1 .TH PCRE_EXEC 3

     2 .SH NAME

     3 PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions

     4 .SH SYNOPSIS

     5 .rs

     6 .sp

     7 .B #include <pcre.h>

     8 .PP

     9 .SM

    10 .B int pcre_exec(const pcre *\fIcode\fP, "const pcre_extra *\fIextra\fP,"

    11 .ti +5n

    12 .B "const char *\fIsubject\fP," int \fIlength\fP, int \fIstartoffset\fP,

    13 .ti +5n

    14 .B int \fIoptions\fP, int *\fIovector\fP, int \fIovecsize\fP);

    15 .

    16 .SH DESCRIPTION

    17 .rs

    18 .sp

    19 This function matches a compiled regular expression against a given subject

    20 string, using a matching algorithm that is similar to Perl's. It returns

    21 offsets to captured substrings. Its arguments are:

    22 .sp

    23   \fIcode\fP         Points to the compiled pattern

    24   \fIextra\fP        Points to an associated \fBpcre_extra\fP structure,

    25                  or is NULL

    26   \fIsubject\fP      Points to the subject string

    27   \fIlength\fP       Length of the subject string, in bytes

    28   \fIstartoffset\fP  Offset in bytes in the subject at which to

    29                  start matching

    30   \fIoptions\fP      Option bits

    31   \fIovector\fP      Points to a vector of ints for result offsets

    32   \fIovecsize\fP     Number of elements in the vector (a multiple of 3)

    33 .sp

    34 The options are:

    35 .sp

    36   PCRE_ANCHORED      Match only at the first position

    37   PCRE_BSR_ANYCRLF   \eR matches only CR, LF, or CRLF

    38   PCRE_BSR_UNICODE   \eR matches all Unicode line endings

    39   PCRE_NEWLINE_ANY   Recognize any Unicode newline sequence

    40   PCRE_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF  Recognize CR, LF, and CRLF as newline sequences

    41   PCRE_NEWLINE_CR    Set CR as the newline sequence

    42   PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF  Set CRLF as the newline sequence

    43   PCRE_NEWLINE_LF    Set LF as the newline sequence

    44   PCRE_NOTBOL        Subject is not the beginning of a line

    45   PCRE_NOTEOL        Subject is not the end of a line

    46   PCRE_NOTEMPTY      An empty string is not a valid match

    47   PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK Do not check the subject for UTF-8

    48                        validity (only relevant if PCRE_UTF8

    49                        was set at compile time)

    50   PCRE_PARTIAL       Return PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL for a partial match

    51 .sp

    52 There are restrictions on what may appear in a pattern when partial matching is

    53 requested. For details, see the

    54 .\" HREF

    55 \fBpcrepartial\fP

    56 .\"

    57 page.

    58 .P

    59 A \fBpcre_extra\fP structure contains the following fields:

    60 .sp

    61   \fIflags\fP        Bits indicating which fields are set

    62   \fIstudy_data\fP   Opaque data from \fBpcre_study()\fP

    63   \fImatch_limit\fP  Limit on internal resource use

    64   \fImatch_limit_recursion\fP  Limit on internal recursion depth

    65   \fIcallout_data\fP Opaque data passed back to callouts

    66   \fItables\fP       Points to character tables or is NULL

    67 .sp

    68 The flag bits are PCRE_EXTRA_STUDY_DATA, PCRE_EXTRA_MATCH_LIMIT,

    69 PCRE_EXTRA_MATCH_LIMIT_RECURSION, PCRE_EXTRA_CALLOUT_DATA, and

    70 PCRE_EXTRA_TABLES.

    71 .P

    72 There is a complete description of the PCRE native API in the

    73 .\" HREF

    74 \fBpcreapi\fP

    75 .\"

    76 page and a description of the POSIX API in the

    77 .\" HREF

    78 \fBpcreposix\fP

    79 .\"

    80 page.