/[pcre]/code/trunk/doc/html/pcre.html

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-revision 75 by nigel,
Sat Feb 24 21:40:37 2007 UTC
+revision 77 by nigel,
Sat Feb 24 21:40:45 2007 UTC
 Line 23 
 man page, in case the conversion went wr
  <P>
  The PCRE library is a set of functions that implement regular expression
  pattern matching using the same syntax and semantics as Perl, with just a few
- differences. The current implementation of PCRE (release 5.x) corresponds
+ differences. The current implementation of PCRE (release 6.x) corresponds
  approximately with Perl 5.8, including support for UTF-8 encoded strings and
  Unicode general category properties. However, this support has to be explicitly
  enabled; it is not the default.
  </P>
  <P>
+ In addition to the Perl-compatible matching function, PCRE also contains an
+ alternative matching function that matches the same compiled patterns in a
+ different way. In certain circumstances, the alternative function has some
+ advantages. For a discussion of the two matching algorithms, see the
+ <a href="pcrematching.html"><b>pcrematching</b></a>
+ page.
+ </P>
+ <P>
  PCRE is written in C and released as a C library. A number of people have
- written wrappers and interfaces of various kinds. A C++ class is included in
+ written wrappers and interfaces of various kinds. In particular, Google Inc.
- these contributions, which can be found in the <i>Contrib</i> directory at the
+ have provided a comprehensive C++ wrapper. This is now included as part of the
- primary FTP site, which is:
+ PCRE distribution. The
+ <a href="pcrecpp.html"><b>pcrecpp</b></a>
+ page has details of this interface. Other people's contributions can be found
+ in the <i>Contrib</i> directory at the primary FTP site, which is:
  <a href="ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre">ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre</a>
  </P>
  <P>
-Line 53 
 available. The features themselves are d
+Line 64 
 available. The features themselves are d
  page. Documentation about building PCRE for various operating systems can be
  found in the <b>README</b> file in the source distribution.
  </P>
+ <P>
+ 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.
+ </P>
  <br><a name="SEC2" href="#TOC1">USER DOCUMENTATION</a><br>
  <P>
  The user documentation for PCRE comprises a number of different sections. In
-Line 62 
 all the sections are concatenated, for e
+Line 79 
 all the sections are concatenated, for e
  follows:
  <pre>
    pcre              this document
-   pcreapi           details of PCRE's native API
+   pcreapi           details of PCRE's native C API
    pcrebuild         options for building PCRE
    pcrecallout       details of the callout feature
    pcrecompat        discussion of Perl compatibility
+   pcrecpp           details of the C++ wrapper
    pcregrep          description of the <b>pcregrep</b> command
+   pcrematching      discussion of the two matching algorithms
    pcrepartial       details of the partial matching facility
    pcrepattern       syntax and semantics of supported regular expressions
    pcreperform       discussion of performance issues
-   pcreposix         the POSIX-compatible API
+   pcreposix         the POSIX-compatible C API
    pcreprecompile    details of saving and re-using precompiled patterns
    pcresample        discussion of the sample program
    pcretest          description of the <b>pcretest</b> testing command
  </pre>
  In addition, in the "man" and HTML formats, there is a short page for each
- library function, listing its arguments and results.
+ C library function, listing its arguments and results.
  </P>
  <br><a name="SEC3" href="#TOC1">LIMITATIONS</a><br>
  <P>
-Line 104 
 subpatterns, assertions, and other types
+Line 123 
 subpatterns, assertions, and other types
  </P>
  <P>
  The maximum length of a subject string is the largest positive number that an
- integer variable can hold. However, PCRE uses recursion to handle subpatterns
+ integer variable can hold. However, when using the traditional matching
- and indefinite repetition. This means that the available stack space may limit
+ function, PCRE uses recursion to handle subpatterns and indefinite repetition.
- the size of a subject string that can be processed by certain patterns.
+ This means that the available stack space may limit the size of a subject
+ string that can be processed by certain patterns.
  <a name="utf8support"></a></P>
  <br><a name="SEC4" href="#TOC1">UTF-8 AND UNICODE PROPERTY SUPPORT</a><br>
  <P>
-Line 174 
 bytes, for example: \x{100}{3}.
+Line 194 
 bytes, for example: \x{100}{3}.
  </P>
  <P>
 . 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.
+ but its use can lead to some strange effects. This facility is not available in
+ the alternative matching function, <b>pcre_dfa_exec()</b>.
  </P>
  <P>
 . The character escapes \b, \B, \d, \D, \s, \S, \w, and \W correctly
-Line 199 
 values.
+Line 220 
 values.
  </P>
  <br><a name="SEC5" href="#TOC1">AUTHOR</a><br>
  <P>
- Philip Hazel &#60;ph10@cam.ac.uk&#62;
+ Philip Hazel
  <br>
  University Computing Service,
  <br>
  Cambridge CB2 3QG, England.
+ </P>
+ <P>
+ 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 initial and surname, separated
+ by a dot, at the domain ucs.cam.ac.uk.
+ Last updated: 07 March 2005
  <br>
- Phone: +44 1223 334714
+ Copyright &copy; 1997-2005 University of Cambridge.
- Last updated: 09 September 2004
- <br>
- Copyright &copy; 1997-2004 University of Cambridge.
  <p>
  Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
  </p>

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