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NAME

       regcomp, regexec, regerror, regfree - POSIX regex functions

SYNOPSIS

       #include <sys/types.h>
       #include <regex.h>

       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_NOTBOL 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
       <regex.h>.

           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 characters of the error message and a terminating null.

   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), GNU regex manual

COLOPHON

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