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<head>
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<title>pcreposix specification</title>
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</head>
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<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#00005A" link="#0066FF" alink="#3399FF" vlink="#2222BB">
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<h1>pcreposix man page</h1>
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<p>
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Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
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</p>
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<p>
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This page is part of the PCRE HTML documentation. It was generated automatically
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from the original man page. If there is any nonsense in it, please consult the
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man page, in case the conversion went wrong.
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<br>
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<ul>
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<li><a name="TOC1" href="#SEC1">SYNOPSIS OF POSIX API</a>
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<li><a name="TOC2" href="#SEC2">DESCRIPTION</a>
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<li><a name="TOC3" href="#SEC3">COMPILING A PATTERN</a>
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<li><a name="TOC4" href="#SEC4">MATCHING NEWLINE CHARACTERS</a>
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<li><a name="TOC5" href="#SEC5">MATCHING A PATTERN</a>
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<li><a name="TOC6" href="#SEC6">ERROR MESSAGES</a>
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<li><a name="TOC7" href="#SEC7">MEMORY USAGE</a>
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<li><a name="TOC8" href="#SEC8">AUTHOR</a>
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<li><a name="TOC9" href="#SEC9">REVISION</a>
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</ul>
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<br><a name="SEC1" href="#TOC1">SYNOPSIS OF POSIX API</a><br>
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<P>
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<b>#include <pcreposix.h></b>
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>int regcomp(regex_t *<i>preg</i>, const char *<i>pattern</i>,</b>
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<b>int <i>cflags</i>);</b>
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>int regexec(regex_t *<i>preg</i>, const char *<i>string</i>,</b>
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<b>size_t <i>nmatch</i>, regmatch_t <i>pmatch</i>[], int <i>eflags</i>);</b>
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>size_t regerror(int <i>errcode</i>, const regex_t *<i>preg</i>,</b>
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<b>char *<i>errbuf</i>, size_t <i>errbuf_size</i>);</b>
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</P>
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<P>
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<b>void regfree(regex_t *<i>preg</i>);</b>
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</P>
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<br><a name="SEC2" href="#TOC1">DESCRIPTION</a><br>
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<P>
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This set of functions provides a POSIX-style API for the PCRE regular
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expression 8-bit library. See the
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<a href="pcreapi.html"><b>pcreapi</b></a>
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documentation for a description of PCRE's native API, which contains much
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additional functionality. There is no POSIX-style wrapper for PCRE's 16-bit
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and 32-bit library.
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</P>
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<P>
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The functions described here are just wrapper functions that ultimately call
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the PCRE native API. Their prototypes are defined in the <b>pcreposix.h</b>
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header file, and on Unix systems the library itself is called
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<b>pcreposix.a</b>, so can be accessed by adding <b>-lpcreposix</b> to the
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command for linking an application that uses them. Because the POSIX functions
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call the native ones, it is also necessary to add <b>-lpcre</b>.
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</P>
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<P>
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I have implemented only those POSIX option bits that can be reasonably mapped
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to PCRE native options. In addition, the option REG_EXTENDED is defined with
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the value zero. This has no effect, but since programs that are written to the
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POSIX interface often use it, this makes it easier to slot in PCRE as a
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replacement library. Other POSIX options are not even defined.
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</P>
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<P>
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There are also some other options that are not defined by POSIX. These have
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been added at the request of users who want to make use of certain
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PCRE-specific features via the POSIX calling interface.
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</P>
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<P>
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When PCRE is called via these functions, it is only the API that is POSIX-like
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in style. The syntax and semantics of the regular expressions themselves are
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still those of Perl, subject to the setting of various PCRE options, as
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described below. "POSIX-like in style" means that the API approximates to the
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POSIX definition; it is not fully POSIX-compatible, and in multi-byte encoding
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domains it is probably even less compatible.
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</P>
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<P>
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The header for these functions is supplied as <b>pcreposix.h</b> to avoid any
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potential clash with other POSIX libraries. It can, of course, be renamed or
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aliased as <b>regex.h</b>, which is the "correct" name. It provides two
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structure types, <i>regex_t</i> for compiled internal forms, and
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<i>regmatch_t</i> for returning captured substrings. It also defines some
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constants whose names start with "REG_"; these are used for setting options and
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identifying error codes.
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</P>
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<br><a name="SEC3" href="#TOC1">COMPILING A PATTERN</a><br>
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<P>
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The function <b>regcomp()</b> is called to compile a pattern into an
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internal form. The pattern is a C string terminated by a binary zero, and
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is passed in the argument <i>pattern</i>. The <i>preg</i> argument is a pointer
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to a <b>regex_t</b> structure that is used as a base for storing information
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about the compiled regular expression.
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</P>
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<P>
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The argument <i>cflags</i> is either zero, or contains one or more of the bits
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defined by the following macros:
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<pre>
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REG_DOTALL
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</pre>
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The PCRE_DOTALL option is set when the regular expression is passed for
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compilation to the native function. Note that REG_DOTALL is not part of the
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POSIX standard.
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<pre>
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REG_ICASE
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</pre>
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The PCRE_CASELESS option is set when the regular expression is passed for
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compilation to the native function.
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<pre>
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REG_NEWLINE
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</pre>
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The PCRE_MULTILINE option is set when the regular expression is passed for
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compilation to the native function. Note that this does <i>not</i> mimic the
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defined POSIX behaviour for REG_NEWLINE (see the following section).
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<pre>
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REG_NOSUB
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</pre>
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The PCRE_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE option is set when the regular expression is passed
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for compilation to the native function. In addition, when a pattern that is
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compiled with this flag is passed to <b>regexec()</b> for matching, the
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<i>nmatch</i> and <i>pmatch</i> arguments are ignored, and no captured strings
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are returned.
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<pre>
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REG_UCP
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</pre>
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The PCRE_UCP option is set when the regular expression is passed for
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compilation to the native function. This causes PCRE to use Unicode properties
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when matchine \d, \w, etc., instead of just recognizing ASCII values. Note
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that REG_UTF8 is not part of the POSIX standard.
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<pre>
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REG_UNGREEDY
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</pre>
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The PCRE_UNGREEDY option is set when the regular expression is passed for
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compilation to the native function. Note that REG_UNGREEDY is not part of the
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POSIX standard.
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<pre>
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REG_UTF8
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</pre>
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The PCRE_UTF8 option is set when the regular expression is passed for
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compilation to the native function. This causes the pattern itself and all data
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strings used for matching it to be treated as UTF-8 strings. Note that REG_UTF8
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is not part of the POSIX standard.
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</P>
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<P>
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In the absence of these flags, no options are passed to the native function.
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This means the the regex is compiled with PCRE default semantics. In
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particular, the way it handles newline characters in the subject string is the
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Perl way, not the POSIX way. Note that setting PCRE_MULTILINE has only
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<i>some</i> of the effects specified for REG_NEWLINE. It does not affect the way
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newlines are matched by . (they are not) or by a negative class such as [^a]
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(they are).
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</P>
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<P>
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The yield of <b>regcomp()</b> is zero on success, and non-zero otherwise. The
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<i>preg</i> structure is filled in on success, and one member of the structure
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is public: <i>re_nsub</i> contains the number of capturing subpatterns in
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the regular expression. Various error codes are defined in the header file.
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</P>
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<P>
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NOTE: If the yield of <b>regcomp()</b> is non-zero, you must not attempt to
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use the contents of the <i>preg</i> structure. If, for example, you pass it to
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<b>regexec()</b>, the result is undefined and your program is likely to crash.
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</P>
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<br><a name="SEC4" href="#TOC1">MATCHING NEWLINE CHARACTERS</a><br>
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<P>
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This area is not simple, because POSIX and Perl take different views of things.
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It is not possible to get PCRE to obey POSIX semantics, but then PCRE was never
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intended to be a POSIX engine. The following table lists the different
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possibilities for matching newline characters in PCRE:
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<pre>
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Default Change with
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. matches newline no PCRE_DOTALL
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newline matches [^a] yes not changeable
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$ matches \n at end yes PCRE_DOLLARENDONLY
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$ matches \n in middle no PCRE_MULTILINE
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^ matches \n in middle no PCRE_MULTILINE
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</pre>
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This is the equivalent table for POSIX:
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<pre>
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Default Change with
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. matches newline yes REG_NEWLINE
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newline matches [^a] yes REG_NEWLINE
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$ matches \n at end no REG_NEWLINE
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$ matches \n in middle no REG_NEWLINE
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^ matches \n in middle no REG_NEWLINE
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</pre>
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PCRE's behaviour is the same as Perl's, except that there is no equivalent for
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PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY in Perl. In both PCRE and Perl, there is no way to stop
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newline from matching [^a].
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</P>
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<P>
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The default POSIX newline handling can be obtained by setting PCRE_DOTALL and
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PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY, but there is no way to make PCRE behave exactly as for the
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REG_NEWLINE action.
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</P>
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<br><a name="SEC5" href="#TOC1">MATCHING A PATTERN</a><br>
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<P>
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The function <b>regexec()</b> is called to match a compiled pattern <i>preg</i>
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against a given <i>string</i>, which is by default terminated by a zero byte
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(but see REG_STARTEND below), subject to the options in <i>eflags</i>. These can
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be:
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<pre>
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REG_NOTBOL
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</pre>
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The PCRE_NOTBOL option is set when calling the underlying PCRE matching
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function.
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<pre>
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REG_NOTEMPTY
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</pre>
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The PCRE_NOTEMPTY option is set when calling the underlying PCRE matching
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function. Note that REG_NOTEMPTY is not part of the POSIX standard. However,
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setting this option can give more POSIX-like behaviour in some situations.
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<pre>
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REG_NOTEOL
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</pre>
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The PCRE_NOTEOL option is set when calling the underlying PCRE matching
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function.
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<pre>
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REG_STARTEND
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</pre>
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The string is considered to start at <i>string</i> + <i>pmatch[0].rm_so</i> and
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to have a terminating NUL located at <i>string</i> + <i>pmatch[0].rm_eo</i>
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(there need not actually be a NUL at that location), regardless of the value of
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<i>nmatch</i>. This is a BSD extension, compatible with but not specified by
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IEEE Standard 1003.2 (POSIX.2), and should be used with caution in software
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intended to be portable to other systems. Note that a non-zero <i>rm_so</i> does
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not imply REG_NOTBOL; REG_STARTEND affects only the location of the string, not
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how it is matched.
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</P>
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<P>
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If the pattern was compiled with the REG_NOSUB flag, no data about any matched
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strings is returned. The <i>nmatch</i> and <i>pmatch</i> arguments of
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<b>regexec()</b> are ignored.
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</P>
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<P>
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If the value of <i>nmatch</i> is zero, or if the value <i>pmatch</i> is NULL,
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no data about any matched strings is returned.
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</P>
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<P>
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Otherwise,the portion of the string that was matched, and also any captured
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substrings, are returned via the <i>pmatch</i> argument, which points to an
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array of <i>nmatch</i> structures of type <i>regmatch_t</i>, containing the
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members <i>rm_so</i> and <i>rm_eo</i>. These contain the offset to the first
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character of each substring and the offset to the first character after the end
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of each substring, respectively. The 0th element of the vector relates to the
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entire portion of <i>string</i> that was matched; subsequent elements relate to
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the capturing subpatterns of the regular expression. Unused entries in the
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array have both structure members set to -1.
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</P>
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<P>
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A successful match yields a zero return; various error codes are defined in the
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header file, of which REG_NOMATCH is the "expected" failure code.
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</P>
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<br><a name="SEC6" href="#TOC1">ERROR MESSAGES</a><br>
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<P>
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The <b>regerror()</b> function maps a non-zero errorcode from either
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<b>regcomp()</b> or <b>regexec()</b> to a printable message. If <i>preg</i> is not
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NULL, the error should have arisen from the use of that structure. A message
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terminated by a binary zero is placed in <i>errbuf</i>. The length of the
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message, including the zero, is limited to <i>errbuf_size</i>. The yield of the
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function is the size of buffer needed to hold the whole message.
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</P>
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<br><a name="SEC7" href="#TOC1">MEMORY USAGE</a><br>
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<P>
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Compiling a regular expression causes memory to be allocated and associated
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with the <i>preg</i> structure. The function <b>regfree()</b> frees all such
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memory, after which <i>preg</i> may no longer be used as a compiled expression.
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</P>
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<br><a name="SEC8" href="#TOC1">AUTHOR</a><br>
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<P>
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Philip Hazel
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<br>
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University Computing Service
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<br>
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Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
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<br>
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</P>
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<br><a name="SEC9" href="#TOC1">REVISION</a><br>
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<P>
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Last updated: 09 January 2012
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<br>
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Copyright © 1997-2012 University of Cambridge.
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<br>
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<p>
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Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
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</p>
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