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<title>pcre_compile specification</title>
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<h1>pcre_compile man page</h1>
<p>
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<p>
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<br>
<br><b>
SYNOPSIS
</b><br>
<P>
<b>#include <pcre.h></b>
</P>
<P>
<b>pcre *pcre_compile(const char *<i>pattern</i>, int <i>options</i>,</b>
<b> const char **<i>errptr</i>, int *<i>erroffset</i>,</b>
<b> const unsigned char *<i>tableptr</i>);</b>
<br>
<br>
<b>pcre16 *pcre16_compile(PCRE_SPTR16 <i>pattern</i>, int <i>options</i>,</b>
<b> const char **<i>errptr</i>, int *<i>erroffset</i>,</b>
<b> const unsigned char *<i>tableptr</i>);</b>
<br>
<br>
<b>pcre32 *pcre32_compile(PCRE_SPTR32 <i>pattern</i>, int <i>options</i>,</b>
<b> const char **<i>errptr</i>, int *<i>erroffset</i>,</b>
<b> const unsigned char *<i>tableptr</i>);</b>
</P>
<br><b>
DESCRIPTION
</b><br>
<P>
This function compiles a regular expression into an internal form. It is the
same as <b>pcre[16|32]_compile2()</b>, except for the absence of the
<i>errorcodeptr</i> argument. Its arguments are:
<pre>
<i>pattern</i> A zero-terminated string containing the
regular expression to be compiled
<i>options</i> Zero or more option bits
<i>errptr</i> Where to put an error message
<i>erroffset</i> Offset in pattern where error was found
<i>tableptr</i> Pointer to character tables, or NULL to
use the built-in default
</pre>
The option bits are:
<pre>
PCRE_ANCHORED Force pattern anchoring
PCRE_AUTO_CALLOUT Compile automatic callouts
PCRE_BSR_ANYCRLF \R matches only CR, LF, or CRLF
PCRE_BSR_UNICODE \R matches all Unicode line endings
PCRE_CASELESS Do caseless matching
PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY $ not to match newline at end
PCRE_DOTALL . matches anything including NL
PCRE_DUPNAMES Allow duplicate names for subpatterns
PCRE_EXTENDED Ignore white space and # comments
PCRE_EXTRA PCRE extra features
(not much use currently)
PCRE_FIRSTLINE Force matching to be before newline
PCRE_JAVASCRIPT_COMPAT JavaScript compatibility
PCRE_MULTILINE ^ and $ match newlines within data
PCRE_NEVER_UTF Lock out UTF, e.g. via (*UTF)
PCRE_NEWLINE_ANY Recognize any Unicode newline sequence
PCRE_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF Recognize CR, LF, and CRLF as newline
sequences
PCRE_NEWLINE_CR Set CR as the newline sequence
PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF Set CRLF as the newline sequence
PCRE_NEWLINE_LF Set LF as the newline sequence
PCRE_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE Disable numbered capturing paren-
theses (named ones available)
PCRE_NO_AUTO_POSSESS Disable auto-possessification
PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE Disable match-time start optimizations
PCRE_NO_UTF16_CHECK Do not check the pattern for UTF-16
validity (only relevant if
PCRE_UTF16 is set)
PCRE_NO_UTF32_CHECK Do not check the pattern for UTF-32
validity (only relevant if
PCRE_UTF32 is set)
PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK Do not check the pattern for UTF-8
validity (only relevant if
PCRE_UTF8 is set)
PCRE_UCP Use Unicode properties for \d, \w, etc.
PCRE_UNGREEDY Invert greediness of quantifiers
PCRE_UTF16 Run in <b>pcre16_compile()</b> UTF-16 mode
PCRE_UTF32 Run in <b>pcre32_compile()</b> UTF-32 mode
PCRE_UTF8 Run in <b>pcre_compile()</b> UTF-8 mode
</pre>
PCRE must be built with UTF support in order to use PCRE_UTF8/16/32 and
PCRE_NO_UTF8/16/32_CHECK, and with UCP support if PCRE_UCP is used.
</P>
<P>
The yield of the function is a pointer to a private data structure that
contains the compiled pattern, or NULL if an error was detected. Note that
compiling regular expressions with one version of PCRE for use with a different
version is not guaranteed to work and may cause crashes.
</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.
<p>
Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
</p>