REGEX(3)					     Linux Programmer's Manual						  REGEX(3)



NAME
       regcomp, regexec, regerror, regfree - POSIX regex functions

SYNOPSIS
       #include 
       #include 

       int regcomp(regex_t *preg, const char *regex, int cflags);

       int regexec(const regex_t *preg, const char *string, size_t nmatch,
		   regmatch_t pmatch[], int eflags);

       size_t regerror(int errcode, const regex_t *preg, char *errbuf,
		       size_t errbuf_size);

       void regfree(regex_t *preg);

DESCRIPTION
   POSIX Regex Compiling
       regcomp() is used to compile a regular expression into a form that is suitable for subsequent regexec() searches.

       regcomp() is supplied with preg, a pointer to a pattern buffer storage area; regex, a pointer to the null-terminated string
       and cflags, flags used to determine the type of compilation.

       All regular expression searching must be done via a compiled pattern buffer, thus regexec() must always	be  supplied  with
       the address of a regcomp() initialized pattern buffer.

       cflags may be the bitwise-or of one or more of the following:

       REG_EXTENDED
	      Use  POSIX  Extended  Regular Expression syntax when interpreting regex.	If not set, POSIX Basic Regular Expression
	      syntax is used.

       REG_ICASE
	      Do not differentiate case.  Subsequent regexec() searches using this pattern buffer will be case insensitive.

       REG_NOSUB
	      Support for substring addressing of matches is not required.  The nmatch	and  pmatch  arguments	to  regexec()  are
	      ignored if the pattern buffer supplied was compiled with this flag set.

       REG_NEWLINE
	      Match-any-character operators don't match a newline.

	      A nonmatching list ([^...])  not containing a newline does not match a newline.

	      Match-beginning-of-line  operator  (^)  matches  the empty string immediately after a newline, regardless of whether
	      eflags, the execution flags of regexec(), contains REG_NOTBOL.

	      Match-end-of-line operator ($) matches the empty string immediately before a newline, regardless of  whether  eflags
	      contains REG_NOTEOL.

   POSIX Regex Matching
       regexec()  is  used  to match a null-terminated string against the precompiled pattern buffer, preg.  nmatch and pmatch are
       used to provide information regarding the location of any matches.  eflags may be the bitwise-or of one or both of REG_NOT‐
       BOL and REG_NOTEOL which cause changes in matching behavior described below.

       REG_NOTBOL
	      The  match-beginning-of-line  operator  always  fails to match (but see the compilation flag REG_NEWLINE above) This
	      flag may be used when different portions of a string are passed to regexec() and the beginning of the string  should
	      not be interpreted as the beginning of the line.

       REG_NOTEOL
	      The match-end-of-line operator always fails to match (but see the compilation flag REG_NEWLINE above)

   Byte Offsets
       Unless  REG_NOSUB  was  set  for the compilation of the pattern buffer, it is possible to obtain substring match addressing
       information.  pmatch must be dimensioned to have at least nmatch elements.  These are filled in by regexec() with substring
       match addresses.  Any unused structure elements will contain the value -1.

       The regmatch_t structure which is the type of pmatch is defined in .

	   typedef struct {
	       regoff_t rm_so;
	       regoff_t rm_eo;
	   } regmatch_t;

       Each  rm_so  element  that is not -1 indicates the start offset of the next largest substring match within the string.  The
       relative rm_eo element indicates the end offset of the match, which is the offset of the first character after the matching
       text.

   Posix Error Reporting
       regerror() is used to turn the error codes that can be returned by both regcomp() and regexec() into error message strings.

       regerror() is passed the error code, errcode, the pattern buffer, preg, a pointer to a character string buffer, errbuf, and
       the size of the string buffer, errbuf_size.  It returns the size of the errbuf  required  to  contain  the  null-terminated
       error message string.  If both errbuf and errbuf_size are nonzero, errbuf is filled in with the first errbuf_size - 1 char‐
       acters of the error message and a terminating null byte ('\0').

   POSIX Pattern Buffer Freeing
       Supplying regfree() with a precompiled pattern buffer, preg will free the memory allocated to the  pattern  buffer  by  the
       compiling process, regcomp().

RETURN VALUE
       regcomp() returns zero for a successful compilation or an error code for failure.

       regexec() returns zero for a successful match or REG_NOMATCH for failure.

ERRORS
       The following errors can be returned by regcomp():

       REG_BADBR
	      Invalid use of back reference operator.

       REG_BADPAT
	      Invalid use of pattern operators such as group or list.

       REG_BADRPT
	      Invalid use of repetition operators such as using '*' as the first character.

       REG_EBRACE
	      Un-matched brace interval operators.

       REG_EBRACK
	      Un-matched bracket list operators.

       REG_ECOLLATE
	      Invalid collating element.

       REG_ECTYPE
	      Unknown character class name.

       REG_EEND
	      Non specific error.  This is not defined by POSIX.2.

       REG_EESCAPE
	      Trailing backslash.

       REG_EPAREN
	      Un-matched parenthesis group operators.

       REG_ERANGE
	      Invalid use of the range operator, e.g., the ending point of the range occurs prior to the starting point.

       REG_ESIZE
	      Compiled regular expression requires a pattern buffer larger than 64Kb.  This is not defined by POSIX.2.

       REG_ESPACE
	      The regex routines ran out of memory.

       REG_ESUBREG
	      Invalid back reference to a subexpression.

CONFORMING TO
       POSIX.1-2001.

SEE ALSO
       grep(1), regex(7)

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part  of  release 3.40 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the project, and information about
       reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



GNU							    2011-09-27							  REGEX(3)




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