perltest,
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since they do make use of the special upper case options and escapes that
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pcretest uses to test some features of PCRE. The first of these files also
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contains malformed regular expressions, in order to check that PCRE diagnoses
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them correctly.
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Philip Hazel <ph10@cam.ac.uk>
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October 1998
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