-This file contains the PCRE man page that described the pcretest program. Note
-that not all of the features of PCRE are available in the limited version that
+This file contains the PCRE man page that described the pcretest program. Note
+that not all of the features of PCRE are available in the limited version that
is built with Exim.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PCRETEST(1) PCRETEST(1)
-
NAME
pcretest - a program for testing Perl-compatible regular expressions.
+
SYNOPSIS
- pcretest [-C] [-d] [-i] [-m] [-o osize] [-p] [-t] [source]
- [destination]
+ pcretest [options] [source] [destination]
pcretest was written as a test program for the PCRE regular expression
library itself, but it can also be used for experimenting with regular
OPTIONS
+ -b Behave as if each regex has the /B (show bytecode) modifier;
+ the internal form is output after compilation.
+
-C Output the version number of the PCRE library, and all avail-
- able information about the optional features that are
+ able information about the optional features that are
included, and then exit.
- -d Behave as if each regex had the /D (debug) modifier; the
- internal form is output after compilation.
+ -d Behave as if each regex has the /D (debug) modifier; the
+ internal form and information about the compiled pattern is
+ output after compilation; -d is equivalent to -b -i.
+
+ -dfa Behave as if each data line contains the \D escape sequence;
+ this causes the alternative matching function,
+ pcre_dfa_exec(), to be used instead of the standard
+ pcre_exec() function (more detail is given below).
+
+ -help Output a brief summary these options and then exit.
- -i Behave as if each regex had the /I modifier; information
+ -i Behave as if each regex has the /I modifier; information
about the compiled pattern is given after compilation.
- -m Output the size of each compiled pattern after it has been
- compiled. This is equivalent to adding /M to each regular
- expression. For compatibility with earlier versions of
+ -m Output the size of each compiled pattern after it has been
+ compiled. This is equivalent to adding /M to each regular
+ expression. For compatibility with earlier versions of
pcretest, -s is a synonym for -m.
- -o osize Set the number of elements in the output vector that is used
- when calling pcre_exec() to be osize. The default value is
- 45, which is enough for 14 capturing subexpressions. The vec-
- tor size can be changed for individual matching calls by
- including \O in the data line (see below).
+ -o osize Set the number of elements in the output vector that is used
+ when calling pcre_exec() or pcre_dfa_exec() to be osize. The
+ default value is 45, which is enough for 14 capturing subex-
+ pressions for pcre_exec() or 22 different matches for
+ pcre_dfa_exec(). The vector size can be changed for individ-
+ ual matching calls by including \O in the data line (see
+ below).
- -p Behave as if each regex has /P modifier; the POSIX wrapper
- API is used to call PCRE. None of the other options has any
- effect when -p is set.
+ -p Behave as if each regex has the /P modifier; the POSIX wrap-
+ per API is used to call PCRE. None of the other options has
+ any effect when -p is set.
- -t Run each compile, study, and match many times with a timer,
- and output resulting time per compile or match (in millisec-
- onds). Do not set -m with -t, because you will then get the
- size output a zillion times, and the timing will be dis-
- torted.
+ -q Do not output the version number of pcretest at the start of
+ execution.
+
+ -S size On Unix-like systems, set the size of the runtime stack to
+ size megabytes.
+
+ -t Run each compile, study, and match many times with a timer,
+ and output resulting time per compile or match (in millisec-
+ onds). Do not set -m with -t, because you will then get the
+ size output a zillion times, and the timing will be dis-
+ torted. You can control the number of iterations that are
+ used for timing by following -t with a number (as a separate
+ item on the command line). For example, "-t 1000" would iter-
+ ate 1000 times. The default is to iterate 500000 times.
+
+ -tm This is like -t except that it times only the matching phase,
+ not the compile or study phases.
DESCRIPTION
- If pcretest is given two filename arguments, it reads from the first
+ If pcretest 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
+ 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.
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 num-
+ Each set starts with a regular expression, and continues with any num-
ber of data lines to be matched against the pattern.
- Each data line is matched separately and independently. If you want to
- do multiple-line matches, you have to use the \n escape sequence in a
- single line of input to encode the newline characters. The maximum
- length of data line is 30,000 characters.
+ Each data line is matched separately and independently. If you want to
+ do multi-line matches, you have to use the \n escape sequence (or \r or
+ \r\n, 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.
- 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
+ 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:
/(a|bc)x+yz/
- White space before the initial delimiter is ignored. A regular expres-
- sion may be continued over several input lines, in which case the new-
- line characters are included within it. It is possible to include the
+ White space before the initial delimiter is ignored. A regular expres-
+ sion may be continued over several input lines, in which case the new-
+ line characters are included within it. It is possible to include the
delimiter within the pattern by escaping it, for example
/abc\/def/
- 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 fol-
+ 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 fol-
lowed by a backslash, for example,
/abc/\
- 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
+ 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
/abc\/
- is interpreted as the first line of a pattern that starts with "abc/",
+ 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.
PATTERN MODIFIERS
- 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 /i 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
+ 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 /i 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.
The /i, /m, /s, and /x modifiers set the PCRE_CASELESS, PCRE_MULTILINE,
- PCRE_DOTALL, or PCRE_EXTENDED options, respectively, when pcre_com-
- pile() is called. These four modifier letters have the same effect as
+ PCRE_DOTALL, or PCRE_EXTENDED options, respectively, when pcre_com-
+ pile() is called. These four modifier letters have the same effect as
they do in Perl. For example:
/caseless/i
The following table shows additional modifiers for setting PCRE options
that do not correspond to anything in Perl:
- /A PCRE_ANCHORED
- /C PCRE_AUTO_CALLOUT
- /E PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY
- /N PCRE_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE
- /U PCRE_UNGREEDY
- /X PCRE_EXTRA
+ /A PCRE_ANCHORED
+ /C PCRE_AUTO_CALLOUT
+ /E PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY
+ /f PCRE_FIRSTLINE
+ /J PCRE_DUPNAMES
+ /N PCRE_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE
+ /U PCRE_UNGREEDY
+ /X PCRE_EXTRA
+ /<cr> PCRE_NEWLINE_CR
+ /<lf> PCRE_NEWLINE_LF
+ /<crlf> PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF
+ /<any> PCRE_NEWLINE_ANY
+
+ Those specifying line ending sequencess are literal strings as shown.
+ This example sets multiline matching with CRLF as the line ending
+ sequence:
+
+ /^abc/m<crlf>
+
+ Details of the meanings of these PCRE options are given in the pcreapi
+ documentation.
+
+ Finding all matches in a string
Searching for all possible matches within each subject string can be
requested by the /g or /G modifier. After finding a match, PCRE is
one, and the normal match is retried. This imitates the way Perl han-
dles such cases when using the /g modifier or the split() function.
+ Other modifiers
+
There are yet more modifiers for controlling the way pcretest operates.
The /+ modifier requests that as well as outputting the substring that
remainder of the subject string. This is useful for tests where the
subject contains multiple copies of the same substring.
- The /L modifier must be followed directly by the name of a locale, for
+ The /B modifier is a debugging feature. It requests that pcretest out-
+ put a representation of the compiled byte code after compilation.
+
+ The /L modifier must be followed directly by the name of a locale, for
example,
/pattern/Lfr_FR
For this reason, it must be the last modifier. The given locale is set,
- pcre_maketables() is called to build a set of character tables for the
- locale, and this is then passed to pcre_compile() when compiling the
- regular expression. Without an /L modifier, NULL is passed as the
- tables pointer; that is, /L applies only to the expression on which it
+ pcre_maketables() is called to build a set of character tables for the
+ locale, and this is then passed to pcre_compile() when compiling the
+ regular expression. Without an /L modifier, NULL is passed as the
+ tables pointer; that is, /L applies only to the expression on which it
appears.
- The /I modifier requests that pcretest output information about the
- compiled pattern (whether it is anchored, has a fixed first character,
- and so on). It does this by calling pcre_fullinfo() after compiling a
- pattern. If the pattern is studied, the results of that are also out-
+ The /I modifier requests that pcretest output information about the
+ compiled pattern (whether it is anchored, has a fixed first character,
+ and so on). It does this by calling pcre_fullinfo() after compiling a
+ pattern. If the pattern is studied, the results of that are also out-
put.
- The /D modifier is a PCRE debugging feature, which also assumes /I. It
- causes the internal form of compiled regular expressions to be output
- after compilation. If the pattern was studied, the information returned
- is also output.
+ The /D modifier is a PCRE debugging feature, and is equivalent to /BI,
+ that is, both the /B and the /I modifiers.
The /F modifier causes pcretest 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
+ 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 /P pattern modifier is specified. See also the
+ feature is not available when the POSIX interface to PCRE is being
+ used, that is, when the /P pattern modifier is specified. See also the
section about saving and reloading compiled patterns below.
- The /S modifier causes pcre_study() to be called after the expression
+ The /S modifier causes pcre_study() to be called after the expression
has been compiled, and the results used when the expression is matched.
- The /M modifier causes the size of memory block used to hold the com-
+ The /M modifier causes the size of memory block used to hold the com-
piled pattern to be output.
- The /P modifier causes pcretest to call PCRE via the POSIX wrapper API
- rather than its native API. When this is done, all other modifiers
- except /i, /m, and /+ are ignored. REG_ICASE is set if /i is present,
- and REG_NEWLINE is set if /m is present. The wrapper functions force
- PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY always, and PCRE_DOTALL unless REG_NEWLINE is set.
+ The /P modifier causes pcretest to call PCRE via the POSIX wrapper API
+ rather than its native API. When this is done, all other modifiers
+ except /i, /m, and /+ are ignored. REG_ICASE is set if /i is present,
+ and REG_NEWLINE is set if /m is present. The wrapper functions force
+ PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY always, and PCRE_DOTALL unless REG_NEWLINE is set.
- The /8 modifier causes pcretest to call PCRE with the PCRE_UTF8 option
- set. This turns on support for UTF-8 character handling in PCRE, pro-
- vided that it was compiled with this support enabled. This modifier
+ The /8 modifier causes pcretest to call PCRE with the PCRE_UTF8 option
+ set. This turns on support for UTF-8 character handling in PCRE, pro-
+ vided that it was compiled with this support enabled. This modifier
also causes any non-printing characters in output strings to be printed
using the \x{hh...} notation if they are valid UTF-8 sequences.
- If the /? modifier is used with /8, it causes pcretest to call
- pcre_compile() with the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK option, to suppress the
+ If the /? modifier is used with /8, it causes pcretest to call
+ pcre_compile() with the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK option, to suppress the
checking of the string for UTF-8 validity.
DATA LINES
- Before each data line is passed to pcre_exec(), leading and trailing
- whitespace is removed, and it is then scanned for \ 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 "ordi-
- nary" regular expressions, you probably don't need any of these. The
+ Before each data line is passed to pcre_exec(), leading and trailing
+ whitespace is removed, and it is then scanned for \ 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 "ordi-
+ nary" regular expressions, you probably don't need any of these. The
following escapes are recognized:
- \a alarm (= BEL)
- \b backspace
- \e escape
- \f formfeed
- \n newline
- \r carriage return
- \t tab
- \v vertical tab
+ \a alarm (BEL, \x07)
+ \b backspace (\x08)
+ \e escape (\x27)
+ \f formfeed (\x0c)
+ \n newline (\x0a)
+ \qdd set the PCRE_MATCH_LIMIT limit to dd
+ (any number of digits)
+ \r carriage return (\x0d)
+ \t tab (\x09)
+ \v vertical tab (\x0b)
\nnn octal character (up to 3 octal digits)
\xhh hexadecimal character (up to 2 hex digits)
\x{hh...} hexadecimal character, any number of digits
in UTF-8 mode
\A pass the PCRE_ANCHORED option to pcre_exec()
+ or pcre_dfa_exec()
\B pass the PCRE_NOTBOL option to pcre_exec()
+ or pcre_dfa_exec()
\Cdd call pcre_copy_substring() for substring dd
after a successful match (number less than 32)
\Cname call pcre_copy_named_substring() for substring
reached for the nth time
\C*n pass the number n (may be negative) as callout
data; this is used as the callout return value
+ \D use the pcre_dfa_exec() match function
+ \F only shortest match for pcre_dfa_exec()
\Gdd call pcre_get_substring() for substring dd
after a successful match (number less than 32)
\Gname call pcre_get_named_substring() for substring
ated by next non-alphanumeric character)
\L call pcre_get_substringlist() after a
successful match
- \M discover the minimum MATCH_LIMIT setting
+ \M discover the minimum MATCH_LIMIT and
+ MATCH_LIMIT_RECURSION settings
\N pass the PCRE_NOTEMPTY option to pcre_exec()
+ or pcre_dfa_exec()
\Odd set the size of the output vector passed to
pcre_exec() to dd (any number of digits)
\P pass the PCRE_PARTIAL option to pcre_exec()
+ or pcre_dfa_exec()
+ \Qdd set the PCRE_MATCH_LIMIT_RECURSION limit to dd
+ (any number of digits)
+ \R pass the PCRE_DFA_RESTART option to pcre_dfa_exec()
\S output details of memory get/free calls during matching
\Z pass the PCRE_NOTEOL option to pcre_exec()
+ or pcre_dfa_exec()
\? pass the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK option to
- pcre_exec()
+ pcre_exec() or pcre_dfa_exec()
\>dd start the match at offset dd (any number of digits);
this sets the startoffset argument for pcre_exec()
-
- 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 termi-
+ or pcre_dfa_exec()
+ \<cr> pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_CR option to pcre_exec()
+ or pcre_dfa_exec()
+ \<lf> pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_LF option to pcre_exec()
+ or pcre_dfa_exec()
+ \<crlf> pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF option to pcre_exec()
+ or pcre_dfa_exec()
+ \<any> pass the PCRE_NEWLINE_ANY option to pcre_exec()
+ or pcre_dfa_exec()
+
+ 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.
+
+ 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 termi-
nates the data input.
- If \M is present, pcretest calls pcre_exec() several times, with dif-
- ferent values in the match_limit field of the pcre_extra data struc-
- ture, until it finds the minimum number that is needed for pcre_exec()
- to complete. This number is a measure of the amount of recursion and
- 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.
+ If \M is present, pcretest calls pcre_exec() several times, with dif-
+ ferent values in the match_limit and match_limit_recursion fields of
+ the pcre_extra data structure, until it finds the minimum numbers for
+ each parameter that allow pcre_exec() to complete. The match_limit num-
+ ber 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 match_limit_recursion 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.
When \O is used, the value specified may be higher or lower than the
size set by the -O command line option (or defaulted to 45); \O applies
only to the call of pcre_exec() for the line in which it appears.
If the /P modifier was present on the pattern, causing the POSIX wrap-
- per API to be used, only \B and \Z have any effect, causing REG_NOTBOL
- and REG_NOTEOL to be passed to regexec() respectively.
+ per API to be used, the only option-setting sequences that have any
+ effect are \B and \Z, causing REG_NOTBOL and REG_NOTEOL, respectively,
+ to be passed to regexec().
+
+ The use of \x{hh...} to represent UTF-8 characters is not dependent on
+ the use of the /8 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 UTF-8 rules.
+
+
+THE ALTERNATIVE MATCHING FUNCTION
+
+ By default, pcretest uses the standard PCRE matching function,
+ pcre_exec() to match each data line. From release 6.0, PCRE supports an
+ alternative matching function, pcre_dfa_test(), which operates in a
+ different way, and has some restrictions. The differences between the
+ two functions are described in the pcrematching documentation.
+
+ If a data line contains the \D escape sequence, or if the command line
+ contains the -dfa option, the alternative matching function is called.
+ This function finds all possible matches at a given point. If, however,
+ the \F escape sequence is present in the data line, it stops after the
+ first match is found. This is always the shortest possible match.
- The use of \x{hh...} to represent UTF-8 characters is not dependent on
- the use of the /8 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 UTF-8 rules.
+DEFAULT OUTPUT FROM PCRETEST
-OUTPUT FROM PCRETEST
+ This section describes the output when the normal matching function,
+ pcre_exec(), is being used.
When a match succeeds, pcretest outputs the list of captured substrings
that pcre_exec() returns, starting with number 0 for the string that
is an example of an interactive pcretest run.
$ pcretest
- PCRE version 5.00 07-Sep-2004
+ PCRE version 7.0 30-Nov-2006
re> /^abc(\d+)/
data> abc123
If the strings contain any non-printing characters, they are output as
\0x escapes, or as \x{...} escapes if the /8 modifier was present on
- the pattern. If the pattern has the /+ modifier, the output for sub-
- string 0 is followed by the the rest of the subject string, identified
- by "0+" like this:
+ the pattern. See below for the definition of non-printing characters.
+ If the pattern has the /+ modifier, the output for substring 0 is fol-
+ lowed by the the rest of the subject string, identified by "0+" like
+ this:
re> /cat/+
data> cataract
0: cat
0+ aract
- If the pattern has the /g or /G modifier, the results of successive
+ If the pattern has the /g or /G modifier, the results of successive
matching attempts are output in sequence, like this:
re> /\Bi(\w\w)/g
"No match" is output only if the first match attempt fails.
- If any of the sequences \C, \G, or \L are present in a data line that
- is successfully matched, the substrings extracted by the convenience
+ If any of the sequences \C, \G, or \L 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 paren-
+ (that is, the return from the extraction function) is given in paren-
theses after each string for \C and \G.
- Note that while patterns can be continued over several lines (a plain
+ Note that whereas patterns can be continued over several lines (a plain
">" prompt is used for continuations), data lines may not. However new-
- lines can be included in data by means of the \n escape.
+ lines can be included in data by means of the \n escape (or \r, \r\n,
+ etc., depending on the newline sequence setting).
+
+
+OUTPUT FROM THE ALTERNATIVE MATCHING FUNCTION
+
+ When the alternative matching function, pcre_dfa_exec(), is used (by
+ means of the \D escape sequence or the -dfa 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:
+
+ re> /(tang|tangerine|tan)/
+ data> yellow tangerine\D
+ 0: tangerine
+ 1: tang
+ 2: tan
+
+ (Using the normal matching function on this data finds only "tang".)
+ The longest matching string is always given first (and numbered zero).
+
+ If /g is present on the pattern, the search for further matches resumes
+ at the end of the longest match. For example:
+
+ re> /(tang|tangerine|tan)/g
+ data> yellow tangerine and tangy sultana\D
+ 0: tangerine
+ 1: tang
+ 2: tan
+ 0: tang
+ 1: tan
+ 0: tan
+
+ Since the matching function does not support substring capture, the
+ escape sequences that are concerned with captured substrings are not
+ relevant.
+
+
+RESTARTING AFTER A PARTIAL MATCH
+
+ 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 \R
+ escape sequence. For example:
+
+ re> /^?(jan|feb|mar|apr|may|jun|jul|aug|sep|oct|nov|dec)$/
+ data> 23ja\P\D
+ Partial match: 23ja
+ data> n05\R\D
+ 0: n05
+
+ For further information about partial matching, see the pcrepartial
+ documentation.
CALLOUTS
If the pattern contains any callout requests, pcretest's callout func-
- tion is called during matching. By default, it 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
+ tion is called during matching. This works with both matching func-
+ tions. 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
--->pqrabcdef
0 ^ ^ \d
- 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
- \d. Just one circumflex is output if the start and current positions
+ 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
+ \d. Just one circumflex is output if the start and current positions
are the same.
Callouts numbered 255 are assumed to be automatic callouts, inserted as
- a result of the /C pattern modifier. In this case, instead of showing
- the callout number, the offset in the pattern, preceded by a plus, is
+ a result of the /C pattern modifier. In this case, instead of showing
+ the callout number, the offset in the pattern, preceded by a plus, is
output. For example:
re> /\d?[A-E]\*/C
+10 ^ ^
0: E*
- The callout function in pcretest returns zero (carry on matching) by
- default, but you can use an \C item in a data line (as described above)
+ The callout function in pcretest returns zero (carry on matching) by
+ default, but you can use a \C item in a data line (as described above)
to change this.
- Inserting callouts can be helpful when using pcretest to check compli-
- cated regular expressions. For further information about callouts, see
+ Inserting callouts can be helpful when using pcretest to check compli-
+ cated regular expressions. For further information about callouts, see
the pcrecallout documentation.
+NON-PRINTING CHARACTERS
+
+ When pcretest 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.
+
+ When pcretest 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 /L modifier). In this case, the
+ isprint() function to distinguish printing and non-printing characters.
+
+
SAVING AND RELOADING COMPILED PATTERNS
- The facilities described in this section are not available when the
+ The facilities described in this section are not available when the
POSIX inteface to PCRE is being used, that is, when the /P pattern mod-
ifier is specified.
When the POSIX interface is not in use, you can cause pcretest to write
- a compiled pattern to a file, by following the modifiers with > and a
+ a compiled pattern to a file, by following the modifiers with > and a
file name. For example:
/pattern/im >/some/file
- See the pcreprecompile documentation for a discussion about saving and
+ See the pcreprecompile documentation for a discussion about saving and
re-using compiled patterns.
- 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
+ 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 sec-
- ond length is zero. The lengths are followed by an exact copy of the
+ ond length is zero. The lengths are followed by an exact copy of the
compiled pattern. If there is additional study data, this follows imme-
- diately after the compiled pattern. After writing the file, pcretest
+ diately after the compiled pattern. After writing the file, pcretest
expects to read a new pattern.
A saved pattern can be reloaded into pcretest by specifing < and a file
- name instead of a pattern. The name of the file must not contain a <
- character, as otherwise pcretest will interpret the line as a pattern
+ name instead of a pattern. The name of the file must not contain a <
+ character, as otherwise pcretest will interpret the line as a pattern
delimited by < characters. For example:
re> </some/file
Compiled regex loaded from /some/file
No study data
- When the pattern has been loaded, pcretest proceeds to read data lines
+ When the pattern has been loaded, pcretest proceeds to read data lines
in the usual way.
- You can copy a file written by pcretest 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
+ You can copy a file written by pcretest 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.
- 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
+ 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.
- The ability to save and reload files in pcretest is intended for test-
- ing 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 pcretest to crash. Finally, if you attempt to load
+ The ability to save and reload files in pcretest is intended for test-
+ ing 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 pcretest to crash. Finally, if you attempt to load
a file that is not in the correct format, the result is undefined.
+SEE ALSO
+
+ pcre(3), pcreapi(3), pcrecallout(3), pcrematching(3), pcrepartial(d),
+ pcrepattern(3), pcreprecompile(3).
+
+
AUTHOR
- Philip Hazel <ph10@cam.ac.uk>
+ Philip Hazel
University Computing Service,
- Cambridge CB2 3QG, England.
+ Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
-Last updated: 10 September 2004
-Copyright (c) 1997-2004 University of Cambridge.
+Last updated: 30 November 2006
+Copyright (c) 1997-2006 University of Cambridge.
git://git.exim.org / exim.git / blobdiff