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<title>pcre_exec specification</title>
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<h1>pcre_exec man page</h1>
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<br>
<br><b>
SYNOPSIS
</b><br>
<P>
<b>#include <pcre.h></b>
</P>
<P>
<b>int pcre_exec(const pcre *<i>code</i>, const pcre_extra *<i>extra</i>,</b>
<b>const char *<i>subject</i>, int <i>length</i>, int <i>startoffset</i>,</b>
<b>int <i>options</i>, int *<i>ovector</i>, int <i>ovecsize</i>);</b>
</P>
<br><b>
DESCRIPTION
</b><br>
<P>
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:
<pre>
<i>code</i> Points to the compiled pattern
<i>extra</i> Points to an associated <b>pcre_extra</b> structure,
or is NULL
<i>subject</i> Points to the subject string
<i>length</i> Length of the subject string, in bytes
<i>startoffset</i> Offset in bytes in the subject at which to
start matching
<i>options</i> Option bits
<i>ovector</i> Points to a vector of ints for result offsets
<i>ovecsize</i> Number of elements in the vector (a multiple of 3)
</pre>
The options are:
<pre>
PCRE_ANCHORED Match only at the first position
PCRE_BSR_ANYCRLF \R matches only CR, LF, or CRLF
PCRE_BSR_UNICODE \R 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
</pre>
For details of partial matching, see the
<a href="pcrepartial.html"><b>pcrepartial</b></a>
page. A <b>pcre_extra</b> structure contains the following fields:
<pre>
<i>flags</i> Bits indicating which fields are set
<i>study_data</i> Opaque data from <b>pcre_study()</b>
<i>match_limit</i> Limit on internal resource use
<i>match_limit_recursion</i> Limit on internal recursion depth
<i>callout_data</i> Opaque data passed back to callouts
<i>tables</i> Points to character tables or is NULL
</pre>
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>
<P>
There is a complete description of the PCRE native API in the
<a href="pcreapi.html"><b>pcreapi</b></a>
page and a description of the POSIX API in the
<a href="pcreposix.html"><b>pcreposix</b></a>
page.
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