libraries/spcre/libpcre/pcre/README
changeset 0 7f656887cf89
equal deleted inserted replaced
-1:000000000000 0:7f656887cf89
       
     1 README file for PCRE (Perl-compatible regular expression library)
       
     2 -----------------------------------------------------------------
       
     3 
       
     4 The latest release of PCRE is always available in three alternative formats
       
     5 from:
       
     6 
       
     7   ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/pcre-xxx.tar.gz
       
     8   ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/pcre-xxx.tar.bz2
       
     9   ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/pcre-xxx.zip
       
    10 
       
    11 There is a mailing list for discussion about the development of PCRE at
       
    12 
       
    13   pcre-dev@exim.org
       
    14 
       
    15 Please read the NEWS file if you are upgrading from a previous release.
       
    16 The contents of this README file are:
       
    17 
       
    18   The PCRE APIs
       
    19   Documentation for PCRE
       
    20   Contributions by users of PCRE
       
    21   Building PCRE on non-Unix systems
       
    22   Building PCRE on Unix-like systems
       
    23   Retrieving configuration information on Unix-like systems
       
    24   Shared libraries on Unix-like systems
       
    25   Cross-compiling on Unix-like systems
       
    26   Using HP's ANSI C++ compiler (aCC)
       
    27   Making new tarballs
       
    28   Testing PCRE
       
    29   Character tables
       
    30   File manifest
       
    31 
       
    32 
       
    33 The PCRE APIs
       
    34 -------------
       
    35 
       
    36 PCRE is written in C, and it has its own API. The distribution also includes a
       
    37 set of C++ wrapper functions (see the pcrecpp man page for details), courtesy
       
    38 of Google Inc.
       
    39 
       
    40 In addition, there is a set of C wrapper functions that are based on the POSIX
       
    41 regular expression API (see the pcreposix man page). These end up in the
       
    42 library called libpcreposix. Note that this just provides a POSIX calling
       
    43 interface to PCRE; the regular expressions themselves still follow Perl syntax
       
    44 and semantics. The POSIX API is restricted, and does not give full access to
       
    45 all of PCRE's facilities.
       
    46 
       
    47 The header file for the POSIX-style functions is called pcreposix.h. The
       
    48 official POSIX name is regex.h, but I did not want to risk possible problems
       
    49 with existing files of that name by distributing it that way. To use PCRE with
       
    50 an existing program that uses the POSIX API, pcreposix.h will have to be
       
    51 renamed or pointed at by a link.
       
    52 
       
    53 If you are using the POSIX interface to PCRE and there is already a POSIX regex
       
    54 library installed on your system, as well as worrying about the regex.h header
       
    55 file (as mentioned above), you must also take care when linking programs to
       
    56 ensure that they link with PCRE's libpcreposix library. Otherwise they may pick
       
    57 up the POSIX functions of the same name from the other library.
       
    58 
       
    59 One way of avoiding this confusion is to compile PCRE with the addition of
       
    60 -Dregcomp=PCREregcomp (and similarly for the other POSIX functions) to the
       
    61 compiler flags (CFLAGS if you are using "configure" -- see below). This has the
       
    62 effect of renaming the functions so that the names no longer clash. Of course,
       
    63 you have to do the same thing for your applications, or write them using the
       
    64 new names.
       
    65 
       
    66 
       
    67 Documentation for PCRE
       
    68 ----------------------
       
    69 
       
    70 If you install PCRE in the normal way on a Unix-like system, you will end up
       
    71 with a set of man pages whose names all start with "pcre". The one that is just
       
    72 called "pcre" lists all the others. In addition to these man pages, the PCRE
       
    73 documentation is supplied in two other forms:
       
    74 
       
    75   1. There are files called doc/pcre.txt, doc/pcregrep.txt, and
       
    76      doc/pcretest.txt in the source distribution. The first of these is a
       
    77      concatenation of the text forms of all the section 3 man pages except
       
    78      those that summarize individual functions. The other two are the text
       
    79      forms of the section 1 man pages for the pcregrep and pcretest commands.
       
    80      These text forms are provided for ease of scanning with text editors or
       
    81      similar tools. They are installed in <prefix>/share/doc/pcre, where
       
    82      <prefix> is the installation prefix (defaulting to /usr/local).
       
    83 
       
    84   2. A set of files containing all the documentation in HTML form, hyperlinked
       
    85      in various ways, and rooted in a file called index.html, is distributed in
       
    86      doc/html and installed in <prefix>/share/doc/pcre/html.
       
    87 
       
    88 
       
    89 Contributions by users of PCRE
       
    90 ------------------------------
       
    91 
       
    92 You can find contributions from PCRE users in the directory
       
    93 
       
    94   ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/Contrib
       
    95 
       
    96 There is a README file giving brief descriptions of what they are. Some are
       
    97 complete in themselves; others are pointers to URLs containing relevant files.
       
    98 Some of this material is likely to be well out-of-date. Several of the earlier
       
    99 contributions provided support for compiling PCRE on various flavours of
       
   100 Windows (I myself do not use Windows). Nowadays there is more Windows support
       
   101 in the standard distribution, so these contibutions have been archived.
       
   102 
       
   103 
       
   104 Building PCRE on non-Unix systems
       
   105 ---------------------------------
       
   106 
       
   107 For a non-Unix system, please read the comments in the file NON-UNIX-USE,
       
   108 though if your system supports the use of "configure" and "make" you may be
       
   109 able to build PCRE in the same way as for Unix-like systems. PCRE can also be
       
   110 configured in many platform environments using the GUI facility of CMake's
       
   111 CMakeSetup. It creates Makefiles, solution files, etc.
       
   112 
       
   113 PCRE has been compiled on many different operating systems. It should be
       
   114 straightforward to build PCRE on any system that has a Standard C compiler and
       
   115 library, because it uses only Standard C functions.
       
   116 
       
   117 
       
   118 Building PCRE on Unix-like systems
       
   119 ----------------------------------
       
   120 
       
   121 If you are using HP's ANSI C++ compiler (aCC), please see the special note
       
   122 in the section entitled "Using HP's ANSI C++ compiler (aCC)" below.
       
   123 
       
   124 The following instructions assume the use of the widely used "configure, make,
       
   125 make install" process. There is also support for CMake in the PCRE
       
   126 distribution; there are some comments about using CMake in the NON-UNIX-USE
       
   127 file, though it can also be used in Unix-like systems.
       
   128 
       
   129 To build PCRE on a Unix-like system, first run the "configure" command from the
       
   130 PCRE distribution directory, with your current directory set to the directory
       
   131 where you want the files to be created. This command is a standard GNU
       
   132 "autoconf" configuration script, for which generic instructions are supplied in
       
   133 the file INSTALL.
       
   134 
       
   135 Most commonly, people build PCRE within its own distribution directory, and in
       
   136 this case, on many systems, just running "./configure" is sufficient. However,
       
   137 the usual methods of changing standard defaults are available. For example:
       
   138 
       
   139 CFLAGS='-O2 -Wall' ./configure --prefix=/opt/local
       
   140 
       
   141 specifies that the C compiler should be run with the flags '-O2 -Wall' instead
       
   142 of the default, and that "make install" should install PCRE under /opt/local
       
   143 instead of the default /usr/local.
       
   144 
       
   145 If you want to build in a different directory, just run "configure" with that
       
   146 directory as current. For example, suppose you have unpacked the PCRE source
       
   147 into /source/pcre/pcre-xxx, but you want to build it in /build/pcre/pcre-xxx:
       
   148 
       
   149 cd /build/pcre/pcre-xxx
       
   150 /source/pcre/pcre-xxx/configure
       
   151 
       
   152 PCRE is written in C and is normally compiled as a C library. However, it is
       
   153 possible to build it as a C++ library, though the provided building apparatus
       
   154 does not have any features to support this.
       
   155 
       
   156 There are some optional features that can be included or omitted from the PCRE
       
   157 library. You can read more about them in the pcrebuild man page.
       
   158 
       
   159 . If you want to suppress the building of the C++ wrapper library, you can add
       
   160   --disable-cpp to the "configure" command. Otherwise, when "configure" is run,
       
   161   it will try to find a C++ compiler and C++ header files, and if it succeeds,
       
   162   it will try to build the C++ wrapper.
       
   163 
       
   164 . If you want to make use of the support for UTF-8 character strings in PCRE,
       
   165   you must add --enable-utf8 to the "configure" command. Without it, the code
       
   166   for handling UTF-8 is not included in the library. (Even when included, it
       
   167   still has to be enabled by an option at run time.)
       
   168 
       
   169 . If, in addition to support for UTF-8 character strings, you want to include
       
   170   support for the \P, \p, and \X sequences that recognize Unicode character
       
   171   properties, you must add --enable-unicode-properties to the "configure"
       
   172   command. This adds about 30K to the size of the library (in the form of a
       
   173   property table); only the basic two-letter properties such as Lu are
       
   174   supported.
       
   175 
       
   176 . You can build PCRE to recognize either CR or LF or the sequence CRLF or any
       
   177   of the preceding, or any of the Unicode newline sequences as indicating the
       
   178   end of a line. Whatever you specify at build time is the default; the caller
       
   179   of PCRE can change the selection at run time. The default newline indicator
       
   180   is a single LF character (the Unix standard). You can specify the default
       
   181   newline indicator by adding --enable-newline-is-cr or --enable-newline-is-lf
       
   182   or --enable-newline-is-crlf or --enable-newline-is-anycrlf or
       
   183   --enable-newline-is-any to the "configure" command, respectively.
       
   184 
       
   185   If you specify --enable-newline-is-cr or --enable-newline-is-crlf, some of
       
   186   the standard tests will fail, because the lines in the test files end with
       
   187   LF. Even if the files are edited to change the line endings, there are likely
       
   188   to be some failures. With --enable-newline-is-anycrlf or
       
   189   --enable-newline-is-any, many tests should succeed, but there may be some
       
   190   failures.
       
   191 
       
   192 . By default, the sequence \R in a pattern matches any Unicode line ending
       
   193   sequence. This is independent of the option specifying what PCRE considers to
       
   194   be the end of a line (see above). However, the caller of PCRE can restrict \R
       
   195   to match only CR, LF, or CRLF. You can make this the default by adding
       
   196   --enable-bsr-anycrlf to the "configure" command (bsr = "backslash R").
       
   197 
       
   198 . When called via the POSIX interface, PCRE uses malloc() to get additional
       
   199   storage for processing capturing parentheses if there are more than 10 of
       
   200   them in a pattern. You can increase this threshold by setting, for example,
       
   201 
       
   202   --with-posix-malloc-threshold=20
       
   203 
       
   204   on the "configure" command.
       
   205 
       
   206 . PCRE has a counter that can be set to limit the amount of resources it uses.
       
   207   If the limit is exceeded during a match, the match fails. The default is ten
       
   208   million. You can change the default by setting, for example,
       
   209 
       
   210   --with-match-limit=500000
       
   211 
       
   212   on the "configure" command. This is just the default; individual calls to
       
   213   pcre_exec() can supply their own value. There is more discussion on the
       
   214   pcreapi man page.
       
   215 
       
   216 . There is a separate counter that limits the depth of recursive function calls
       
   217   during a matching process. This also has a default of ten million, which is
       
   218   essentially "unlimited". You can change the default by setting, for example,
       
   219 
       
   220   --with-match-limit-recursion=500000
       
   221 
       
   222   Recursive function calls use up the runtime stack; running out of stack can
       
   223   cause programs to crash in strange ways. There is a discussion about stack
       
   224   sizes in the pcrestack man page.
       
   225 
       
   226 . The default maximum compiled pattern size is around 64K. You can increase
       
   227   this by adding --with-link-size=3 to the "configure" command. You can
       
   228   increase it even more by setting --with-link-size=4, but this is unlikely
       
   229   ever to be necessary. Increasing the internal link size will reduce
       
   230   performance.
       
   231 
       
   232 . You can build PCRE so that its internal match() function that is called from
       
   233   pcre_exec() does not call itself recursively. Instead, it uses memory blocks
       
   234   obtained from the heap via the special functions pcre_stack_malloc() and
       
   235   pcre_stack_free() to save data that would otherwise be saved on the stack. To
       
   236   build PCRE like this, use
       
   237 
       
   238   --disable-stack-for-recursion
       
   239 
       
   240   on the "configure" command. PCRE runs more slowly in this mode, but it may be
       
   241   necessary in environments with limited stack sizes. This applies only to the
       
   242   pcre_exec() function; it does not apply to pcre_dfa_exec(), which does not
       
   243   use deeply nested recursion. There is a discussion about stack sizes in the
       
   244   pcrestack man page.
       
   245 
       
   246 . For speed, PCRE uses four tables for manipulating and identifying characters
       
   247   whose code point values are less than 256. By default, it uses a set of
       
   248   tables for ASCII encoding that is part of the distribution. If you specify
       
   249 
       
   250   --enable-rebuild-chartables
       
   251 
       
   252   a program called dftables is compiled and run in the default C locale when
       
   253   you obey "make". It builds a source file called pcre_chartables.c. If you do
       
   254   not specify this option, pcre_chartables.c is created as a copy of
       
   255   pcre_chartables.c.dist. See "Character tables" below for further information.
       
   256 
       
   257 . It is possible to compile PCRE for use on systems that use EBCDIC as their
       
   258   default character code (as opposed to ASCII) by specifying
       
   259 
       
   260   --enable-ebcdic
       
   261 
       
   262   This automatically implies --enable-rebuild-chartables (see above).
       
   263 
       
   264 . It is possible to compile pcregrep to use libz and/or libbz2, in order to
       
   265   read .gz and .bz2 files (respectively), by specifying one or both of
       
   266 
       
   267   --enable-pcregrep-libz
       
   268   --enable-pcregrep-libbz2
       
   269 
       
   270   Of course, the relevant libraries must be installed on your system.
       
   271 
       
   272 . It is possible to compile pcretest so that it links with the libreadline
       
   273   library, by specifying
       
   274 
       
   275   --enable-pcretest-libreadline
       
   276 
       
   277   If this is done, when pcretest's input is from a terminal, it reads it using
       
   278   the readline() function. This provides line-editing and history facilities.
       
   279   Note that libreadline is GPL-licenced, so if you distribute a binary of
       
   280   pcretest linked in this way, there may be licensing issues.
       
   281 
       
   282   Setting this option causes the -lreadline option to be added to the pcretest
       
   283   build. In many operating environments with a sytem-installed readline
       
   284   library this is sufficient. However, in some environments (e.g. if an
       
   285   unmodified distribution version of readline is in use), it may be necessary
       
   286   to specify something like LIBS="-lncurses" as well. This is because, to quote
       
   287   the readline INSTALL, "Readline uses the termcap functions, but does not link
       
   288   with the termcap or curses library itself, allowing applications which link
       
   289   with readline the to choose an appropriate library."
       
   290 
       
   291 The "configure" script builds the following files for the basic C library:
       
   292 
       
   293 . Makefile is the makefile that builds the library
       
   294 . config.h contains build-time configuration options for the library
       
   295 . pcre.h is the public PCRE header file
       
   296 . pcre-config is a script that shows the settings of "configure" options
       
   297 . libpcre.pc is data for the pkg-config command
       
   298 . libtool is a script that builds shared and/or static libraries
       
   299 . RunTest is a script for running tests on the basic C library
       
   300 . RunGrepTest is a script for running tests on the pcregrep command
       
   301 
       
   302 Versions of config.h and pcre.h are distributed in the PCRE tarballs under
       
   303 the names config.h.generic and pcre.h.generic. These are provided for the
       
   304 benefit of those who have to built PCRE without the benefit of "configure". If
       
   305 you use "configure", the .generic versions are not used.
       
   306 
       
   307 If a C++ compiler is found, the following files are also built:
       
   308 
       
   309 . libpcrecpp.pc is data for the pkg-config command
       
   310 . pcrecpparg.h is a header file for programs that call PCRE via the C++ wrapper
       
   311 . pcre_stringpiece.h is the header for the C++ "stringpiece" functions
       
   312 
       
   313 The "configure" script also creates config.status, which is an executable
       
   314 script that can be run to recreate the configuration, and config.log, which
       
   315 contains compiler output from tests that "configure" runs.
       
   316 
       
   317 Once "configure" has run, you can run "make". It builds two libraries, called
       
   318 libpcre and libpcreposix, a test program called pcretest, and the pcregrep
       
   319 command. If a C++ compiler was found on your system, "make" also builds the C++
       
   320 wrapper library, which is called libpcrecpp, and some test programs called
       
   321 pcrecpp_unittest, pcre_scanner_unittest, and pcre_stringpiece_unittest.
       
   322 Building the C++ wrapper can be disabled by adding --disable-cpp to the
       
   323 "configure" command.
       
   324 
       
   325 The command "make check" runs all the appropriate tests. Details of the PCRE
       
   326 tests are given below in a separate section of this document.
       
   327 
       
   328 You can use "make install" to install PCRE into live directories on your
       
   329 system. The following are installed (file names are all relative to the
       
   330 <prefix> that is set when "configure" is run):
       
   331 
       
   332   Commands (bin):
       
   333     pcretest
       
   334     pcregrep
       
   335     pcre-config
       
   336 
       
   337   Libraries (lib):
       
   338     libpcre
       
   339     libpcreposix
       
   340     libpcrecpp (if C++ support is enabled)
       
   341 
       
   342   Configuration information (lib/pkgconfig):
       
   343     libpcre.pc
       
   344     libpcrecpp.pc (if C++ support is enabled)
       
   345 
       
   346   Header files (include):
       
   347     pcre.h
       
   348     pcreposix.h
       
   349     pcre_scanner.h      )
       
   350     pcre_stringpiece.h  ) if C++ support is enabled
       
   351     pcrecpp.h           )
       
   352     pcrecpparg.h        )
       
   353 
       
   354   Man pages (share/man/man{1,3}):
       
   355     pcregrep.1
       
   356     pcretest.1
       
   357     pcre.3
       
   358     pcre*.3 (lots more pages, all starting "pcre")
       
   359 
       
   360   HTML documentation (share/doc/pcre/html):
       
   361     index.html
       
   362     *.html (lots more pages, hyperlinked from index.html)
       
   363 
       
   364   Text file documentation (share/doc/pcre):
       
   365     AUTHORS
       
   366     COPYING
       
   367     ChangeLog
       
   368     LICENCE
       
   369     NEWS
       
   370     README
       
   371     pcre.txt       (a concatenation of the man(3) pages)
       
   372     pcretest.txt   the pcretest man page
       
   373     pcregrep.txt   the pcregrep man page
       
   374 
       
   375 If you want to remove PCRE from your system, you can run "make uninstall".
       
   376 This removes all the files that "make install" installed. However, it does not
       
   377 remove any directories, because these are often shared with other programs.
       
   378 
       
   379 
       
   380 Retrieving configuration information on Unix-like systems
       
   381 ---------------------------------------------------------
       
   382 
       
   383 Running "make install" installs the command pcre-config, which can be used to
       
   384 recall information about the PCRE configuration and installation. For example:
       
   385 
       
   386   pcre-config --version
       
   387 
       
   388 prints the version number, and
       
   389 
       
   390   pcre-config --libs
       
   391 
       
   392 outputs information about where the library is installed. This command can be
       
   393 included in makefiles for programs that use PCRE, saving the programmer from
       
   394 having to remember too many details.
       
   395 
       
   396 The pkg-config command is another system for saving and retrieving information
       
   397 about installed libraries. Instead of separate commands for each library, a
       
   398 single command is used. For example:
       
   399 
       
   400   pkg-config --cflags pcre
       
   401 
       
   402 The data is held in *.pc files that are installed in a directory called
       
   403 <prefix>/lib/pkgconfig.
       
   404 
       
   405 
       
   406 Shared libraries on Unix-like systems
       
   407 -------------------------------------
       
   408 
       
   409 The default distribution builds PCRE as shared libraries and static libraries,
       
   410 as long as the operating system supports shared libraries. Shared library
       
   411 support relies on the "libtool" script which is built as part of the
       
   412 "configure" process.
       
   413 
       
   414 The libtool script is used to compile and link both shared and static
       
   415 libraries. They are placed in a subdirectory called .libs when they are newly
       
   416 built. The programs pcretest and pcregrep are built to use these uninstalled
       
   417 libraries (by means of wrapper scripts in the case of shared libraries). When
       
   418 you use "make install" to install shared libraries, pcregrep and pcretest are
       
   419 automatically re-built to use the newly installed shared libraries before being
       
   420 installed themselves. However, the versions left in the build directory still
       
   421 use the uninstalled libraries.
       
   422 
       
   423 To build PCRE using static libraries only you must use --disable-shared when
       
   424 configuring it. For example:
       
   425 
       
   426 ./configure --prefix=/usr/gnu --disable-shared
       
   427 
       
   428 Then run "make" in the usual way. Similarly, you can use --disable-static to
       
   429 build only shared libraries.
       
   430 
       
   431 
       
   432 Cross-compiling on Unix-like systems
       
   433 ------------------------------------
       
   434 
       
   435 You can specify CC and CFLAGS in the normal way to the "configure" command, in
       
   436 order to cross-compile PCRE for some other host. However, you should NOT
       
   437 specify --enable-rebuild-chartables, because if you do, the dftables.c source
       
   438 file is compiled and run on the local host, in order to generate the inbuilt
       
   439 character tables (the pcre_chartables.c file). This will probably not work,
       
   440 because dftables.c needs to be compiled with the local compiler, not the cross
       
   441 compiler.
       
   442 
       
   443 When --enable-rebuild-chartables is not specified, pcre_chartables.c is created
       
   444 by making a copy of pcre_chartables.c.dist, which is a default set of tables
       
   445 that assumes ASCII code. Cross-compiling with the default tables should not be
       
   446 a problem.
       
   447 
       
   448 If you need to modify the character tables when cross-compiling, you should
       
   449 move pcre_chartables.c.dist out of the way, then compile dftables.c by hand and
       
   450 run it on the local host to make a new version of pcre_chartables.c.dist.
       
   451 Then when you cross-compile PCRE this new version of the tables will be used.
       
   452 
       
   453 
       
   454 Using HP's ANSI C++ compiler (aCC)
       
   455 ----------------------------------
       
   456 
       
   457 Unless C++ support is disabled by specifying the "--disable-cpp" option of the
       
   458 "configure" script, you must include the "-AA" option in the CXXFLAGS
       
   459 environment variable in order for the C++ components to compile correctly.
       
   460 
       
   461 Also, note that the aCC compiler on PA-RISC platforms may have a defect whereby
       
   462 needed libraries fail to get included when specifying the "-AA" compiler
       
   463 option. If you experience unresolved symbols when linking the C++ programs,
       
   464 use the workaround of specifying the following environment variable prior to
       
   465 running the "configure" script:
       
   466 
       
   467   CXXLDFLAGS="-lstd_v2 -lCsup_v2"
       
   468 
       
   469 
       
   470 Making new tarballs
       
   471 -------------------
       
   472 
       
   473 The command "make dist" creates three PCRE tarballs, in tar.gz, tar.bz2, and
       
   474 zip formats. The command "make distcheck" does the same, but then does a trial
       
   475 build of the new distribution to ensure that it works.
       
   476 
       
   477 If you have modified any of the man page sources in the doc directory, you
       
   478 should first run the PrepareRelease script before making a distribution. This
       
   479 script creates the .txt and HTML forms of the documentation from the man pages.
       
   480 
       
   481 
       
   482 Testing PCRE
       
   483 ------------
       
   484 
       
   485 To test the basic PCRE library on a Unix system, run the RunTest script that is
       
   486 created by the configuring process. There is also a script called RunGrepTest
       
   487 that tests the options of the pcregrep command. If the C++ wrapper library is
       
   488 built, three test programs called pcrecpp_unittest, pcre_scanner_unittest, and
       
   489 pcre_stringpiece_unittest are also built.
       
   490 
       
   491 Both the scripts and all the program tests are run if you obey "make check" or
       
   492 "make test". For other systems, see the instructions in NON-UNIX-USE.
       
   493 
       
   494 The RunTest script runs the pcretest test program (which is documented in its
       
   495 own man page) on each of the testinput files in the testdata directory in
       
   496 turn, and compares the output with the contents of the corresponding testoutput
       
   497 files. A file called testtry is used to hold the main output from pcretest
       
   498 (testsavedregex is also used as a working file). To run pcretest on just one of
       
   499 the test files, give its number as an argument to RunTest, for example:
       
   500 
       
   501   RunTest 2
       
   502 
       
   503 The first test file can also be fed directly into the perltest.pl script to
       
   504 check that Perl gives the same results. The only difference you should see is
       
   505 in the first few lines, where the Perl version is given instead of the PCRE
       
   506 version.
       
   507 
       
   508 The second set of tests check pcre_fullinfo(), pcre_info(), pcre_study(),
       
   509 pcre_copy_substring(), pcre_get_substring(), pcre_get_substring_list(), error
       
   510 detection, and run-time flags that are specific to PCRE, as well as the POSIX
       
   511 wrapper API. It also uses the debugging flags to check some of the internals of
       
   512 pcre_compile().
       
   513 
       
   514 If you build PCRE with a locale setting that is not the standard C locale, the
       
   515 character tables may be different (see next paragraph). In some cases, this may
       
   516 cause failures in the second set of tests. For example, in a locale where the
       
   517 isprint() function yields TRUE for characters in the range 128-255, the use of
       
   518 [:isascii:] inside a character class defines a different set of characters, and
       
   519 this shows up in this test as a difference in the compiled code, which is being
       
   520 listed for checking. Where the comparison test output contains [\x00-\x7f] the
       
   521 test will contain [\x00-\xff], and similarly in some other cases. This is not a
       
   522 bug in PCRE.
       
   523 
       
   524 The third set of tests checks pcre_maketables(), the facility for building a
       
   525 set of character tables for a specific locale and using them instead of the
       
   526 default tables. The tests make use of the "fr_FR" (French) locale. Before
       
   527 running the test, the script checks for the presence of this locale by running
       
   528 the "locale" command. If that command fails, or if it doesn't include "fr_FR"
       
   529 in the list of available locales, the third test cannot be run, and a comment
       
   530 is output to say why. If running this test produces instances of the error
       
   531 
       
   532   ** Failed to set locale "fr_FR"
       
   533 
       
   534 in the comparison output, it means that locale is not available on your system,
       
   535 despite being listed by "locale". This does not mean that PCRE is broken.
       
   536 
       
   537 [If you are trying to run this test on Windows, you may be able to get it to
       
   538 work by changing "fr_FR" to "french" everywhere it occurs. Alternatively, use
       
   539 RunTest.bat. The version of RunTest.bat included with PCRE 7.4 and above uses
       
   540 Windows versions of test 2. More info on using RunTest.bat is included in the
       
   541 document entitled NON-UNIX-USE.]
       
   542 
       
   543 The fourth test checks the UTF-8 support. It is not run automatically unless
       
   544 PCRE is built with UTF-8 support. To do this you must set --enable-utf8 when
       
   545 running "configure". This file can be also fed directly to the perltest script,
       
   546 provided you are running Perl 5.8 or higher. (For Perl 5.6, a small patch,
       
   547 commented in the script, can be be used.)
       
   548 
       
   549 The fifth test checks error handling with UTF-8 encoding, and internal UTF-8
       
   550 features of PCRE that are not relevant to Perl.
       
   551 
       
   552 The sixth test checks the support for Unicode character properties. It it not
       
   553 run automatically unless PCRE is built with Unicode property support. To to
       
   554 this you must set --enable-unicode-properties when running "configure".
       
   555 
       
   556 The seventh, eighth, and ninth tests check the pcre_dfa_exec() alternative
       
   557 matching function, in non-UTF-8 mode, UTF-8 mode, and UTF-8 mode with Unicode
       
   558 property support, respectively. The eighth and ninth tests are not run
       
   559 automatically unless PCRE is build with the relevant support.
       
   560 
       
   561 
       
   562 Character tables
       
   563 ----------------
       
   564 
       
   565 For speed, PCRE uses four tables for manipulating and identifying characters
       
   566 whose code point values are less than 256. The final argument of the
       
   567 pcre_compile() function is a pointer to a block of memory containing the
       
   568 concatenated tables. A call to pcre_maketables() can be used to generate a set
       
   569 of tables in the current locale. If the final argument for pcre_compile() is
       
   570 passed as NULL, a set of default tables that is built into the binary is used.
       
   571 
       
   572 The source file called pcre_chartables.c contains the default set of tables. By
       
   573 default, this is created as a copy of pcre_chartables.c.dist, which contains
       
   574 tables for ASCII coding. However, if --enable-rebuild-chartables is specified
       
   575 for ./configure, a different version of pcre_chartables.c is built by the
       
   576 program dftables (compiled from dftables.c), which uses the ANSI C character
       
   577 handling functions such as isalnum(), isalpha(), isupper(), islower(), etc. to
       
   578 build the table sources. This means that the default C locale which is set for
       
   579 your system will control the contents of these default tables. You can change
       
   580 the default tables by editing pcre_chartables.c and then re-building PCRE. If
       
   581 you do this, you should take care to ensure that the file does not get
       
   582 automatically re-generated. The best way to do this is to move
       
   583 pcre_chartables.c.dist out of the way and replace it with your customized
       
   584 tables.
       
   585 
       
   586 When the dftables program is run as a result of --enable-rebuild-chartables,
       
   587 it uses the default C locale that is set on your system. It does not pay
       
   588 attention to the LC_xxx environment variables. In other words, it uses the
       
   589 system's default locale rather than whatever the compiling user happens to have
       
   590 set. If you really do want to build a source set of character tables in a
       
   591 locale that is specified by the LC_xxx variables, you can run the dftables
       
   592 program by hand with the -L option. For example:
       
   593 
       
   594   ./dftables -L pcre_chartables.c.special
       
   595 
       
   596 The first two 256-byte tables provide lower casing and case flipping functions,
       
   597 respectively. The next table consists of three 32-byte bit maps which identify
       
   598 digits, "word" characters, and white space, respectively. These are used when
       
   599 building 32-byte bit maps that represent character classes for code points less
       
   600 than 256.
       
   601 
       
   602 The final 256-byte table has bits indicating various character types, as
       
   603 follows:
       
   604 
       
   605     1   white space character
       
   606     2   letter
       
   607     4   decimal digit
       
   608     8   hexadecimal digit
       
   609    16   alphanumeric or '_'
       
   610   128   regular expression metacharacter or binary zero
       
   611 
       
   612 You should not alter the set of characters that contain the 128 bit, as that
       
   613 will cause PCRE to malfunction.
       
   614 
       
   615 
       
   616 File manifest
       
   617 -------------
       
   618 
       
   619 The distribution should contain the following files:
       
   620 
       
   621 (A) Source files of the PCRE library functions and their headers:
       
   622 
       
   623   dftables.c              auxiliary program for building pcre_chartables.c
       
   624                             when --enable-rebuild-chartables is specified
       
   625 
       
   626   pcre_chartables.c.dist  a default set of character tables that assume ASCII
       
   627                             coding; used, unless --enable-rebuild-chartables is
       
   628                             specified, by copying to pcre_chartables.c
       
   629 
       
   630   pcreposix.c             )
       
   631   pcre_compile.c          )
       
   632   pcre_config.c           )
       
   633   pcre_dfa_exec.c         )
       
   634   pcre_exec.c             )
       
   635   pcre_fullinfo.c         )
       
   636   pcre_get.c              ) sources for the functions in the library,
       
   637   pcre_globals.c          )   and some internal functions that they use
       
   638   pcre_info.c             )
       
   639   pcre_maketables.c       )
       
   640   pcre_newline.c          )
       
   641   pcre_ord2utf8.c         )
       
   642   pcre_refcount.c         )
       
   643   pcre_study.c            )
       
   644   pcre_tables.c           )
       
   645   pcre_try_flipped.c      )
       
   646   pcre_ucd.c              )
       
   647   pcre_valid_utf8.c       )
       
   648   pcre_version.c          )
       
   649   pcre_xclass.c           )
       
   650   pcre_printint.src       ) debugging function that is #included in pcretest,
       
   651                           )   and can also be #included in pcre_compile()
       
   652   pcre.h.in               template for pcre.h when built by "configure"
       
   653   pcreposix.h             header for the external POSIX wrapper API
       
   654   pcre_internal.h         header for internal use
       
   655   ucp.h                   header for Unicode property handling
       
   656 
       
   657   config.h.in             template for config.h, which is built by "configure"
       
   658 
       
   659   pcrecpp.h               public header file for the C++ wrapper
       
   660   pcrecpparg.h.in         template for another C++ header file
       
   661   pcre_scanner.h          public header file for C++ scanner functions
       
   662   pcrecpp.cc              )
       
   663   pcre_scanner.cc         ) source for the C++ wrapper library
       
   664 
       
   665   pcre_stringpiece.h.in   template for pcre_stringpiece.h, the header for the
       
   666                             C++ stringpiece functions
       
   667   pcre_stringpiece.cc     source for the C++ stringpiece functions
       
   668 
       
   669 (B) Source files for programs that use PCRE:
       
   670 
       
   671   pcredemo.c              simple demonstration of coding calls to PCRE
       
   672   pcregrep.c              source of a grep utility that uses PCRE
       
   673   pcretest.c              comprehensive test program
       
   674 
       
   675 (C) Auxiliary files:
       
   676 
       
   677   132html                 script to turn "man" pages into HTML
       
   678   AUTHORS                 information about the author of PCRE
       
   679   ChangeLog               log of changes to the code
       
   680   CleanTxt                script to clean nroff output for txt man pages
       
   681   Detrail                 script to remove trailing spaces
       
   682   HACKING                 some notes about the internals of PCRE
       
   683   INSTALL                 generic installation instructions
       
   684   LICENCE                 conditions for the use of PCRE
       
   685   COPYING                 the same, using GNU's standard name
       
   686   Makefile.in             ) template for Unix Makefile, which is built by
       
   687                           )   "configure"
       
   688   Makefile.am             ) the automake input that was used to create
       
   689                           )   Makefile.in
       
   690   NEWS                    important changes in this release
       
   691   NON-UNIX-USE            notes on building PCRE on non-Unix systems
       
   692   PrepareRelease          script to make preparations for "make dist"
       
   693   README                  this file
       
   694   RunTest                 a Unix shell script for running tests
       
   695   RunGrepTest             a Unix shell script for pcregrep tests
       
   696   aclocal.m4              m4 macros (generated by "aclocal")
       
   697   config.guess            ) files used by libtool,
       
   698   config.sub              )   used only when building a shared library
       
   699   configure               a configuring shell script (built by autoconf)
       
   700   configure.ac            ) the autoconf input that was used to build
       
   701                           )   "configure" and config.h
       
   702   depcomp                 ) script to find program dependencies, generated by
       
   703                           )   automake
       
   704   doc/*.3                 man page sources for the PCRE functions
       
   705   doc/*.1                 man page sources for pcregrep and pcretest
       
   706   doc/index.html.src      the base HTML page
       
   707   doc/html/*              HTML documentation
       
   708   doc/pcre.txt            plain text version of the man pages
       
   709   doc/pcretest.txt        plain text documentation of test program
       
   710   doc/perltest.txt        plain text documentation of Perl test program
       
   711   install-sh              a shell script for installing files
       
   712   libpcre.pc.in           template for libpcre.pc for pkg-config
       
   713   libpcrecpp.pc.in        template for libpcrecpp.pc for pkg-config
       
   714   ltmain.sh               file used to build a libtool script
       
   715   missing                 ) common stub for a few missing GNU programs while
       
   716                           )   installing, generated by automake
       
   717   mkinstalldirs           script for making install directories
       
   718   perltest.pl             Perl test program
       
   719   pcre-config.in          source of script which retains PCRE information
       
   720   pcrecpp_unittest.cc          )
       
   721   pcre_scanner_unittest.cc     ) test programs for the C++ wrapper
       
   722   pcre_stringpiece_unittest.cc )
       
   723   testdata/testinput*     test data for main library tests
       
   724   testdata/testoutput*    expected test results
       
   725   testdata/grep*          input and output for pcregrep tests
       
   726 
       
   727 (D) Auxiliary files for cmake support
       
   728 
       
   729   cmake/COPYING-CMAKE-SCRIPTS
       
   730   cmake/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake
       
   731   cmake/FindReadline.cmake
       
   732   CMakeLists.txt
       
   733   config-cmake.h.in
       
   734 
       
   735 (E) Auxiliary files for VPASCAL
       
   736 
       
   737   makevp.bat
       
   738   makevp_c.txt
       
   739   makevp_l.txt
       
   740   pcregexp.pas
       
   741 
       
   742 (F) Auxiliary files for building PCRE "by hand"
       
   743 
       
   744   pcre.h.generic          ) a version of the public PCRE header file
       
   745                           )   for use in non-"configure" environments
       
   746   config.h.generic        ) a version of config.h for use in non-"configure"
       
   747                           )   environments
       
   748 
       
   749 (F) Miscellaneous
       
   750 
       
   751   RunTest.bat            a script for running tests under Windows
       
   752 
       
   753 Philip Hazel
       
   754 Email local part: ph10
       
   755 Email domain: cam.ac.uk
       
   756 Last updated: 05 September 2008