+++ /dev/null
-.TH PCRETEST 1
-.SH NAME
-pcretest - a program for testing Perl-compatible regular expressions.
-.SH SYNOPSIS
-.rs
-.sp
-.B pcretest "[options] [source] [destination]"
-.sp
-\fBpcretest\fP was written as a test program for the PCRE regular expression
-library itself, but it can also be used for experimenting with regular
-expressions. This document describes the features of the test program; for
-details of the regular expressions themselves, see the
-.\" HREF
-\fBpcrepattern\fP
-.\"
-documentation. For details of the PCRE library function calls and their
-options, see the
-.\" HREF
-\fBpcreapi\fP
-.\"
-documentation.
-.
-.
-.SH OPTIONS
-.rs
-.TP 10
-\fB-b\fP
-Behave as if each regex has the \fB/B\fP (show bytecode) modifier; the internal
-form is output after compilation.
-.TP 10
-\fB-C\fP
-Output the version number of the PCRE library, and all available information
-about the optional features that are included, and then exit.
-.TP 10
-\fB-d\fP
-Behave as if each regex has the \fB/D\fP (debug) modifier; the internal
-form and information about the compiled pattern is output after compilation;
-\fB-d\fP is equivalent to \fB-b -i\fP.
-.TP 10
-\fB-dfa\fP
-Behave as if each data line contains the \eD escape sequence; this causes the
-alternative matching function, \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP, to be used instead of the
-standard \fBpcre_exec()\fP function (more detail is given below).
-.TP 10
-\fB-help\fP
-Output a brief summary these options and then exit.
-.TP 10
-\fB-i\fP
-Behave as if each regex has the \fB/I\fP modifier; information about the
-compiled pattern is given after compilation.
-.TP 10
-\fB-M\fP
-Behave as if each data line contains the \eM escape sequence; this causes
-PCRE to discover the minimum MATCH_LIMIT and MATCH_LIMIT_RECURSION settings by
-calling \fBpcre_exec()\fP repeatedly with different limits.
-.TP 10
-\fB-m\fP
-Output the size of each compiled pattern after it has been compiled. This is
-equivalent to adding \fB/M\fP to each regular expression. For compatibility
-with earlier versions of pcretest, \fB-s\fP is a synonym for \fB-m\fP.
-.TP 10
-\fB-o\fP \fIosize\fP
-Set the number of elements in the output vector that is used when calling
-\fBpcre_exec()\fP or \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP to be \fIosize\fP. The default value
-is 45, which is enough for 14 capturing subexpressions for \fBpcre_exec()\fP or
-22 different matches for \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP. The vector size can be
-changed for individual matching calls by including \eO in the data line (see
-below).
-.TP 10
-\fB-p\fP
-Behave as if each regex has the \fB/P\fP modifier; the POSIX wrapper API is
-used to call PCRE. None of the other options has any effect when \fB-p\fP is
-set.
-.TP 10
-\fB-q\fP
-Do not output the version number of \fBpcretest\fP at the start of execution.
-.TP 10
-\fB-S\fP \fIsize\fP
-On Unix-like systems, set the size of the runtime stack to \fIsize\fP
-megabytes.
-.TP 10
-\fB-t\fP
-Run each compile, study, and match many times with a timer, and output
-resulting time per compile or match (in milliseconds). Do not set \fB-m\fP with
-\fB-t\fP, because you will then get the size output a zillion times, and the
-timing will be distorted. You can control the number of iterations that are
-used for timing by following \fB-t\fP with a number (as a separate item on the
-command line). For example, "-t 1000" would iterate 1000 times. The default is
-to iterate 500000 times.
-.TP 10
-\fB-tm\fP
-This is like \fB-t\fP except that it times only the matching phase, not the
-compile or study phases.
-.
-.
-.SH DESCRIPTION
-.rs
-.sp
-If \fBpcretest\fP is given two filename arguments, it reads from the first and
-writes to the second. If it is given only one filename argument, it reads from
-that file and writes to stdout. Otherwise, it reads from stdin and writes to
-stdout, and prompts for each line of input, using "re>" to prompt for regular
-expressions, and "data>" to prompt for data lines.
-.P
-When \fBpcretest\fP is built, a configuration option can specify that it should
-be linked with the \fBlibreadline\fP library. When this is done, if the input
-is from a terminal, it is read using the \fBreadline()\fP function. This
-provides line-editing and history facilities. The output from the \fB-help\fP
-option states whether or not \fBreadline()\fP will be used.
-.P
-The program handles any number of sets of input on a single input file. Each
-set starts with a regular expression, and continues with any number of data
-lines to be matched against the pattern.
-.P
-Each data line is matched separately and independently. If you want to do
-multi-line matches, you have to use the \en escape sequence (or \er or \er\en,
-etc., depending on the newline setting) in a single line of input to encode the
-newline sequences. There is no limit on the length of data lines; the input
-buffer is automatically extended if it is too small.
-.P
-An empty line signals the end of the data lines, at which point a new regular
-expression is read. The regular expressions are given enclosed in any
-non-alphanumeric delimiters other than backslash, for example:
-.sp
- /(a|bc)x+yz/
-.sp
-White space before the initial delimiter is ignored. A regular expression may
-be continued over several input lines, in which case the newline characters are
-included within it. It is possible to include the delimiter within the pattern
-by escaping it, for example
-.sp
- /abc\e/def/
-.sp
-If you do so, the escape and the delimiter form part of the pattern, but since
-delimiters are always non-alphanumeric, this does not affect its interpretation.
-If the terminating delimiter is immediately followed by a backslash, for
-example,
-.sp
- /abc/\e
-.sp
-then a backslash is added to the end of the pattern. This is done to provide a
-way of testing the error condition that arises if a pattern finishes with a
-backslash, because
-.sp
- /abc\e/
-.sp
-is interpreted as the first line of a pattern that starts with "abc/", causing
-pcretest to read the next line as a continuation of the regular expression.
-.
-.
-.SH "PATTERN MODIFIERS"
-.rs
-.sp
-A pattern may be followed by any number of modifiers, which are mostly single
-characters. Following Perl usage, these are referred to below as, for example,
-"the \fB/i\fP modifier", even though the delimiter of the pattern need not
-always be a slash, and no slash is used when writing modifiers. Whitespace may
-appear between the final pattern delimiter and the first modifier, and between
-the modifiers themselves.
-.P
-The \fB/i\fP, \fB/m\fP, \fB/s\fP, and \fB/x\fP modifiers set the PCRE_CASELESS,
-PCRE_MULTILINE, PCRE_DOTALL, or PCRE_EXTENDED options, respectively, when
-\fBpcre_compile()\fP is called. These four modifier letters have the same
-effect as they do in Perl. For example:
-.sp
- /caseless/i
-.sp
-The following table shows additional modifiers for setting PCRE options that do
-not correspond to anything in Perl:
-.sp
- \fB/A\fP PCRE_ANCHORED
- \fB/C\fP PCRE_AUTO_CALLOUT
- \fB/E\fP PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY
- \fB/f\fP PCRE_FIRSTLINE
- \fB/J\fP PCRE_DUPNAMES
- \fB/N\fP PCRE_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE
- \fB/U\fP PCRE_UNGREEDY
- \fB/X\fP PCRE_EXTRA
- \fB/<JS>\fP PCRE_JAVASCRIPT_COMPAT
- \fB/<cr>\fP PCRE_NEWLINE_CR
- \fB/<lf>\fP PCRE_NEWLINE_LF
- \fB/<crlf>\fP PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF
- \fB/<anycrlf>\fP PCRE_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF
- \fB/<any>\fP PCRE_NEWLINE_ANY
- \fB/<bsr_anycrlf>\fP PCRE_BSR_ANYCRLF
- \fB/<bsr_unicode>\fP PCRE_BSR_UNICODE
-.sp
-Those specifying line ending sequences are literal strings as shown, but the
-letters can be in either case. This example sets multiline matching with CRLF
-as the line ending sequence:
-.sp
- /^abc/m<crlf>
-.sp
-Details of the meanings of these PCRE options are given in the
-.\" HREF
-\fBpcreapi\fP
-.\"
-documentation.
-.
-.
-.SS "Finding all matches in a string"
-.rs
-.sp
-Searching for all possible matches within each subject string can be requested
-by the \fB/g\fP or \fB/G\fP modifier. After finding a match, PCRE is called
-again to search the remainder of the subject string. The difference between
-\fB/g\fP and \fB/G\fP is that the former uses the \fIstartoffset\fP argument to
-\fBpcre_exec()\fP to start searching at a new point within the entire string
-(which is in effect what Perl does), whereas the latter passes over a shortened
-substring. This makes a difference to the matching process if the pattern
-begins with a lookbehind assertion (including \eb or \eB).
-.P
-If any call to \fBpcre_exec()\fP in a \fB/g\fP or \fB/G\fP sequence matches an
-empty string, the next call is done with the PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART and
-PCRE_ANCHORED flags set in order to search for another, non-empty, match at the
-same point. If this second match fails, the start offset is advanced by one
-character, and the normal match is retried. This imitates the way Perl handles
-such cases when using the \fB/g\fP modifier or the \fBsplit()\fP function.
-.
-.
-.SS "Other modifiers"
-.rs
-.sp
-There are yet more modifiers for controlling the way \fBpcretest\fP
-operates.
-.P
-The \fB/+\fP modifier requests that as well as outputting the substring that
-matched the entire pattern, pcretest should in addition output the remainder of
-the subject string. This is useful for tests where the subject contains
-multiple copies of the same substring.
-.P
-The \fB/B\fP modifier is a debugging feature. It requests that \fBpcretest\fP
-output a representation of the compiled byte code after compilation. Normally
-this information contains length and offset values; however, if \fB/Z\fP is
-also present, this data is replaced by spaces. This is a special feature for
-use in the automatic test scripts; it ensures that the same output is generated
-for different internal link sizes.
-.P
-The \fB/L\fP modifier must be followed directly by the name of a locale, for
-example,
-.sp
- /pattern/Lfr_FR
-.sp
-For this reason, it must be the last modifier. The given locale is set,
-\fBpcre_maketables()\fP is called to build a set of character tables for the
-locale, and this is then passed to \fBpcre_compile()\fP when compiling the
-regular expression. Without an \fB/L\fP modifier, NULL is passed as the tables
-pointer; that is, \fB/L\fP applies only to the expression on which it appears.
-.P
-The \fB/I\fP modifier requests that \fBpcretest\fP output information about the
-compiled pattern (whether it is anchored, has a fixed first character, and
-so on). It does this by calling \fBpcre_fullinfo()\fP after compiling a
-pattern. If the pattern is studied, the results of that are also output.
-.P
-The \fB/D\fP modifier is a PCRE debugging feature, and is equivalent to
-\fB/BI\fP, that is, both the \fB/B\fP and the \fB/I\fP modifiers.
-.P
-The \fB/F\fP modifier causes \fBpcretest\fP to flip the byte order of the
-fields in the compiled pattern that contain 2-byte and 4-byte numbers. This
-facility is for testing the feature in PCRE that allows it to execute patterns
-that were compiled on a host with a different endianness. This feature is not
-available when the POSIX interface to PCRE is being used, that is, when the
-\fB/P\fP pattern modifier is specified. See also the section about saving and
-reloading compiled patterns below.
-.P
-The \fB/S\fP modifier causes \fBpcre_study()\fP to be called after the
-expression has been compiled, and the results used when the expression is
-matched.
-.P
-The \fB/M\fP modifier causes the size of memory block used to hold the compiled
-pattern to be output.
-.P
-The \fB/P\fP modifier causes \fBpcretest\fP to call PCRE via the POSIX wrapper
-API rather than its native API. When this is done, all other modifiers except
-\fB/i\fP, \fB/m\fP, and \fB/+\fP are ignored. REG_ICASE is set if \fB/i\fP is
-present, and REG_NEWLINE is set if \fB/m\fP is present. The wrapper functions
-force PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY always, and PCRE_DOTALL unless REG_NEWLINE is set.
-.P
-The \fB/8\fP modifier causes \fBpcretest\fP to call PCRE with the PCRE_UTF8
-option set. This turns on support for UTF-8 character handling in PCRE,
-provided that it was compiled with this support enabled. This modifier also
-causes any non-printing characters in output strings to be printed using the
-\ex{hh...} notation if they are valid UTF-8 sequences.
-.P
-If the \fB/?\fP modifier is used with \fB/8\fP, it causes \fBpcretest\fP to
-call \fBpcre_compile()\fP with the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK option, to suppress the
-checking of the string for UTF-8 validity.
-.
-.
-.SH "DATA LINES"
-.rs
-.sp
-Before each data line is passed to \fBpcre_exec()\fP, leading and trailing
-whitespace is removed, and it is then scanned for \e escapes. Some of these are
-pretty esoteric features, intended for checking out some of the more
-complicated features of PCRE. If you are just testing "ordinary" regular
-expressions, you probably don't need any of these. The following escapes are
-recognized:
-.sp
- \ea alarm (BEL, \ex07)
- \eb backspace (\ex08)
- \ee escape (\ex27)
- \ef formfeed (\ex0c)
- \en newline (\ex0a)
-.\" JOIN
- \eqdd set the PCRE_MATCH_LIMIT limit to dd
- (any number of digits)
- \er carriage return (\ex0d)
- \et tab (\ex09)
- \ev vertical tab (\ex0b)
- \ennn octal character (up to 3 octal digits)
- \exhh hexadecimal character (up to 2 hex digits)
-.\" JOIN
- \ex{hh...} hexadecimal character, any number of digits
- in UTF-8 mode
-.\" JOIN
- \eA pass the PCRE_ANCHORED option to \fBpcre_exec()\fP
- or \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP
-.\" JOIN
- \eB pass the PCRE_NOTBOL option to \fBpcre_exec()\fP
- or \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP
-.\" JOIN
- \eCdd call pcre_copy_substring() for substring dd
- after a successful match (number less than 32)
-.\" JOIN
- \eCname call pcre_copy_named_substring() for substring
- "name" after a successful match (name termin-
- ated by next non alphanumeric character)
-.\" JOIN
- \eC+ show the current captured substrings at callout
- time
- \eC- do not supply a callout function
-.\" JOIN
- \eC!n return 1 instead of 0 when callout number n is
- reached
-.\" JOIN
- \eC!n!m return 1 instead of 0 when callout number n is
- reached for the nth time
-.\" JOIN
- \eC*n pass the number n (may be negative) as callout
- data; this is used as the callout return value
- \eD use the \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP match function
- \eF only shortest match for \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP
-.\" JOIN
- \eGdd call pcre_get_substring() for substring dd
- after a successful match (number less than 32)
-.\" JOIN
- \eGname call pcre_get_named_substring() for substring
- "name" after a successful match (name termin-
- ated by next non-alphanumeric character)
-.\" JOIN
- \eL call pcre_get_substringlist() after a
- successful match
-.\" JOIN
- \eM discover the minimum MATCH_LIMIT and
- MATCH_LIMIT_RECURSION settings
-.\" JOIN
- \eN pass the PCRE_NOTEMPTY option to \fBpcre_exec()\fP
- or \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP; if used twice, pass the
- PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART option
-.\" JOIN
- \eOdd set the size of the output vector passed to
- \fBpcre_exec()\fP to dd (any number of digits)
-.\" JOIN
- \eP pass the PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT option to \fBpcre_exec()\fP
- or \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP; if used twice, pass the
- PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD option
-.\" JOIN
- \eQdd set the PCRE_MATCH_LIMIT_RECURSION limit to dd
- (any number of digits)
- \eR pass the PCRE_DFA_RESTART option to \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP
- \eS output details of memory get/free calls during matching
-.\" JOIN
- \eY pass the PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE option to \fBpcre_exec()\fP
- or \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP
-.\" JOIN
- \eZ pass the PCRE_NOTEOL option to \fBpcre_exec()\fP
- or \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP
-.\" JOIN
- \e? pass the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK option to
- \fBpcre_exec()\fP or \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP
- \e>dd start the match at offset dd (any number of digits);
-.\" JOIN
- this sets the \fIstartoffset\fP argument for \fBpcre_exec()\fP
- or \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP
-.\" JOIN
- \e<cr> pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_CR option to \fBpcre_exec()\fP
- or \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP
-.\" JOIN
- \e<lf> pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_LF option to \fBpcre_exec()\fP
- or \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP
-.\" JOIN
- \e<crlf> pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF option to \fBpcre_exec()\fP
- or \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP
-.\" JOIN
- \e<anycrlf> pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF option to \fBpcre_exec()\fP
- or \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP
-.\" JOIN
- \e<any> pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_ANY option to \fBpcre_exec()\fP
- or \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP
-.sp
-The escapes that specify line ending sequences are literal strings, exactly as
-shown. No more than one newline setting should be present in any data line.
-.P
-A backslash followed by anything else just escapes the anything else. If
-the very last character is a backslash, it is ignored. This gives a way of
-passing an empty line as data, since a real empty line terminates the data
-input.
-.P
-If \eM is present, \fBpcretest\fP calls \fBpcre_exec()\fP several times, with
-different values in the \fImatch_limit\fP and \fImatch_limit_recursion\fP
-fields of the \fBpcre_extra\fP data structure, until it finds the minimum
-numbers for each parameter that allow \fBpcre_exec()\fP to complete. The
-\fImatch_limit\fP number is a measure of the amount of backtracking that takes
-place, and checking it out can be instructive. For most simple matches, the
-number is quite small, but for patterns with very large numbers of matching
-possibilities, it can become large very quickly with increasing length of
-subject string. The \fImatch_limit_recursion\fP number is a measure of how much
-stack (or, if PCRE is compiled with NO_RECURSE, how much heap) memory is needed
-to complete the match attempt.
-.P
-When \eO is used, the value specified may be higher or lower than the size set
-by the \fB-O\fP command line option (or defaulted to 45); \eO applies only to
-the call of \fBpcre_exec()\fP for the line in which it appears.
-.P
-If the \fB/P\fP modifier was present on the pattern, causing the POSIX wrapper
-API to be used, the only option-setting sequences that have any effect are \eB
-and \eZ, causing REG_NOTBOL and REG_NOTEOL, respectively, to be passed to
-\fBregexec()\fP.
-.P
-The use of \ex{hh...} to represent UTF-8 characters is not dependent on the use
-of the \fB/8\fP modifier on the pattern. It is recognized always. There may be
-any number of hexadecimal digits inside the braces. The result is from one to
-six bytes, encoded according to the original UTF-8 rules of RFC 2279. This
-allows for values in the range 0 to 0x7FFFFFFF. Note that not all of those are
-valid Unicode code points, or indeed valid UTF-8 characters according to the
-later rules in RFC 3629.
-.
-.
-.SH "THE ALTERNATIVE MATCHING FUNCTION"
-.rs
-.sp
-By default, \fBpcretest\fP uses the standard PCRE matching function,
-\fBpcre_exec()\fP to match each data line. From release 6.0, PCRE supports an
-alternative matching function, \fBpcre_dfa_test()\fP, which operates in a
-different way, and has some restrictions. The differences between the two
-functions are described in the
-.\" HREF
-\fBpcrematching\fP
-.\"
-documentation.
-.P
-If a data line contains the \eD escape sequence, or if the command line
-contains the \fB-dfa\fP option, the alternative matching function is called.
-This function finds all possible matches at a given point. If, however, the \eF
-escape sequence is present in the data line, it stops after the first match is
-found. This is always the shortest possible match.
-.
-.
-.SH "DEFAULT OUTPUT FROM PCRETEST"
-.rs
-.sp
-This section describes the output when the normal matching function,
-\fBpcre_exec()\fP, is being used.
-.P
-When a match succeeds, pcretest outputs the list of captured substrings that
-\fBpcre_exec()\fP returns, starting with number 0 for the string that matched
-the whole pattern. Otherwise, it outputs "No match" when the return is
-PCRE_ERROR_NOMATCH, and "Partial match:" followed by the partially matching
-substring when \fBpcre_exec()\fP returns PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL. For any other
-returns, it outputs the PCRE negative error number. Here is an example of an
-interactive \fBpcretest\fP run.
-.sp
- $ pcretest
- PCRE version 7.0 30-Nov-2006
-.sp
- re> /^abc(\ed+)/
- data> abc123
- 0: abc123
- 1: 123
- data> xyz
- No match
-.sp
-Note that unset capturing substrings that are not followed by one that is set
-are not returned by \fBpcre_exec()\fP, and are not shown by \fBpcretest\fP. In
-the following example, there are two capturing substrings, but when the first
-data line is matched, the second, unset substring is not shown. An "internal"
-unset substring is shown as "<unset>", as for the second data line.
-.sp
- re> /(a)|(b)/
- data> a
- 0: a
- 1: a
- data> b
- 0: b
- 1: <unset>
- 2: b
-.sp
-If the strings contain any non-printing characters, they are output as \e0x
-escapes, or as \ex{...} escapes if the \fB/8\fP modifier was present on the
-pattern. See below for the definition of non-printing characters. If the
-pattern has the \fB/+\fP modifier, the output for substring 0 is followed by
-the the rest of the subject string, identified by "0+" like this:
-.sp
- re> /cat/+
- data> cataract
- 0: cat
- 0+ aract
-.sp
-If the pattern has the \fB/g\fP or \fB/G\fP modifier, the results of successive
-matching attempts are output in sequence, like this:
-.sp
- re> /\eBi(\ew\ew)/g
- data> Mississippi
- 0: iss
- 1: ss
- 0: iss
- 1: ss
- 0: ipp
- 1: pp
-.sp
-"No match" is output only if the first match attempt fails.
-.P
-If any of the sequences \fB\eC\fP, \fB\eG\fP, or \fB\eL\fP are present in a
-data line that is successfully matched, the substrings extracted by the
-convenience functions are output with C, G, or L after the string number
-instead of a colon. This is in addition to the normal full list. The string
-length (that is, the return from the extraction function) is given in
-parentheses after each string for \fB\eC\fP and \fB\eG\fP.
-.P
-Note that whereas patterns can be continued over several lines (a plain ">"
-prompt is used for continuations), data lines may not. However newlines can be
-included in data by means of the \en escape (or \er, \er\en, etc., depending on
-the newline sequence setting).
-.
-.
-.
-.SH "OUTPUT FROM THE ALTERNATIVE MATCHING FUNCTION"
-.rs
-.sp
-When the alternative matching function, \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP, is used (by
-means of the \eD escape sequence or the \fB-dfa\fP command line option), the
-output consists of a list of all the matches that start at the first point in
-the subject where there is at least one match. For example:
-.sp
- re> /(tang|tangerine|tan)/
- data> yellow tangerine\eD
- 0: tangerine
- 1: tang
- 2: tan
-.sp
-(Using the normal matching function on this data finds only "tang".) The
-longest matching string is always given first (and numbered zero). After a
-PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL return, the output is "Partial match:", followed by the
-partially matching substring.
-.P
-If \fB/g\fP is present on the pattern, the search for further matches resumes
-at the end of the longest match. For example:
-.sp
- re> /(tang|tangerine|tan)/g
- data> yellow tangerine and tangy sultana\eD
- 0: tangerine
- 1: tang
- 2: tan
- 0: tang
- 1: tan
- 0: tan
-.sp
-Since the matching function does not support substring capture, the escape
-sequences that are concerned with captured substrings are not relevant.
-.
-.
-.SH "RESTARTING AFTER A PARTIAL MATCH"
-.rs
-.sp
-When the alternative matching function has given the PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL return,
-indicating that the subject partially matched the pattern, you can restart the
-match with additional subject data by means of the \eR escape sequence. For
-example:
-.sp
- re> /^\ed?\ed(jan|feb|mar|apr|may|jun|jul|aug|sep|oct|nov|dec)\ed\ed$/
- data> 23ja\eP\eD
- Partial match: 23ja
- data> n05\eR\eD
- 0: n05
-.sp
-For further information about partial matching, see the
-.\" HREF
-\fBpcrepartial\fP
-.\"
-documentation.
-.
-.
-.SH CALLOUTS
-.rs
-.sp
-If the pattern contains any callout requests, \fBpcretest\fP's callout function
-is called during matching. This works with both matching functions. By default,
-the called function displays the callout number, the start and current
-positions in the text at the callout time, and the next pattern item to be
-tested. For example, the output
-.sp
- --->pqrabcdef
- 0 ^ ^ \ed
-.sp
-indicates that callout number 0 occurred for a match attempt starting at the
-fourth character of the subject string, when the pointer was at the seventh
-character of the data, and when the next pattern item was \ed. Just one
-circumflex is output if the start and current positions are the same.
-.P
-Callouts numbered 255 are assumed to be automatic callouts, inserted as a
-result of the \fB/C\fP pattern modifier. In this case, instead of showing the
-callout number, the offset in the pattern, preceded by a plus, is output. For
-example:
-.sp
- re> /\ed?[A-E]\e*/C
- data> E*
- --->E*
- +0 ^ \ed?
- +3 ^ [A-E]
- +8 ^^ \e*
- +10 ^ ^
- 0: E*
-.sp
-The callout function in \fBpcretest\fP returns zero (carry on matching) by
-default, but you can use a \eC item in a data line (as described above) to
-change this.
-.P
-Inserting callouts can be helpful when using \fBpcretest\fP to check
-complicated regular expressions. For further information about callouts, see
-the
-.\" HREF
-\fBpcrecallout\fP
-.\"
-documentation.
-.
-.
-.
-.SH "NON-PRINTING CHARACTERS"
-.rs
-.sp
-When \fBpcretest\fP is outputting text in the compiled version of a pattern,
-bytes other than 32-126 are always treated as non-printing characters are are
-therefore shown as hex escapes.
-.P
-When \fBpcretest\fP is outputting text that is a matched part of a subject
-string, it behaves in the same way, unless a different locale has been set for
-the pattern (using the \fB/L\fP modifier). In this case, the \fBisprint()\fP
-function to distinguish printing and non-printing characters.
-.
-.
-.
-.SH "SAVING AND RELOADING COMPILED PATTERNS"
-.rs
-.sp
-The facilities described in this section are not available when the POSIX
-inteface to PCRE is being used, that is, when the \fB/P\fP pattern modifier is
-specified.
-.P
-When the POSIX interface is not in use, you can cause \fBpcretest\fP to write a
-compiled pattern to a file, by following the modifiers with > and a file name.
-For example:
-.sp
- /pattern/im >/some/file
-.sp
-See the
-.\" HREF
-\fBpcreprecompile\fP
-.\"
-documentation for a discussion about saving and re-using compiled patterns.
-.P
-The data that is written is binary. The first eight bytes are the length of the
-compiled pattern data followed by the length of the optional study data, each
-written as four bytes in big-endian order (most significant byte first). If
-there is no study data (either the pattern was not studied, or studying did not
-return any data), the second length is zero. The lengths are followed by an
-exact copy of the compiled pattern. If there is additional study data, this
-follows immediately after the compiled pattern. After writing the file,
-\fBpcretest\fP expects to read a new pattern.
-.P
-A saved pattern can be reloaded into \fBpcretest\fP by specifing < and a file
-name instead of a pattern. The name of the file must not contain a < character,
-as otherwise \fBpcretest\fP will interpret the line as a pattern delimited by <
-characters.
-For example:
-.sp
- re> </some/file
- Compiled regex loaded from /some/file
- No study data
-.sp
-When the pattern has been loaded, \fBpcretest\fP proceeds to read data lines in
-the usual way.
-.P
-You can copy a file written by \fBpcretest\fP to a different host and reload it
-there, even if the new host has opposite endianness to the one on which the
-pattern was compiled. For example, you can compile on an i86 machine and run on
-a SPARC machine.
-.P
-File names for saving and reloading can be absolute or relative, but note that
-the shell facility of expanding a file name that starts with a tilde (~) is not
-available.
-.P
-The ability to save and reload files in \fBpcretest\fP is intended for testing
-and experimentation. It is not intended for production use because only a
-single pattern can be written to a file. Furthermore, there is no facility for
-supplying custom character tables for use with a reloaded pattern. If the
-original pattern was compiled with custom tables, an attempt to match a subject
-string using a reloaded pattern is likely to cause \fBpcretest\fP to crash.
-Finally, if you attempt to load a file that is not in the correct format, the
-result is undefined.
-.
-.
-.SH "SEE ALSO"
-.rs
-.sp
-\fBpcre\fP(3), \fBpcreapi\fP(3), \fBpcrecallout\fP(3), \fBpcrematching\fP(3),
-\fBpcrepartial\fP(d), \fBpcrepattern\fP(3), \fBpcreprecompile\fP(3).
-.
-.
-.SH AUTHOR
-.rs
-.sp
-.nf
-Philip Hazel
-University Computing Service
-Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
-.fi
-.
-.
-.SH REVISION
-.rs
-.sp
-.nf
-Last updated: 26 September 2009
-Copyright (c) 1997-2009 University of Cambridge.
-.fi
projects / vuplus_xbmc / blobdiff