.TH PCRE_EXEC 3
.SH NAME
PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions
.SH SYNOPSIS
.rs
.sp
.B #include <pcre.h>
.PP
.SM
.B int pcre_exec(const pcre *\fIcode\fP, "const pcre_extra *\fIextra\fP,"
.ti +5n
.B "const char *\fIsubject\fP," int \fIlength\fP, int \fIstartoffset\fP,
.ti +5n
.B int \fIoptions\fP, int *\fIovector\fP, int \fIovecsize\fP);
.
.SH DESCRIPTION
.rs
.sp
This function matches a compiled regular expression against a given subject
string, using a matching algorithm that is similar to Perl's. It returns
offsets to captured substrings. Its arguments are:
.sp
\fIcode\fP Points to the compiled pattern
\fIextra\fP Points to an associated \fBpcre_extra\fP structure,
or is NULL
\fIsubject\fP Points to the subject string
\fIlength\fP Length of the subject string, in bytes
\fIstartoffset\fP Offset in bytes in the subject at which to
start matching
\fIoptions\fP Option bits
\fIovector\fP Points to a vector of ints for result offsets
\fIovecsize\fP Number of elements in the vector (a multiple of 3)
.sp
The options are:
.sp
PCRE_ANCHORED Match only at the first position
PCRE_BSR_ANYCRLF \eR matches only CR, LF, or CRLF
PCRE_BSR_UNICODE \eR matches all Unicode line endings
PCRE_NEWLINE_ANY Recognize any Unicode newline sequence
PCRE_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF Recognize CR, LF, & CRLF as newline sequences
PCRE_NEWLINE_CR Recognize CR as the only newline sequence
PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF Recognize CRLF as the only newline sequence
PCRE_NEWLINE_LF Recognize LF as the only newline sequence
PCRE_NOTBOL Subject string is not the beginning of a line
PCRE_NOTEOL Subject string is not the end of a line
PCRE_NOTEMPTY An empty string is not a valid match
PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART An empty string at the start of the subject
is not a valid match
PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE Do not do "start-match" optimizations
PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK Do not check the subject for UTF-8
validity (only relevant if PCRE_UTF8
was set at compile time)
PCRE_PARTIAL ) Return PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL for a partial
PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT ) match if no full matches are found
PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD Return PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL for a partial match
even if there is a full match as well
.sp
For details of partial matching, see the
.\" HREF
\fBpcrepartial\fP
.\"
page. A \fBpcre_extra\fP structure contains the following fields:
.sp
\fIflags\fP Bits indicating which fields are set
\fIstudy_data\fP Opaque data from \fBpcre_study()\fP
\fImatch_limit\fP Limit on internal resource use
\fImatch_limit_recursion\fP Limit on internal recursion depth
\fIcallout_data\fP Opaque data passed back to callouts
\fItables\fP Points to character tables or is NULL
.sp
The flag bits are PCRE_EXTRA_STUDY_DATA, PCRE_EXTRA_MATCH_LIMIT,
PCRE_EXTRA_MATCH_LIMIT_RECURSION, PCRE_EXTRA_CALLOUT_DATA, and
PCRE_EXTRA_TABLES.
.P
There is a complete description of the PCRE native API in the
.\" HREF
\fBpcreapi\fP
.\"
page and a description of the POSIX API in the
.\" HREF
\fBpcreposix\fP
.\"
page.
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