/usr/man2/cat.3/pcre_exec.3.Z

NAME

       PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions

SYNOPSIS

       #include <pcre.h>

       int pcre_exec(const pcre *code, const pcre_extra *extra,
            const char *subject, int length, int startoffset,
            int options, int *ovector, int ovecsize);

DESCRIPTION

       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:

         code         Points to the compiled pattern
         extra        Points to an associated pcre_extra structure,
                        or is NULL
         subject      Points to the subject string
         length       Length of the subject string, in bytes
         startoffset  Offset in bytes in the subject at which to
                        start matching
         options      Option bits
         ovector      Points to a vector of ints for result offsets
         ovecsize     Number of elements in the vector (a multiple of 3)

       The options are:

         PCRE_ANCHORED      Match only at the first position
         PCRE_NOTBOL        Subject is not the beginning of a line
         PCRE_NOTEOL        Subject is not the end of a line
         PCRE_NOTEMPTY      An empty string is not a valid match
         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 match

       There  are  restrictions  on  what may appear in a pattern when partial
       matching is requested.

       A pcre_extra structure contains the following fields:

         flags        Bits indicating which fields are set
         study_data   Opaque data from pcre_study()
         match_limit  Limit on internal recursion
         callout_data Opaque data passed back to callouts
         tables       Points to character tables or is NULL

       The  flag  bits  are   PCRE_EXTRA_STUDY_DATA,   PCRE_EXTRA_MATCH_LIMIT,
       PCRE_EXTRA_CALLOUT_DATA, and PCRE_EXTRA_TABLES.

       There  is  a complete description of the PCRE native API in the pcreapi
       page and a description of the POSIX API in the pcreposix page.

                                                                  PCRE_EXEC(3)