-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This file contains a concatenation of the PCRE2 man pages, converted to plain
text format for ease of searching with a text editor, or for use on systems
that do not have a man page processor. The small individual files that give
synopses of each function in the library have not been included. Neither has
the pcre2demo program. There are separate text files for the pcre2grep and
pcre2test commands.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------


PCRE2(3)                   Library Functions Manual                   PCRE2(3)



NAME
       PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

INTRODUCTION

       PCRE2 is the name used for a revised API for the PCRE library, which is
       a set of functions, written in C,  that  implement  regular  expression
       pattern matching using the same syntax and semantics as Perl, with just
       a few differences. After nearly two decades,  the  limitations  of  the
       original  API  were  making development increasingly difficult. The new
       API is more extensible, and it was simplified by abolishing  the  sepa-
       rate  "study" optimizing function; in PCRE2, patterns are automatically
       optimized where possible. Since forking from PCRE1, the code  has  been
       extensively refactored and new features introduced.

       As  well  as Perl-style regular expression patterns, some features that
       appeared in Python and the original PCRE before they appeared  in  Perl
       are  available  using the Python syntax. There is also some support for
       one or two .NET and Oniguruma syntax items, and there are  options  for
       requesting  some  minor  changes that give better ECMAScript (aka Java-
       Script) compatibility.

       The source code for PCRE2 can be compiled to support 8-bit, 16-bit,  or
       32-bit  code units, which means that up to three separate libraries may
       be installed.  The original work to extend PCRE to  16-bit  and  32-bit
       code  units  was  done  by Zoltan Herczeg and Christian Persch, respec-
       tively. In all three cases, strings can be interpreted  either  as  one
       character  per  code  unit, or as UTF-encoded Unicode, with support for
       Unicode general category properties. Unicode  support  is  optional  at
       build  time  (but  is  the default). However, processing strings as UTF
       code units must be enabled explicitly at run time. The version of  Uni-
       code in use can be discovered by running

         pcre2test -C

       The  three  libraries  contain  identical sets of functions, with names
       ending in _8,  _16,  or  _32,  respectively  (for  example,  pcre2_com-
       pile_8()).  However,  by defining PCRE2_CODE_UNIT_WIDTH to be 8, 16, or
       32, a program that uses just one code unit width can be  written  using
       generic names such as pcre2_compile(), and the documentation is written
       assuming that this is the case.

       In addition to the Perl-compatible matching function, PCRE2 contains an
       alternative  function that matches the same compiled patterns in a dif-
       ferent way. In certain circumstances, the alternative function has some
       advantages.   For  a discussion of the two matching algorithms, see the
       pcre2matching page.

       Details of exactly which Perl regular expression features are  and  are
       not  supported  by  PCRE2  are  given  in  separate  documents. See the
       pcre2pattern and pcre2compat pages. There is a syntax  summary  in  the
       pcre2syntax page.

       Some  features  of PCRE2 can be included, excluded, or changed when the
       library is built. The pcre2_config() function makes it possible  for  a
       client  to  discover  which  features are available. The features them-
       selves are described in the pcre2build page. Documentation about build-
       ing  PCRE2 for various operating systems can be found in the README and
       NON-AUTOTOOLS_BUILD files in the source distribution.

       The libraries contains a number of undocumented internal functions  and
       data  tables  that  are  used by more than one of the exported external
       functions, but which are not intended  for  use  by  external  callers.
       Their  names  all begin with "_pcre2", which hopefully will not provoke
       any name clashes. In some environments, it is possible to control which
       external  symbols  are  exported when a shared library is built, and in
       these cases the undocumented symbols are not exported.


SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS

       If you are using PCRE2 in a non-UTF application that permits  users  to
       supply  arbitrary  patterns  for  compilation, you should be aware of a
       feature that allows users to turn on UTF support from within a pattern.
       For  example, an 8-bit pattern that begins with "(*UTF)" turns on UTF-8
       mode, which interprets patterns and subjects as strings of  UTF-8  code
       units instead of individual 8-bit characters. This causes both the pat-
       tern and any data against which it is matched to be checked  for  UTF-8
       validity.  If the data string is very long, such a check might use suf-
       ficiently many resources as to cause your application to  lose  perfor-
       mance.

       One  way  of guarding against this possibility is to use the pcre2_pat-
       tern_info() function  to  check  the  compiled  pattern's  options  for
       PCRE2_UTF.  Alternatively,  you can set the PCRE2_NEVER_UTF option when
       calling pcre2_compile(). This causes a compile time error if  the  pat-
       tern contains a UTF-setting sequence.

       The  use  of Unicode properties for character types such as \d can also
       be enabled from within the pattern, by specifying "(*UCP)".  This  fea-
       ture can be disallowed by setting the PCRE2_NEVER_UCP option.

       If  your  application  is one that supports UTF, be aware that validity
       checking can take time. If the same data string is to be  matched  many
       times,  you  can  use  the PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK option for the second and
       subsequent matches to avoid running redundant checks.

       The use of the \C escape sequence in a UTF-8 or UTF-16 pattern can lead
       to  problems,  because  it  may leave the current matching point in the
       middle of a multi-code-unit character. The PCRE2_NEVER_BACKSLASH_C  op-
       tion can be used by an application to lock out the use of \C, causing a
       compile-time error if it is encountered. It is also possible  to  build
       PCRE2 with the use of \C permanently disabled.

       Another  way  that  performance can be hit is by running a pattern that
       has a very large search tree against a string that  will  never  match.
       Nested  unlimited repeats in a pattern are a common example. PCRE2 pro-
       vides some protection against  this:  see  the  pcre2_set_match_limit()
       function  in  the  pcre2api  page.  There  is a similar function called
       pcre2_set_depth_limit() that can be used to restrict the amount of mem-
       ory that is used.


USER DOCUMENTATION

       The  user  documentation for PCRE2 comprises a number of different sec-
       tions. In the "man" format, each of these is a separate "man page".  In
       the  HTML  format, each is a separate page, linked from the index page.
       In the plain  text  format,  the  descriptions  of  the  pcre2grep  and
       pcre2test programs are in files called pcre2grep.txt and pcre2test.txt,
       respectively. The remaining sections, except for the pcre2demo  section
       (which  is a program listing), and the short pages for individual func-
       tions, are concatenated in pcre2.txt, for ease of searching.  The  sec-
       tions are as follows:

         pcre2              this document
         pcre2-config       show PCRE2 installation configuration information
         pcre2api           details of PCRE2's native C API
         pcre2build         building PCRE2
         pcre2callout       details of the pattern callout feature
         pcre2compat        discussion of Perl compatibility
         pcre2convert       details of pattern conversion functions
         pcre2demo          a demonstration C program that uses PCRE2
         pcre2grep          description of the pcre2grep command (8-bit only)
         pcre2jit           discussion of just-in-time optimization support
         pcre2limits        details of size and other limits
         pcre2matching      discussion of the two matching algorithms
         pcre2partial       details of the partial matching facility
         pcre2pattern       syntax and semantics of supported regular
                              expression patterns
         pcre2perform       discussion of performance issues
         pcre2posix         the POSIX-compatible C API for the 8-bit library
         pcre2sample        discussion of the pcre2demo program
         pcre2serialize     details of pattern serialization
         pcre2syntax        quick syntax reference
         pcre2test          description of the pcre2test command
         pcre2unicode       discussion of Unicode and UTF support

       In  the  "man"  and HTML formats, there is also a short page for each C
       library function, listing its arguments and results.


AUTHOR

       Philip Hazel
       University Computing Service
       Cambridge, England.

       Putting an actual email address here is a spam magnet. If you  want  to
       email  me,  use  my two initials, followed by the two digits 10, at the
       domain cam.ac.uk.


REVISION

       Last updated: 17 September 2018
       Copyright (c) 1997-2018 University of Cambridge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


PCRE2API(3)                Library Functions Manual                PCRE2API(3)



NAME
       PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

       #include <pcre2.h>

       PCRE2  is  a  new API for PCRE, starting at release 10.0. This document
       contains a description of all its native functions. See the pcre2 docu-
       ment for an overview of all the PCRE2 documentation.


PCRE2 NATIVE API BASIC FUNCTIONS

       pcre2_code *pcre2_compile(PCRE2_SPTR pattern, PCRE2_SIZE length,
         uint32_t options, int *errorcode, PCRE2_SIZE *erroroffset,
         pcre2_compile_context *ccontext);

       void pcre2_code_free(pcre2_code *code);

       pcre2_match_data *pcre2_match_data_create(uint32_t ovecsize,
         pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       pcre2_match_data *pcre2_match_data_create_from_pattern(
         const pcre2_code *code, pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       int pcre2_match(const pcre2_code *code, PCRE2_SPTR subject,
         PCRE2_SIZE length, PCRE2_SIZE startoffset,
         uint32_t options, pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         pcre2_match_context *mcontext);

       int pcre2_dfa_match(const pcre2_code *code, PCRE2_SPTR subject,
         PCRE2_SIZE length, PCRE2_SIZE startoffset,
         uint32_t options, pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         pcre2_match_context *mcontext,
         int *workspace, PCRE2_SIZE wscount);

       void pcre2_match_data_free(pcre2_match_data *match_data);


PCRE2 NATIVE API AUXILIARY MATCH FUNCTIONS

       PCRE2_SPTR pcre2_get_mark(pcre2_match_data *match_data);

       uint32_t pcre2_get_ovector_count(pcre2_match_data *match_data);

       PCRE2_SIZE *pcre2_get_ovector_pointer(pcre2_match_data *match_data);

       PCRE2_SIZE pcre2_get_startchar(pcre2_match_data *match_data);


PCRE2 NATIVE API GENERAL CONTEXT FUNCTIONS

       pcre2_general_context *pcre2_general_context_create(
         void *(*private_malloc)(PCRE2_SIZE, void *),
         void (*private_free)(void *, void *), void *memory_data);

       pcre2_general_context *pcre2_general_context_copy(
         pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       void pcre2_general_context_free(pcre2_general_context *gcontext);


PCRE2 NATIVE API COMPILE CONTEXT FUNCTIONS

       pcre2_compile_context *pcre2_compile_context_create(
         pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       pcre2_compile_context *pcre2_compile_context_copy(
         pcre2_compile_context *ccontext);

       void pcre2_compile_context_free(pcre2_compile_context *ccontext);

       int pcre2_set_bsr(pcre2_compile_context *ccontext,
         uint32_t value);

       int pcre2_set_character_tables(pcre2_compile_context *ccontext,
         const uint8_t *tables);

       int pcre2_set_compile_extra_options(pcre2_compile_context *ccontext,
         uint32_t extra_options);

       int pcre2_set_max_pattern_length(pcre2_compile_context *ccontext,
         PCRE2_SIZE value);

       int pcre2_set_newline(pcre2_compile_context *ccontext,
         uint32_t value);

       int pcre2_set_parens_nest_limit(pcre2_compile_context *ccontext,
         uint32_t value);

       int pcre2_set_compile_recursion_guard(pcre2_compile_context *ccontext,
         int (*guard_function)(uint32_t, void *), void *user_data);


PCRE2 NATIVE API MATCH CONTEXT FUNCTIONS

       pcre2_match_context *pcre2_match_context_create(
         pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       pcre2_match_context *pcre2_match_context_copy(
         pcre2_match_context *mcontext);

       void pcre2_match_context_free(pcre2_match_context *mcontext);

       int pcre2_set_callout(pcre2_match_context *mcontext,
         int (*callout_function)(pcre2_callout_block *, void *),
         void *callout_data);

       int pcre2_set_substitute_callout(pcre2_match_context *mcontext,
         int (*callout_function)(pcre2_substitute_callout_block *, void *),
         void *callout_data);

       int pcre2_set_offset_limit(pcre2_match_context *mcontext,
         PCRE2_SIZE value);

       int pcre2_set_heap_limit(pcre2_match_context *mcontext,
         uint32_t value);

       int pcre2_set_match_limit(pcre2_match_context *mcontext,
         uint32_t value);

       int pcre2_set_depth_limit(pcre2_match_context *mcontext,
         uint32_t value);


PCRE2 NATIVE API STRING EXTRACTION FUNCTIONS

       int pcre2_substring_copy_byname(pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         PCRE2_SPTR name, PCRE2_UCHAR *buffer, PCRE2_SIZE *bufflen);

       int pcre2_substring_copy_bynumber(pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         uint32_t number, PCRE2_UCHAR *buffer,
         PCRE2_SIZE *bufflen);

       void pcre2_substring_free(PCRE2_UCHAR *buffer);

       int pcre2_substring_get_byname(pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         PCRE2_SPTR name, PCRE2_UCHAR **bufferptr, PCRE2_SIZE *bufflen);

       int pcre2_substring_get_bynumber(pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         uint32_t number, PCRE2_UCHAR **bufferptr,
         PCRE2_SIZE *bufflen);

       int pcre2_substring_length_byname(pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         PCRE2_SPTR name, PCRE2_SIZE *length);

       int pcre2_substring_length_bynumber(pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         uint32_t number, PCRE2_SIZE *length);

       int pcre2_substring_nametable_scan(const pcre2_code *code,
         PCRE2_SPTR name, PCRE2_SPTR *first, PCRE2_SPTR *last);

       int pcre2_substring_number_from_name(const pcre2_code *code,
         PCRE2_SPTR name);

       void pcre2_substring_list_free(PCRE2_SPTR *list);

       int pcre2_substring_list_get(pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         PCRE2_UCHAR ***listptr, PCRE2_SIZE **lengthsptr);


PCRE2 NATIVE API STRING SUBSTITUTION FUNCTION

       int pcre2_substitute(const pcre2_code *code, PCRE2_SPTR subject,
         PCRE2_SIZE length, PCRE2_SIZE startoffset,
         uint32_t options, pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         pcre2_match_context *mcontext, PCRE2_SPTR replacementz,
         PCRE2_SIZE rlength, PCRE2_UCHAR *outputbuffer,
         PCRE2_SIZE *outlengthptr);


PCRE2 NATIVE API JIT FUNCTIONS

       int pcre2_jit_compile(pcre2_code *code, uint32_t options);

       int pcre2_jit_match(const pcre2_code *code, PCRE2_SPTR subject,
         PCRE2_SIZE length, PCRE2_SIZE startoffset,
         uint32_t options, pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         pcre2_match_context *mcontext);

       void pcre2_jit_free_unused_memory(pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       pcre2_jit_stack *pcre2_jit_stack_create(PCRE2_SIZE startsize,
         PCRE2_SIZE maxsize, pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       void pcre2_jit_stack_assign(pcre2_match_context *mcontext,
         pcre2_jit_callback callback_function, void *callback_data);

       void pcre2_jit_stack_free(pcre2_jit_stack *jit_stack);


PCRE2 NATIVE API SERIALIZATION FUNCTIONS

       int32_t pcre2_serialize_decode(pcre2_code **codes,
         int32_t number_of_codes, const uint8_t *bytes,
         pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       int32_t pcre2_serialize_encode(const pcre2_code **codes,
         int32_t number_of_codes, uint8_t **serialized_bytes,
         PCRE2_SIZE *serialized_size, pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       void pcre2_serialize_free(uint8_t *bytes);

       int32_t pcre2_serialize_get_number_of_codes(const uint8_t *bytes);


PCRE2 NATIVE API AUXILIARY FUNCTIONS

       pcre2_code *pcre2_code_copy(const pcre2_code *code);

       pcre2_code *pcre2_code_copy_with_tables(const pcre2_code *code);

       int pcre2_get_error_message(int errorcode, PCRE2_UCHAR *buffer,
         PCRE2_SIZE bufflen);

       const uint8_t *pcre2_maketables(pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       void pcre2_maketables_free(pcre2_general_context *gcontext,
         const uint8_t *tables);

       int pcre2_pattern_info(const pcre2_code *code, uint32_t what,
         void *where);

       int pcre2_callout_enumerate(const pcre2_code *code,
         int (*callback)(pcre2_callout_enumerate_block *, void *),
         void *user_data);

       int pcre2_config(uint32_t what, void *where);


PCRE2 NATIVE API OBSOLETE FUNCTIONS

       int pcre2_set_recursion_limit(pcre2_match_context *mcontext,
         uint32_t value);

       int pcre2_set_recursion_memory_management(
         pcre2_match_context *mcontext,
         void *(*private_malloc)(PCRE2_SIZE, void *),
         void (*private_free)(void *, void *), void *memory_data);

       These  functions became obsolete at release 10.30 and are retained only
       for backward compatibility. They should not be used in  new  code.  The
       first  is  replaced by pcre2_set_depth_limit(); the second is no longer
       needed and has no effect (it always returns zero).


PCRE2 EXPERIMENTAL PATTERN CONVERSION FUNCTIONS

       pcre2_convert_context *pcre2_convert_context_create(
         pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       pcre2_convert_context *pcre2_convert_context_copy(
         pcre2_convert_context *cvcontext);

       void pcre2_convert_context_free(pcre2_convert_context *cvcontext);

       int pcre2_set_glob_escape(pcre2_convert_context *cvcontext,
         uint32_t escape_char);

       int pcre2_set_glob_separator(pcre2_convert_context *cvcontext,
         uint32_t separator_char);

       int pcre2_pattern_convert(PCRE2_SPTR pattern, PCRE2_SIZE length,
         uint32_t options, PCRE2_UCHAR **buffer,
         PCRE2_SIZE *blength, pcre2_convert_context *cvcontext);

       void pcre2_converted_pattern_free(PCRE2_UCHAR *converted_pattern);

       These functions provide a way of  converting  non-PCRE2  patterns  into
       patterns that can be processed by pcre2_compile(). This facility is ex-
       perimental and may be changed in future releases. At  present,  "globs"
       and  POSIX  basic  and  extended patterns can be converted. Details are
       given in the pcre2convert documentation.


PCRE2 8-BIT, 16-BIT, AND 32-BIT LIBRARIES

       There are three PCRE2 libraries, supporting 8-bit, 16-bit,  and  32-bit
       code  units,  respectively.  However,  there  is  just one header file,
       pcre2.h.  This contains the function prototypes and  other  definitions
       for all three libraries. One, two, or all three can be installed simul-
       taneously. On Unix-like systems the libraries  are  called  libpcre2-8,
       libpcre2-16, and libpcre2-32, and they can also co-exist with the orig-
       inal PCRE libraries.

       Character strings are passed to and from a PCRE2 library as a  sequence
       of  unsigned  integers  in  code  units of the appropriate width. Every
       PCRE2 function comes in three different forms, one  for  each  library,
       for example:

         pcre2_compile_8()
         pcre2_compile_16()
         pcre2_compile_32()

       There are also three different sets of data types:

         PCRE2_UCHAR8, PCRE2_UCHAR16, PCRE2_UCHAR32
         PCRE2_SPTR8,  PCRE2_SPTR16,  PCRE2_SPTR32

       The  UCHAR  types define unsigned code units of the appropriate widths.
       For example, PCRE2_UCHAR16 is usually defined as `uint16_t'.  The  SPTR
       types  are  constant  pointers  to the equivalent UCHAR types, that is,
       they are pointers to vectors of unsigned code units.

       Many applications use only one code unit width. For their  convenience,
       macros are defined whose names are the generic forms such as pcre2_com-
       pile() and  PCRE2_SPTR.  These  macros  use  the  value  of  the  macro
       PCRE2_CODE_UNIT_WIDTH  to generate the appropriate width-specific func-
       tion and macro names.  PCRE2_CODE_UNIT_WIDTH is not defined by default.
       An  application  must  define  it  to  be 8, 16, or 32 before including
       pcre2.h in order to make use of the generic names.

       Applications that use more than one code unit width can be linked  with
       more  than  one PCRE2 library, but must define PCRE2_CODE_UNIT_WIDTH to
       be 0 before including pcre2.h, and then use the  real  function  names.
       Any  code  that  is to be included in an environment where the value of
       PCRE2_CODE_UNIT_WIDTH is unknown should  also  use  the  real  function
       names. (Unfortunately, it is not possible in C code to save and restore
       the value of a macro.)

       If PCRE2_CODE_UNIT_WIDTH is not defined  before  including  pcre2.h,  a
       compiler error occurs.

       When  using  multiple  libraries  in an application, you must take care
       when processing any particular pattern to use  only  functions  from  a
       single  library.   For example, if you want to run a match using a pat-
       tern that was compiled with pcre2_compile_16(), you  must  do  so  with
       pcre2_match_16(), not pcre2_match_8() or pcre2_match_32().

       In  the  function summaries above, and in the rest of this document and
       other PCRE2 documents, functions and data  types  are  described  using
       their generic names, without the _8, _16, or _32 suffix.


PCRE2 API OVERVIEW

       PCRE2  has  its  own  native  API, which is described in this document.
       There are also some wrapper functions for the 8-bit library that corre-
       spond  to the POSIX regular expression API, but they do not give access
       to all the functionality of PCRE2. They are described in the pcre2posix
       documentation. Both these APIs define a set of C function calls.

       The  native  API  C data types, function prototypes, option values, and
       error codes are defined in the header file pcre2.h, which also contains
       definitions of PCRE2_MAJOR and PCRE2_MINOR, the major and minor release
       numbers for the library. Applications can use these to include  support
       for different releases of PCRE2.

       In a Windows environment, if you want to statically link an application
       program against a non-dll PCRE2 library, you must  define  PCRE2_STATIC
       before including pcre2.h.

       The  functions pcre2_compile() and pcre2_match() are used for compiling
       and matching regular expressions in a Perl-compatible manner. A  sample
       program that demonstrates the simplest way of using them is provided in
       the file called pcre2demo.c in the PCRE2 source distribution. A listing
       of  this  program  is  given  in  the  pcre2demo documentation, and the
       pcre2sample documentation describes how to compile and run it.

       The compiling and matching functions recognize various options that are
       passed as bits in an options argument. There are also some more compli-
       cated parameters such as custom memory  management  functions  and  re-
       source  limits  that  are  passed  in "contexts" (which are just memory
       blocks, described below). Simple applications do not need to  make  use
       of contexts.

       Just-in-time  (JIT)  compiler  support  is an optional feature of PCRE2
       that can be built in  appropriate  hardware  environments.  It  greatly
       speeds  up  the matching performance of many patterns. Programs can re-
       quest that it be used if available by calling pcre2_jit_compile() after
       a  pattern has been successfully compiled by pcre2_compile(). This does
       nothing if JIT support is not available.

       More complicated programs might need to  make  use  of  the  specialist
       functions    pcre2_jit_stack_create(),    pcre2_jit_stack_free(),   and
       pcre2_jit_stack_assign() in order to control the JIT code's memory  us-
       age.

       JIT matching is automatically used by pcre2_match() if it is available,
       unless the PCRE2_NO_JIT option is set. There is also a direct interface
       for  JIT  matching,  which gives improved performance at the expense of
       less sanity checking. The JIT-specific functions are discussed  in  the
       pcre2jit documentation.

       A  second  matching function, pcre2_dfa_match(), which is not Perl-com-
       patible, is also provided. This uses  a  different  algorithm  for  the
       matching.  The  alternative  algorithm finds all possible matches (at a
       given point in the subject), and scans the subject  just  once  (unless
       there  are lookaround assertions). However, this algorithm does not re-
       turn captured substrings. A description of the two matching  algorithms
       and  their  advantages  and disadvantages is given in the pcre2matching
       documentation. There is no JIT support for pcre2_dfa_match().

       In addition to the main compiling and  matching  functions,  there  are
       convenience functions for extracting captured substrings from a subject
       string that has been matched by pcre2_match(). They are:

         pcre2_substring_copy_byname()
         pcre2_substring_copy_bynumber()
         pcre2_substring_get_byname()
         pcre2_substring_get_bynumber()
         pcre2_substring_list_get()
         pcre2_substring_length_byname()
         pcre2_substring_length_bynumber()
         pcre2_substring_nametable_scan()
         pcre2_substring_number_from_name()

       pcre2_substring_free() and pcre2_substring_list_free()  are  also  pro-
       vided,  to  free  memory used for extracted strings. If either of these
       functions is called with a NULL argument, the function returns  immedi-
       ately without doing anything.

       The  function  pcre2_substitute()  can be called to match a pattern and
       return a copy of the subject string with substitutions for  parts  that
       were matched.

       Functions  whose  names begin with pcre2_serialize_ are used for saving
       compiled patterns on disc or elsewhere, and reloading them later.

       Finally, there are functions for finding out information about  a  com-
       piled  pattern  (pcre2_pattern_info()) and about the configuration with
       which PCRE2 was built (pcre2_config()).

       Functions with names ending with _free() are used  for  freeing  memory
       blocks  of  various  sorts.  In all cases, if one of these functions is
       called with a NULL argument, it does nothing.


STRING LENGTHS AND OFFSETS

       The PCRE2 API uses string lengths and  offsets  into  strings  of  code
       units  in  several  places. These values are always of type PCRE2_SIZE,
       which is an unsigned integer type, currently always defined as  size_t.
       The  largest  value  that  can  be  stored  in  such  a  type  (that is
       ~(PCRE2_SIZE)0) is reserved as a special indicator for  zero-terminated
       strings  and  unset offsets.  Therefore, the longest string that can be
       handled is one less than this maximum.


NEWLINES

       PCRE2 supports five different conventions for indicating line breaks in
       strings:  a  single  CR (carriage return) character, a single LF (line-
       feed) character, the two-character sequence CRLF, any of the three pre-
       ceding,  or any Unicode newline sequence. The Unicode newline sequences
       are the three just mentioned, plus the single characters  VT  (vertical
       tab, U+000B), FF (form feed, U+000C), NEL (next line, U+0085), LS (line
       separator, U+2028), and PS (paragraph separator, U+2029).

       Each of the first three conventions is used by at least  one  operating
       system as its standard newline sequence. When PCRE2 is built, a default
       can be specified.  If it is not, the default is set to LF, which is the
       Unix standard. However, the newline convention can be changed by an ap-
       plication when calling pcre2_compile(), or it can be specified by  spe-
       cial  text at the start of the pattern itself; this overrides any other
       settings. See the pcre2pattern page for details of the special  charac-
       ter sequences.

       In  the  PCRE2  documentation  the  word "newline" is used to mean "the
       character or pair of characters that indicate a line break". The choice
       of  newline convention affects the handling of the dot, circumflex, and
       dollar metacharacters, the handling of #-comments in /x mode, and, when
       CRLF  is a recognized line ending sequence, the match position advance-
       ment for a non-anchored pattern. There is more detail about this in the
       section on pcre2_match() options below.

       The  choice of newline convention does not affect the interpretation of
       the \n or \r escape sequences, nor does it affect what \R matches; this
       has its own separate convention.


MULTITHREADING

       In  a multithreaded application it is important to keep thread-specific
       data separate from data that can be shared between threads.  The  PCRE2
       library  code  itself  is  thread-safe: it contains no static or global
       variables. The API is designed to be fairly simple for non-threaded ap-
       plications  while at the same time ensuring that multithreaded applica-
       tions can use it.

       There are several different blocks of data that are used to pass infor-
       mation between the application and the PCRE2 libraries.

   The compiled pattern

       A  pointer  to  the  compiled form of a pattern is returned to the user
       when pcre2_compile() is successful. The data in the compiled pattern is
       fixed,  and  does not change when the pattern is matched. Therefore, it
       is thread-safe, that is, the same compiled pattern can be used by  more
       than one thread simultaneously. For example, an application can compile
       all its patterns at the start, before forking off multiple threads that
       use  them.  However,  if the just-in-time (JIT) optimization feature is
       being used, it needs separate memory stack areas for each  thread.  See
       the pcre2jit documentation for more details.

       In  a more complicated situation, where patterns are compiled only when
       they are first needed, but are still shared between  threads,  pointers
       to  compiled  patterns  must  be protected from simultaneous writing by
       multiple threads, at least until a pattern has been compiled. The logic
       can be something like this:

         Get a read-only (shared) lock (mutex) for pointer
         if (pointer == NULL)
           {
           Get a write (unique) lock for pointer
           pointer = pcre2_compile(...
           }
         Release the lock
         Use pointer in pcre2_match()

       Of  course,  testing  for compilation errors should also be included in
       the code.

       If JIT is being used, but the JIT compilation is not being done immedi-
       ately,  (perhaps  waiting  to  see if the pattern is used often enough)
       similar logic is required. JIT compilation updates a pointer within the
       compiled  code  block, so a thread must gain unique write access to the
       pointer    before    calling    pcre2_jit_compile().     Alternatively,
       pcre2_code_copy()  or  pcre2_code_copy_with_tables() can be used to ob-
       tain a private copy of the compiled code before calling  the  JIT  com-
       piler.

   Context blocks

       The  next main section below introduces the idea of "contexts" in which
       PCRE2 functions are called. A context is nothing more than a collection
       of parameters that control the way PCRE2 operates. Grouping a number of
       parameters together in a context is a convenient way of passing them to
       a  PCRE2  function without using lots of arguments. The parameters that
       are stored in contexts are in some sense  "advanced  features"  of  the
       API. Many straightforward applications will not need to use contexts.

       In a multithreaded application, if the parameters in a context are val-
       ues that are never changed, the same context can be  used  by  all  the
       threads. However, if any thread needs to change any value in a context,
       it must make its own thread-specific copy.

   Match blocks

       The matching functions need a block of memory for storing  the  results
       of a match. This includes details of what was matched, as well as addi-
       tional information such as the name of a (*MARK) setting.  Each  thread
       must provide its own copy of this memory.


PCRE2 CONTEXTS

       Some  PCRE2  functions have a lot of parameters, many of which are used
       only by specialist applications, for example,  those  that  use  custom
       memory  management  or  non-standard character tables. To keep function
       argument lists at a reasonable size, and at the same time to  keep  the
       API  extensible,  "uncommon" parameters are passed to certain functions
       in a context instead of directly. A context is just a block  of  memory
       that  holds the parameter values.  Applications that do not need to ad-
       just any of the context parameters can pass NULL when a context pointer
       is required.

       There  are  three different types of context: a general context that is
       relevant for several PCRE2 operations, a compile-time  context,  and  a
       match-time context.

   The general context

       At  present,  this context just contains pointers to (and data for) ex-
       ternal memory management functions that are called from several  places
       in  the  PCRE2  library.  The  context  is  named `general' rather than
       specifically `memory' because in future other fields may be  added.  If
       you  do not want to supply your own custom memory management functions,
       you do not need to bother with a general context. A general context  is
       created by:

       pcre2_general_context *pcre2_general_context_create(
         void *(*private_malloc)(PCRE2_SIZE, void *),
         void (*private_free)(void *, void *), void *memory_data);

       The  two  function pointers specify custom memory management functions,
       whose prototypes are:

         void *private_malloc(PCRE2_SIZE, void *);
         void  private_free(void *, void *);

       Whenever code in PCRE2 calls these functions, the final argument is the
       value of memory_data. Either of the first two arguments of the creation
       function may be NULL, in which case the system memory management  func-
       tions  malloc()  and free() are used. (This is not currently useful, as
       there are no other fields in a general context,  but  in  future  there
       might  be.)  The private_malloc() function is used (if supplied) to ob-
       tain memory for storing the context, and all three values are saved  as
       part of the context.

       Whenever  PCRE2  creates a data block of any kind, the block contains a
       pointer to the free() function that matches the malloc() function  that
       was  used.  When  the  time  comes  to free the block, this function is
       called.

       A general context can be copied by calling:

       pcre2_general_context *pcre2_general_context_copy(
         pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       The memory used for a general context should be freed by calling:

       void pcre2_general_context_free(pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       If this function is passed a  NULL  argument,  it  returns  immediately
       without doing anything.

   The compile context

       A  compile context is required if you want to provide an external func-
       tion for stack checking during compilation or  to  change  the  default
       values of any of the following compile-time parameters:

         What \R matches (Unicode newlines or CR, LF, CRLF only)
         PCRE2's character tables
         The newline character sequence
         The compile time nested parentheses limit
         The maximum length of the pattern string
         The extra options bits (none set by default)

       A  compile context is also required if you are using custom memory man-
       agement.  If none of these apply, just pass NULL as the  context  argu-
       ment of pcre2_compile().

       A  compile context is created, copied, and freed by the following func-
       tions:

       pcre2_compile_context *pcre2_compile_context_create(
         pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       pcre2_compile_context *pcre2_compile_context_copy(
         pcre2_compile_context *ccontext);

       void pcre2_compile_context_free(pcre2_compile_context *ccontext);

       A compile context is created with default values  for  its  parameters.
       These can be changed by calling the following functions, which return 0
       on success, or PCRE2_ERROR_BADDATA if invalid data is detected.

       int pcre2_set_bsr(pcre2_compile_context *ccontext,
         uint32_t value);

       The value must be PCRE2_BSR_ANYCRLF, to specify that  \R  matches  only
       CR,  LF,  or CRLF, or PCRE2_BSR_UNICODE, to specify that \R matches any
       Unicode line ending sequence. The value is used by the JIT compiler and
       by   the   two   interpreted   matching  functions,  pcre2_match()  and
       pcre2_dfa_match().

       int pcre2_set_character_tables(pcre2_compile_context *ccontext,
         const uint8_t *tables);

       The value must be the result of a  call  to  pcre2_maketables(),  whose
       only argument is a general context. This function builds a set of char-
       acter tables in the current locale.

       int pcre2_set_compile_extra_options(pcre2_compile_context *ccontext,
         uint32_t extra_options);

       As PCRE2 has developed, almost all the 32 option bits that  are  avail-
       able  in  the options argument of pcre2_compile() have been used up. To
       avoid running out, the compile context contains a set of  extra  option
       bits  which are used for some newer, assumed rarer, options. This func-
       tion sets those bits. It always sets all the bits (either on  or  off).
       It  does not modify any existing setting. The available options are de-
       fined in the section entitled "Extra compile options" below.

       int pcre2_set_max_pattern_length(pcre2_compile_context *ccontext,
         PCRE2_SIZE value);

       This sets a maximum length, in code units, for any pattern string  that
       is  compiled  with  this context. If the pattern is longer, an error is
       generated.  This facility is provided so that applications that  accept
       patterns from external sources can limit their size. The default is the
       largest number that a PCRE2_SIZE variable can  hold,  which  is  effec-
       tively unlimited.

       int pcre2_set_newline(pcre2_compile_context *ccontext,
         uint32_t value);

       This specifies which characters or character sequences are to be recog-
       nized as newlines. The value must be one of PCRE2_NEWLINE_CR  (carriage
       return only), PCRE2_NEWLINE_LF (linefeed only), PCRE2_NEWLINE_CRLF (the
       two-character sequence CR followed by LF),  PCRE2_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF  (any
       of  the  above),  PCRE2_NEWLINE_ANY  (any Unicode newline sequence), or
       PCRE2_NEWLINE_NUL (the NUL character, that is a binary zero).

       A pattern can override the value set in the compile context by starting
       with a sequence such as (*CRLF). See the pcre2pattern page for details.

       When  a  pattern  is  compiled  with  the  PCRE2_EXTENDED  or PCRE2_EX-
       TENDED_MORE option, the newline convention affects the  recognition  of
       the  end  of internal comments starting with #. The value is saved with
       the compiled pattern for subsequent use by the JIT compiler and by  the
       two     interpreted     matching     functions,    pcre2_match()    and
       pcre2_dfa_match().

       int pcre2_set_parens_nest_limit(pcre2_compile_context *ccontext,
         uint32_t value);

       This parameter adjusts the limit, set  when  PCRE2  is  built  (default
       250),  on  the  depth  of  parenthesis nesting in a pattern. This limit
       stops rogue patterns using up too much system  stack  when  being  com-
       piled.  The limit applies to parentheses of all kinds, not just captur-
       ing parentheses.

       int pcre2_set_compile_recursion_guard(pcre2_compile_context *ccontext,
         int (*guard_function)(uint32_t, void *), void *user_data);

       There is at least one application that runs PCRE2 in threads with  very
       limited  system  stack,  where running out of stack is to be avoided at
       all costs. The parenthesis limit above cannot take account of how  much
       stack  is  actually  available during compilation. For a finer control,
       you can supply a  function  that  is  called  whenever  pcre2_compile()
       starts  to compile a parenthesized part of a pattern. This function can
       check the actual stack size (or anything else  that  it  wants  to,  of
       course).

       The  first  argument to the callout function gives the current depth of
       nesting, and the second is user data that is set up by the  last  argu-
       ment   of  pcre2_set_compile_recursion_guard().  The  callout  function
       should return zero if all is well, or non-zero to force an error.

   The match context

       A match context is required if you want to:

         Set up a callout function
         Set an offset limit for matching an unanchored pattern
         Change the limit on the amount of heap used when matching
         Change the backtracking match limit
         Change the backtracking depth limit
         Set custom memory management specifically for the match

       If none of these apply, just pass  NULL  as  the  context  argument  of
       pcre2_match(), pcre2_dfa_match(), or pcre2_jit_match().

       A  match  context  is created, copied, and freed by the following func-
       tions:

       pcre2_match_context *pcre2_match_context_create(
         pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       pcre2_match_context *pcre2_match_context_copy(
         pcre2_match_context *mcontext);

       void pcre2_match_context_free(pcre2_match_context *mcontext);

       A match context is created with  default  values  for  its  parameters.
       These can be changed by calling the following functions, which return 0
       on success, or PCRE2_ERROR_BADDATA if invalid data is detected.

       int pcre2_set_callout(pcre2_match_context *mcontext,
         int (*callout_function)(pcre2_callout_block *, void *),
         void *callout_data);

       This sets up a callout function for PCRE2 to call at  specified  points
       during a matching operation. Details are given in the pcre2callout doc-
       umentation.

       int pcre2_set_substitute_callout(pcre2_match_context *mcontext,
         int (*callout_function)(pcre2_substitute_callout_block *, void *),
         void *callout_data);

       This sets up a callout function for PCRE2 to call after each  substitu-
       tion made by pcre2_substitute(). Details are given in the section enti-
       tled "Creating a new string with substitutions" below.

       int pcre2_set_offset_limit(pcre2_match_context *mcontext,
         PCRE2_SIZE value);

       The offset_limit parameter limits how far an unanchored search can  ad-
       vance  in  the  subject  string.  The default value is PCRE2_UNSET. The
       pcre2_match() and pcre2_dfa_match()  functions  return  PCRE2_ERROR_NO-
       MATCH if a match with a starting point before or at the given offset is
       not found. The pcre2_substitute() function makes no more substitutions.

       For example, if the pattern /abc/ is matched against "123abc"  with  an
       offset  limit  less  than 3, the result is PCRE2_ERROR_NOMATCH. A match
       can never be  found  if  the  startoffset  argument  of  pcre2_match(),
       pcre2_dfa_match(),  or  pcre2_substitute()  is  greater than the offset
       limit set in the match context.

       When using this facility, you must set the  PCRE2_USE_OFFSET_LIMIT  op-
       tion when calling pcre2_compile() so that when JIT is in use, different
       code can be compiled. If a match is started with  a  non-default  match
       limit when PCRE2_USE_OFFSET_LIMIT is not set, an error is generated.

       The  offset limit facility can be used to track progress when searching
       large subject strings or to limit the extent of  global  substitutions.
       See  also  the  PCRE2_FIRSTLINE option, which requires a match to start
       before or at the first newline that follows the start  of  matching  in
       the subject. If this is set with an offset limit, a match must occur in
       the first line and also within the offset limit. In other words, which-
       ever limit comes first is used.

       int pcre2_set_heap_limit(pcre2_match_context *mcontext,
         uint32_t value);

       The heap_limit parameter specifies, in units of kibibytes (1024 bytes),
       the maximum amount of heap memory that pcre2_match() may  use  to  hold
       backtracking information when running an interpretive match. This limit
       also applies to pcre2_dfa_match(), which may use the heap when process-
       ing  patterns  with a lot of nested pattern recursion or lookarounds or
       atomic groups. This limit does not apply to matching with the JIT opti-
       mization,  which  has  its  own  memory  control  arrangements (see the
       pcre2jit documentation for more details). If the limit is reached,  the
       negative  error  code  PCRE2_ERROR_HEAPLIMIT  is  returned. The default
       limit can be set when PCRE2 is built; if it is not, the default is  set
       very large and is essentially "unlimited".

       A value for the heap limit may also be supplied by an item at the start
       of a pattern of the form

         (*LIMIT_HEAP=ddd)

       where ddd is a decimal number. However, such a setting is  ignored  un-
       less  ddd is less than the limit set by the caller of pcre2_match() or,
       if no such limit is set, less than the default.

       The pcre2_match() function starts out using a 20KiB vector on the  sys-
       tem stack for recording backtracking points. The more nested backtrack-
       ing points there are (that is, the deeper the search  tree),  the  more
       memory  is  needed.   Heap memory is used only if the initial vector is
       too small. If the heap limit is set to a value less than 21 (in partic-
       ular,  zero)  no  heap memory will be used. In this case, only patterns
       that do not have a lot of nested backtracking can be successfully  pro-
       cessed.

       Similarly,  for pcre2_dfa_match(), a vector on the system stack is used
       when processing pattern recursions, lookarounds, or atomic groups,  and
       only  if this is not big enough is heap memory used. In this case, too,
       setting a value of zero disables the use of the heap.

       int pcre2_set_match_limit(pcre2_match_context *mcontext,
         uint32_t value);

       The match_limit parameter provides a means of preventing PCRE2 from us-
       ing  up  too many computing resources when processing patterns that are
       not going to match, but which have a very large number of possibilities
       in  their  search  trees.  The  classic  example is a pattern that uses
       nested unlimited repeats.

       There is an internal counter in pcre2_match() that is incremented  each
       time  round  its  main  matching  loop. If this value reaches the match
       limit, pcre2_match() returns the negative value PCRE2_ERROR_MATCHLIMIT.
       This  has  the  effect  of limiting the amount of backtracking that can
       take place. For patterns that are not anchored, the count restarts from
       zero  for  each position in the subject string. This limit also applies
       to pcre2_dfa_match(), though the counting is done in a different way.

       When pcre2_match() is called with a pattern that was successfully  pro-
       cessed by pcre2_jit_compile(), the way in which matching is executed is
       entirely different. However, there is still the possibility of  runaway
       matching  that  goes  on  for  a very long time, and so the match_limit
       value is also used in this case (but in a different way) to  limit  how
       long the matching can continue.

       The default value for the limit can be set when PCRE2 is built; the de-
       fault default is 10 million, which handles all  but  the  most  extreme
       cases.  A  value for the match limit may also be supplied by an item at
       the start of a pattern of the form

         (*LIMIT_MATCH=ddd)

       where ddd is a decimal number. However, such a setting is  ignored  un-
       less  ddd  is less than the limit set by the caller of pcre2_match() or
       pcre2_dfa_match() or, if no such limit is set, less than the default.

       int pcre2_set_depth_limit(pcre2_match_context *mcontext,
         uint32_t value);

       This  parameter  limits   the   depth   of   nested   backtracking   in
       pcre2_match().   Each time a nested backtracking point is passed, a new
       memory "frame" is used to remember the state of matching at that point.
       Thus,  this  parameter  indirectly  limits the amount of memory that is
       used in a match. However, because the size of each memory  "frame"  de-
       pends  on  the number of capturing parentheses, the actual memory limit
       varies from pattern to pattern. This limit was more useful in  versions
       before 10.30, where function recursion was used for backtracking.

       The  depth limit is not relevant, and is ignored, when matching is done
       using JIT compiled code. However, it is supported by pcre2_dfa_match(),
       which  uses it to limit the depth of nested internal recursive function
       calls that implement atomic groups, lookaround assertions, and  pattern
       recursions. This limits, indirectly, the amount of system stack that is
       used. It was more useful in versions before 10.32,  when  stack  memory
       was used for local workspace vectors for recursive function calls. From
       version 10.32, only local variables are allocated on the stack  and  as
       each call uses only a few hundred bytes, even a small stack can support
       quite a lot of recursion.

       If the depth of internal recursive function calls is great enough,  lo-
       cal  workspace vectors are allocated on the heap from version 10.32 on-
       wards, so the depth limit also indirectly limits  the  amount  of  heap
       memory that is used. A recursive pattern such as /(.(?2))((?1)|)/, when
       matched to a very long string using pcre2_dfa_match(), can use a  great
       deal  of memory. However, it is probably better to limit heap usage di-
       rectly by calling pcre2_set_heap_limit().

       The default value for the depth limit can be set when PCRE2  is  built;
       if  it  is not, the default is set to the same value as the default for
       the  match  limit.   If  the  limit  is  exceeded,   pcre2_match()   or
       pcre2_dfa_match() returns PCRE2_ERROR_DEPTHLIMIT. A value for the depth
       limit may also be supplied by an item at the start of a pattern of  the
       form

         (*LIMIT_DEPTH=ddd)

       where  ddd  is a decimal number. However, such a setting is ignored un-
       less ddd is less than the limit set by the caller of  pcre2_match()  or
       pcre2_dfa_match() or, if no such limit is set, less than the default.


CHECKING BUILD-TIME OPTIONS

       int pcre2_config(uint32_t what, void *where);

       The  function  pcre2_config()  makes  it possible for a PCRE2 client to
       find the value of certain  configuration  parameters  and  to  discover
       which  optional features have been compiled into the PCRE2 library. The
       pcre2build documentation has more details about these features.

       The first argument for pcre2_config() specifies  which  information  is
       required. The second argument is a pointer to memory into which the in-
       formation is placed. If NULL is passed, the function returns the amount
       of  memory that is needed for the requested information. For calls that
       return numerical values, the value is in bytes; when  requesting  these
       values,  where  should point to appropriately aligned memory. For calls
       that return strings, the required length is given in  code  units,  not
       counting the terminating zero.

       When  requesting information, the returned value from pcre2_config() is
       non-negative on success, or the negative error code  PCRE2_ERROR_BADOP-
       TION  if the value in the first argument is not recognized. The follow-
       ing information is available:

         PCRE2_CONFIG_BSR

       The output is a uint32_t integer whose value indicates  what  character
       sequences  the  \R  escape  sequence  matches  by  default.  A value of
       PCRE2_BSR_UNICODE means that \R matches any  Unicode  line  ending  se-
       quence; a value of PCRE2_BSR_ANYCRLF means that \R matches only CR, LF,
       or CRLF. The default can be overridden when a pattern is compiled.

         PCRE2_CONFIG_COMPILED_WIDTHS

       The output is a uint32_t integer whose lower bits indicate  which  code
       unit  widths  were  selected  when PCRE2 was built. The 1-bit indicates
       8-bit support, and the 2-bit and 4-bit indicate 16-bit and 32-bit  sup-
       port, respectively.

         PCRE2_CONFIG_DEPTHLIMIT

       The  output  is a uint32_t integer that gives the default limit for the
       depth of nested backtracking in pcre2_match() or the  depth  of  nested
       recursions,  lookarounds,  and atomic groups in pcre2_dfa_match(). Fur-
       ther details are given with pcre2_set_depth_limit() above.

         PCRE2_CONFIG_HEAPLIMIT

       The output is a uint32_t integer that gives, in kibibytes, the  default
       limit   for  the  amount  of  heap  memory  used  by  pcre2_match()  or
       pcre2_dfa_match().     Further     details     are      given      with
       pcre2_set_heap_limit() above.

         PCRE2_CONFIG_JIT

       The  output  is  a  uint32_t  integer that is set to one if support for
       just-in-time compiling is available; otherwise it is set to zero.

         PCRE2_CONFIG_JITTARGET

       The where argument should point to a buffer that is at  least  48  code
       units  long.  (The  exact  length  required  can  be  found  by calling
       pcre2_config() with where set to NULL.) The buffer  is  filled  with  a
       string  that  contains  the  name of the architecture for which the JIT
       compiler is configured, for example "x86 32bit  (little  endian  +  un-
       aligned)".  If  JIT  support is not available, PCRE2_ERROR_BADOPTION is
       returned, otherwise the number of code units used is returned. This  is
       the length of the string, plus one unit for the terminating zero.

         PCRE2_CONFIG_LINKSIZE

       The output is a uint32_t integer that contains the number of bytes used
       for internal linkage in compiled regular  expressions.  When  PCRE2  is
       configured,  the value can be set to 2, 3, or 4, with the default being
       2. This is the value that is returned by pcre2_config(). However,  when
       the  16-bit  library  is compiled, a value of 3 is rounded up to 4, and
       when the 32-bit library is compiled, internal  linkages  always  use  4
       bytes, so the configured value is not relevant.

       The default value of 2 for the 8-bit and 16-bit libraries is sufficient
       for all but the most massive patterns, since it allows the size of  the
       compiled  pattern  to  be  up  to 65535 code units. Larger values allow
       larger regular expressions to be compiled by those two  libraries,  but
       at the expense of slower matching.

         PCRE2_CONFIG_MATCHLIMIT

       The output is a uint32_t integer that gives the default match limit for
       pcre2_match(). Further details are given  with  pcre2_set_match_limit()
       above.

         PCRE2_CONFIG_NEWLINE

       The  output  is  a  uint32_t  integer whose value specifies the default
       character sequence that is recognized as meaning "newline". The  values
       are:

         PCRE2_NEWLINE_CR       Carriage return (CR)
         PCRE2_NEWLINE_LF       Linefeed (LF)
         PCRE2_NEWLINE_CRLF     Carriage return, linefeed (CRLF)
         PCRE2_NEWLINE_ANY      Any Unicode line ending
         PCRE2_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF  Any of CR, LF, or CRLF
         PCRE2_NEWLINE_NUL      The NUL character (binary zero)

       The  default  should  normally  correspond to the standard sequence for
       your operating system.

         PCRE2_CONFIG_NEVER_BACKSLASH_C

       The output is a uint32_t integer that is set to one if the  use  of  \C
       was  permanently  disabled when PCRE2 was built; otherwise it is set to
       zero.

         PCRE2_CONFIG_PARENSLIMIT

       The output is a uint32_t integer that gives the maximum depth of  nest-
       ing of parentheses (of any kind) in a pattern. This limit is imposed to
       cap the amount of system stack used when a pattern is compiled.  It  is
       specified  when PCRE2 is built; the default is 250. This limit does not
       take into account the stack that may already be used by the calling ap-
       plication.   For  finer  control  over  compilation  stack  usage,  see
       pcre2_set_compile_recursion_guard().

         PCRE2_CONFIG_STACKRECURSE

       This parameter is obsolete and should not be used in new code. The out-
       put is a uint32_t integer that is always set to zero.

         PCRE2_CONFIG_TABLES_LENGTH

       The output is a uint32_t integer that gives the length of PCRE2's char-
       acter processing tables in bytes. For details of these tables  see  the
       section on locale support below.

         PCRE2_CONFIG_UNICODE_VERSION

       The  where  argument  should point to a buffer that is at least 24 code
       units long.  (The  exact  length  required  can  be  found  by  calling
       pcre2_config()  with  where  set  to  NULL.) If PCRE2 has been compiled
       without Unicode support, the buffer is filled with  the  text  "Unicode
       not  supported".  Otherwise,  the  Unicode version string (for example,
       "8.0.0") is inserted. The number of code units used is  returned.  This
       is the length of the string plus one unit for the terminating zero.

         PCRE2_CONFIG_UNICODE

       The  output is a uint32_t integer that is set to one if Unicode support
       is available; otherwise it is set to zero. Unicode support implies  UTF
       support.

         PCRE2_CONFIG_VERSION

       The  where  argument  should point to a buffer that is at least 24 code
       units long.  (The  exact  length  required  can  be  found  by  calling
       pcre2_config()  with  where set to NULL.) The buffer is filled with the
       PCRE2 version string, zero-terminated. The number of code units used is
       returned. This is the length of the string plus one unit for the termi-
       nating zero.


COMPILING A PATTERN

       pcre2_code *pcre2_compile(PCRE2_SPTR pattern, PCRE2_SIZE length,
         uint32_t options, int *errorcode, PCRE2_SIZE *erroroffset,
         pcre2_compile_context *ccontext);

       void pcre2_code_free(pcre2_code *code);

       pcre2_code *pcre2_code_copy(const pcre2_code *code);

       pcre2_code *pcre2_code_copy_with_tables(const pcre2_code *code);

       The pcre2_compile() function compiles a pattern into an internal  form.
       The  pattern  is  defined  by a pointer to a string of code units and a
       length (in code units). If the pattern is zero-terminated,  the  length
       can  be  specified  as  PCRE2_ZERO_TERMINATED.  The  function returns a
       pointer to a block of memory that contains the compiled pattern and re-
       lated data, or NULL if an error occurred.

       If  the  compile context argument ccontext is NULL, memory for the com-
       piled pattern is obtained by calling malloc().  Otherwise,  it  is  ob-
       tained from the same memory function that was used for the compile con-
       text. The caller must free the memory by calling pcre2_code_free() when
       it is no longer needed.  If pcre2_code_free() is called with a NULL ar-
       gument, it returns immediately, without doing anything.

       The function pcre2_code_copy() makes a copy of the compiled code in new
       memory,  using  the same memory allocator as was used for the original.
       However, if the code has been processed by the JIT  compiler  (see  be-
       low),  the JIT information cannot be copied (because it is position-de-
       pendent).  The new copy can initially be used only for  non-JIT  match-
       ing,  though  it  can  be passed to pcre2_jit_compile() if required. If
       pcre2_code_copy() is called with a NULL argument, it returns NULL.

       The pcre2_code_copy() function provides a way for individual threads in
       a  multithreaded  application  to acquire a private copy of shared com-
       piled code.  However, it does not make a copy of the  character  tables
       used  by  the compiled pattern; the new pattern code points to the same
       tables as the original code.  (See "Locale Support" below  for  details
       of  these  character  tables.) In many applications the same tables are
       used throughout, so this behaviour is appropriate. Nevertheless,  there
       are occasions when a copy of a compiled pattern and the relevant tables
       are needed. The pcre2_code_copy_with_tables() provides  this  facility.
       Copies  of  both  the  code  and the tables are made, with the new code
       pointing to the new tables. The memory for the new tables is  automati-
       cally  freed  when  pcre2_code_free() is called for the new copy of the
       compiled code. If pcre2_code_copy_with_tables() is called with  a  NULL
       argument, it returns NULL.

       NOTE:  When  one  of  the matching functions is called, pointers to the
       compiled pattern and the subject string are set in the match data block
       so  that  they  can be referenced by the substring extraction functions
       after a successful match.  After running a match, you must not  free  a
       compiled  pattern or a subject string until after all operations on the
       match data block have taken place, unless, in the case of  the  subject
       string,  you  have used the PCRE2_COPY_MATCHED_SUBJECT option, which is
       described in the section entitled "Option bits for  pcre2_match()"  be-
       low.

       The  options argument for pcre2_compile() contains various bit settings
       that affect the compilation. It should be zero if none of them are  re-
       quired.  The  available  options  are described below. Some of them (in
       particular, those that are compatible with Perl,  but  some  others  as
       well)  can  also  be set and unset from within the pattern (see the de-
       tailed description in the pcre2pattern documentation).

       For those options that can be different in different parts of the  pat-
       tern,  the contents of the options argument specifies their settings at
       the start of compilation. The  PCRE2_ANCHORED,  PCRE2_ENDANCHORED,  and
       PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK  options  can be set at the time of matching as well
       as at compile time.

       Some additional options and less frequently required  compile-time  pa-
       rameters  (for  example, the newline setting) can be provided in a com-
       pile context (as described above).

       If errorcode or erroroffset is NULL, pcre2_compile() returns NULL imme-
       diately.  Otherwise,  the  variables to which these point are set to an
       error code and an offset (number of code units) within the pattern, re-
       spectively, when pcre2_compile() returns NULL because a compilation er-
       ror has occurred. The values are not defined when compilation  is  suc-
       cessful and pcre2_compile() returns a non-NULL value.

       There  are nearly 100 positive error codes that pcre2_compile() may re-
       turn if it finds an error in the pattern. There are also some  negative
       error  codes that are used for invalid UTF strings when validity check-
       ing is in force. These are the  same  as  given  by  pcre2_match()  and
       pcre2_dfa_match(), and are described in the pcre2unicode documentation.
       There is no separate documentation for the positive  error  codes,  be-
       cause  the  textual  error  messages  that  are obtained by calling the
       pcre2_get_error_message() function (see "Obtaining a textual error mes-
       sage"  below)  should  be  self-explanatory.  Macro names starting with
       PCRE2_ERROR_ are defined for both positive and negative error codes  in
       pcre2.h.

       The value returned in erroroffset is an indication of where in the pat-
       tern the error occurred. It is not necessarily the  furthest  point  in
       the pattern that was read. For example, after the error "lookbehind as-
       sertion is not fixed length", the error offset points to the  start  of
       the  failing assertion. For an invalid UTF-8 or UTF-16 string, the off-
       set is that of the first code unit of the failing character.

       Some errors are not detected until the whole pattern has been  scanned;
       in  these  cases,  the offset passed back is the length of the pattern.
       Note that the offset is in code units, not characters, even  in  a  UTF
       mode. It may sometimes point into the middle of a UTF-8 or UTF-16 char-
       acter.

       This code fragment shows a typical straightforward call  to  pcre2_com-
       pile():

         pcre2_code *re;
         PCRE2_SIZE erroffset;
         int errorcode;
         re = pcre2_compile(
           "^A.*Z",                /* the pattern */
           PCRE2_ZERO_TERMINATED,  /* the pattern is zero-terminated */
           0,                      /* default options */
           &errorcode,             /* for error code */
           &erroffset,             /* for error offset */
           NULL);                  /* no compile context */


   Main compile options

       The  following  names for option bits are defined in the pcre2.h header
       file:

         PCRE2_ANCHORED

       If this bit is set, the pattern is forced to be "anchored", that is, it
       is  constrained to match only at the first matching point in the string
       that is being searched (the "subject string"). This effect can also  be
       achieved  by appropriate constructs in the pattern itself, which is the
       only way to do it in Perl.

         PCRE2_ALLOW_EMPTY_CLASS

       By default, for compatibility with Perl, a closing square bracket  that
       immediately  follows  an opening one is treated as a data character for
       the class. When  PCRE2_ALLOW_EMPTY_CLASS  is  set,  it  terminates  the
       class, which therefore contains no characters and so can never match.

         PCRE2_ALT_BSUX

       This  option  request  alternative  handling of three escape sequences,
       which makes PCRE2's behaviour more like  ECMAscript  (aka  JavaScript).
       When it is set:

       (1) \U matches an upper case "U" character; by default \U causes a com-
       pile time error (Perl uses \U to upper case subsequent characters).

       (2) \u matches a lower case "u" character unless it is followed by four
       hexadecimal  digits,  in  which case the hexadecimal number defines the
       code point to match. By default, \u causes a compile time  error  (Perl
       uses it to upper case the following character).

       (3)  \x matches a lower case "x" character unless it is followed by two
       hexadecimal digits, in which case the hexadecimal  number  defines  the
       code  point  to  match. By default, as in Perl, a hexadecimal number is
       always expected after \x, but it may have zero, one, or two digits (so,
       for example, \xz matches a binary zero character followed by z).

       ECMAscript 6 added additional functionality to \u. This can be accessed
       using the PCRE2_EXTRA_ALT_BSUX extra option  (see  "Extra  compile  op-
       tions" below).  Note that this alternative escape handling applies only
       to patterns. Neither of these options affects  the  processing  of  re-
       placement strings passed to pcre2_substitute().

         PCRE2_ALT_CIRCUMFLEX

       In  multiline  mode  (when  PCRE2_MULTILINE  is  set),  the  circumflex
       metacharacter matches at the start of the subject (unless  PCRE2_NOTBOL
       is  set),  and  also  after  any internal newline. However, it does not
       match after a newline at the end of the subject, for compatibility with
       Perl.  If  you want a multiline circumflex also to match after a termi-
       nating newline, you must set PCRE2_ALT_CIRCUMFLEX.

         PCRE2_ALT_VERBNAMES

       By default, for compatibility with Perl, the name in any verb  sequence
       such  as  (*MARK:NAME)  is any sequence of characters that does not in-
       clude a closing parenthesis. The name is not processed in any way,  and
       it  is  not possible to include a closing parenthesis in the name. How-
       ever, if the PCRE2_ALT_VERBNAMES option is set, normal  backslash  pro-
       cessing  is  applied to verb names and only an unescaped closing paren-
       thesis terminates the name. A closing parenthesis can be included in  a
       name  either  as  \)  or  between  \Q  and \E. If the PCRE2_EXTENDED or
       PCRE2_EXTENDED_MORE option is set with  PCRE2_ALT_VERBNAMES,  unescaped
       whitespace  in verb names is skipped and #-comments are recognized, ex-
       actly as in the rest of the pattern.

         PCRE2_AUTO_CALLOUT

       If this bit  is  set,  pcre2_compile()  automatically  inserts  callout
       items,  all  with  number 255, before each pattern item, except immedi-
       ately before or after an explicit callout in the pattern.  For  discus-
       sion of the callout facility, see the pcre2callout documentation.

         PCRE2_CASELESS

       If  this  bit is set, letters in the pattern match both upper and lower
       case letters in the subject. It is equivalent to Perl's /i option,  and
       it  can be changed within a pattern by a (?i) option setting. If either
       PCRE2_UTF or PCRE2_UCP is set, Unicode  properties  are  used  for  all
       characters  with more than one other case, and for all characters whose
       code points are greater than U+007F. For lower valued  characters  with
       only  one  other  case,  a lookup table is used for speed. When neither
       PCRE2_UTF nor PCRE2_UCP is set, a lookup table is  used  for  all  code
       points  less than 256, and higher code points (available only in 16-bit
       or 32-bit mode) are treated as not having another case.

         PCRE2_DOLLAR_ENDONLY

       If this bit is set, a dollar metacharacter in the pattern matches  only
       at  the  end  of the subject string. Without this option, a dollar also
       matches immediately before a newline at the end of the string (but  not
       before  any other newlines). The PCRE2_DOLLAR_ENDONLY option is ignored
       if PCRE2_MULTILINE is set. There is no equivalent  to  this  option  in
       Perl, and no way to set it within a pattern.

         PCRE2_DOTALL

       If  this  bit  is  set,  a dot metacharacter in the pattern matches any
       character, including one that indicates a  newline.  However,  it  only
       ever matches one character, even if newlines are coded as CRLF. Without
       this option, a dot does not match when the current position in the sub-
       ject  is  at  a newline. This option is equivalent to Perl's /s option,
       and it can be changed within a pattern by a (?s) option setting. A neg-
       ative  class such as [^a] always matches newline characters, and the \N
       escape sequence always matches a non-newline character, independent  of
       the setting of PCRE2_DOTALL.

         PCRE2_DUPNAMES

       If  this  bit is set, names used to identify capture groups need not be
       unique.  This can be helpful for certain types of pattern  when  it  is
       known  that  only  one instance of the named group can ever be matched.
       There are more details of named capture  groups  below;  see  also  the
       pcre2pattern documentation.

         PCRE2_ENDANCHORED

       If  this  bit is set, the end of any pattern match must be right at the
       end of the string being searched (the "subject string"). If the pattern
       match succeeds by reaching (*ACCEPT), but does not reach the end of the
       subject, the match fails at the current starting point. For  unanchored
       patterns,  a  new  match is then tried at the next starting point. How-
       ever, if the match succeeds by reaching the end of the pattern, but not
       the  end  of  the subject, backtracking occurs and an alternative match
       may be found. Consider these two patterns:

         .(*ACCEPT)|..
         .|..

       If matched against "abc" with PCRE2_ENDANCHORED set, the first  matches
       "c"  whereas  the  second matches "bc". The effect of PCRE2_ENDANCHORED
       can also be achieved by appropriate constructs in the  pattern  itself,
       which is the only way to do it in Perl.

       For DFA matching with pcre2_dfa_match(), PCRE2_ENDANCHORED applies only
       to the first (that is, the  longest)  matched  string.  Other  parallel
       matches,  which are necessarily substrings of the first one, must obvi-
       ously end before the end of the subject.

         PCRE2_EXTENDED

       If this bit is set, most white space characters in the pattern are  to-
       tally ignored except when escaped or inside a character class. However,
       white space is not allowed within sequences such as (?> that  introduce
       various  parenthesized groups, nor within numerical quantifiers such as
       {1,3}. Ignorable white space is permitted between an item and a follow-
       ing  quantifier  and  between a quantifier and a following + that indi-
       cates possessiveness. PCRE2_EXTENDED is equivalent to Perl's /x option,
       and it can be changed within a pattern by a (?x) option setting.

       When  PCRE2  is compiled without Unicode support, PCRE2_EXTENDED recog-
       nizes as white space only those characters with code points  less  than
       256 that are flagged as white space in its low-character table. The ta-
       ble is normally created by pcre2_maketables(), which uses the isspace()
       function  to identify space characters. In most ASCII environments, the
       relevant characters are those with code  points  0x0009  (tab),  0x000A
       (linefeed),  0x000B (vertical tab), 0x000C (formfeed), 0x000D (carriage
       return), and 0x0020 (space).

       When PCRE2 is compiled with Unicode support, in addition to these char-
       acters,  five  more Unicode "Pattern White Space" characters are recog-
       nized by PCRE2_EXTENDED. These are U+0085 (next line), U+200E (left-to-
       right  mark), U+200F (right-to-left mark), U+2028 (line separator), and
       U+2029 (paragraph separator). This set of characters  is  the  same  as
       recognized  by  Perl's /x option. Note that the horizontal and vertical
       space characters that are matched by the \h and \v escapes in  patterns
       are a much bigger set.

       As  well as ignoring most white space, PCRE2_EXTENDED also causes char-
       acters between an unescaped # outside a character class  and  the  next
       newline,  inclusive,  to be ignored, which makes it possible to include
       comments inside complicated patterns. Note that the end of this type of
       comment  is a literal newline sequence in the pattern; escape sequences
       that happen to represent a newline do not count.

       Which characters are interpreted as newlines can be specified by a set-
       ting  in  the compile context that is passed to pcre2_compile() or by a
       special sequence at the start of the pattern, as described in the  sec-
       tion  entitled "Newline conventions" in the pcre2pattern documentation.
       A default is defined when PCRE2 is built.

         PCRE2_EXTENDED_MORE

       This option has the effect of PCRE2_EXTENDED,  but,  in  addition,  un-
       escaped  space and horizontal tab characters are ignored inside a char-
       acter class. Note: only these two characters are ignored, not the  full
       set  of pattern white space characters that are ignored outside a char-
       acter class. PCRE2_EXTENDED_MORE is equivalent to  Perl's  /xx  option,
       and it can be changed within a pattern by a (?xx) option setting.

         PCRE2_FIRSTLINE

       If this option is set, the start of an unanchored pattern match must be
       before or at the first newline in  the  subject  string  following  the
       start  of  matching, though the matched text may continue over the new-
       line. If startoffset is non-zero, the limiting newline is not necessar-
       ily  the  first  newline  in  the  subject. For example, if the subject
       string is "abc\nxyz" (where \n represents a single-character newline) a
       pattern  match for "yz" succeeds with PCRE2_FIRSTLINE if startoffset is
       greater than 3. See also PCRE2_USE_OFFSET_LIMIT, which provides a  more
       general  limiting  facility.  If  PCRE2_FIRSTLINE is set with an offset
       limit, a match must occur in the first line and also within the  offset
       limit. In other words, whichever limit comes first is used.

         PCRE2_LITERAL

       If this option is set, all meta-characters in the pattern are disabled,
       and it is treated as a literal string. Matching literal strings with  a
       regular expression engine is not the most efficient way of doing it. If
       you are doing a lot of literal matching and  are  worried  about  effi-
       ciency, you should consider using other approaches. The only other main
       options  that  are  allowed  with  PCRE2_LITERAL  are:  PCRE2_ANCHORED,
       PCRE2_ENDANCHORED, PCRE2_AUTO_CALLOUT, PCRE2_CASELESS, PCRE2_FIRSTLINE,
       PCRE2_MATCH_INVALID_UTF,  PCRE2_NO_START_OPTIMIZE,  PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK,
       PCRE2_UTF,  and  PCRE2_USE_OFFSET_LIMIT.  The  extra  options PCRE2_EX-
       TRA_MATCH_LINE and PCRE2_EXTRA_MATCH_WORD are also supported. Any other
       options cause an error.

         PCRE2_MATCH_INVALID_UTF

       This  option  forces PCRE2_UTF (see below) and also enables support for
       matching by pcre2_match() in subject strings that contain  invalid  UTF
       sequences.   This  facility  is not supported for DFA matching. For de-
       tails, see the pcre2unicode documentation.

         PCRE2_MATCH_UNSET_BACKREF

       If this option is set,  a  backreference  to  an  unset  capture  group
       matches  an  empty  string (by default this causes the current matching
       alternative to fail).  A pattern such as (\1)(a) succeeds when this op-
       tion  is  set  (assuming it can find an "a" in the subject), whereas it
       fails by default, for Perl compatibility.  Setting  this  option  makes
       PCRE2 behave more like ECMAscript (aka JavaScript).

         PCRE2_MULTILINE

       By  default,  for  the purposes of matching "start of line" and "end of
       line", PCRE2 treats the subject string as consisting of a  single  line
       of  characters,  even  if  it actually contains newlines. The "start of
       line" metacharacter (^) matches only at the start of  the  string,  and
       the  "end  of  line"  metacharacter  ($) matches only at the end of the
       string, or before a terminating newline (except  when  PCRE2_DOLLAR_EN-
       DONLY is set). Note, however, that unless PCRE2_DOTALL is set, the "any
       character" metacharacter (.) does not match at a newline.  This  behav-
       iour (for ^, $, and dot) is the same as Perl.

       When  PCRE2_MULTILINE  it is set, the "start of line" and "end of line"
       constructs match immediately following or immediately  before  internal
       newlines  in  the  subject string, respectively, as well as at the very
       start and end. This is equivalent to Perl's /m option, and  it  can  be
       changed within a pattern by a (?m) option setting. Note that the "start
       of line" metacharacter does not match after a newline at the end of the
       subject,  for compatibility with Perl.  However, you can change this by
       setting the PCRE2_ALT_CIRCUMFLEX option. If there are no newlines in  a
       subject  string,  or  no  occurrences  of  ^ or $ in a pattern, setting
       PCRE2_MULTILINE has no effect.

         PCRE2_NEVER_BACKSLASH_C

       This option locks out the use of \C in the pattern that is  being  com-
       piled.   This  escape  can  cause  unpredictable  behaviour in UTF-8 or
       UTF-16 modes, because it may leave the current matching  point  in  the
       middle of a multi-code-unit character. This option may be useful in ap-
       plications that process patterns from external sources. Note that there
       is also a build-time option that permanently locks out the use of \C.

         PCRE2_NEVER_UCP

       This  option  locks  out the use of Unicode properties for handling \B,
       \b, \D, \d, \S, \s, \W, \w, and some of the POSIX character classes, as
       described  for  the  PCRE2_UCP option below. In particular, it prevents
       the creator of the pattern from enabling this facility by starting  the
       pattern  with  (*UCP).  This  option may be useful in applications that
       process patterns from external sources. The option combination PCRE_UCP
       and PCRE_NEVER_UCP causes an error.

         PCRE2_NEVER_UTF

       This  option  locks out interpretation of the pattern as UTF-8, UTF-16,
       or UTF-32, depending on which library is in use. In particular, it pre-
       vents  the  creator of the pattern from switching to UTF interpretation
       by starting the pattern with (*UTF). This option may be useful  in  ap-
       plications that process patterns from external sources. The combination
       of PCRE2_UTF and PCRE2_NEVER_UTF causes an error.

         PCRE2_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE

       If this option is set, it disables the use of numbered capturing paren-
       theses  in the pattern. Any opening parenthesis that is not followed by
       ? behaves as if it were followed by ?: but named parentheses can  still
       be used for capturing (and they acquire numbers in the usual way). This
       is the same as Perl's /n option.  Note that, when this option  is  set,
       references  to  capture  groups (backreferences or recursion/subroutine
       calls) may only refer to named groups, though the reference can  be  by
       name or by number.

         PCRE2_NO_AUTO_POSSESS

       If this option is set, it disables "auto-possessification", which is an
       optimization that, for example, turns a+b into a++b in order  to  avoid
       backtracks  into  a+ that can never be successful. However, if callouts
       are in use, auto-possessification means that some  callouts  are  never
       taken. You can set this option if you want the matching functions to do
       a full unoptimized search and run all the callouts, but  it  is  mainly
       provided for testing purposes.

         PCRE2_NO_DOTSTAR_ANCHOR

       If this option is set, it disables an optimization that is applied when
       .* is the first significant item in a top-level branch  of  a  pattern,
       and  all  the  other branches also start with .* or with \A or \G or ^.
       The optimization is automatically disabled for .* if it  is  inside  an
       atomic group or a capture group that is the subject of a backreference,
       or if the pattern contains (*PRUNE) or (*SKIP). When  the  optimization
       is   not   disabled,  such  a  pattern  is  automatically  anchored  if
       PCRE2_DOTALL is set for all the .* items and PCRE2_MULTILINE is not set
       for  any  ^ items. Otherwise, the fact that any match must start either
       at the start of the subject or following a newline is remembered.  Like
       other optimizations, this can cause callouts to be skipped.

         PCRE2_NO_START_OPTIMIZE

       This  is  an  option whose main effect is at matching time. It does not
       change what pcre2_compile() generates, but it does affect the output of
       the JIT compiler.

       There  are  a  number of optimizations that may occur at the start of a
       match, in order to speed up the process. For example, if  it  is  known
       that  an  unanchored  match must start with a specific code unit value,
       the matching code searches the subject for that value, and fails  imme-
       diately  if it cannot find it, without actually running the main match-
       ing function. This means that a special item such as (*COMMIT)  at  the
       start  of  a  pattern is not considered until after a suitable starting
       point for the match has been found.  Also,  when  callouts  or  (*MARK)
       items  are  in use, these "start-up" optimizations can cause them to be
       skipped if the pattern is never actually used. The  start-up  optimiza-
       tions  are  in effect a pre-scan of the subject that takes place before
       the pattern is run.

       The PCRE2_NO_START_OPTIMIZE option disables the start-up optimizations,
       possibly  causing  performance  to  suffer,  but ensuring that in cases
       where the result is "no match", the callouts do occur, and  that  items
       such as (*COMMIT) and (*MARK) are considered at every possible starting
       position in the subject string.

       Setting PCRE2_NO_START_OPTIMIZE may change the outcome  of  a  matching
       operation.  Consider the pattern

         (*COMMIT)ABC

       When  this  is compiled, PCRE2 records the fact that a match must start
       with the character "A". Suppose the subject  string  is  "DEFABC".  The
       start-up  optimization  scans along the subject, finds "A" and runs the
       first match attempt from there. The (*COMMIT) item means that the  pat-
       tern  must  match the current starting position, which in this case, it
       does. However, if the same match is  run  with  PCRE2_NO_START_OPTIMIZE
       set,  the  initial  scan  along the subject string does not happen. The
       first match attempt is run starting  from  "D"  and  when  this  fails,
       (*COMMIT)  prevents any further matches being tried, so the overall re-
       sult is "no match".

       As another start-up optimization makes use of a minimum  length  for  a
       matching subject, which is recorded when possible. Consider the pattern

         (*MARK:1)B(*MARK:2)(X|Y)

       The  minimum  length  for  a match is two characters. If the subject is
       "XXBB", the "starting character" optimization skips "XX", then tries to
       match  "BB", which is long enough. In the process, (*MARK:2) is encoun-
       tered and remembered. When the match attempt fails,  the  next  "B"  is
       found,  but  there is only one character left, so there are no more at-
       tempts, and "no match" is returned with the "last  mark  seen"  set  to
       "2".  If  NO_START_OPTIMIZE is set, however, matches are tried at every
       possible starting position, including at the end of the subject,  where
       (*MARK:1)  is encountered, but there is no "B", so the "last mark seen"
       that is returned is "1". In this case, the optimizations do not  affect
       the overall match result, which is still "no match", but they do affect
       the auxiliary information that is returned.

         PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK

       When PCRE2_UTF is set, the validity of the pattern as a UTF  string  is
       automatically  checked.  There  are  discussions  about the validity of
       UTF-8 strings, UTF-16 strings, and UTF-32 strings in  the  pcre2unicode
       document.  If an invalid UTF sequence is found, pcre2_compile() returns
       a negative error code.

       If you know that your pattern is a valid UTF string, and  you  want  to
       skip   this   check   for   performance   reasons,   you  can  set  the
       PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK option. When it is set, the effect of passing an in-
       valid  UTF  string as a pattern is undefined. It may cause your program
       to crash or loop.

       Note  that  this  option  can  also  be  passed  to  pcre2_match()  and
       pcre_dfa_match(),  to  suppress  UTF  validity  checking of the subject
       string.

       Note also that setting PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK at compile time does not dis-
       able  the error that is given if an escape sequence for an invalid Uni-
       code code point is encountered in the pattern. In particular,  the  so-
       called  "surrogate"  code points (0xd800 to 0xdfff) are invalid. If you
       want to allow escape  sequences  such  as  \x{d800}  you  can  set  the
       PCRE2_EXTRA_ALLOW_SURROGATE_ESCAPES  extra  option, as described in the
       section entitled "Extra compile options" below.  However, this is  pos-
       sible only in UTF-8 and UTF-32 modes, because these values are not rep-
       resentable in UTF-16.

         PCRE2_UCP

       This option has two effects. Firstly, it change the way PCRE2 processes
       \B,  \b,  \D,  \d,  \S,  \s,  \W,  \w,  and some of the POSIX character
       classes. By default, only  ASCII  characters  are  recognized,  but  if
       PCRE2_UCP is set, Unicode properties are used instead to classify char-
       acters. More details are given in  the  section  on  generic  character
       types  in  the pcre2pattern page. If you set PCRE2_UCP, matching one of
       the items it affects takes much longer.

       The second effect of PCRE2_UCP is to force the use of  Unicode  proper-
       ties  for  upper/lower casing operations on characters with code points
       greater than 127, even when PCRE2_UTF is not set. This makes it  possi-
       ble, for example, to process strings in the 16-bit UCS-2 code. This op-
       tion is available only if PCRE2 has been compiled with Unicode  support
       (which is the default).

         PCRE2_UNGREEDY

       This  option  inverts  the "greediness" of the quantifiers so that they
       are not greedy by default, but become greedy if followed by "?". It  is
       not  compatible  with Perl. It can also be set by a (?U) option setting
       within the pattern.

         PCRE2_USE_OFFSET_LIMIT

       This option must be set for pcre2_compile() if pcre2_set_offset_limit()
       is  going  to be used to set a non-default offset limit in a match con-
       text for matches that use this pattern. An error  is  generated  if  an
       offset  limit is set without this option. For more details, see the de-
       scription of pcre2_set_offset_limit() in  the  section  that  describes
       match contexts. See also the PCRE2_FIRSTLINE option above.

         PCRE2_UTF

       This  option  causes  PCRE2  to regard both the pattern and the subject
       strings that are subsequently processed as strings  of  UTF  characters
       instead  of  single-code-unit  strings.  It  is available when PCRE2 is
       built to include Unicode support (which is  the  default).  If  Unicode
       support is not available, the use of this option provokes an error. De-
       tails of how PCRE2_UTF changes the behaviour of PCRE2 are given in  the
       pcre2unicode  page.  In  particular,  note  that  it  changes  the  way
       PCRE2_CASELESS handles characters with code points greater than 127.

   Extra compile options

       The option bits that can be set in a compile  context  by  calling  the
       pcre2_set_compile_extra_options() function are as follows:

         PCRE2_EXTRA_ALLOW_SURROGATE_ESCAPES

       This  option  applies when compiling a pattern in UTF-8 or UTF-32 mode.
       It is forbidden in UTF-16 mode, and ignored in non-UTF  modes.  Unicode
       "surrogate" code points in the range 0xd800 to 0xdfff are used in pairs
       in UTF-16 to encode code points with values in  the  range  0x10000  to
       0x10ffff.  The  surrogates  cannot  therefore be represented in UTF-16.
       They can be represented in UTF-8 and UTF-32, but are defined as invalid
       code  points,  and  cause  errors  if  encountered in a UTF-8 or UTF-32
       string that is being checked for validity by PCRE2.

       These values also cause errors if encountered in escape sequences  such
       as \x{d912} within a pattern. However, it seems that some applications,
       when using PCRE2 to check for unwanted characters in UTF-8 strings, ex-
       plicitly   test   for   the  surrogates  using  escape  sequences.  The
       PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK option does not disable the error that  occurs,  be-
       cause it applies only to the testing of input strings for UTF validity.

       If  the extra option PCRE2_EXTRA_ALLOW_SURROGATE_ESCAPES is set, surro-
       gate code point values in UTF-8 and UTF-32 patterns no  longer  provoke
       errors  and are incorporated in the compiled pattern. However, they can
       only match subject characters if the matching function is  called  with
       PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK set.

         PCRE2_EXTRA_ALT_BSUX

       The  original option PCRE2_ALT_BSUX causes PCRE2 to process \U, \u, and
       \x in the way that ECMAscript (aka JavaScript) does.  Additional  func-
       tionality was defined by ECMAscript 6; setting PCRE2_EXTRA_ALT_BSUX has
       the effect of PCRE2_ALT_BSUX, but in addition it  recognizes  \u{hhh..}
       as a hexadecimal character code, where hhh.. is any number of hexadeci-
       mal digits.

         PCRE2_EXTRA_BAD_ESCAPE_IS_LITERAL

       This is a dangerous option. Use with care. By default, an  unrecognized
       escape  such  as \j or a malformed one such as \x{2z} causes a compile-
       time error when detected by pcre2_compile(). Perl is somewhat inconsis-
       tent  in  handling  such items: for example, \j is treated as a literal
       "j", and non-hexadecimal digits in \x{} are just ignored, though  warn-
       ings  are given in both cases if Perl's warning switch is enabled. How-
       ever, a malformed octal number after \o{  always  causes  an  error  in
       Perl.

       If  the  PCRE2_EXTRA_BAD_ESCAPE_IS_LITERAL  extra  option  is passed to
       pcre2_compile(), all unrecognized or  malformed  escape  sequences  are
       treated  as  single-character escapes. For example, \j is a literal "j"
       and \x{2z} is treated as the literal string "x{2z}". Setting  this  op-
       tion means that typos in patterns may go undetected and have unexpected
       results. Also note that a sequence such as [\N{] is  interpreted  as  a
       malformed  attempt  at [\N{...}] and so is treated as [N{] whereas [\N]
       gives an error because an unqualified \N is a valid escape sequence but
       is  not supported in a character class. To reiterate: this is a danger-
       ous option. Use with great care.

         PCRE2_EXTRA_ESCAPED_CR_IS_LF

       There are some legacy applications where the escape sequence  \r  in  a
       pattern  is expected to match a newline. If this option is set, \r in a
       pattern is converted to \n so that it matches a LF  (linefeed)  instead
       of  a CR (carriage return) character. The option does not affect a lit-
       eral CR in the pattern, nor does it affect CR specified as an  explicit
       code point such as \x{0D}.

         PCRE2_EXTRA_MATCH_LINE

       This  option  is  provided  for  use  by the -x option of pcre2grep. It
       causes the pattern only to match complete lines. This  is  achieved  by
       automatically  inserting  the  code for "^(?:" at the start of the com-
       piled pattern and ")$" at the end. Thus, when PCRE2_MULTILINE  is  set,
       the  matched  line may be in the middle of the subject string. This op-
       tion can be used with PCRE2_LITERAL.

         PCRE2_EXTRA_MATCH_WORD

       This option is provided for use by  the  -w  option  of  pcre2grep.  It
       causes  the  pattern only to match strings that have a word boundary at
       the start and the end. This is achieved by automatically inserting  the
       code  for "\b(?:" at the start of the compiled pattern and ")\b" at the
       end. The option may be used with PCRE2_LITERAL. However, it is  ignored
       if PCRE2_EXTRA_MATCH_LINE is also set.


JUST-IN-TIME (JIT) COMPILATION

       int pcre2_jit_compile(pcre2_code *code, uint32_t options);

       int pcre2_jit_match(const pcre2_code *code, PCRE2_SPTR subject,
         PCRE2_SIZE length, PCRE2_SIZE startoffset,
         uint32_t options, pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         pcre2_match_context *mcontext);

       void pcre2_jit_free_unused_memory(pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       pcre2_jit_stack *pcre2_jit_stack_create(PCRE2_SIZE startsize,
         PCRE2_SIZE maxsize, pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       void pcre2_jit_stack_assign(pcre2_match_context *mcontext,
         pcre2_jit_callback callback_function, void *callback_data);

       void pcre2_jit_stack_free(pcre2_jit_stack *jit_stack);

       These  functions  provide  support  for  JIT compilation, which, if the
       just-in-time compiler is available, further processes a  compiled  pat-
       tern into machine code that executes much faster than the pcre2_match()
       interpretive matching function. Full details are given in the  pcre2jit
       documentation.

       JIT  compilation  is  a heavyweight optimization. It can take some time
       for patterns to be analyzed, and for one-off matches  and  simple  pat-
       terns  the benefit of faster execution might be offset by a much slower
       compilation time.  Most (but not all) patterns can be optimized by  the
       JIT compiler.


LOCALE SUPPORT

       const uint8_t *pcre2_maketables(pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       void pcre2_maketables_free(pcre2_general_context *gcontext,
         const uint8_t *tables);

       PCRE2  handles caseless matching, and determines whether characters are
       letters, digits, or whatever, by reference to a set of tables,  indexed
       by character code point. However, this applies only to characters whose
       code points are less than 256. By default,  higher-valued  code  points
       never match escapes such as \w or \d.

       When  PCRE2  is  built  with Unicode support (the default), the Unicode
       properties of all characters can be tested with \p and \P, or, alterna-
       tively,  the  PCRE2_UCP  option  can be set when a pattern is compiled;
       this causes \w and friends to use Unicode property support  instead  of
       the  built-in  tables.  PCRE2_UCP also causes upper/lower casing opera-
       tions on characters with code points greater than 127  to  use  Unicode
       properties. These effects apply even when PCRE2_UTF is not set.

       The  use  of  locales  with Unicode is discouraged. If you are handling
       characters with code points greater than 127,  you  should  either  use
       Unicode support, or use locales, but not try to mix the two.

       PCRE2  contains a built-in set of character tables that are used by de-
       fault.  These are sufficient for many applications. Normally,  the  in-
       ternal  tables  recognize only ASCII characters. However, when PCRE2 is
       built, it is possible to cause the internal tables to be rebuilt in the
       default "C" locale of the local system, which may cause them to be dif-
       ferent.

       The built-in tables can be overridden by tables supplied by the  appli-
       cation  that  calls  PCRE2.  These may be created in a different locale
       from the default.  As more and more applications change to  using  Uni-
       code, the need for this locale support is expected to die away.

       External  tables  are built by calling the pcre2_maketables() function,
       in the relevant locale. The only argument to this function is a general
       context,  which  can  be used to pass a custom memory allocator. If the
       argument is NULL, the system malloc() is used. The result can be passed
       to pcre2_compile() as often as necessary, by creating a compile context
       and calling pcre2_set_character_tables()  to  set  the  tables  pointer
       therein.

       For  example,  to  build  and  use  tables that are appropriate for the
       French locale (where accented characters with values greater  than  127
       are treated as letters), the following code could be used:

         setlocale(LC_CTYPE, "fr_FR");
         tables = pcre2_maketables(NULL);
         ccontext = pcre2_compile_context_create(NULL);
         pcre2_set_character_tables(ccontext, tables);
         re = pcre2_compile(..., ccontext);

       The  locale  name "fr_FR" is used on Linux and other Unix-like systems;
       if you are using Windows, the name for the French locale is "french".

       The pointer that is passed (via the compile context) to pcre2_compile()
       is saved with the compiled pattern, and the same tables are used by the
       matching functions. Thus,  for  any  single  pattern,  compilation  and
       matching  both happen in the same locale, but different patterns can be
       processed in different locales.

       It is the caller's responsibility to ensure that the memory  containing
       the tables remains available while they are still in use. When they are
       no longer needed, you can discard them  using  pcre2_maketables_free(),
       which  should  pass as its first parameter the same global context that
       was used to create the tables.

   Saving locale tables

       The tables described above are just a sequence of binary  bytes,  which
       makes  them  independent of hardware characteristics such as endianness
       or whether the processor is 32-bit or 64-bit. A copy of the  result  of
       pcre2_maketables()  can  therefore  be saved in a file or elsewhere and
       re-used later, even in a different program or on another computer.  The
       size  of  the  tables  (number  of  bytes)  must be obtained by calling
       pcre2_config()  with  the  PCRE2_CONFIG_TABLES_LENGTH  option   because
       pcre2_maketables()   does   not   return  this  value.  Note  that  the
       pcre2_dftables program, which is part of the PCRE2 build system, can be
       used stand-alone to create a file that contains a set of binary tables.
       See the pcre2build documentation for details.


INFORMATION ABOUT A COMPILED PATTERN

       int pcre2_pattern_info(const pcre2 *code, uint32_t what, void *where);

       The pcre2_pattern_info() function returns general information  about  a
       compiled pattern. For information about callouts, see the next section.
       The first argument for pcre2_pattern_info() is a pointer  to  the  com-
       piled pattern. The second argument specifies which piece of information
       is required, and the third argument is a pointer to a variable  to  re-
       ceive  the  data.  If the third argument is NULL, the first argument is
       ignored, and the function returns the size in  bytes  of  the  variable
       that is required for the information requested. Otherwise, the yield of
       the function is zero for success, or one of the following negative num-
       bers:

         PCRE2_ERROR_NULL           the argument code was NULL
         PCRE2_ERROR_BADMAGIC       the "magic number" was not found
         PCRE2_ERROR_BADOPTION      the value of what was invalid
         PCRE2_ERROR_UNSET          the requested field is not set

       The "magic number" is placed at the start of each compiled pattern as a
       simple check against passing an arbitrary memory  pointer.  Here  is  a
       typical  call of pcre2_pattern_info(), to obtain the length of the com-
       piled pattern:

         int rc;
         size_t length;
         rc = pcre2_pattern_info(
           re,               /* result of pcre2_compile() */
           PCRE2_INFO_SIZE,  /* what is required */
           &length);         /* where to put the data */

       The possible values for the second argument are defined in pcre2.h, and
       are as follows:

         PCRE2_INFO_ALLOPTIONS
         PCRE2_INFO_ARGOPTIONS
         PCRE2_INFO_EXTRAOPTIONS

       Return copies of the pattern's options. The third argument should point
       to a uint32_t variable. PCRE2_INFO_ARGOPTIONS returns exactly  the  op-
       tions  that  were  passed to pcre2_compile(), whereas PCRE2_INFO_ALLOP-
       TIONS returns the compile options as modified by any  top-level  (*XXX)
       option  settings  such  as  (*UTF)  at the start of the pattern itself.
       PCRE2_INFO_EXTRAOPTIONS returns the extra options that were set in  the
       compile  context by calling the pcre2_set_compile_extra_options() func-
       tion.

       For example, if the pattern /(*UTF)abc/ is compiled with the  PCRE2_EX-
       TENDED  option,  the result for PCRE2_INFO_ALLOPTIONS is PCRE2_EXTENDED
       and PCRE2_UTF.  Option settings such as (?i) that can change  within  a
       pattern do not affect the result of PCRE2_INFO_ALLOPTIONS, even if they
       appear right at the start of the pattern. (This was different  in  some
       earlier releases.)

       A  pattern compiled without PCRE2_ANCHORED is automatically anchored by
       PCRE2 if the first significant item in every top-level branch is one of
       the following:

         ^     unless PCRE2_MULTILINE is set
         \A    always
         \G    always
         .*    sometimes - see below

       When  .* is the first significant item, anchoring is possible only when
       all the following are true:

         .* is not in an atomic group
         .* is not in a capture group that is the subject
              of a backreference
         PCRE2_DOTALL is in force for .*
         Neither (*PRUNE) nor (*SKIP) appears in the pattern
         PCRE2_NO_DOTSTAR_ANCHOR is not set

       For patterns that are auto-anchored, the PCRE2_ANCHORED bit is  set  in
       the options returned for PCRE2_INFO_ALLOPTIONS.

         PCRE2_INFO_BACKREFMAX

       Return  the  number  of  the  highest backreference in the pattern. The
       third argument should point  to  a  uint32_t  variable.  Named  capture
       groups  acquire  numbers  as well as names, and these count towards the
       highest backreference. Backreferences such as \4 or  \g{12}  match  the
       captured characters of the given group, but in addition, the check that
       a capture group is set in a conditional group such as (?(3)a|b) is also
       a backreference.  Zero is returned if there are no backreferences.

         PCRE2_INFO_BSR

       The  output  is a uint32_t integer whose value indicates what character
       sequences the \R escape sequence matches. A value of  PCRE2_BSR_UNICODE
       means  that  \R  matches  any  Unicode line ending sequence; a value of
       PCRE2_BSR_ANYCRLF means that \R matches only CR, LF, or CRLF.

         PCRE2_INFO_CAPTURECOUNT

       Return the highest capture group number in  the  pattern.  In  patterns
       where (?| is not used, this is also the total number of capture groups.
       The third argument should point to a uint32_t variable.

         PCRE2_INFO_DEPTHLIMIT

       If the pattern set a backtracking depth limit by including an  item  of
       the  form  (*LIMIT_DEPTH=nnnn) at the start, the value is returned. The
       third argument should point to a uint32_t integer. If no such value has
       been  set, the call to pcre2_pattern_info() returns the error PCRE2_ER-
       ROR_UNSET. Note that this limit will only be used during matching if it
       is  less  than  the  limit  set or defaulted by the caller of the match
       function.

         PCRE2_INFO_FIRSTBITMAP

       In the absence of a single first code unit for a non-anchored  pattern,
       pcre2_compile()  may construct a 256-bit table that defines a fixed set
       of values for the first code unit in any match. For example, a  pattern
       that  starts  with  [abc]  results in a table with three bits set. When
       code unit values greater than 255 are supported, the flag bit  for  255
       means  "any  code unit of value 255 or above". If such a table was con-
       structed, a pointer to it is returned. Otherwise NULL is returned.  The
       third argument should point to a const uint8_t * variable.

         PCRE2_INFO_FIRSTCODETYPE

       Return information about the first code unit of any matched string, for
       a non-anchored pattern. The third argument should point to  a  uint32_t
       variable.  If there is a fixed first value, for example, the letter "c"
       from a pattern such as (cat|cow|coyote), 1 is returned, and  the  value
       can  be  retrieved using PCRE2_INFO_FIRSTCODEUNIT. If there is no fixed
       first value, but it is known that a match can occur only at  the  start
       of  the  subject  or following a newline in the subject, 2 is returned.
       Otherwise, and for anchored patterns, 0 is returned.

         PCRE2_INFO_FIRSTCODEUNIT

       Return the value of the first code unit of any  matched  string  for  a
       pattern  where  PCRE2_INFO_FIRSTCODETYPE returns 1; otherwise return 0.
       The third argument should point to a uint32_t variable.  In  the  8-bit
       library,  the  value is always less than 256. In the 16-bit library the
       value can be up to 0xffff. In the 32-bit library  in  UTF-32  mode  the
       value can be up to 0x10ffff, and up to 0xffffffff when not using UTF-32
       mode.

         PCRE2_INFO_FRAMESIZE

       Return the size (in bytes) of the data frames that are used to remember
       backtracking  positions  when the pattern is processed by pcre2_match()
       without the use of JIT. The third argument should  point  to  a  size_t
       variable. The frame size depends on the number of capturing parentheses
       in the pattern. Each additional capture group adds two PCRE2_SIZE vari-
       ables.

         PCRE2_INFO_HASBACKSLASHC

       Return  1 if the pattern contains any instances of \C, otherwise 0. The
       third argument should point to a uint32_t variable.

         PCRE2_INFO_HASCRORLF

       Return 1 if the pattern contains any explicit  matches  for  CR  or  LF
       characters,  otherwise 0. The third argument should point to a uint32_t
       variable. An explicit match is either a literal CR or LF character,  or
       \r  or  \n  or  one  of  the equivalent hexadecimal or octal escape se-
       quences.

         PCRE2_INFO_HEAPLIMIT

       If the pattern set a heap memory limit by including an item of the form
       (*LIMIT_HEAP=nnnn) at the start, the value is returned. The third argu-
       ment should point to a uint32_t integer. If no such value has been set,
       the  call  to pcre2_pattern_info() returns the error PCRE2_ERROR_UNSET.
       Note that this limit will only be used during matching if  it  is  less
       than the limit set or defaulted by the caller of the match function.

         PCRE2_INFO_JCHANGED

       Return  1  if  the (?J) or (?-J) option setting is used in the pattern,
       otherwise 0. The third argument should point to  a  uint32_t  variable.
       (?J)  and  (?-J) set and unset the local PCRE2_DUPNAMES option, respec-
       tively.

         PCRE2_INFO_JITSIZE

       If the compiled pattern was successfully  processed  by  pcre2_jit_com-
       pile(),  return  the  size  of  the JIT compiled code, otherwise return
       zero. The third argument should point to a size_t variable.

         PCRE2_INFO_LASTCODETYPE

       Returns 1 if there is a rightmost literal code unit that must exist  in
       any  matched string, other than at its start. The third argument should
       point to a uint32_t variable. If there is no such value, 0 is returned.
       When  1  is returned, the code unit value itself can be retrieved using
       PCRE2_INFO_LASTCODEUNIT. For anchored patterns, a last literal value is
       recorded  only if it follows something of variable length. For example,
       for the pattern /^a\d+z\d+/ the returned value is 1 (with "z"  returned
       from  PCRE2_INFO_LASTCODEUNIT), but for /^a\dz\d/ the returned value is
       0.

         PCRE2_INFO_LASTCODEUNIT

       Return the value of the rightmost literal code unit that must exist  in
       any  matched  string,  other  than  at  its  start, for a pattern where
       PCRE2_INFO_LASTCODETYPE returns 1. Otherwise, return 0. The third argu-
       ment should point to a uint32_t variable.

         PCRE2_INFO_MATCHEMPTY

       Return  1  if the pattern might match an empty string, otherwise 0. The
       third argument should point to a uint32_t variable. When a pattern con-
       tains recursive subroutine calls it is not always possible to determine
       whether or not it can match an empty string. PCRE2 takes a cautious ap-
       proach and returns 1 in such cases.

         PCRE2_INFO_MATCHLIMIT

       If  the  pattern  set  a  match  limit by including an item of the form
       (*LIMIT_MATCH=nnnn) at the start, the value is returned. The third  ar-
       gument  should  point  to a uint32_t integer. If no such value has been
       set, the call to pcre2_pattern_info() returns the error PCRE2_ERROR_UN-
       SET.  Note  that  this limit will only be used during matching if it is
       less than the limit set or defaulted by the caller of the  match  func-
       tion.

         PCRE2_INFO_MAXLOOKBEHIND

       A  lookbehind  assertion moves back a certain number of characters (not
       code units) when it starts to process each of its  branches.  This  re-
       quest  returns  the largest of these backward moves. The third argument
       should point to a uint32_t integer. The simple assertions \b and \B re-
       quire  a one-character lookbehind and cause PCRE2_INFO_MAXLOOKBEHIND to
       return 1 in the absence of anything longer. \A also  registers  a  one-
       character  lookbehind, though it does not actually inspect the previous
       character.

       Note that this information is useful for multi-segment matching only if
       the  pattern  contains  no nested lookbehinds. For example, the pattern
       (?<=a(?<=ba)c) returns a maximum lookbehind of 2, but when it  is  pro-
       cessed,  the first lookbehind moves back by two characters, matches one
       character, then the nested lookbehind also moves back  by  two  charac-
       ters. This puts the matching point three characters earlier than it was
       at the start.  PCRE2_INFO_MAXLOOKBEHIND is really only useful as a  de-
       bugging  tool.  See  the pcre2partial documentation for a discussion of
       multi-segment matching.

         PCRE2_INFO_MINLENGTH

       If a minimum length for matching  subject  strings  was  computed,  its
       value is returned. Otherwise the returned value is 0. This value is not
       computed when PCRE2_NO_START_OPTIMIZE is set. The value is a number  of
       characters,  which in UTF mode may be different from the number of code
       units. The third argument should point  to  a  uint32_t  variable.  The
       value  is a lower bound to the length of any matching string. There may
       not be any strings of that length that do  actually  match,  but  every
       string that does match is at least that long.

         PCRE2_INFO_NAMECOUNT
         PCRE2_INFO_NAMEENTRYSIZE
         PCRE2_INFO_NAMETABLE

       PCRE2 supports the use of named as well as numbered capturing parenthe-
       ses. The names are just an additional way of identifying the  parenthe-
       ses, which still acquire numbers. Several convenience functions such as
       pcre2_substring_get_byname() are provided for extracting captured  sub-
       strings  by  name. It is also possible to extract the data directly, by
       first converting the name to a number in order to  access  the  correct
       pointers  in the output vector (described with pcre2_match() below). To
       do the conversion, you need to use the name-to-number map, which is de-
       scribed by these three values.

       The  map  consists  of a number of fixed-size entries. PCRE2_INFO_NAME-
       COUNT gives the number of entries, and  PCRE2_INFO_NAMEENTRYSIZE  gives
       the  size  of each entry in code units; both of these return a uint32_t
       value. The entry size depends on the length of the longest name.

       PCRE2_INFO_NAMETABLE returns a pointer to the first entry of the table.
       This is a PCRE2_SPTR pointer to a block of code units. In the 8-bit li-
       brary, the first two bytes of each entry are the number of the  captur-
       ing  parenthesis,  most  significant byte first. In the 16-bit library,
       the pointer points to 16-bit code units, the first  of  which  contains
       the  parenthesis  number.  In the 32-bit library, the pointer points to
       32-bit code units, the first of which contains the parenthesis  number.
       The rest of the entry is the corresponding name, zero terminated.

       The  names are in alphabetical order. If (?| is used to create multiple
       capture groups with the same number, as described in the section on du-
       plicate group numbers in the pcre2pattern page, the groups may be given
       the same name, but there is only one  entry  in  the  table.  Different
       names for groups of the same number are not permitted.

       Duplicate  names  for capture groups with different numbers are permit-
       ted, but only if PCRE2_DUPNAMES is set. They appear in the table in the
       order  in  which  they were found in the pattern. In the absence of (?|
       this is the order of increasing number; when (?| is used  this  is  not
       necessarily  the  case because later capture groups may have lower num-
       bers.

       As a simple example of the name/number table,  consider  the  following
       pattern  after  compilation by the 8-bit library (assume PCRE2_EXTENDED
       is set, so white space - including newlines - is ignored):

         (?<date> (?<year>(\d\d)?\d\d) -
         (?<month>\d\d) - (?<day>\d\d) )

       There are four named capture groups, so the table has four entries, and
       each  entry  in the table is eight bytes long. The table is as follows,
       with non-printing bytes shows in hexadecimal, and undefined bytes shown
       as ??:

         00 01 d  a  t  e  00 ??
         00 05 d  a  y  00 ?? ??
         00 04 m  o  n  t  h  00
         00 02 y  e  a  r  00 ??

       When  writing  code to extract data from named capture groups using the
       name-to-number map, remember that the length of the entries  is  likely
       to be different for each compiled pattern.

         PCRE2_INFO_NEWLINE

       The output is one of the following uint32_t values:

         PCRE2_NEWLINE_CR       Carriage return (CR)
         PCRE2_NEWLINE_LF       Linefeed (LF)
         PCRE2_NEWLINE_CRLF     Carriage return, linefeed (CRLF)
         PCRE2_NEWLINE_ANY      Any Unicode line ending
         PCRE2_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF  Any of CR, LF, or CRLF
         PCRE2_NEWLINE_NUL      The NUL character (binary zero)

       This identifies the character sequence that will be recognized as mean-
       ing "newline" while matching.

         PCRE2_INFO_SIZE

       Return the size of the compiled pattern in bytes  (for  all  three  li-
       braries).  The  third  argument should point to a size_t variable. This
       value includes the size of the general data  block  that  precedes  the
       code  units of the compiled pattern itself. The value that is used when
       pcre2_compile() is getting memory in which to place the  compiled  pat-
       tern may be slightly larger than the value returned by this option, be-
       cause there are cases where the code that calculates the  size  has  to
       over-estimate.  Processing a pattern with the JIT compiler does not al-
       ter the value returned by this option.


INFORMATION ABOUT A PATTERN'S CALLOUTS

       int pcre2_callout_enumerate(const pcre2_code *code,
         int (*callback)(pcre2_callout_enumerate_block *, void *),
         void *user_data);

       A script language that supports the use of string arguments in callouts
       might  like  to  scan  all the callouts in a pattern before running the
       match. This can be done by calling pcre2_callout_enumerate(). The first
       argument  is  a  pointer  to a compiled pattern, the second points to a
       callback function, and the third is arbitrary user data.  The  callback
       function  is  called  for  every callout in the pattern in the order in
       which they appear. Its first argument is a pointer to a callout enumer-
       ation  block,  and  its second argument is the user_data value that was
       passed to pcre2_callout_enumerate(). The contents of the  callout  enu-
       meration  block  are described in the pcre2callout documentation, which
       also gives further details about callouts.


SERIALIZATION AND PRECOMPILING

       It is possible to save compiled patterns  on  disc  or  elsewhere,  and
       reload  them  later,  subject  to a number of restrictions. The host on
       which the patterns are reloaded must be running  the  same  version  of
       PCRE2, with the same code unit width, and must also have the same endi-
       anness, pointer width, and PCRE2_SIZE type.  Before  compiled  patterns
       can  be  saved, they must be converted to a "serialized" form, which in
       the case of PCRE2 is really just a bytecode dump.  The functions  whose
       names  begin  with pcre2_serialize_ are used for converting to and from
       the serialized form. They are described in the pcre2serialize  documen-
       tation.  Note  that  PCRE2 serialization does not convert compiled pat-
       terns to an abstract format like Java or .NET serialization.


THE MATCH DATA BLOCK

       pcre2_match_data *pcre2_match_data_create(uint32_t ovecsize,
         pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       pcre2_match_data *pcre2_match_data_create_from_pattern(
         const pcre2_code *code, pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       void pcre2_match_data_free(pcre2_match_data *match_data);

       Information about a successful or unsuccessful match  is  placed  in  a
       match  data  block,  which  is  an opaque structure that is accessed by
       function calls. In particular, the match data block contains  a  vector
       of  offsets into the subject string that define the matched part of the
       subject and any substrings that were captured. This  is  known  as  the
       ovector.

       Before  calling  pcre2_match(), pcre2_dfa_match(), or pcre2_jit_match()
       you must create a match data block by calling one of the creation func-
       tions  above.  For pcre2_match_data_create(), the first argument is the
       number of pairs of offsets in the ovector. One pair of offsets  is  re-
       quired  to  identify the string that matched the whole pattern, with an
       additional pair for each captured substring. For example, a value of  4
       creates  enough space to record the matched portion of the subject plus
       three captured substrings. A minimum of at least 1 pair is  imposed  by
       pcre2_match_data_create(), so it is always possible to return the over-
       all matched string.

       The second argument of pcre2_match_data_create() is a pointer to a gen-
       eral  context, which can specify custom memory management for obtaining
       the memory for the match data block. If you are not using custom memory
       management, pass NULL, which causes malloc() to be used.

       For  pcre2_match_data_create_from_pattern(),  the  first  argument is a
       pointer to a compiled pattern. The ovector is created to be exactly the
       right size to hold all the substrings a pattern might capture. The sec-
       ond argument is again a pointer to a general context, but in this  case
       if NULL is passed, the memory is obtained using the same allocator that
       was used for the compiled pattern (custom or default).

       A match data block can be used many times, with the same  or  different
       compiled  patterns. You can extract information from a match data block
       after a match operation has finished,  using  functions  that  are  de-
       scribed in the sections on matched strings and other match data below.

       When  a  call  of  pcre2_match()  fails, valid data is available in the
       match block only  when  the  error  is  PCRE2_ERROR_NOMATCH,  PCRE2_ER-
       ROR_PARTIAL,  or  one of the error codes for an invalid UTF string. Ex-
       actly what is available depends on the error, and is detailed below.

       When one of the matching functions is called, pointers to the  compiled
       pattern  and the subject string are set in the match data block so that
       they can be referenced by the extraction functions after  a  successful
       match. After running a match, you must not free a compiled pattern or a
       subject string until after all operations on the match data block  (for
       that  match)  have  taken  place,  unless,  in  the case of the subject
       string, you have used the PCRE2_COPY_MATCHED_SUBJECT option,  which  is
       described  in  the section entitled "Option bits for pcre2_match()" be-
       low.

       When a match data block itself is no longer needed, it should be  freed
       by  calling  pcre2_match_data_free(). If this function is called with a
       NULL argument, it returns immediately, without doing anything.


MATCHING A PATTERN: THE TRADITIONAL FUNCTION

       int pcre2_match(const pcre2_code *code, PCRE2_SPTR subject,
         PCRE2_SIZE length, PCRE2_SIZE startoffset,
         uint32_t options, pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         pcre2_match_context *mcontext);

       The function pcre2_match() is called to match a subject string  against
       a  compiled pattern, which is passed in the code argument. You can call
       pcre2_match() with the same code argument as many times as you like, in
       order  to  find multiple matches in the subject string or to match dif-
       ferent subject strings with the same pattern.

       This function is the main matching facility of the library, and it  op-
       erates  in  a Perl-like manner. For specialist use there is also an al-
       ternative matching function, which is described below  in  the  section
       about the pcre2_dfa_match() function.

       Here is an example of a simple call to pcre2_match():

         pcre2_match_data *md = pcre2_match_data_create(4, NULL);
         int rc = pcre2_match(
           re,             /* result of pcre2_compile() */
           "some string",  /* the subject string */
           11,             /* the length of the subject string */
           0,              /* start at offset 0 in the subject */
           0,              /* default options */
           md,             /* the match data block */
           NULL);          /* a match context; NULL means use defaults */

       If  the  subject  string is zero-terminated, the length can be given as
       PCRE2_ZERO_TERMINATED. A match context must be provided if certain less
       common matching parameters are to be changed. For details, see the sec-
       tion on the match context above.

   The string to be matched by pcre2_match()

       The subject string is passed to pcre2_match() as a pointer in  subject,
       a  length  in  length, and a starting offset in startoffset. The length
       and offset are in code units, not characters.  That  is,  they  are  in
       bytes  for the 8-bit library, 16-bit code units for the 16-bit library,
       and 32-bit code units for the 32-bit library, whether or not  UTF  pro-
       cessing is enabled.

       If startoffset is greater than the length of the subject, pcre2_match()
       returns PCRE2_ERROR_BADOFFSET. When the starting offset  is  zero,  the
       search  for a match starts at the beginning of the subject, and this is
       by far the most common case. In UTF-8 or UTF-16 mode, the starting off-
       set  must  point to the start of a character, or to the end of the sub-
       ject (in UTF-32 mode, one code unit equals one character, so  all  off-
       sets  are  valid). Like the pattern string, the subject may contain bi-
       nary zeros.

       A non-zero starting offset is useful when searching for  another  match
       in  the  same  subject  by calling pcre2_match() again after a previous
       success.  Setting startoffset differs from  passing  over  a  shortened
       string  and  setting  PCRE2_NOTBOL in the case of a pattern that begins
       with any kind of lookbehind. For example, consider the pattern

         \Biss\B

       which finds occurrences of "iss" in the middle of  words.  (\B  matches
       only  if  the  current position in the subject is not a word boundary.)
       When applied to the string "Mississipi" the first call to pcre2_match()
       finds  the first occurrence. If pcre2_match() is called again with just
       the remainder of the subject, namely "issipi", it does not  match,  be-
       cause  \B  is always false at the start of the subject, which is deemed
       to be a word boundary. However, if pcre2_match() is passed  the  entire
       string again, but with startoffset set to 4, it finds the second occur-
       rence of "iss" because it is able to look behind the starting point  to
       discover that it is preceded by a letter.

       Finding  all  the  matches  in a subject is tricky when the pattern can
       match an empty string. It is possible to emulate Perl's /g behaviour by
       first   trying   the   match   again  at  the  same  offset,  with  the
       PCRE2_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART and PCRE2_ANCHORED options,  and  then  if  that
       fails,  advancing  the  starting  offset  and  trying an ordinary match
       again. There is some code that demonstrates  how  to  do  this  in  the
       pcre2demo  sample  program. In the most general case, you have to check
       to see if the newline convention recognizes CRLF as a newline,  and  if
       so,  and the current character is CR followed by LF, advance the start-
       ing offset by two characters instead of one.

       If a non-zero starting offset is passed when the pattern is anchored, a
       single attempt to match at the given offset is made. This can only suc-
       ceed if the pattern does not require the match to be at  the  start  of
       the  subject.  In other words, the anchoring must be the result of set-
       ting the PCRE2_ANCHORED option or the use of .* with PCRE2_DOTALL,  not
       by starting the pattern with ^ or \A.

   Option bits for pcre2_match()

       The unused bits of the options argument for pcre2_match() must be zero.
       The   only   bits    that    may    be    set    are    PCRE2_ANCHORED,
       PCRE2_COPY_MATCHED_SUBJECT,  PCRE2_ENDANCHORED, PCRE2_NOTBOL, PCRE2_NO-
       TEOL,     PCRE2_NOTEMPTY,     PCRE2_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART,     PCRE2_NO_JIT,
       PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK,  PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD,  and PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT. Their
       action is described below.

       Setting PCRE2_ANCHORED or PCRE2_ENDANCHORED at match time is  not  sup-
       ported  by  the just-in-time (JIT) compiler. If it is set, JIT matching
       is disabled and the interpretive code in pcre2_match()  is  run.  Apart
       from  PCRE2_NO_JIT (obviously), the remaining options are supported for
       JIT matching.

         PCRE2_ANCHORED

       The PCRE2_ANCHORED option limits pcre2_match() to matching at the first
       matching  position.  If  a pattern was compiled with PCRE2_ANCHORED, or
       turned out to be anchored by virtue of its contents, it cannot be  made
       unachored  at matching time. Note that setting the option at match time
       disables JIT matching.

         PCRE2_COPY_MATCHED_SUBJECT

       By default, a pointer to the subject is remembered in  the  match  data
       block  so  that,  after a successful match, it can be referenced by the
       substring extraction functions. This means that  the  subject's  memory
       must  not be freed until all such operations are complete. For some ap-
       plications where the lifetime of the subject string is not  guaranteed,
       it  may  be  necessary  to make a copy of the subject string, but it is
       wasteful to do this unless the match is successful. After a  successful
       match,  if PCRE2_COPY_MATCHED_SUBJECT is set, the subject is copied and
       the new pointer is remembered in the match data block  instead  of  the
       original  subject  pointer.  The memory allocator that was used for the
       match block itself is  used.  The  copy  is  automatically  freed  when
       pcre2_match_data_free()  is  called to free the match data block. It is
       also automatically freed if the match data block is re-used for another
       match operation.

         PCRE2_ENDANCHORED

       If  the  PCRE2_ENDANCHORED option is set, any string that pcre2_match()
       matches must be right at the end of the subject string. Note that  set-
       ting the option at match time disables JIT matching.

         PCRE2_NOTBOL

       This option specifies that first character of the subject string is not
       the beginning of a line, so the  circumflex  metacharacter  should  not
       match  before  it.  Setting  this without having set PCRE2_MULTILINE at
       compile time causes circumflex never to match. This option affects only
       the behaviour of the circumflex metacharacter. It does not affect \A.

         PCRE2_NOTEOL

       This option specifies that the end of the subject string is not the end
       of a line, so the dollar metacharacter should not match it nor  (except
       in  multiline mode) a newline immediately before it. Setting this with-
       out having set PCRE2_MULTILINE at compile time causes dollar  never  to
       match. This option affects only the behaviour of the dollar metacharac-
       ter. It does not affect \Z or \z.

         PCRE2_NOTEMPTY

       An empty string is not considered to be a valid match if this option is
       set.  If  there are alternatives in the pattern, they are tried. If all
       the alternatives match the empty string, the entire  match  fails.  For
       example, if the pattern

         a?b?

       is  applied  to  a  string not beginning with "a" or "b", it matches an
       empty string at the start of the subject. With PCRE2_NOTEMPTY set, this
       match  is  not valid, so pcre2_match() searches further into the string
       for occurrences of "a" or "b".

         PCRE2_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART

       This is like PCRE2_NOTEMPTY, except that it locks out an  empty  string
       match only at the first matching position, that is, at the start of the
       subject plus the starting offset. An empty string match  later  in  the
       subject is permitted.  If the pattern is anchored, such a match can oc-
       cur only if the pattern contains \K.

         PCRE2_NO_JIT

       By  default,  if  a  pattern  has  been   successfully   processed   by
       pcre2_jit_compile(),  JIT  is  automatically used when pcre2_match() is
       called with options that JIT supports.  Setting  PCRE2_NO_JIT  disables
       the use of JIT; it forces matching to be done by the interpreter.

         PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK

       When PCRE2_UTF is set at compile time, the validity of the subject as a
       UTF  string  is  checked  unless  PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK   is   passed   to
       pcre2_match() or PCRE2_MATCH_INVALID_UTF was passed to pcre2_compile().
       The latter special case is discussed in detail in the pcre2unicode doc-
       umentation.

       In  the default case, if a non-zero starting offset is given, the check
       is applied only to that part of the subject  that  could  be  inspected
       during  matching,  and there is a check that the starting offset points
       to the first code unit of a character or to the end of the subject.  If
       there  are no lookbehind assertions in the pattern, the check starts at
       the starting offset.  Otherwise, it starts at the length of the longest
       lookbehind  before  the starting offset, or at the start of the subject
       if there are not that many characters before the starting offset.  Note
       that the sequences \b and \B are one-character lookbehinds.

       The check is carried out before any other processing takes place, and a
       negative error code is returned if the check fails. There  are  several
       UTF  error  codes  for each code unit width, corresponding to different
       problems with the code unit sequence. There are discussions  about  the
       validity  of  UTF-8  strings, UTF-16 strings, and UTF-32 strings in the
       pcre2unicode documentation.

       If you know that your subject is valid, and you want to skip this check
       for performance reasons, you can set the PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK option when
       calling pcre2_match(). You might want to do this  for  the  second  and
       subsequent  calls  to pcre2_match() if you are making repeated calls to
       find multiple matches in the same subject string.

       Warning: Unless PCRE2_MATCH_INVALID_UTF was set at compile  time,  when
       PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK  is  set  at match time the effect of passing an in-
       valid string as a subject, or an invalid value of startoffset, is unde-
       fined.   Your  program may crash or loop indefinitely or give wrong re-
       sults.

         PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD
         PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT

       These options turn on the partial matching feature. A partial match oc-
       curs  if  the  end  of  the subject string is reached successfully, but
       there are not enough subject characters to complete the match. In addi-
       tion,  either  at  least  one character must have been inspected or the
       pattern must contain a lookbehind, or the  pattern  must  be  one  that
       could match an empty string.

       If  this  situation  arises when PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT (but not PCRE2_PAR-
       TIAL_HARD) is set, matching continues by testing any remaining alterna-
       tives.  Only  if  no complete match can be found is PCRE2_ERROR_PARTIAL
       returned instead of PCRE2_ERROR_NOMATCH.  In  other  words,  PCRE2_PAR-
       TIAL_SOFT  specifies  that  the  caller is prepared to handle a partial
       match, but only if no complete match can be found.

       If PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD is set, it overrides PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT. In  this
       case,  if  a  partial match is found, pcre2_match() immediately returns
       PCRE2_ERROR_PARTIAL, without considering  any  other  alternatives.  In
       other words, when PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD is set, a partial match is consid-
       ered to be more important that an alternative complete match.

       There is a more detailed discussion of partial and multi-segment match-
       ing, with examples, in the pcre2partial documentation.


NEWLINE HANDLING WHEN MATCHING

       When  PCRE2 is built, a default newline convention is set; this is usu-
       ally the standard convention for the operating system. The default  can
       be  overridden  in a compile context by calling pcre2_set_newline(). It
       can also be overridden by starting a pattern string with, for  example,
       (*CRLF),  as  described  in  the  section on newline conventions in the
       pcre2pattern page. During matching, the newline choice affects the  be-
       haviour  of the dot, circumflex, and dollar metacharacters. It may also
       alter the way the match starting position is  advanced  after  a  match
       failure for an unanchored pattern.

       When PCRE2_NEWLINE_CRLF, PCRE2_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF, or PCRE2_NEWLINE_ANY is
       set as the newline convention, and a match attempt  for  an  unanchored
       pattern fails when the current starting position is at a CRLF sequence,
       and the pattern contains no explicit matches for CR or  LF  characters,
       the  match  position  is  advanced by two characters instead of one, in
       other words, to after the CRLF.

       The above rule is a compromise that makes the most common cases work as
       expected.  For example, if the pattern is .+A (and the PCRE2_DOTALL op-
       tion is not set), it does not match the string "\r\nA"  because,  after
       failing  at the start, it skips both the CR and the LF before retrying.
       However, the pattern [\r\n]A does match that string,  because  it  con-
       tains an explicit CR or LF reference, and so advances only by one char-
       acter after the first failure.

       An explicit match for CR of LF is either a literal appearance of one of
       those  characters  in the pattern, or one of the \r or \n or equivalent
       octal or hexadecimal escape sequences. Implicit matches such as [^X] do
       not  count, nor does \s, even though it includes CR and LF in the char-
       acters that it matches.

       Notwithstanding the above, anomalous effects may still occur when  CRLF
       is a valid newline sequence and explicit \r or \n escapes appear in the
       pattern.


HOW PCRE2_MATCH() RETURNS A STRING AND CAPTURED SUBSTRINGS

       uint32_t pcre2_get_ovector_count(pcre2_match_data *match_data);

       PCRE2_SIZE *pcre2_get_ovector_pointer(pcre2_match_data *match_data);

       In general, a pattern matches a certain portion of the subject, and  in
       addition,  further  substrings  from  the  subject may be picked out by
       parenthesized parts of the pattern.  Following  the  usage  in  Jeffrey
       Friedl's  book,  this  is  called  "capturing" in what follows, and the
       phrase "capture group" (Perl terminology) is used for a fragment  of  a
       pattern  that picks out a substring. PCRE2 supports several other kinds
       of parenthesized group that do not cause substrings to be captured. The
       pcre2_pattern_info()  function can be used to find out how many capture
       groups there are in a compiled pattern.

       You can use auxiliary functions for accessing  captured  substrings  by
       number or by name, as described in sections below.

       Alternatively, you can make direct use of the vector of PCRE2_SIZE val-
       ues, called  the  ovector,  which  contains  the  offsets  of  captured
       strings.   It   is   part  of  the  match  data  block.   The  function
       pcre2_get_ovector_pointer() returns the address  of  the  ovector,  and
       pcre2_get_ovector_count() returns the number of pairs of values it con-
       tains.

       Within the ovector, the first in each pair of values is set to the off-
       set of the first code unit of a substring, and the second is set to the
       offset of the first code unit after the end of a substring. These  val-
       ues  are always code unit offsets, not character offsets. That is, they
       are byte offsets in the 8-bit library, 16-bit offsets in the 16-bit li-
       brary, and 32-bit offsets in the 32-bit library.

       After  a  partial  match  (error  return PCRE2_ERROR_PARTIAL), only the
       first pair of offsets (that is, ovector[0]  and  ovector[1])  are  set.
       They  identify  the part of the subject that was partially matched. See
       the pcre2partial documentation for details of partial matching.

       After a fully successful match, the first pair  of  offsets  identifies
       the  portion  of the subject string that was matched by the entire pat-
       tern. The next pair is used for the first captured  substring,  and  so
       on.  The  value  returned by pcre2_match() is one more than the highest
       numbered pair that has been set. For example, if  two  substrings  have
       been  captured,  the returned value is 3. If there are no captured sub-
       strings, the return value from a successful match is 1, indicating that
       just the first pair of offsets has been set.

       If  a  pattern uses the \K escape sequence within a positive assertion,
       the reported start of a successful match can be greater than the end of
       the  match.   For  example,  if the pattern (?=ab\K) is matched against
       "ab", the start and end offset values for the match are 2 and 0.

       If a capture group is matched repeatedly within a single  match  opera-
       tion, it is the last portion of the subject that it matched that is re-
       turned.

       If the ovector is too small to hold all the captured substring offsets,
       as  much  as possible is filled in, and the function returns a value of
       zero. If captured substrings are not of interest, pcre2_match() may  be
       called with a match data block whose ovector is of minimum length (that
       is, one pair).

       It is possible for capture group number n+1 to match some part  of  the
       subject  when  group  n  has  not been used at all. For example, if the
       string "abc" is matched against the pattern (a|(z))(bc) the return from
       the  function  is 4, and groups 1 and 3 are matched, but 2 is not. When
       this happens, both values in the offset pairs corresponding  to  unused
       groups are set to PCRE2_UNSET.

       Offset  values  that  correspond to unused groups at the end of the ex-
       pression are also set to PCRE2_UNSET. For example, if the string  "abc"
       is  matched  against  the pattern (abc)(x(yz)?)? groups 2 and 3 are not
       matched. The return from the function is 2, because  the  highest  used
       capture  group  number  is  1. The offsets for for the second and third
       capture groupss (assuming the vector is large enough,  of  course)  are
       set to PCRE2_UNSET.

       Elements in the ovector that do not correspond to capturing parentheses
       in the pattern are never changed. That is, if a pattern contains n cap-
       turing parentheses, no more than ovector[0] to ovector[2n+1] are set by
       pcre2_match(). The other elements retain whatever  values  they  previ-
       ously  had.  After  a failed match attempt, the contents of the ovector
       are unchanged.


OTHER INFORMATION ABOUT A MATCH

       PCRE2_SPTR pcre2_get_mark(pcre2_match_data *match_data);

       PCRE2_SIZE pcre2_get_startchar(pcre2_match_data *match_data);

       As well as the offsets in the ovector, other information about a  match
       is  retained  in the match data block and can be retrieved by the above
       functions in appropriate circumstances. If they  are  called  at  other
       times, the result is undefined.

       After  a  successful match, a partial match (PCRE2_ERROR_PARTIAL), or a
       failure to match (PCRE2_ERROR_NOMATCH), a mark name may  be  available.
       The  function pcre2_get_mark() can be called to access this name, which
       can be specified in the pattern by  any  of  the  backtracking  control
       verbs, not just (*MARK). The same function applies to all the verbs. It
       returns a pointer to the zero-terminated name, which is within the com-
       piled pattern. If no name is available, NULL is returned. The length of
       the name (excluding the terminating zero) is stored in  the  code  unit
       that  precedes  the name. You should use this length instead of relying
       on the terminating zero if the name might contain a binary zero.

       After a successful match, the name that is returned is  the  last  mark
       name encountered on the matching path through the pattern. Instances of
       backtracking verbs without names do not count. Thus,  for  example,  if
       the matching path contains (*MARK:A)(*PRUNE), the name "A" is returned.
       After a "no match" or a partial match, the last encountered name is re-
       turned. For example, consider this pattern:

         ^(*MARK:A)((*MARK:B)a|b)c

       When  it  matches "bc", the returned name is A. The B mark is "seen" in
       the first branch of the group, but it is not on the matching  path.  On
       the  other  hand,  when  this pattern fails to match "bx", the returned
       name is B.

       Warning: By default, certain start-of-match optimizations are  used  to
       give  a  fast "no match" result in some situations. For example, if the
       anchoring is removed from the pattern above, there is an initial  check
       for  the presence of "c" in the subject before running the matching en-
       gine. This check fails for "bx", causing a match failure without seeing
       any  marks. You can disable the start-of-match optimizations by setting
       the PCRE2_NO_START_OPTIMIZE option for pcre2_compile() or  by  starting
       the pattern with (*NO_START_OPT).

       After  a  successful  match, a partial match, or one of the invalid UTF
       errors (for example, PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR5), pcre2_get_startchar()  can
       be called. After a successful or partial match it returns the code unit
       offset of the character at which the match started. For  a  non-partial
       match,  this can be different to the value of ovector[0] if the pattern
       contains the \K escape sequence. After a partial match,  however,  this
       value  is  always the same as ovector[0] because \K does not affect the
       result of a partial match.

       After a UTF check failure, pcre2_get_startchar() can be used to  obtain
       the code unit offset of the invalid UTF character. Details are given in
       the pcre2unicode page.


ERROR RETURNS FROM pcre2_match()

       If pcre2_match() fails, it returns a negative number. This can be  con-
       verted  to a text string by calling the pcre2_get_error_message() func-
       tion (see "Obtaining a textual error message" below).   Negative  error
       codes  are  also  returned  by other functions, and are documented with
       them. The codes are given names in the header file. If UTF checking  is
       in force and an invalid UTF subject string is detected, one of a number
       of UTF-specific negative error codes is returned. Details are given  in
       the  pcre2unicode  page. The following are the other errors that may be
       returned by pcre2_match():

         PCRE2_ERROR_NOMATCH

       The subject string did not match the pattern.

         PCRE2_ERROR_PARTIAL

       The subject string did not match, but it did match partially.  See  the
       pcre2partial documentation for details of partial matching.

         PCRE2_ERROR_BADMAGIC

       PCRE2 stores a 4-byte "magic number" at the start of the compiled code,
       to catch the case when it is passed a junk pointer. This is  the  error
       that is returned when the magic number is not present.

         PCRE2_ERROR_BADMODE

       This  error is given when a compiled pattern is passed to a function in
       a library of a different code unit width, for example, a  pattern  com-
       piled  by  the  8-bit  library  is passed to a 16-bit or 32-bit library
       function.

         PCRE2_ERROR_BADOFFSET

       The value of startoffset was greater than the length of the subject.

         PCRE2_ERROR_BADOPTION

       An unrecognized bit was set in the options argument.

         PCRE2_ERROR_BADUTFOFFSET

       The UTF code unit sequence that was passed as a subject was checked and
       found  to be valid (the PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK option was not set), but the
       value of startoffset did not point to the beginning of a UTF  character
       or the end of the subject.

         PCRE2_ERROR_CALLOUT

       This  error  is never generated by pcre2_match() itself. It is provided
       for use by callout  functions  that  want  to  cause  pcre2_match()  or
       pcre2_callout_enumerate()  to  return a distinctive error code. See the
       pcre2callout documentation for details.

         PCRE2_ERROR_DEPTHLIMIT

       The nested backtracking depth limit was reached.

         PCRE2_ERROR_HEAPLIMIT

       The heap limit was reached.

         PCRE2_ERROR_INTERNAL

       An unexpected internal error has occurred. This error could  be  caused
       by a bug in PCRE2 or by overwriting of the compiled pattern.

         PCRE2_ERROR_JIT_STACKLIMIT

       This error is returned when a pattern that was successfully studied us-
       ing JIT is being matched, but the memory available for the just-in-time
       processing  stack  is  not large enough. See the pcre2jit documentation
       for more details.

         PCRE2_ERROR_MATCHLIMIT

       The backtracking match limit was reached.

         PCRE2_ERROR_NOMEMORY

       If a pattern contains many nested backtracking points, heap  memory  is
       used  to  remember them. This error is given when the memory allocation
       function (default or  custom)  fails.  Note  that  a  different  error,
       PCRE2_ERROR_HEAPLIMIT,  is given if the amount of memory needed exceeds
       the   heap   limit.   PCRE2_ERROR_NOMEMORY   is   also   returned    if
       PCRE2_COPY_MATCHED_SUBJECT is set and memory allocation fails.

         PCRE2_ERROR_NULL

       Either the code, subject, or match_data argument was passed as NULL.

         PCRE2_ERROR_RECURSELOOP

       This  error  is  returned  when  pcre2_match() detects a recursion loop
       within the pattern. Specifically, it means that either the  whole  pat-
       tern or a capture group has been called recursively for the second time
       at the same position in the subject string. Some simple  patterns  that
       might  do  this are detected and faulted at compile time, but more com-
       plicated cases, in particular mutual recursions between  two  different
       groups, cannot be detected until matching is attempted.


OBTAINING A TEXTUAL ERROR MESSAGE

       int pcre2_get_error_message(int errorcode, PCRE2_UCHAR *buffer,
         PCRE2_SIZE bufflen);

       A  text  message  for  an  error code from any PCRE2 function (compile,
       match, or auxiliary) can be obtained  by  calling  pcre2_get_error_mes-
       sage().  The  code  is passed as the first argument, with the remaining
       two arguments specifying a code unit buffer  and  its  length  in  code
       units,  into  which the text message is placed. The message is returned
       in code units of the appropriate width for the library  that  is  being
       used.

       The  returned message is terminated with a trailing zero, and the func-
       tion returns the number of code  units  used,  excluding  the  trailing
       zero. If the error number is unknown, the negative error code PCRE2_ER-
       ROR_BADDATA is returned. If the buffer is too  small,  the  message  is
       truncated (but still with a trailing zero), and the negative error code
       PCRE2_ERROR_NOMEMORY is returned.  None of the messages are very  long;
       a buffer size of 120 code units is ample.


EXTRACTING CAPTURED SUBSTRINGS BY NUMBER

       int pcre2_substring_length_bynumber(pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         uint32_t number, PCRE2_SIZE *length);

       int pcre2_substring_copy_bynumber(pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         uint32_t number, PCRE2_UCHAR *buffer,
         PCRE2_SIZE *bufflen);

       int pcre2_substring_get_bynumber(pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         uint32_t number, PCRE2_UCHAR **bufferptr,
         PCRE2_SIZE *bufflen);

       void pcre2_substring_free(PCRE2_UCHAR *buffer);

       Captured  substrings  can  be accessed directly by using the ovector as
       described above.  For convenience, auxiliary functions are provided for
       extracting   captured  substrings  as  new,  separate,  zero-terminated
       strings. A substring that contains a binary zero is correctly extracted
       and  has  a  further  zero  added on the end, but the result is not, of
       course, a C string.

       The functions in this section identify substrings by number. The number
       zero refers to the entire matched substring, with higher numbers refer-
       ring to substrings captured by parenthesized groups.  After  a  partial
       match,  only  substring  zero  is  available. An attempt to extract any
       other substring gives the error PCRE2_ERROR_PARTIAL. The  next  section
       describes similar functions for extracting captured substrings by name.

       If  a  pattern uses the \K escape sequence within a positive assertion,
       the reported start of a successful match can be greater than the end of
       the  match.   For  example,  if the pattern (?=ab\K) is matched against
       "ab", the start and end offset values for the match are  2  and  0.  In
       this  situation,  calling  these functions with a zero substring number
       extracts a zero-length empty string.

       You can find the length in code units of a captured  substring  without
       extracting  it  by calling pcre2_substring_length_bynumber(). The first
       argument is a pointer to the match data block, the second is the  group
       number,  and the third is a pointer to a variable into which the length
       is placed. If you just want to know whether or not  the  substring  has
       been captured, you can pass the third argument as NULL.

       The  pcre2_substring_copy_bynumber()  function  copies  a captured sub-
       string into a supplied buffer,  whereas  pcre2_substring_get_bynumber()
       copies  it  into  new memory, obtained using the same memory allocation
       function that was used for the match data block. The  first  two  argu-
       ments  of  these  functions are a pointer to the match data block and a
       capture group number.

       The final arguments of pcre2_substring_copy_bynumber() are a pointer to
       the buffer and a pointer to a variable that contains its length in code
       units.  This is updated to contain the actual number of code units used
       for the extracted substring, excluding the terminating zero.

       For pcre2_substring_get_bynumber() the third and fourth arguments point
       to variables that are updated with a pointer to the new memory and  the
       number  of  code units that comprise the substring, again excluding the
       terminating zero. When the substring is no longer  needed,  the  memory
       should be freed by calling pcre2_substring_free().

       The  return  value  from  all these functions is zero for success, or a
       negative error code. If the pattern match  failed,  the  match  failure
       code  is returned.  If a substring number greater than zero is used af-
       ter a partial match, PCRE2_ERROR_PARTIAL is  returned.  Other  possible
       error codes are:

         PCRE2_ERROR_NOMEMORY

       The  buffer  was  too small for pcre2_substring_copy_bynumber(), or the
       attempt to get memory failed for pcre2_substring_get_bynumber().

         PCRE2_ERROR_NOSUBSTRING

       There is no substring with that number in the  pattern,  that  is,  the
       number is greater than the number of capturing parentheses.

         PCRE2_ERROR_UNAVAILABLE

       The substring number, though not greater than the number of captures in
       the pattern, is greater than the number of slots in the ovector, so the
       substring could not be captured.

         PCRE2_ERROR_UNSET

       The  substring  did  not  participate in the match. For example, if the
       pattern is (abc)|(def) and the subject is "def", and the  ovector  con-
       tains at least two capturing slots, substring number 1 is unset.


EXTRACTING A LIST OF ALL CAPTURED SUBSTRINGS

       int pcre2_substring_list_get(pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         PCRE2_UCHAR ***listptr, PCRE2_SIZE **lengthsptr);

       void pcre2_substring_list_free(PCRE2_SPTR *list);

       The  pcre2_substring_list_get()  function  extracts  all available sub-
       strings and builds a list of pointers to  them.  It  also  (optionally)
       builds  a  second list that contains their lengths (in code units), ex-
       cluding a terminating zero that is added to each of them. All  this  is
       done in a single block of memory that is obtained using the same memory
       allocation function that was used to get the match data block.

       This function must be called only after a successful match.  If  called
       after a partial match, the error code PCRE2_ERROR_PARTIAL is returned.

       The  address of the memory block is returned via listptr, which is also
       the start of the list of string pointers. The end of the list is marked
       by  a  NULL pointer. The address of the list of lengths is returned via
       lengthsptr. If your strings do not contain binary zeros and you do  not
       therefore need the lengths, you may supply NULL as the lengthsptr argu-
       ment to disable the creation of a list of lengths.  The  yield  of  the
       function  is zero if all went well, or PCRE2_ERROR_NOMEMORY if the mem-
       ory block could not be obtained. When the list is no longer needed,  it
       should be freed by calling pcre2_substring_list_free().

       If this function encounters a substring that is unset, which can happen
       when capture group number n+1 matches some part  of  the  subject,  but
       group  n has not been used at all, it returns an empty string. This can
       be distinguished from a genuine zero-length substring by inspecting the
       appropriate  offset in the ovector, which contain PCRE2_UNSET for unset
       substrings, or by calling pcre2_substring_length_bynumber().


EXTRACTING CAPTURED SUBSTRINGS BY NAME

       int pcre2_substring_number_from_name(const pcre2_code *code,
         PCRE2_SPTR name);

       int pcre2_substring_length_byname(pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         PCRE2_SPTR name, PCRE2_SIZE *length);

       int pcre2_substring_copy_byname(pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         PCRE2_SPTR name, PCRE2_UCHAR *buffer, PCRE2_SIZE *bufflen);

       int pcre2_substring_get_byname(pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         PCRE2_SPTR name, PCRE2_UCHAR **bufferptr, PCRE2_SIZE *bufflen);

       void pcre2_substring_free(PCRE2_UCHAR *buffer);

       To extract a substring by name, you first have to find associated  num-
       ber.  For example, for this pattern:

         (a+)b(?<xxx>\d+)...

       the number of the capture group called "xxx" is 2. If the name is known
       to be unique (PCRE2_DUPNAMES was not set), you can find the number from
       the name by calling pcre2_substring_number_from_name(). The first argu-
       ment is the compiled pattern, and the second is the name. The yield  of
       the  function  is the group number, PCRE2_ERROR_NOSUBSTRING if there is
       no group with that name, or PCRE2_ERROR_NOUNIQUESUBSTRING if  there  is
       more  than one group with that name.  Given the number, you can extract
       the substring directly from the ovector, or use one of  the  "bynumber"
       functions described above.

       For  convenience,  there are also "byname" functions that correspond to
       the "bynumber" functions, the only difference being that the second ar-
       gument  is  a  name  instead  of a number. If PCRE2_DUPNAMES is set and
       there are duplicate names, these functions scan all the groups with the
       given  name,  and  return  the  captured substring from the first named
       group that is set.

       If there are no groups with the given name, PCRE2_ERROR_NOSUBSTRING  is
       returned.  If  all  groups  with the name have numbers that are greater
       than the number of slots in the ovector, PCRE2_ERROR_UNAVAILABLE is re-
       turned.  If there is at least one group with a slot in the ovector, but
       no group is found to be set, PCRE2_ERROR_UNSET is returned.

       Warning: If the pattern uses the (?| feature to set up multiple capture
       groups  with  the same number, as described in the section on duplicate
       group numbers in the pcre2pattern page, you cannot use names to distin-
       guish  the  different capture groups, because names are not included in
       the compiled code. The matching process uses  only  numbers.  For  this
       reason,  the  use  of  different  names for groups with the same number
       causes an error at compile time.


CREATING A NEW STRING WITH SUBSTITUTIONS

       int pcre2_substitute(const pcre2_code *code, PCRE2_SPTR subject,
         PCRE2_SIZE length, PCRE2_SIZE startoffset,
         uint32_t options, pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         pcre2_match_context *mcontext, PCRE2_SPTR replacement,
         PCRE2_SIZE rlength, PCRE2_UCHAR *outputbuffer,
         PCRE2_SIZE *outlengthptr);

       This function optionally calls pcre2_match() and then makes a  copy  of
       the  subject  string in outputbuffer, replacing parts that were matched
       with the replacement string, whose length is supplied in rlength.  This
       can  be  given  as  PCRE2_ZERO_TERMINATED for a zero-terminated string.
       There is an option (see PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_REPLACEMENT_ONLY below) to re-
       turn  just  the replacement string(s). The default action is to perform
       just one replacement if the pattern matches, but  there  is  an  option
       that  requests  multiple  replacements (see PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_GLOBAL be-
       low).

       If successful, pcre2_substitute() returns the number  of  substitutions
       that  were  carried out. This may be zero if no match was found, and is
       never greater than one unless PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_GLOBAL is set.  A  nega-
       tive value is returned if an error is detected.

       Matches  in  which  a  \K item in a lookahead in the pattern causes the
       match to end before it starts are not supported, and give  rise  to  an
       error return. For global replacements, matches in which \K in a lookbe-
       hind causes the match to start earlier than the point that was  reached
       in the previous iteration are also not supported.

       The  first  seven  arguments  of pcre2_substitute() are the same as for
       pcre2_match(), except that the partial matching options are not permit-
       ted,  and  match_data may be passed as NULL, in which case a match data
       block is obtained and freed within this function, using memory  manage-
       ment  functions from the match context, if provided, or else those that
       were used to allocate memory for the compiled code.

       If match_data is not NULL and PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_MATCHED is not set,  the
       provided block is used for all calls to pcre2_match(), and its contents
       afterwards are the result of the final call. For global  changes,  this
       will always be a no-match error. The contents of the ovector within the
       match data block may or may not have been changed.

       As well as the usual options for pcre2_match(), a number of  additional
       options  can be set in the options argument of pcre2_substitute().  One
       such option is PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_MATCHED. When this is set, an  external
       match_data  block  must  be provided, and it must have been used for an
       external call to pcre2_match(). The data in the match_data  block  (re-
       turn code, offset vector) is used for the first substitution instead of
       calling pcre2_match() from within pcre2_substitute().  This  allows  an
       application to check for a match before choosing to substitute, without
       having to repeat the match.

       The contents of the  externally  supplied  match  data  block  are  not
       changed   when   PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_MATCHED   is  set.  If  PCRE2_SUBSTI-
       TUTE_GLOBAL is also set, pcre2_match() is called after the  first  sub-
       stitution  to  check for further matches, but this is done using an in-
       ternally obtained match data block, thus always  leaving  the  external
       block unchanged.

       The  code  argument is not used for matching before the first substitu-
       tion when PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_MATCHED is set, but  it  must  be  provided,
       even  when  PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_GLOBAL is not set, because it contains in-
       formation such as the UTF setting and the number of capturing parenthe-
       ses in the pattern.

       The  default  action  of  pcre2_substitute() is to return a copy of the
       subject string with matched substrings replaced. However, if PCRE2_SUB-
       STITUTE_REPLACEMENT_ONLY  is  set,  only the replacement substrings are
       returned. In the global case, multiple replacements are concatenated in
       the  output  buffer.  Substitution  callouts (see below) can be used to
       separate them if necessary.

       The outlengthptr argument of pcre2_substitute() must point to  a  vari-
       able  that contains the length, in code units, of the output buffer. If
       the function is successful, the value is updated to contain the  length
       in  code  units  of the new string, excluding the trailing zero that is
       automatically added.

       If the function is not successful, the value set via  outlengthptr  de-
       pends  on  the  type  of  error.  For  syntax errors in the replacement
       string, the value is the offset in the replacement string where the er-
       ror  was  detected.  For  other errors, the value is PCRE2_UNSET by de-
       fault. This includes the case of the output buffer being too small, un-
       less PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_OVERFLOW_LENGTH is set.

       PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_OVERFLOW_LENGTH  changes  what happens when the output
       buffer is too small. The default action is to return PCRE2_ERROR_NOMEM-
       ORY  immediately.  If  this  option is set, however, pcre2_substitute()
       continues to go through the motions of matching and substituting (with-
       out,  of course, writing anything) in order to compute the size of buf-
       fer that is needed. This value is  passed  back  via  the  outlengthptr
       variable,  with  the  result  of  the  function  still  being PCRE2_ER-
       ROR_NOMEMORY.

       Passing a buffer size of zero is a permitted way  of  finding  out  how
       much  memory  is needed for given substitution. However, this does mean
       that the entire operation is carried out twice. Depending on the appli-
       cation,  it  may  be more efficient to allocate a large buffer and free
       the  excess  afterwards,  instead   of   using   PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_OVER-
       FLOW_LENGTH.

       The  replacement  string,  which  is interpreted as a UTF string in UTF
       mode, is checked for UTF validity unless PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK is set.  An
       invalid UTF replacement string causes an immediate return with the rel-
       evant UTF error code.

       If PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_LITERAL is set, the replacement string is  not  in-
       terpreted in any way. By default, however, a dollar character is an es-
       cape character that can specify the insertion of characters  from  cap-
       ture  groups  and names from (*MARK) or other control verbs in the pat-
       tern. The following forms are always recognized:

         $$                  insert a dollar character
         $<n> or ${<n>}      insert the contents of group <n>
         $*MARK or ${*MARK}  insert a control verb name

       Either a group number or a group name  can  be  given  for  <n>.  Curly
       brackets  are  required only if the following character would be inter-
       preted as part of the number or name. The number may be zero to include
       the  entire  matched  string.   For  example,  if  the pattern a(b)c is
       matched with "=abc=" and the replacement string "+$1$0$1+", the  result
       is "=+babcb+=".

       $*MARK  inserts the name from the last encountered backtracking control
       verb on the matching path that has a name. (*MARK) must always  include
       a  name,  but  the  other  verbs  need not. For example, in the case of
       (*MARK:A)(*PRUNE) the name inserted is "A", but for (*MARK:A)(*PRUNE:B)
       the  relevant  name is "B". This facility can be used to perform simple
       simultaneous substitutions, as this pcre2test example shows:

         /(*MARK:pear)apple|(*MARK:orange)lemon/g,replace=${*MARK}
             apple lemon
          2: pear orange

       PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_GLOBAL causes the function to iterate over the subject
       string,  replacing every matching substring. If this option is not set,
       only the first matching substring is replaced. The search  for  matches
       takes  place in the original subject string (that is, previous replace-
       ments do not affect it).  Iteration is  implemented  by  advancing  the
       startoffset  value  for  each search, which is always passed the entire
       subject string. If an offset limit is set in the match context, search-
       ing stops when that limit is reached.

       You  can  restrict  the effect of a global substitution to a portion of
       the subject string by setting either or both of startoffset and an off-
       set limit. Here is a pcre2test example:

         /B/g,replace=!,use_offset_limit
         ABC ABC ABC ABC\=offset=3,offset_limit=12
          2: ABC A!C A!C ABC

       When  continuing  with  global substitutions after matching a substring
       with zero length, an attempt to find a non-empty match at the same off-
       set is performed.  If this is not successful, the offset is advanced by
       one character except when CRLF is a valid newline sequence and the next
       two  characters are CR, LF. In this case, the offset is advanced by two
       characters.

       PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_UNKNOWN_UNSET causes references to capture groups that
       do not appear in the pattern to be treated as unset groups. This option
       should be used with care, because it means that a typo in a group  name
       or number no longer causes the PCRE2_ERROR_NOSUBSTRING error.

       PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_UNSET_EMPTY causes unset capture groups (including un-
       known groups when PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_UNKNOWN_UNSET is set) to be  treated
       as  empty  strings  when inserted as described above. If this option is
       not set, an attempt to insert an unset group causes the PCRE2_ERROR_UN-
       SET  error.  This  option  does not influence the extended substitution
       syntax described below.

       PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_EXTENDED causes extra processing to be applied to  the
       replacement  string.  Without this option, only the dollar character is
       special, and only the group insertion forms  listed  above  are  valid.
       When PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_EXTENDED is set, two things change:

       Firstly,  backslash in a replacement string is interpreted as an escape
       character. The usual forms such as \n or \x{ddd} can be used to specify
       particular  character codes, and backslash followed by any non-alphanu-
       meric character quotes that character. Extended quoting  can  be  coded
       using \Q...\E, exactly as in pattern strings.

       There  are  also four escape sequences for forcing the case of inserted
       letters.  The insertion mechanism has three states:  no  case  forcing,
       force upper case, and force lower case. The escape sequences change the
       current state: \U and \L change to upper or lower case forcing, respec-
       tively,  and  \E (when not terminating a \Q quoted sequence) reverts to
       no case forcing. The sequences \u and \l force the next  character  (if
       it  is  a  letter)  to  upper or lower case, respectively, and then the
       state automatically reverts to no case forcing. Case forcing applies to
       all  inserted  characters, including those from capture groups and let-
       ters within \Q...\E quoted sequences. If either PCRE2_UTF or  PCRE2_UCP
       was  set when the pattern was compiled, Unicode properties are used for
       case forcing characters whose code points are greater than 127.

       Note that case forcing sequences such as \U...\E do not nest. For exam-
       ple,  the  result of processing "\Uaa\LBB\Ecc\E" is "AAbbcc"; the final
       \E has no effect. Note  also  that  the  PCRE2_ALT_BSUX  and  PCRE2_EX-
       TRA_ALT_BSUX options do not apply to replacement strings.

       The  second  effect of setting PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_EXTENDED is to add more
       flexibility to capture group substitution. The  syntax  is  similar  to
       that used by Bash:

         ${<n>:-<string>}
         ${<n>:+<string1>:<string2>}

       As  before,  <n> may be a group number or a name. The first form speci-
       fies a default value. If group <n> is set, its value  is  inserted;  if
       not,  <string>  is  expanded  and  the result inserted. The second form
       specifies strings that are expanded and inserted when group <n> is  set
       or  unset,  respectively. The first form is just a convenient shorthand
       for

         ${<n>:+${<n>}:<string>}

       Backslash can be used to escape colons and closing  curly  brackets  in
       the  replacement  strings.  A change of the case forcing state within a
       replacement string remains  in  force  afterwards,  as  shown  in  this
       pcre2test example:

         /(some)?(body)/substitute_extended,replace=${1:+\U:\L}HeLLo
             body
          1: hello
             somebody
          1: HELLO

       The  PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_UNSET_EMPTY option does not affect these extended
       substitutions. However, PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_UNKNOWN_UNSET does  cause  un-
       known groups in the extended syntax forms to be treated as unset.

       If  PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_LITERAL  is  set,  PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_UNKNOWN_UNSET,
       PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_UNSET_EMPTY, and PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_EXTENDED are irrele-
       vant and are ignored.

   Substitution errors

       In  the  event of an error, pcre2_substitute() returns a negative error
       code. Except for PCRE2_ERROR_NOMATCH (which is never returned),  errors
       from pcre2_match() are passed straight back.

       PCRE2_ERROR_NOSUBSTRING is returned for a non-existent substring inser-
       tion, unless PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_UNKNOWN_UNSET is set.

       PCRE2_ERROR_UNSET is returned for an unset substring insertion (includ-
       ing  an  unknown  substring when PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_UNKNOWN_UNSET is set)
       when the simple (non-extended) syntax is used and  PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_UN-
       SET_EMPTY is not set.

       PCRE2_ERROR_NOMEMORY  is  returned  if  the  output  buffer  is not big
       enough. If the PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_OVERFLOW_LENGTH option is set, the size
       of  buffer  that is needed is returned via outlengthptr. Note that this
       does not happen by default.

       PCRE2_ERROR_NULL is returned if PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_MATCHED is set but the
       match_data argument is NULL.

       PCRE2_ERROR_BADREPLACEMENT  is  used for miscellaneous syntax errors in
       the replacement string, with more  particular  errors  being  PCRE2_ER-
       ROR_BADREPESCAPE (invalid escape sequence), PCRE2_ERROR_REPMISSINGBRACE
       (closing curly bracket not found), PCRE2_ERROR_BADSUBSTITUTION  (syntax
       error  in  extended group substitution), and PCRE2_ERROR_BADSUBSPATTERN
       (the pattern match ended before it started or the match started earlier
       than  the  current  position  in the subject, which can happen if \K is
       used in an assertion).

       As for all PCRE2 errors, a text message that describes the error can be
       obtained  by  calling  the pcre2_get_error_message() function (see "Ob-
       taining a textual error message" above).

   Substitution callouts

       int pcre2_set_substitute_callout(pcre2_match_context *mcontext,
         int (*callout_function)(pcre2_substitute_callout_block *, void *),
         void *callout_data);

       The pcre2_set_substitution_callout() function can be used to specify  a
       callout  function for pcre2_substitute(). This information is passed in
       a match context. The callout function is called after each substitution
       has been processed, but it can cause the replacement not to happen. The
       callout function is not called for simulated substitutions that  happen
       as a result of the PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_OVERFLOW_LENGTH option.

       The first argument of the callout function is a pointer to a substitute
       callout block structure, which contains the following fields, not  nec-
       essarily in this order:

         uint32_t    version;
         uint32_t    subscount;
         PCRE2_SPTR  input;
         PCRE2_SPTR  output;
         PCRE2_SIZE *ovector;
         uint32_t    oveccount;
         PCRE2_SIZE  output_offsets[2];

       The  version field contains the version number of the block format. The
       current version is 0. The version number will  increase  in  future  if
       more  fields are added, but the intention is never to remove any of the
       existing fields.

       The subscount field is the number of the current match. It is 1 for the
       first callout, 2 for the second, and so on. The input and output point-
       ers are copies of the values passed to pcre2_substitute().

       The ovector field points to the ovector, which contains the  result  of
       the most recent match. The oveccount field contains the number of pairs
       that are set in the ovector, and is always greater than zero.

       The output_offsets vector contains the offsets of  the  replacement  in
       the  output  string. This has already been processed for dollar and (if
       requested) backslash substitutions as described above.

       The second argument of the callout function  is  the  value  passed  as
       callout_data  when  the  function was registered. The value returned by
       the callout function is interpreted as follows:

       If the value is zero, the replacement is accepted, and,  if  PCRE2_SUB-
       STITUTE_GLOBAL  is set, processing continues with a search for the next
       match. If the value is not zero, the current  replacement  is  not  ac-
       cepted.  If  the  value is greater than zero, processing continues when
       PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_GLOBAL is set. Otherwise (the value is less than  zero
       or  PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_GLOBAL  is  not set), the the rest of the input is
       copied to the output and the call to pcre2_substitute() exits,  return-
       ing the number of matches so far.


DUPLICATE CAPTURE GROUP NAMES

       int pcre2_substring_nametable_scan(const pcre2_code *code,
         PCRE2_SPTR name, PCRE2_SPTR *first, PCRE2_SPTR *last);

       When  a  pattern  is compiled with the PCRE2_DUPNAMES option, names for
       capture groups are not required to be unique. Duplicate names  are  al-
       ways  allowed for groups with the same number, created by using the (?|
       feature. Indeed, if such groups are named, they are required to use the
       same names.

       Normally,  patterns  that  use duplicate names are such that in any one
       match, only one of each set of identically-named  groups  participates.
       An example is shown in the pcre2pattern documentation.

       When   duplicates   are   present,   pcre2_substring_copy_byname()  and
       pcre2_substring_get_byname() return the first  substring  corresponding
       to  the given name that is set. Only if none are set is PCRE2_ERROR_UN-
       SET is returned. The  pcre2_substring_number_from_name()  function  re-
       turns  the error PCRE2_ERROR_NOUNIQUESUBSTRING when there are duplicate
       names.

       If you want to get full details of all captured substrings for a  given
       name,  you  must use the pcre2_substring_nametable_scan() function. The
       first argument is the compiled pattern, and the second is the name.  If
       the  third  and fourth arguments are NULL, the function returns a group
       number for a unique name, or PCRE2_ERROR_NOUNIQUESUBSTRING otherwise.

       When the third and fourth arguments are not NULL, they must be pointers
       to  variables  that are updated by the function. After it has run, they
       point to the first and last entries in the name-to-number table for the
       given  name,  and the function returns the length of each entry in code
       units. In both cases, PCRE2_ERROR_NOSUBSTRING is returned if there  are
       no entries for the given name.

       The format of the name table is described above in the section entitled
       Information about a pattern. Given all the  relevant  entries  for  the
       name,  you  can  extract  each of their numbers, and hence the captured
       data.


FINDING ALL POSSIBLE MATCHES AT ONE POSITION

       The traditional matching function uses a  similar  algorithm  to  Perl,
       which  stops when it finds the first match at a given point in the sub-
       ject. If you want to find all possible matches, or the longest possible
       match  at  a  given  position,  consider using the alternative matching
       function (see below) instead. If you cannot use the  alternative  func-
       tion, you can kludge it up by making use of the callout facility, which
       is described in the pcre2callout documentation.

       What you have to do is to insert a callout right at the end of the pat-
       tern.   When your callout function is called, extract and save the cur-
       rent matched substring. Then return 1, which  forces  pcre2_match()  to
       backtrack  and  try other alternatives. Ultimately, when it runs out of
       matches, pcre2_match() will yield PCRE2_ERROR_NOMATCH.


MATCHING A PATTERN: THE ALTERNATIVE FUNCTION

       int pcre2_dfa_match(const pcre2_code *code, PCRE2_SPTR subject,
         PCRE2_SIZE length, PCRE2_SIZE startoffset,
         uint32_t options, pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         pcre2_match_context *mcontext,
         int *workspace, PCRE2_SIZE wscount);

       The function pcre2_dfa_match() is called  to  match  a  subject  string
       against  a  compiled pattern, using a matching algorithm that scans the
       subject string just once (not counting lookaround assertions), and does
       not  backtrack.  This has different characteristics to the normal algo-
       rithm, and is not compatible with Perl. Some of the features  of  PCRE2
       patterns  are  not  supported.  Nevertheless, there are times when this
       kind of matching can be useful. For a discussion of  the  two  matching
       algorithms, and a list of features that pcre2_dfa_match() does not sup-
       port, see the pcre2matching documentation.

       The arguments for the pcre2_dfa_match() function are the  same  as  for
       pcre2_match(), plus two extras. The ovector within the match data block
       is used in a different way, and this is described below. The other com-
       mon  arguments  are used in the same way as for pcre2_match(), so their
       description is not repeated here.

       The two additional arguments provide workspace for  the  function.  The
       workspace  vector  should  contain at least 20 elements. It is used for
       keeping  track  of  multiple  paths  through  the  pattern  tree.  More
       workspace  is needed for patterns and subjects where there are a lot of
       potential matches.

       Here is an example of a simple call to pcre2_dfa_match():

         int wspace[20];
         pcre2_match_data *md = pcre2_match_data_create(4, NULL);
         int rc = pcre2_dfa_match(
           re,             /* result of pcre2_compile() */
           "some string",  /* the subject string */
           11,             /* the length of the subject string */
           0,              /* start at offset 0 in the subject */
           0,              /* default options */
           md,             /* the match data block */
           NULL,           /* a match context; NULL means use defaults */
           wspace,         /* working space vector */
           20);            /* number of elements (NOT size in bytes) */

   Option bits for pcre_dfa_match()

       The unused bits of the options argument for pcre2_dfa_match()  must  be
       zero.   The   only   bits   that   may   be   set  are  PCRE2_ANCHORED,
       PCRE2_COPY_MATCHED_SUBJECT, PCRE2_ENDANCHORED, PCRE2_NOTBOL,  PCRE2_NO-
       TEOL,   PCRE2_NOTEMPTY,   PCRE2_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART,   PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK,
       PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD,   PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT,    PCRE2_DFA_SHORTEST,    and
       PCRE2_DFA_RESTART.  All but the last four of these are exactly the same
       as for pcre2_match(), so their description is not repeated here.

         PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD
         PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT

       These have the same general effect as they do  for  pcre2_match(),  but
       the  details are slightly different. When PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD is set for
       pcre2_dfa_match(), it returns PCRE2_ERROR_PARTIAL if  the  end  of  the
       subject is reached and there is still at least one matching possibility
       that requires additional characters. This happens even if some complete
       matches  have  already  been found. When PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT is set, the
       return code PCRE2_ERROR_NOMATCH is converted  into  PCRE2_ERROR_PARTIAL
       if  the  end  of  the  subject  is reached, there have been no complete
       matches, but there is still at least one matching possibility. The por-
       tion  of  the  string that was inspected when the longest partial match
       was found is set as the first matching string in both cases. There is a
       more  detailed  discussion  of partial and multi-segment matching, with
       examples, in the pcre2partial documentation.

         PCRE2_DFA_SHORTEST

       Setting the PCRE2_DFA_SHORTEST option causes the matching algorithm  to
       stop as soon as it has found one match. Because of the way the alterna-
       tive algorithm works, this is necessarily the shortest  possible  match
       at the first possible matching point in the subject string.

         PCRE2_DFA_RESTART

       When  pcre2_dfa_match() returns a partial match, it is possible to call
       it again, with additional subject characters, and have it continue with
       the same match. The PCRE2_DFA_RESTART option requests this action; when
       it is set, the workspace and wscount options must  reference  the  same
       vector  as  before  because data about the match so far is left in them
       after a partial match. There is more discussion of this facility in the
       pcre2partial documentation.

   Successful returns from pcre2_dfa_match()

       When pcre2_dfa_match() succeeds, it may have matched more than one sub-
       string in the subject. Note, however, that all the matches from one run
       of  the  function  start  at the same point in the subject. The shorter
       matches are all initial substrings of the longer matches. For  example,
       if the pattern

         <.*>

       is matched against the string

         This is <something> <something else> <something further> no more

       the three matched strings are

         <something> <something else> <something further>
         <something> <something else>
         <something>

       On  success,  the  yield of the function is a number greater than zero,
       which is the number of matched substrings.  The  offsets  of  the  sub-
       strings  are returned in the ovector, and can be extracted by number in
       the same way as for pcre2_match(), but the numbers bear no relation  to
       any  capture groups that may exist in the pattern, because DFA matching
       does not support capturing.

       Calls to the convenience functions that extract substrings by name  re-
       turn the error PCRE2_ERROR_DFA_UFUNC (unsupported function) if used af-
       ter a DFA match. The convenience functions that extract  substrings  by
       number never return PCRE2_ERROR_NOSUBSTRING.

       The  matched  strings  are  stored  in  the ovector in reverse order of
       length; that is, the longest matching string is first.  If  there  were
       too  many matches to fit into the ovector, the yield of the function is
       zero, and the vector is filled with the longest matches.

       NOTE: PCRE2's "auto-possessification" optimization usually  applies  to
       character  repeats at the end of a pattern (as well as internally). For
       example, the pattern "a\d+" is compiled as if it were "a\d++". For  DFA
       matching,  this means that only one possible match is found. If you re-
       ally do want multiple matches in such cases, either use an ungreedy re-
       peat  such as "a\d+?" or set the PCRE2_NO_AUTO_POSSESS option when com-
       piling.

   Error returns from pcre2_dfa_match()

       The pcre2_dfa_match() function returns a negative number when it fails.
       Many  of  the  errors  are  the same as for pcre2_match(), as described
       above.  There are in addition the following errors that are specific to
       pcre2_dfa_match():

         PCRE2_ERROR_DFA_UITEM

       This  return  is  given  if pcre2_dfa_match() encounters an item in the
       pattern that it does not support, for instance, the use of \C in a  UTF
       mode or a backreference.

         PCRE2_ERROR_DFA_UCOND

       This  return  is given if pcre2_dfa_match() encounters a condition item
       that uses a backreference for the condition, or a test for recursion in
       a specific capture group. These are not supported.

         PCRE2_ERROR_DFA_UINVALID_UTF

       This  return is given if pcre2_dfa_match() is called for a pattern that
       was compiled with PCRE2_MATCH_INVALID_UTF. This is  not  supported  for
       DFA matching.

         PCRE2_ERROR_DFA_WSSIZE

       This  return  is  given  if  pcre2_dfa_match() runs out of space in the
       workspace vector.

         PCRE2_ERROR_DFA_RECURSE

       When a recursion or subroutine call is processed, the matching function
       calls  itself  recursively,  using  private  memory for the ovector and
       workspace.  This error is given if the internal ovector  is  not  large
       enough.  This  should  be  extremely  rare, as a vector of size 1000 is
       used.

         PCRE2_ERROR_DFA_BADRESTART

       When pcre2_dfa_match() is called  with  the  PCRE2_DFA_RESTART  option,
       some  plausibility  checks  are  made on the contents of the workspace,
       which should contain data about the previous partial match. If  any  of
       these checks fail, this error is given.


SEE ALSO

       pcre2build(3),    pcre2callout(3),    pcre2demo(3),   pcre2matching(3),
       pcre2partial(3), pcre2posix(3), pcre2sample(3), pcre2unicode(3).


AUTHOR

       Philip Hazel
       University Computing Service
       Cambridge, England.


REVISION

       Last updated: 19 March 2020
       Copyright (c) 1997-2020 University of Cambridge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


PCRE2BUILD(3)              Library Functions Manual              PCRE2BUILD(3)



NAME
       PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

BUILDING PCRE2

       PCRE2  is distributed with a configure script that can be used to build
       the library in Unix-like environments using the applications  known  as
       Autotools. Also in the distribution are files to support building using
       CMake instead of configure. The text file README contains  general  in-
       formation  about building with Autotools (some of which is repeated be-
       low), and also has some comments about building  on  various  operating
       systems.  There  is a lot more information about building PCRE2 without
       using Autotools (including information about using CMake  and  building
       "by  hand")  in  the  text file called NON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD.  You should
       consult this file as well as the README file if you are building  in  a
       non-Unix-like environment.


PCRE2 BUILD-TIME OPTIONS

       The rest of this document describes the optional features of PCRE2 that
       can be selected when the library is compiled. It  assumes  use  of  the
       configure  script,  where  the  optional features are selected or dese-
       lected by providing options to configure before running the  make  com-
       mand.  However,  the same options can be selected in both Unix-like and
       non-Unix-like environments if you are using CMake instead of  configure
       to build PCRE2.

       If  you  are not using Autotools or CMake, option selection can be done
       by editing the config.h file, or by passing parameter settings  to  the
       compiler, as described in NON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD.

       The complete list of options for configure (which includes the standard
       ones such as the selection of the installation directory)  can  be  ob-
       tained by running

         ./configure --help

       The  following  sections include descriptions of "on/off" options whose
       names begin with --enable or --disable. Because of the way that config-
       ure  works, --enable and --disable always come in pairs, so the comple-
       mentary option always exists as well, but as it specifies the  default,
       it is not described.  Options that specify values have names that start
       with --with. At the end of a configure run, a summary of the configura-
       tion is output.


BUILDING 8-BIT, 16-BIT AND 32-BIT LIBRARIES

       By  default, a library called libpcre2-8 is built, containing functions
       that take string arguments contained in arrays  of  bytes,  interpreted
       either  as single-byte characters, or UTF-8 strings. You can also build
       two other libraries, called libpcre2-16 and libpcre2-32, which  process
       strings  that  are contained in arrays of 16-bit and 32-bit code units,
       respectively. These can be interpreted either as single-unit characters
       or  UTF-16/UTF-32 strings. To build these additional libraries, add one
       or both of the following to the configure command:

         --enable-pcre2-16
         --enable-pcre2-32

       If you do not want the 8-bit library, add

         --disable-pcre2-8

       as well. At least one of the three libraries must be built.  Note  that
       the  POSIX wrapper is for the 8-bit library only, and that pcre2grep is
       an 8-bit program. Neither of these are built if  you  select  only  the
       16-bit or 32-bit libraries.


BUILDING SHARED AND STATIC LIBRARIES

       The  Autotools PCRE2 building process uses libtool to build both shared
       and static libraries by default. You can suppress an  unwanted  library
       by adding one of

         --disable-shared
         --disable-static

       to the configure command.


UNICODE AND UTF SUPPORT

       By  default,  PCRE2 is built with support for Unicode and UTF character
       strings.  To build it without Unicode support, add

         --disable-unicode

       to the configure command. This setting applies to all three  libraries.
       It  is  not  possible to build one library with Unicode support and an-
       other without in the same configuration.

       Of itself, Unicode support does not make PCRE2 treat strings as  UTF-8,
       UTF-16 or UTF-32. To do that, applications that use the library can set
       the PCRE2_UTF option when they call pcre2_compile() to compile  a  pat-
       tern.   Alternatively,  patterns  may be started with (*UTF) unless the
       application has locked this out by setting PCRE2_NEVER_UTF.

       UTF support allows the libraries to process character code points up to
       0x10ffff  in  the  strings that they handle. Unicode support also gives
       access to the Unicode properties of characters, using  pattern  escapes
       such as \P, \p, and \X. Only the general category properties such as Lu
       and Nd are supported. Details are given in the pcre2pattern  documenta-
       tion.

       Pattern escapes such as \d and \w do not by default make use of Unicode
       properties. The application can request that they  do  by  setting  the
       PCRE2_UCP  option.  Unless  the  application has set PCRE2_NEVER_UCP, a
       pattern may also request this by starting with (*UCP).


DISABLING THE USE OF \C

       The \C escape sequence, which matches a single code unit, even in a UTF
       mode,  can  cause unpredictable behaviour because it may leave the cur-
       rent matching point in the middle of a multi-code-unit  character.  The
       application  can lock it out by setting the PCRE2_NEVER_BACKSLASH_C op-
       tion when calling pcre2_compile(). There is also a build-time option

         --enable-never-backslash-C

       (note the upper case C) which locks out the use of \C entirely.


JUST-IN-TIME COMPILER SUPPORT

       Just-in-time (JIT) compiler support is included in the build by  speci-
       fying

         --enable-jit

       This  support  is available only for certain hardware architectures. If
       this option is set for an unsupported architecture,  a  building  error
       occurs.  If in doubt, use

         --enable-jit=auto

       which  enables  JIT  only if the current hardware is supported. You can
       check if JIT is enabled in the configuration summary that is output  at
       the  end  of a configure run. If you are enabling JIT under SELinux you
       may also want to add

         --enable-jit-sealloc

       which enables the use of an execmem allocator in JIT that is compatible
       with  SELinux.  This  has  no  effect  if  JIT  is not enabled. See the
       pcre2jit documentation for a discussion of JIT usage. When JIT  support
       is enabled, pcre2grep automatically makes use of it, unless you add

         --disable-pcre2grep-jit

       to the configure command.


NEWLINE RECOGNITION

       By  default, PCRE2 interprets the linefeed (LF) character as indicating
       the end of a line. This is the normal newline  character  on  Unix-like
       systems.  You can compile PCRE2 to use carriage return (CR) instead, by
       adding

         --enable-newline-is-cr

       to the configure command. There is also an  --enable-newline-is-lf  op-
       tion, which explicitly specifies linefeed as the newline character.

       Alternatively, you can specify that line endings are to be indicated by
       the two-character sequence CRLF (CR immediately followed by LF). If you
       want this, add

         --enable-newline-is-crlf

       to the configure command. There is a fourth option, specified by

         --enable-newline-is-anycrlf

       which  causes  PCRE2 to recognize any of the three sequences CR, LF, or
       CRLF as indicating a line ending. A fifth option, specified by

         --enable-newline-is-any

       causes PCRE2 to recognize any Unicode  newline  sequence.  The  Unicode
       newline sequences are the three just mentioned, plus the single charac-
       ters VT (vertical tab, U+000B), FF (form feed, U+000C), NEL (next line,
       U+0085),  LS  (line  separator,  U+2028),  and PS (paragraph separator,
       U+2029). The final option is

         --enable-newline-is-nul

       which causes NUL (binary zero) to be set  as  the  default  line-ending
       character.

       Whatever default line ending convention is selected when PCRE2 is built
       can be overridden by applications that use the library. At  build  time
       it is recommended to use the standard for your operating system.


WHAT \R MATCHES

       By  default,  the  sequence \R in a pattern matches any Unicode newline
       sequence, independently of what has been selected as  the  line  ending
       sequence. If you specify

         --enable-bsr-anycrlf

       the  default  is changed so that \R matches only CR, LF, or CRLF. What-
       ever is selected when PCRE2 is built can be overridden by  applications
       that use the library.


HANDLING VERY LARGE PATTERNS

       Within  a  compiled  pattern,  offset values are used to point from one
       part to another (for example, from an opening parenthesis to an  alter-
       nation  metacharacter).  By default, in the 8-bit and 16-bit libraries,
       two-byte values are used for these offsets, leading to a  maximum  size
       for a compiled pattern of around 64 thousand code units. This is suffi-
       cient to handle all but the most gigantic patterns. Nevertheless,  some
       people do want to process truly enormous patterns, so it is possible to
       compile PCRE2 to use three-byte or four-byte offsets by adding  a  set-
       ting such as

         --with-link-size=3

       to  the  configure command. The value given must be 2, 3, or 4. For the
       16-bit library, a value of 3 is rounded up to 4.  In  these  libraries,
       using  longer  offsets slows down the operation of PCRE2 because it has
       to load additional data when handling them. For the 32-bit library  the
       value  is  always 4 and cannot be overridden; the value of --with-link-
       size is ignored.


LIMITING PCRE2 RESOURCE USAGE

       The pcre2_match() function increments a counter each time it goes round
       its  main  loop. Putting a limit on this counter controls the amount of
       computing resource used by a single call to  pcre2_match().  The  limit
       can be changed at run time, as described in the pcre2api documentation.
       The default is 10 million, but this can be changed by adding a  setting
       such as

         --with-match-limit=500000

       to   the   configure   command.   This  setting  also  applies  to  the
       pcre2_dfa_match() matching function, and to JIT  matching  (though  the
       counting is done differently).

       The  pcre2_match() function starts out using a 20KiB vector on the sys-
       tem stack to record backtracking points. The more  nested  backtracking
       points there are (that is, the deeper the search tree), the more memory
       is needed. If the initial vector is not large enough,  heap  memory  is
       used,  up to a certain limit, which is specified in kibibytes (units of
       1024 bytes). The limit can be changed at run time, as described in  the
       pcre2api  documentation.  The default limit (in effect unlimited) is 20
       million. You can change this by a setting such as

         --with-heap-limit=500

       which limits the amount of heap to 500 KiB. This limit applies only  to
       interpretive matching in pcre2_match() and pcre2_dfa_match(), which may
       also use the heap for internal workspace  when  processing  complicated
       patterns.  This limit does not apply when JIT (which has its own memory
       arrangements) is used.

       You can also explicitly limit the depth of nested backtracking  in  the
       pcre2_match() interpreter. This limit defaults to the value that is set
       for --with-match-limit. You can set a lower default  limit  by  adding,
       for example,

         --with-match-limit_depth=10000

       to  the  configure  command.  This value can be overridden at run time.
       This depth limit indirectly limits the amount of heap  memory  that  is
       used,  but because the size of each backtracking "frame" depends on the
       number of capturing parentheses in a pattern, the amount of  heap  that
       is  used  before  the  limit is reached varies from pattern to pattern.
       This limit was more useful in versions before 10.30, where function re-
       cursion was used for backtracking.

       As well as applying to pcre2_match(), the depth limit also controls the
       depth of recursive function calls in pcre2_dfa_match(). These are  used
       for  lookaround  assertions,  atomic  groups, and recursion within pat-
       terns.  The limit does not apply to JIT matching.


CREATING CHARACTER TABLES AT BUILD TIME

       PCRE2 uses fixed tables for processing characters whose code points are
       less than 256. By default, PCRE2 is built with a set of tables that are
       distributed in the file src/pcre2_chartables.c.dist. These  tables  are
       for ASCII codes only. If you add

         --enable-rebuild-chartables

       to  the  configure  command, the distributed tables are no longer used.
       Instead, a program called pcre2_dftables is compiled and run. This out-
       puts the source for new set of tables, created in the default locale of
       your C run-time system. This method of replacing the  tables  does  not
       work if you are cross compiling, because pcre2_dftables needs to be run
       on the local host and therefore not compiled with the cross compiler.

       If you need to create alternative tables when cross compiling, you will
       have  to  do so "by hand". There may also be other reasons for creating
       tables manually.  To cause pcre2_dftables to  be  built  on  the  local
       host, run a normal compiling command, and then run the program with the
       output file as its argument, for example:

         cc src/pcre2_dftables.c -o pcre2_dftables
         ./pcre2_dftables src/pcre2_chartables.c

       This builds the tables in the default locale of the local host. If  you
       want to specify a locale, you must use the -L option:

         LC_ALL=fr_FR ./pcre2_dftables -L src/pcre2_chartables.c

       You can also specify -b (with or without -L). This causes the tables to
       be written in binary instead of as source code. A set of binary  tables
       can  be  loaded  into memory by an application and passed to pcre2_com-
       pile() in the same way as tables created by calling pcre2_maketables().
       The  tables are just a string of bytes, independent of hardware charac-
       teristics such as endianness. This means they can be  bundled  with  an
       application  that  runs in different environments, to ensure consistent
       behaviour.


USING EBCDIC CODE

       PCRE2 assumes by default that it will run in an environment  where  the
       character  code is ASCII or Unicode, which is a superset of ASCII. This
       is the case for most computer operating systems. PCRE2 can, however, be
       compiled to run in an 8-bit EBCDIC environment by adding

         --enable-ebcdic --disable-unicode

       to the configure command. This setting implies --enable-rebuild-charta-
       bles. You should only use it if you know that you are in an EBCDIC  en-
       vironment (for example, an IBM mainframe operating system).

       It  is  not possible to support both EBCDIC and UTF-8 codes in the same
       version of the library. Consequently,  --enable-unicode  and  --enable-
       ebcdic are mutually exclusive.

       The EBCDIC character that corresponds to an ASCII LF is assumed to have
       the value 0x15 by default. However, in some EBCDIC  environments,  0x25
       is used. In such an environment you should use

         --enable-ebcdic-nl25

       as well as, or instead of, --enable-ebcdic. The EBCDIC character for CR
       has the same value as in ASCII, namely, 0x0d.  Whichever  of  0x15  and
       0x25 is not chosen as LF is made to correspond to the Unicode NEL char-
       acter (which, in Unicode, is 0x85).

       The options that select newline behaviour, such as --enable-newline-is-
       cr, and equivalent run-time options, refer to these character values in
       an EBCDIC environment.


PCRE2GREP SUPPORT FOR EXTERNAL SCRIPTS

       By default pcre2grep supports the use of callouts with string arguments
       within  the patterns it is matching. There are two kinds: one that gen-
       erates output using local code, and another that calls an external pro-
       gram  or  script.   If --disable-pcre2grep-callout-fork is added to the
       configure command, only the first kind  of  callout  is  supported;  if
       --disable-pcre2grep-callout  is  used,  all callouts are completely ig-
       nored. For more details of pcre2grep callouts, see the pcre2grep  docu-
       mentation.


PCRE2GREP OPTIONS FOR COMPRESSED FILE SUPPORT

       By  default,  pcre2grep reads all files as plain text. You can build it
       so that it recognizes files whose names end in .gz or .bz2,  and  reads
       them with libz or libbz2, respectively, by adding one or both of

         --enable-pcre2grep-libz
         --enable-pcre2grep-libbz2

       to the configure command. These options naturally require that the rel-
       evant libraries are installed on your system. Configuration  will  fail
       if they are not.


PCRE2GREP BUFFER SIZE

       pcre2grep  uses an internal buffer to hold a "window" on the file it is
       scanning, in order to be able to output "before" and "after" lines when
       it finds a match. The default starting size of the buffer is 20KiB. The
       buffer itself is three times this size, but because of the  way  it  is
       used for holding "before" lines, the longest line that is guaranteed to
       be processable is the notional buffer size. If a longer line is encoun-
       tered,  pcre2grep  automatically  expands the buffer, up to a specified
       maximum size, whose default is 1MiB or the starting size, whichever  is
       the  larger. You can change the default parameter values by adding, for
       example,

         --with-pcre2grep-bufsize=51200
         --with-pcre2grep-max-bufsize=2097152

       to the configure command. The caller of pcre2grep  can  override  these
       values  by  using  --buffer-size  and  --max-buffer-size on the command
       line.


PCRE2TEST OPTION FOR LIBREADLINE SUPPORT

       If you add one of

         --enable-pcre2test-libreadline
         --enable-pcre2test-libedit

       to the configure command, pcre2test is linked with the libreadline  or-
       libedit  library,  respectively, and when its input is from a terminal,
       it reads it using the readline() function. This  provides  line-editing
       and  history  facilities.  Note that libreadline is GPL-licensed, so if
       you distribute a binary of pcre2test linked in this way, there  may  be
       licensing issues. These can be avoided by linking instead with libedit,
       which has a BSD licence.

       Setting --enable-pcre2test-libreadline causes the -lreadline option  to
       be  added to the pcre2test build. In many operating environments with a
       sytem-installed readline library this is sufficient. However,  in  some
       environments (e.g. if an unmodified distribution version of readline is
       in use), some extra configuration may be necessary.  The  INSTALL  file
       for libreadline says this:

         "Readline uses the termcap functions, but does not link with
         the termcap or curses library itself, allowing applications
         which link with readline the to choose an appropriate library."

       If  your environment has not been set up so that an appropriate library
       is automatically included, you may need to add something like

         LIBS="-ncurses"

       immediately before the configure command.


INCLUDING DEBUGGING CODE

       If you add

         --enable-debug

       to the configure command, additional debugging code is included in  the
       build. This feature is intended for use by the PCRE2 maintainers.


DEBUGGING WITH VALGRIND SUPPORT

       If you add

         --enable-valgrind

       to  the  configure command, PCRE2 will use valgrind annotations to mark
       certain memory regions as unaddressable. This allows it to  detect  in-
       valid memory accesses, and is mostly useful for debugging PCRE2 itself.


CODE COVERAGE REPORTING

       If  your  C  compiler is gcc, you can build a version of PCRE2 that can
       generate a code coverage report for its test suite. To enable this, you
       must install lcov version 1.6 or above. Then specify

         --enable-coverage

       to the configure command and build PCRE2 in the usual way.

       Note that using ccache (a caching C compiler) is incompatible with code
       coverage reporting. If you have configured ccache to run  automatically
       on your system, you must set the environment variable

         CCACHE_DISABLE=1

       before running make to build PCRE2, so that ccache is not used.

       When  --enable-coverage  is  used,  the  following addition targets are
       added to the Makefile:

         make coverage

       This creates a fresh coverage report for the PCRE2 test  suite.  It  is
       equivalent  to running "make coverage-reset", "make coverage-baseline",
       "make check", and then "make coverage-report".

         make coverage-reset

       This zeroes the coverage counters, but does nothing else.

         make coverage-baseline

       This captures baseline coverage information.

         make coverage-report

       This creates the coverage report.

         make coverage-clean-report

       This removes the generated coverage report without cleaning the  cover-
       age data itself.

         make coverage-clean-data

       This  removes  the captured coverage data without removing the coverage
       files created at compile time (*.gcno).

         make coverage-clean

       This cleans all coverage data including the generated coverage  report.
       For  more  information about code coverage, see the gcov and lcov docu-
       mentation.


DISABLING THE Z AND T FORMATTING MODIFIERS

       The C99 standard defines formatting modifiers z and t  for  size_t  and
       ptrdiff_t  values, respectively. By default, PCRE2 uses these modifiers
       in environments other than Microsoft  Visual  Studio  when  __STDC_VER-
       SION__ is defined and has a value greater than or equal to 199901L (in-
       dicating C99).  However, there is at least one environment that  claims
       to be C99 but does not support these modifiers. If

         --disable-percent-zt

       is specified, no use is made of the z or t modifiers. Instead of %td or
       %zu, %lu is used, with a cast for size_t values.


SUPPORT FOR FUZZERS

       There is a special option for use by people who  want  to  run  fuzzing
       tests on PCRE2:

         --enable-fuzz-support

       At present this applies only to the 8-bit library. If set, it causes an
       extra library called libpcre2-fuzzsupport.a to be built,  but  not  in-
       stalled.  This  contains  a single function called LLVMFuzzerTestOneIn-
       put() whose arguments are a pointer to a string and the length  of  the
       string.  When  called,  this  function tries to compile the string as a
       pattern, and if that succeeds, to match it.  This is done both with  no
       options  and  with some random options bits that are generated from the
       string.

       Setting --enable-fuzz-support also causes  a  binary  called  pcre2fuz-
       zcheck  to be created. This is normally run under valgrind or used when
       PCRE2 is compiled with address sanitizing enabled. It calls the fuzzing
       function  and  outputs  information  about  what it is doing. The input
       strings are specified by arguments: if an argument starts with "="  the
       rest  of it is a literal input string. Otherwise, it is assumed to be a
       file name, and the contents of the file are the test string.


OBSOLETE OPTION

       In versions of PCRE2 prior to 10.30, there were two  ways  of  handling
       backtracking  in the pcre2_match() function. The default was to use the
       system stack, but if

         --disable-stack-for-recursion

       was set, memory on the heap was used. From release 10.30  onwards  this
       has  changed  (the  stack  is  no longer used) and this option now does
       nothing except give a warning.


SEE ALSO

       pcre2api(3), pcre2-config(3).


AUTHOR

       Philip Hazel
       University Computing Service
       Cambridge, England.


REVISION

       Last updated: 20 March 2020
       Copyright (c) 1997-2020 University of Cambridge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


PCRE2CALLOUT(3)            Library Functions Manual            PCRE2CALLOUT(3)



NAME
       PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

SYNOPSIS

       #include <pcre2.h>

       int (*pcre2_callout)(pcre2_callout_block *, void *);

       int pcre2_callout_enumerate(const pcre2_code *code,
         int (*callback)(pcre2_callout_enumerate_block *, void *),
         void *user_data);


DESCRIPTION

       PCRE2  provides  a feature called "callout", which is a means of tempo-
       rarily passing control to the caller of PCRE2 in the middle of  pattern
       matching.  The caller of PCRE2 provides an external function by putting
       its entry point in a match  context  (see  pcre2_set_callout()  in  the
       pcre2api documentation).

       When  using the pcre2_substitute() function, an additional callout fea-
       ture is available. This does a callout after each change to the subject
       string and is described in the pcre2api documentation; the rest of this
       document is concerned with callouts during pattern matching.

       Within a regular expression, (?C<arg>) indicates a point at  which  the
       external  function  is  to  be  called. Different callout points can be
       identified by putting a number less than 256 after the  letter  C.  The
       default  value is zero.  Alternatively, the argument may be a delimited
       string. The starting delimiter must be one of ` ' " ^ % # $ {  and  the
       ending delimiter is the same as the start, except for {, where the end-
       ing delimiter is }. If  the  ending  delimiter  is  needed  within  the
       string,  it  must be doubled. For example, this pattern has two callout
       points:

         (?C1)abc(?C"some ""arbitrary"" text")def

       If the PCRE2_AUTO_CALLOUT option bit is set when a pattern is compiled,
       PCRE2  automatically inserts callouts, all with number 255, before each
       item in the pattern except for immediately before or after an  explicit
       callout. For example, if PCRE2_AUTO_CALLOUT is used with the pattern

         A(?C3)B

       it is processed as if it were

         (?C255)A(?C3)B(?C255)

       Here is a more complicated example:

         A(\d{2}|--)

       With PCRE2_AUTO_CALLOUT, this pattern is processed as if it were

         (?C255)A(?C255)((?C255)\d{2}(?C255)|(?C255)-(?C255)-(?C255))(?C255)

       Notice  that  there  is a callout before and after each parenthesis and
       alternation bar. If the pattern contains a conditional group whose con-
       dition  is  an  assertion, an automatic callout is inserted immediately
       before the condition. Such a callout may also be  inserted  explicitly,
       for example:

         (?(?C9)(?=a)ab|de)  (?(?C%text%)(?!=d)ab|de)

       This  applies only to assertion conditions (because they are themselves
       independent groups).

       Callouts can be useful for tracking the progress of  pattern  matching.
       The pcre2test program has a pattern qualifier (/auto_callout) that sets
       automatic callouts.  When any callouts are  present,  the  output  from
       pcre2test  indicates  how  the pattern is being matched. This is useful
       information when you are trying to optimize the performance of  a  par-
       ticular pattern.


MISSING CALLOUTS

       You  should  be  aware  that, because of optimizations in the way PCRE2
       compiles and matches patterns, callouts sometimes do not happen exactly
       as you might expect.

   Auto-possessification

       At compile time, PCRE2 "auto-possessifies" repeated items when it knows
       that what follows cannot be part of the repeat. For example, a+[bc]  is
       compiled  as if it were a++[bc]. The pcre2test output when this pattern
       is compiled with PCRE2_ANCHORED and PCRE2_AUTO_CALLOUT and then applied
       to the string "aaaa" is:

         --->aaaa
          +0 ^        a+
          +2 ^   ^    [bc]
         No match

       This  indicates that when matching [bc] fails, there is no backtracking
       into a+ (because it is being treated as a++) and therefore the callouts
       that  would  be  taken for the backtracks do not occur. You can disable
       the  auto-possessify  feature  by  passing   PCRE2_NO_AUTO_POSSESS   to
       pcre2_compile(),  or  starting  the pattern with (*NO_AUTO_POSSESS). In
       this case, the output changes to this:

         --->aaaa
          +0 ^        a+
          +2 ^   ^    [bc]
          +2 ^  ^     [bc]
          +2 ^ ^      [bc]
          +2 ^^       [bc]
         No match

       This time, when matching [bc] fails, the matcher backtracks into a+ and
       tries again, repeatedly, until a+ itself fails.

   Automatic .* anchoring

       By default, an optimization is applied when .* is the first significant
       item in a pattern. If PCRE2_DOTALL is set, so that the  dot  can  match
       any  character,  the pattern is automatically anchored. If PCRE2_DOTALL
       is not set, a match can start only after an internal newline or at  the
       beginning of the subject, and pcre2_compile() remembers this. If a pat-
       tern has more than one top-level branch, automatic anchoring occurs  if
       all branches are anchorable.

       This  optimization is disabled, however, if .* is in an atomic group or
       if there is a backreference to the capture group in which  it  appears.
       It  is  also disabled if the pattern contains (*PRUNE) or (*SKIP). How-
       ever, the presence of callouts does not affect it.

       For example, if the pattern .*\d is  compiled  with  PCRE2_AUTO_CALLOUT
       and applied to the string "aa", the pcre2test output is:

         --->aa
          +0 ^      .*
          +2 ^ ^    \d
          +2 ^^     \d
          +2 ^      \d
         No match

       This  shows  that all match attempts start at the beginning of the sub-
       ject. In other words, the pattern is anchored. You can disable this op-
       timization  by  passing  PCRE2_NO_DOTSTAR_ANCHOR to pcre2_compile(), or
       starting the pattern with (*NO_DOTSTAR_ANCHOR). In this case, the  out-
       put changes to:

         --->aa
          +0 ^      .*
          +2 ^ ^    \d
          +2 ^^     \d
          +2 ^      \d
          +0  ^     .*
          +2  ^^    \d
          +2  ^     \d
         No match

       This  shows more match attempts, starting at the second subject charac-
       ter.  Another optimization, described in the next section,  means  that
       there is no subsequent attempt to match with an empty subject.

   Other optimizations

       Other  optimizations  that  provide fast "no match" results also affect
       callouts.  For example, if the pattern is

         ab(?C4)cd

       PCRE2 knows that any matching string must contain the  letter  "d".  If
       the  subject  string  is  "abyz",  the  lack of "d" means that matching
       doesn't ever start, and the callout is  never  reached.  However,  with
       "abyd", though the result is still no match, the callout is obeyed.

       For  most  patterns  PCRE2  also knows the minimum length of a matching
       string, and will immediately give a "no match" return without  actually
       running  a  match if the subject is not long enough, or, for unanchored
       patterns, if it has been scanned far enough.

       You can disable these optimizations by passing the PCRE2_NO_START_OPTI-
       MIZE  option  to  pcre2_compile(),  or  by  starting  the  pattern with
       (*NO_START_OPT). This slows down the matching process, but does  ensure
       that callouts such as the example above are obeyed.


THE CALLOUT INTERFACE

       During  matching,  when  PCRE2  reaches a callout point, if an external
       function is provided in the match context, it is called.  This  applies
       to  both normal, DFA, and JIT matching. The first argument to the call-
       out function is a pointer to a pcre2_callout block. The second argument
       is  the  void * callout data that was supplied when the callout was set
       up by calling pcre2_set_callout() (see the pcre2api documentation). The
       callout  block structure contains the following fields, not necessarily
       in this order:

         uint32_t      version;
         uint32_t      callout_number;
         uint32_t      capture_top;
         uint32_t      capture_last;
         uint32_t      callout_flags;
         PCRE2_SIZE   *offset_vector;
         PCRE2_SPTR    mark;
         PCRE2_SPTR    subject;
         PCRE2_SIZE    subject_length;
         PCRE2_SIZE    start_match;
         PCRE2_SIZE    current_position;
         PCRE2_SIZE    pattern_position;
         PCRE2_SIZE    next_item_length;
         PCRE2_SIZE    callout_string_offset;
         PCRE2_SIZE    callout_string_length;
         PCRE2_SPTR    callout_string;

       The version field contains the version number of the block format.  The
       current  version  is  2; the three callout string fields were added for
       version 1, and the callout_flags field for version 2. If you are  writ-
       ing  an  application  that  might  use an earlier release of PCRE2, you
       should check the version number before accessing any of  these  fields.
       The  version  number  will increase in future if more fields are added,
       but the intention is never to remove any of the existing fields.

   Fields for numerical callouts

       For a numerical callout, callout_string  is  NULL,  and  callout_number
       contains  the  number  of  the callout, in the range 0-255. This is the
       number that follows (?C for callouts that part of the  pattern;  it  is
       255 for automatically generated callouts.

   Fields for string callouts

       For  callouts with string arguments, callout_number is always zero, and
       callout_string points to the string that is contained within  the  com-
       piled pattern. Its length is given by callout_string_length. Duplicated
       ending delimiters that were present in the original pattern string have
       been turned into single characters, but there is no other processing of
       the callout string argument. An additional code unit containing  binary
       zero  is  present  after the string, but is not included in the length.
       The delimiter that was used to start the string is also  stored  within
       the  pattern, immediately before the string itself. You can access this
       delimiter as callout_string[-1] if you need it.

       The callout_string_offset field is the code unit offset to the start of
       the callout argument string within the original pattern string. This is
       provided for the benefit of applications such as script languages  that
       might need to report errors in the callout string within the pattern.

   Fields for all callouts

       The  remaining  fields in the callout block are the same for both kinds
       of callout.

       The offset_vector field is a pointer to a vector of  capturing  offsets
       (the "ovector"). You may read the elements in this vector, but you must
       not change any of them.

       For calls to pcre2_match(), the offset_vector field is not  (since  re-
       lease  10.30)  a  pointer  to the actual ovector that was passed to the
       matching function in the match data block. Instead it points to an  in-
       ternal  ovector  of  a  size large enough to hold all possible captured
       substrings in the pattern. Note that whenever a recursion or subroutine
       call  within  a pattern completes, the capturing state is reset to what
       it was before.

       The capture_last field contains the number of the  most  recently  cap-
       tured  substring,  and the capture_top field contains one more than the
       number of the highest numbered captured substring so far.  If  no  sub-
       strings  have yet been captured, the value of capture_last is 0 and the
       value of capture_top is 1. The values of these  fields  do  not  always
       differ   by   one;  for  example,  when  the  callout  in  the  pattern
       ((a)(b))(?C2) is taken, capture_last is 1 but capture_top is 4.

       The contents of ovector[2] to  ovector[<capture_top>*2-1]  can  be  in-
       spected  in  order to extract substrings that have been matched so far,
       in the same way as extracting substrings after a match  has  completed.
       The  values in ovector[0] and ovector[1] are always PCRE2_UNSET because
       the match is by definition not complete. Substrings that have not  been
       captured  but whose numbers are less than capture_top also have both of
       their ovector slots set to PCRE2_UNSET.

       For DFA matching, the offset_vector field points to  the  ovector  that
       was  passed  to the matching function in the match data block for call-
       outs at the top level, but to an internal ovector during the processing
       of  pattern  recursions, lookarounds, and atomic groups. However, these
       ovectors hold no useful information because pcre2_dfa_match() does  not
       support  substring  capturing. The value of capture_top is always 1 and
       the value of capture_last is always 0 for DFA matching.

       The subject and subject_length fields contain copies of the values that
       were passed to the matching function.

       The  start_match  field normally contains the offset within the subject
       at which the current match attempt started. However, if the escape  se-
       quence  \K  has  been encountered, this value is changed to reflect the
       modified starting point. If the pattern is not  anchored,  the  callout
       function may be called several times from the same point in the pattern
       for different starting points in the subject.

       The current_position field contains the offset within  the  subject  of
       the current match pointer.

       The pattern_position field contains the offset in the pattern string to
       the next item to be matched.

       The next_item_length field contains the length of the next item  to  be
       processed  in the pattern string. When the callout is at the end of the
       pattern, the length is zero.  When  the  callout  precedes  an  opening
       parenthesis, the length includes meta characters that follow the paren-
       thesis. For example, in a callout before an assertion  such  as  (?=ab)
       the  length  is  3. For an an alternation bar or a closing parenthesis,
       the length is one, unless a closing parenthesis is followed by a  quan-
       tifier, in which case its length is included.  (This changed in release
       10.23. In earlier releases, before an opening  parenthesis  the  length
       was  that of the entire group, and before an alternation bar or a clos-
       ing parenthesis the length was zero.)

       The pattern_position and next_item_length fields are intended  to  help
       in  distinguishing between different automatic callouts, which all have
       the same callout number. However, they are set for  all  callouts,  and
       are used by pcre2test to show the next item to be matched when display-
       ing callout information.

       In callouts from pcre2_match() the mark field contains a pointer to the
       zero-terminated  name of the most recently passed (*MARK), (*PRUNE), or
       (*THEN) item in the match, or NULL if no such items have  been  passed.
       Instances  of  (*PRUNE)  or  (*THEN) without a name do not obliterate a
       previous (*MARK). In callouts from the DFA matching function this field
       always contains NULL.

       The   callout_flags   field   is   always   zero   in   callouts   from
       pcre2_dfa_match() or when JIT is being used. When pcre2_match() without
       JIT is used, the following bits may be set:

         PCRE2_CALLOUT_STARTMATCH

       This  is set for the first callout after the start of matching for each
       new starting position in the subject.

         PCRE2_CALLOUT_BACKTRACK

       This is set if there has been a matching backtrack since  the  previous
       callout,  or  since  the start of matching if this is the first callout
       from a pcre2_match() run.

       Both bits are set when a backtrack has caused a "bumpalong"  to  a  new
       starting  position in the subject. Output from pcre2test does not indi-
       cate the presence of these bits unless the  callout_extra  modifier  is
       set.

       The information in the callout_flags field is provided so that applica-
       tions can track and tell their users how matching with backtracking  is
       done.  This  can be useful when trying to optimize patterns, or just to
       understand how PCRE2 works. There is no  support  in  pcre2_dfa_match()
       because  there is no backtracking in DFA matching, and there is no sup-
       port in JIT because JIT is all about maximimizing matching performance.
       In both these cases the callout_flags field is always zero.


RETURN VALUES FROM CALLOUTS

       The external callout function returns an integer to PCRE2. If the value
       is zero, matching proceeds as normal. If  the  value  is  greater  than
       zero,  matching  fails  at  the current point, but the testing of other
       matching possibilities goes ahead, just as if a lookahead assertion had
       failed. If the value is less than zero, the match is abandoned, and the
       matching function returns the negative value.

       Negative values should normally be chosen from  the  set  of  PCRE2_ER-
       ROR_xxx  values.  In  particular, PCRE2_ERROR_NOMATCH forces a standard
       "no match" failure. The error number  PCRE2_ERROR_CALLOUT  is  reserved
       for use by callout functions; it will never be used by PCRE2 itself.


CALLOUT ENUMERATION

       int pcre2_callout_enumerate(const pcre2_code *code,
         int (*callback)(pcre2_callout_enumerate_block *, void *),
         void *user_data);

       A script language that supports the use of string arguments in callouts
       might like to scan all the callouts in a  pattern  before  running  the
       match. This can be done by calling pcre2_callout_enumerate(). The first
       argument is a pointer to a compiled pattern, the  second  points  to  a
       callback  function,  and the third is arbitrary user data. The callback
       function is called for every callout in the pattern  in  the  order  in
       which they appear. Its first argument is a pointer to a callout enumer-
       ation block, and its second argument is the user_data  value  that  was
       passed  to  pcre2_callout_enumerate(). The data block contains the fol-
       lowing fields:

         version                Block version number
         pattern_position       Offset to next item in pattern
         next_item_length       Length of next item in pattern
         callout_number         Number for numbered callouts
         callout_string_offset  Offset to string within pattern
         callout_string_length  Length of callout string
         callout_string         Points to callout string or is NULL

       The version number is currently 0. It will increase if new  fields  are
       ever  added  to  the  block. The remaining fields are the same as their
       namesakes in the pcre2_callout block that is used for  callouts  during
       matching, as described above.

       Note  that  the  value  of pattern_position is unique for each callout.
       However, if a callout occurs inside a group that is quantified  with  a
       non-zero minimum or a fixed maximum, the group is replicated inside the
       compiled pattern. For example, a pattern such as /(a){2}/  is  compiled
       as  if it were /(a)(a)/. This means that the callout will be enumerated
       more than once, but with the same value for  pattern_position  in  each
       case.

       The callback function should normally return zero. If it returns a non-
       zero value, scanning the pattern stops, and that value is returned from
       pcre2_callout_enumerate().


AUTHOR

       Philip Hazel
       University Computing Service
       Cambridge, England.


REVISION

       Last updated: 03 February 2019
       Copyright (c) 1997-2019 University of Cambridge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


PCRE2COMPAT(3)             Library Functions Manual             PCRE2COMPAT(3)



NAME
       PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PCRE2 AND PERL

       This document describes the differences in the ways that PCRE2 and Perl
       handle regular expressions. The differences described here are with re-
       spect to Perl versions 5.26, but as both Perl and PCRE2 are continually
       changing, the information may sometimes be out of date.

       1. PCRE2 has only a subset of Perl's Unicode support. Details  of  what
       it does have are given in the pcre2unicode page.

       2.  Like  Perl, PCRE2 allows repeat quantifiers on parenthesized asser-
       tions, but they do not mean what you might think. For example, (?!a){3}
       does not assert that the next three characters are not "a". It just as-
       serts that the next character is not "a"  three  times  (in  principle;
       PCRE2  optimizes this to run the assertion just once). Perl allows some
       repeat quantifiers on other  assertions,  for  example,  \b*  (but  not
       \b{3}), but these do not seem to have any use.

       3.  Capture groups that occur inside negative lookaround assertions are
       counted, but their entries in the offsets vector are set  only  when  a
       negative  assertion is a condition that has a matching branch (that is,
       the condition is false).

       4. The following Perl escape sequences are not supported: \F,  \l,  \L,
       \u, \U, and \N when followed by a character name. \N on its own, match-
       ing a non-newline character, and \N{U+dd..}, matching  a  Unicode  code
       point,  are  supported.  The  escapes that modify the case of following
       letters are implemented by Perl's general string-handling and  are  not
       part of its pattern matching engine. If any of these are encountered by
       PCRE2, an error is generated by default.  However,  if  either  of  the
       PCRE2_ALT_BSUX  or  PCRE2_EXTRA_ALT_BSUX  options is set, \U and \u are
       interpreted as ECMAScript interprets them.

       5. The Perl escape sequences \p, \P, and \X are supported only if PCRE2
       is built with Unicode support (the default). The properties that can be
       tested with \p and \P are limited to the  general  category  properties
       such  as  Lu and Nd, script names such as Greek or Han, and the derived
       properties Any and L&.  PCRE2 does support the Cs (surrogate) property,
       which  Perl  does  not; the Perl documentation says "Because Perl hides
       the need for the user to understand the internal representation of Uni-
       code  characters, there is no need to implement the somewhat messy con-
       cept of surrogates."

       6. PCRE2 supports the \Q...\E escape for quoting substrings. Characters
       in between are treated as literals. However, this is slightly different
       from Perl in that $ and @ are  also  handled  as  literals  inside  the
       quotes. In Perl, they cause variable interpolation (but of course PCRE2
       does not have variables). Also, Perl does "double-quotish backslash in-
       terpolation" on any backslashes between \Q and \E which, its documenta-
       tion says, "may lead to confusing results". PCRE2  treats  a  backslash
       between \Q and \E just like any other character. Note the following ex-
       amples:

           Pattern            PCRE2 matches     Perl matches

           \Qabc$xyz\E        abc$xyz           abc followed by the
                                                  contents of $xyz
           \Qabc\$xyz\E       abc\$xyz          abc\$xyz
           \Qabc\E\$\Qxyz\E   abc$xyz           abc$xyz
           \QA\B\E            A\B               A\B
           \Q\\E              \                 \\E

       The \Q...\E sequence is recognized both inside  and  outside  character
       classes.

       7.   Fairly  obviously,  PCRE2  does  not  support  the  (?{code})  and
       (??{code}) constructions. However, PCRE2 does have a "callout" feature,
       which allows an external function to be called during pattern matching.
       See the pcre2callout documentation for details.

       8. Subroutine calls (whether recursive or not) were treated  as  atomic
       groups  up to PCRE2 release 10.23, but from release 10.30 this changed,
       and backtracking into subroutine calls is now supported, as in Perl.

       9. If any of the backtracking control verbs are used in a group that is
       called  as  a  subroutine (whether or not recursively), their effect is
       confined to that group; it does not extend to the surrounding  pattern.
       This  is  not  always  the  case  in Perl. In particular, if (*THEN) is
       present in a group that is called as a subroutine, its action  is  lim-
       ited  to  that  group, even if the group does not contain any | charac-
       ters. Note that such groups are processed  as  anchored  at  the  point
       where they are tested.

       10.  If a pattern contains more than one backtracking control verb, the
       first one that is backtracked onto acts. For example,  in  the  pattern
       A(*COMMIT)B(*PRUNE)C  a  failure in B triggers (*COMMIT), but a failure
       in C triggers (*PRUNE). Perl's behaviour is more complex; in many cases
       it is the same as PCRE2, but there are cases where it differs.

       11.  Most  backtracking  verbs in assertions have their normal actions.
       They are not confined to the assertion.

       12. There are some differences that are concerned with the settings  of
       captured  strings  when  part  of  a  pattern is repeated. For example,
       matching "aba" against the pattern /^(a(b)?)+$/ in Perl leaves  $2  un-
       set, but in PCRE2 it is set to "b".

       13.  PCRE2's  handling  of duplicate capture group numbers and names is
       not as general as Perl's. This is a consequence of the fact  the  PCRE2
       works  internally  just with numbers, using an external table to trans-
       late between numbers and  names.  In  particular,  a  pattern  such  as
       (?|(?<a>A)|(?<b>B),  where  the two capture groups have the same number
       but different names, is not supported, and causes an error  at  compile
       time. If it were allowed, it would not be possible to distinguish which
       group matched, because both names map to capture  group  number  1.  To
       avoid this confusing situation, an error is given at compile time.

       14. Perl used to recognize comments in some places that PCRE2 does not,
       for example, between the ( and ? at the start of a  group.  If  the  /x
       modifier  is  set,  Perl allowed white space between ( and ? though the
       latest Perls give an error (for a while it was just deprecated).  There
       may still be some cases where Perl behaves differently.

       15.  Perl,  when  in warning mode, gives warnings for character classes
       such as [A-\d] or [a-[:digit:]]. It then treats the hyphens  as  liter-
       als. PCRE2 has no warning features, so it gives an error in these cases
       because they are almost certainly user mistakes.

       16. In PCRE2, the upper/lower case character properties Lu and  Ll  are
       not  affected when case-independent matching is specified. For example,
       \p{Lu} always matches an upper case letter. I think Perl has changed in
       this  respect; in the release at the time of writing (5.24), \p{Lu} and
       \p{Ll} match all letters, regardless of case, when case independence is
       specified.

       17.  PCRE2  provides some extensions to the Perl regular expression fa-
       cilities.  Perl 5.10 includes new features that are not in earlier ver-
       sions  of Perl, some of which (such as named parentheses) were in PCRE2
       for some time before. This list is with respect to Perl 5.26:

       (a) Although lookbehind assertions in PCRE2  must  match  fixed  length
       strings,  each alternative branch of a lookbehind assertion can match a
       different length of string. Perl requires them all  to  have  the  same
       length.

       (b) From PCRE2 10.23, backreferences to groups of fixed length are sup-
       ported in lookbehinds, provided that there is no possibility of  refer-
       encing  a  non-unique  number or name. Perl does not support backrefer-
       ences in lookbehinds.

       (c) If PCRE2_DOLLAR_ENDONLY is set and PCRE2_MULTILINE is not set,  the
       $ meta-character matches only at the very end of the string.

       (d)  A  backslash  followed  by  a  letter  with  no special meaning is
       faulted. (Perl can be made to issue a warning.)

       (e) If PCRE2_UNGREEDY is set, the greediness of the repetition  quanti-
       fiers is inverted, that is, by default they are not greedy, but if fol-
       lowed by a question mark they are.

       (f) PCRE2_ANCHORED can be used at matching time to force a  pattern  to
       be tried only at the first matching position in the subject string.

       (g)     The     PCRE2_NOTBOL,    PCRE2_NOTEOL,    PCRE2_NOTEMPTY    and
       PCRE2_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART options have no Perl equivalents.

       (h) The \R escape sequence can be restricted to match only CR,  LF,  or
       CRLF by the PCRE2_BSR_ANYCRLF option.

       (i)  The  callout  facility is PCRE2-specific. Perl supports codeblocks
       and variable interpolation, but not general hooks on every match.

       (j) The partial matching facility is PCRE2-specific.

       (k) The alternative matching function (pcre2_dfa_match() matches  in  a
       different way and is not Perl-compatible.

       (l)  PCRE2 recognizes some special sequences such as (*CR) or (*NO_JIT)
       at the start of a pattern that  set  overall  options  that  cannot  be
       changed within the pattern.

       (m)  PCRE2  supports non-atomic positive lookaround assertions. This is
       an extension to the lookaround facilities. The default, Perl-compatible
       lookarounds are atomic.

       18.  The  Perl  /a modifier restricts /d numbers to pure ascii, and the
       /aa modifier restricts /i case-insensitive matching to pure ascii,  ig-
       noring  Unicode  rules.  This  separation  cannot  be  represented with
       PCRE2_UCP.

       19. Perl has different limits than PCRE2. See the pcre2limit documenta-
       tion for details. Perl went with 5.10 from recursion to iteration keep-
       ing the intermediate matches on the heap, which is ~10% slower but does
       not  fall into any stack-overflow limit. PCRE2 made a similar change at
       release 10.30, and also has many build-time and  run-time  customizable
       limits.


AUTHOR

       Philip Hazel
       University Computing Service
       Cambridge, England.


REVISION

       Last updated: 13 July 2019
       Copyright (c) 1997-2019 University of Cambridge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


PCRE2JIT(3)                Library Functions Manual                PCRE2JIT(3)



NAME
       PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

PCRE2 JUST-IN-TIME COMPILER SUPPORT

       Just-in-time  compiling  is a heavyweight optimization that can greatly
       speed up pattern matching. However, it comes at the cost of extra  pro-
       cessing  before  the  match is performed, so it is of most benefit when
       the same pattern is going to be matched many times. This does not  nec-
       essarily  mean many calls of a matching function; if the pattern is not
       anchored, matching attempts may take place many times at various  posi-
       tions in the subject, even for a single call. Therefore, if the subject
       string is very long, it may still pay  to  use  JIT  even  for  one-off
       matches.  JIT  support  is  available  for all of the 8-bit, 16-bit and
       32-bit PCRE2 libraries.

       JIT support applies only to the  traditional  Perl-compatible  matching
       function.   It  does  not apply when the DFA matching function is being
       used. The code for this support was written by Zoltan Herczeg.


AVAILABILITY OF JIT SUPPORT

       JIT support is an optional feature of  PCRE2.  The  "configure"  option
       --enable-jit  (or  equivalent  CMake  option) must be set when PCRE2 is
       built if you want to use JIT. The support is limited to  the  following
       hardware platforms:

         ARM 32-bit (v5, v7, and Thumb2)
         ARM 64-bit
         Intel x86 32-bit and 64-bit
         MIPS 32-bit and 64-bit
         Power PC 32-bit and 64-bit
         SPARC 32-bit

       If --enable-jit is set on an unsupported platform, compilation fails.

       A  program  can  tell if JIT support is available by calling pcre2_con-
       fig() with the PCRE2_CONFIG_JIT option. The result is  1  when  JIT  is
       available,  and 0 otherwise. However, a simple program does not need to
       check this in order to use JIT. The API is implemented in  a  way  that
       falls  back  to the interpretive code if JIT is not available. For pro-
       grams that need the best possible performance, there is  also  a  "fast
       path" API that is JIT-specific.


SIMPLE USE OF JIT

       To  make use of the JIT support in the simplest way, all you have to do
       is to call pcre2_jit_compile() after successfully compiling  a  pattern
       with pcre2_compile(). This function has two arguments: the first is the
       compiled pattern pointer that was returned by pcre2_compile(), and  the
       second  is  zero  or  more of the following option bits: PCRE2_JIT_COM-
       PLETE, PCRE2_JIT_PARTIAL_HARD, or PCRE2_JIT_PARTIAL_SOFT.

       If JIT support is not available, a  call  to  pcre2_jit_compile()  does
       nothing  and returns PCRE2_ERROR_JIT_BADOPTION. Otherwise, the compiled
       pattern is passed to the JIT compiler, which turns it into machine code
       that executes much faster than the normal interpretive code, but yields
       exactly the same results. The returned value  from  pcre2_jit_compile()
       is zero on success, or a negative error code.

       There  is  a limit to the size of pattern that JIT supports, imposed by
       the size of machine stack that it uses. The exact rules are  not  docu-
       mented because they may change at any time, in particular, when new op-
       timizations are introduced.  If  a  pattern  is  too  big,  a  call  to
       pcre2_jit_compile() returns PCRE2_ERROR_NOMEMORY.

       PCRE2_JIT_COMPLETE  requests the JIT compiler to generate code for com-
       plete matches. If you want to run partial matches using the  PCRE2_PAR-
       TIAL_HARD  or  PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT  options of pcre2_match(), you should
       set one or both of  the  other  options  as  well  as,  or  instead  of
       PCRE2_JIT_COMPLETE. The JIT compiler generates different optimized code
       for each of the three modes (normal, soft partial, hard partial).  When
       pcre2_match()  is  called,  the appropriate code is run if it is avail-
       able. Otherwise, the pattern is matched using interpretive code.

       You can call pcre2_jit_compile() multiple times for the  same  compiled
       pattern.  It does nothing if it has previously compiled code for any of
       the option bits. For example, you can call it once with  PCRE2_JIT_COM-
       PLETE  and  (perhaps  later,  when  you find you need partial matching)
       again with PCRE2_JIT_COMPLETE and PCRE2_JIT_PARTIAL_HARD. This time  it
       will ignore PCRE2_JIT_COMPLETE and just compile code for partial match-
       ing. If pcre2_jit_compile() is called with no option bits set, it imme-
       diately returns zero. This is an alternative way of testing whether JIT
       is available.

       At present, it is not possible to free JIT compiled  code  except  when
       the entire compiled pattern is freed by calling pcre2_code_free().

       In  some circumstances you may need to call additional functions. These
       are described in the section entitled "Controlling the JIT  stack"  be-
       low.

       There are some pcre2_match() options that are not supported by JIT, and
       there are also some pattern items that JIT cannot handle.  Details  are
       given  below.  In  both cases, matching automatically falls back to the
       interpretive code. If you want to know whether JIT  was  actually  used
       for  a particular match, you should arrange for a JIT callback function
       to be set up as described in the section entitled "Controlling the  JIT
       stack"  below,  even  if  you  do  not need to supply a non-default JIT
       stack. Such a callback function is called whenever JIT code is about to
       be  obeyed.  If the match-time options are not right for JIT execution,
       the callback function is not obeyed.

       If the JIT compiler finds an unsupported item, no JIT  data  is  gener-
       ated.  You  can find out if JIT matching is available after compiling a
       pattern by calling pcre2_pattern_info() with the PCRE2_INFO_JITSIZE op-
       tion.  A  non-zero  result means that JIT compilation was successful. A
       result of 0 means that JIT support is not available, or the pattern was
       not  processed by pcre2_jit_compile(), or the JIT compiler was not able
       to handle the pattern.


MATCHING SUBJECTS CONTAINING INVALID UTF

       When a pattern is compiled with the PCRE2_UTF option,  subject  strings
       are  normally expected to be a valid sequence of UTF code units. By de-
       fault, this is checked at the start of matching and an error is  gener-
       ated  if  invalid UTF is detected. The PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK option can be
       passed to pcre2_match() to skip the check (for improved performance) if
       you  are  sure  that  a subject string is valid. If this option is used
       with an invalid string, the result is undefined.

       However, a way of running matches on strings that may  contain  invalid
       UTF   sequences   is   available.   Calling  pcre2_compile()  with  the
       PCRE2_MATCH_INVALID_UTF option has two effects:  it  tells  the  inter-
       preter  in pcre2_match() to support invalid UTF, and, if pcre2_jit_com-
       pile() is called, the compiled JIT code also supports invalid UTF.  De-
       tails  of  how this support works, in both the JIT and the interpretive
       cases, is given in the pcre2unicode documentation.

       There  is  also  an  obsolete  option  for  pcre2_jit_compile()  called
       PCRE2_JIT_INVALID_UTF, which currently exists only for backward compat-
       ibility.    It   is   superseded   by   the   pcre2_compile()    option
       PCRE2_MATCH_INVALID_UTF and should no longer be used. It may be removed
       in future.


UNSUPPORTED OPTIONS AND PATTERN ITEMS

       The pcre2_match() options that  are  supported  for  JIT  matching  are
       PCRE2_COPY_MATCHED_SUBJECT, PCRE2_NOTBOL, PCRE2_NOTEOL, PCRE2_NOTEMPTY,
       PCRE2_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART,  PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK,  PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD,   and
       PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT.  The  PCRE2_ANCHORED  and PCRE2_ENDANCHORED options
       are not supported at match time.

       If the PCRE2_NO_JIT option is passed to pcre2_match() it  disables  the
       use of JIT, forcing matching by the interpreter code.

       The  only  unsupported  pattern items are \C (match a single data unit)
       when running in a UTF mode, and a callout immediately before an  asser-
       tion condition in a conditional group.


RETURN VALUES FROM JIT MATCHING

       When a pattern is matched using JIT matching, the return values are the
       same as those given by the interpretive pcre2_match()  code,  with  the
       addition  of one new error code: PCRE2_ERROR_JIT_STACKLIMIT. This means
       that the memory used for the JIT stack was insufficient. See  "Control-
       ling the JIT stack" below for a discussion of JIT stack usage.

       The  error  code  PCRE2_ERROR_MATCHLIMIT is returned by the JIT code if
       searching a very large pattern tree goes on for too long, as it  is  in
       the  same circumstance when JIT is not used, but the details of exactly
       what is counted are not the same. The PCRE2_ERROR_DEPTHLIMIT error code
       is never returned when JIT matching is used.


CONTROLLING THE JIT STACK

       When the compiled JIT code runs, it needs a block of memory to use as a
       stack.  By default, it uses 32KiB on the machine stack.  However,  some
       large  or complicated patterns need more than this. The error PCRE2_ER-
       ROR_JIT_STACKLIMIT is given when there is not enough stack. Three func-
       tions are provided for managing blocks of memory for use as JIT stacks.
       There is further discussion about the use of JIT stacks in the  section
       entitled "JIT stack FAQ" below.

       The  pcre2_jit_stack_create()  function  creates a JIT stack. Its argu-
       ments are a starting size, a maximum size, and a general  context  (for
       memory  allocation  functions, or NULL for standard memory allocation).
       It returns a pointer to an opaque structure of type pcre2_jit_stack, or
       NULL  if there is an error. The pcre2_jit_stack_free() function is used
       to free a stack that is no longer needed. If its argument is NULL, this
       function  returns immediately, without doing anything. (For the techni-
       cally minded: the address space is allocated by mmap or  VirtualAlloc.)
       A  maximum  stack size of 512KiB to 1MiB should be more than enough for
       any pattern.

       The pcre2_jit_stack_assign() function specifies which  stack  JIT  code
       should use. Its arguments are as follows:

         pcre2_match_context  *mcontext
         pcre2_jit_callback    callback
         void                 *data

       The first argument is a pointer to a match context. When this is subse-
       quently passed to a matching function, its information determines which
       JIT stack is used. If this argument is NULL, the function returns imme-
       diately, without doing anything. There are three cases for  the  values
       of the other two options:

         (1) If callback is NULL and data is NULL, an internal 32KiB block
             on the machine stack is used. This is the default when a match
             context is created.

         (2) If callback is NULL and data is not NULL, data must be
             a pointer to a valid JIT stack, the result of calling
             pcre2_jit_stack_create().

         (3) If callback is not NULL, it must point to a function that is
             called with data as an argument at the start of matching, in
             order to set up a JIT stack. If the return from the callback
             function is NULL, the internal 32KiB stack is used; otherwise the
             return value must be a valid JIT stack, the result of calling
             pcre2_jit_stack_create().

       A  callback function is obeyed whenever JIT code is about to be run; it
       is not obeyed when pcre2_match() is called with options that are incom-
       patible  for JIT matching. A callback function can therefore be used to
       determine whether a match operation was executed by JIT or by  the  in-
       terpreter.

       You may safely use the same JIT stack for more than one pattern (either
       by assigning directly or by callback), as  long  as  the  patterns  are
       matched sequentially in the same thread. Currently, the only way to set
       up non-sequential matches in one thread is to use callouts: if a  call-
       out  function starts another match, that match must use a different JIT
       stack to the one used for currently suspended match(es).

       In a multithread application, if you do not specify a JIT stack, or  if
       you  assign or pass back NULL from a callback, that is thread-safe, be-
       cause each thread has its own machine stack. However, if you assign  or
       pass back a non-NULL JIT stack, this must be a different stack for each
       thread so that the application is thread-safe.

       Strictly speaking, even more is allowed. You can assign the  same  non-
       NULL  stack  to a match context that is used by any number of patterns,
       as long as they are not used for matching by multiple  threads  at  the
       same  time.  For  example, you could use the same stack in all compiled
       patterns, with a global mutex in the callback to wait until  the  stack
       is available for use. However, this is an inefficient solution, and not
       recommended.

       This is a suggestion for how a multithreaded program that needs to  set
       up non-default JIT stacks might operate:

         During thread initalization
           thread_local_var = pcre2_jit_stack_create(...)

         During thread exit
           pcre2_jit_stack_free(thread_local_var)

         Use a one-line callback function
           return thread_local_var

       All  the  functions  described in this section do nothing if JIT is not
       available.


JIT STACK FAQ

       (1) Why do we need JIT stacks?

       PCRE2 (and JIT) is a recursive, depth-first engine, so it needs a stack
       where  the local data of the current node is pushed before checking its
       child nodes.  Allocating real machine stack on some platforms is diffi-
       cult. For example, the stack chain needs to be updated every time if we
       extend the stack on PowerPC.  Although it  is  possible,  its  updating
       time overhead decreases performance. So we do the recursion in memory.

       (2) Why don't we simply allocate blocks of memory with malloc()?

       Modern  operating  systems have a nice feature: they can reserve an ad-
       dress space instead of allocating memory. We can safely allocate memory
       pages inside this address space, so the stack could grow without moving
       memory data (this is important because of pointers). Thus we can  allo-
       cate  1MiB  address  space,  and use only a single memory page (usually
       4KiB) if that is enough. However, we can still grow up to 1MiB  anytime
       if needed.

       (3) Who "owns" a JIT stack?

       The owner of the stack is the user program, not the JIT studied pattern
       or anything else. The user program must ensure that if a stack is being
       used by pcre2_match(), (that is, it is assigned to a match context that
       is passed to the pattern currently running), that  stack  must  not  be
       used  by any other threads (to avoid overwriting the same memory area).
       The best practice for multithreaded programs is to allocate a stack for
       each thread, and return this stack through the JIT callback function.

       (4) When should a JIT stack be freed?

       You can free a JIT stack at any time, as long as it will not be used by
       pcre2_match() again. When you assign the stack to a match context, only
       a  pointer  is  set. There is no reference counting or any other magic.
       You can free compiled patterns, contexts, and stacks in any order, any-
       time.   Just do not call pcre2_match() with a match context pointing to
       an already freed stack, as that will cause SEGFAULT. (Also, do not free
       a  stack  currently  used  by pcre2_match() in another thread). You can
       also replace the stack in a context at any time when it is not in  use.
       You should free the previous stack before assigning a replacement.

       (5)  Should  I  allocate/free  a  stack every time before/after calling
       pcre2_match()?

       No, because this is too costly in  terms  of  resources.  However,  you
       could  implement  some clever idea which release the stack if it is not
       used in let's say two minutes. The JIT callback  can  help  to  achieve
       this without keeping a list of patterns.

       (6)  OK, the stack is for long term memory allocation. But what happens
       if a pattern causes stack overflow with a stack of 1MiB? Is  that  1MiB
       kept until the stack is freed?

       Especially  on embedded sytems, it might be a good idea to release mem-
       ory sometimes without freeing the stack. There is no API  for  this  at
       the  moment.  Probably a function call which returns with the currently
       allocated memory for any stack and another which allows releasing  mem-
       ory (shrinking the stack) would be a good idea if someone needs this.

       (7) This is too much of a headache. Isn't there any better solution for
       JIT stack handling?

       No, thanks to Windows. If POSIX threads were used everywhere, we  could
       throw out this complicated API.


FREEING JIT SPECULATIVE MEMORY

       void pcre2_jit_free_unused_memory(pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       The JIT executable allocator does not free all memory when it is possi-
       ble.  It expects new allocations, and keeps some free memory around  to
       improve  allocation  speed. However, in low memory conditions, it might
       be better to free all possible memory. You can cause this to happen  by
       calling  pcre2_jit_free_unused_memory(). Its argument is a general con-
       text, for custom memory management, or NULL for standard memory manage-
       ment.


EXAMPLE CODE

       This  is  a  single-threaded example that specifies a JIT stack without
       using a callback. A real program should include  error  checking  after
       all the function calls.

         int rc;
         pcre2_code *re;
         pcre2_match_data *match_data;
         pcre2_match_context *mcontext;
         pcre2_jit_stack *jit_stack;

         re = pcre2_compile(pattern, PCRE2_ZERO_TERMINATED, 0,
           &errornumber, &erroffset, NULL);
         rc = pcre2_jit_compile(re, PCRE2_JIT_COMPLETE);
         mcontext = pcre2_match_context_create(NULL);
         jit_stack = pcre2_jit_stack_create(32*1024, 512*1024, NULL);
         pcre2_jit_stack_assign(mcontext, NULL, jit_stack);
         match_data = pcre2_match_data_create(re, 10);
         rc = pcre2_match(re, subject, length, 0, 0, match_data, mcontext);
         /* Process result */

         pcre2_code_free(re);
         pcre2_match_data_free(match_data);
         pcre2_match_context_free(mcontext);
         pcre2_jit_stack_free(jit_stack);


JIT FAST PATH API

       Because the API described above falls back to interpreted matching when
       JIT is not available, it is convenient for programs  that  are  written
       for  general  use  in  many  environments.  However,  calling  JIT  via
       pcre2_match() does have a performance impact. Programs that are written
       for  use  where  JIT  is known to be available, and which need the best
       possible performance, can instead use a "fast path"  API  to  call  JIT
       matching  directly instead of calling pcre2_match() (obviously only for
       patterns that have been successfully processed by pcre2_jit_compile()).

       The fast path function is called pcre2_jit_match(), and  it  takes  ex-
       actly  the same arguments as pcre2_match(). However, the subject string
       must be specified with a  length;  PCRE2_ZERO_TERMINATED  is  not  sup-
       ported. Unsupported option bits (for example, PCRE2_ANCHORED, PCRE2_EN-
       DANCHORED  and  PCRE2_COPY_MATCHED_SUBJECT)  are  ignored,  as  is  the
       PCRE2_NO_JIT  option.  The  return  values  are  also  the  same as for
       pcre2_match(), plus PCRE2_ERROR_JIT_BADOPTION if a matching mode  (par-
       tial or complete) is requested that was not compiled.

       When  you call pcre2_match(), as well as testing for invalid options, a
       number of other sanity checks are performed on the arguments. For exam-
       ple, if the subject pointer is NULL, an immediate error is given. Also,
       unless PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK is set, a UTF subject string  is  tested  for
       validity.  In the interests of speed, these checks do not happen on the
       JIT fast path, and if invalid data is passed, the result is undefined.

       Bypassing the sanity checks and the  pcre2_match()  wrapping  can  give
       speedups of more than 10%.


SEE ALSO

       pcre2api(3)


AUTHOR

       Philip Hazel (FAQ by Zoltan Herczeg)
       University Computing Service
       Cambridge, England.


REVISION

       Last updated: 23 May 2019
       Copyright (c) 1997-2019 University of Cambridge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


PCRE2LIMITS(3)             Library Functions Manual             PCRE2LIMITS(3)



NAME
       PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

SIZE AND OTHER LIMITATIONS

       There are some size limitations in PCRE2 but it is hoped that they will
       never in practice be relevant.

       The maximum size of a compiled pattern  is  approximately  64  thousand
       code units for the 8-bit and 16-bit libraries if PCRE2 is compiled with
       the default internal linkage size, which  is  2  bytes  for  these  li-
       braries.  If  you  want  to  process regular expressions that are truly
       enormous, you can compile PCRE2 with an internal linkage size of 3 or 4
       (when  building  the  16-bit  library,  3  is rounded up to 4). See the
       README file in the source distribution and the pcre2build documentation
       for  details.  In  these cases the limit is substantially larger.  How-
       ever, the speed of execution is slower. In the 32-bit library, the  in-
       ternal linkage size is always 4.

       The maximum length of a source pattern string is essentially unlimited;
       it is the largest number a PCRE2_SIZE variable can hold.  However,  the
       program that calls pcre2_compile() can specify a smaller limit.

       The maximum length (in code units) of a subject string is one less than
       the largest number a PCRE2_SIZE variable can hold. PCRE2_SIZE is an un-
       signed integer type, usually defined as size_t. Its maximum value (that
       is ~(PCRE2_SIZE)0) is reserved as a special indicator  for  zero-termi-
       nated strings and unset offsets.

       All values in repeating quantifiers must be less than 65536.

       The maximum length of a lookbehind assertion is 65535 characters.

       There  is no limit to the number of parenthesized groups, but there can
       be no more than 65535 capture groups, and there is a limit to the depth
       of  nesting  of parenthesized subpatterns of all kinds. This is imposed
       in order to limit the amount of system stack used at compile time.  The
       default limit can be specified when PCRE2 is built; if not, the default
       is set to  250.  An  application  can  change  this  limit  by  calling
       pcre2_set_parens_nest_limit() to set the limit in a compile context.

       The  maximum length of name for a named capture group is 32 code units,
       and the maximum number of such groups is 10000.

       The maximum length of a  name  in  a  (*MARK),  (*PRUNE),  (*SKIP),  or
       (*THEN)  verb  is  255  code units for the 8-bit library and 65535 code
       units for the 16-bit and 32-bit libraries.

       The maximum length of a string argument to a  callout  is  the  largest
       number a 32-bit unsigned integer can hold.


AUTHOR

       Philip Hazel
       University Computing Service
       Cambridge, England.


REVISION

       Last updated: 02 February 2019
       Copyright (c) 1997-2019 University of Cambridge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


PCRE2MATCHING(3)           Library Functions Manual           PCRE2MATCHING(3)



NAME
       PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

PCRE2 MATCHING ALGORITHMS

       This document describes the two different algorithms that are available
       in PCRE2 for matching a compiled regular  expression  against  a  given
       subject  string.  The  "standard"  algorithm is the one provided by the
       pcre2_match() function. This works in the same as  as  Perl's  matching
       function,  and  provide a Perl-compatible matching operation. The just-
       in-time (JIT) optimization that is described in the pcre2jit documenta-
       tion is compatible with this function.

       An alternative algorithm is provided by the pcre2_dfa_match() function;
       it operates in a different way, and is not Perl-compatible. This alter-
       native  has advantages and disadvantages compared with the standard al-
       gorithm, and these are described below.

       When there is only one possible way in which a given subject string can
       match  a pattern, the two algorithms give the same answer. A difference
       arises, however, when there are multiple possibilities. For example, if
       the pattern

         ^<.*>

       is matched against the string

         <something> <something else> <something further>

       there are three possible answers. The standard algorithm finds only one
       of them, whereas the alternative algorithm finds all three.


REGULAR EXPRESSIONS AS TREES

       The set of strings that are matched by a regular expression can be rep-
       resented  as  a  tree structure. An unlimited repetition in the pattern
       makes the tree of infinite size, but it is still a tree.  Matching  the
       pattern  to a given subject string (from a given starting point) can be
       thought of as a search of the tree.  There are two  ways  to  search  a
       tree:  depth-first  and  breadth-first, and these correspond to the two
       matching algorithms provided by PCRE2.


THE STANDARD MATCHING ALGORITHM

       In the terminology of Jeffrey Friedl's book "Mastering Regular  Expres-
       sions",  the  standard  algorithm  is an "NFA algorithm". It conducts a
       depth-first search of the pattern tree. That is, it  proceeds  along  a
       single path through the tree, checking that the subject matches what is
       required. When there is a mismatch, the algorithm  tries  any  alterna-
       tives  at  the  current point, and if they all fail, it backs up to the
       previous branch point in the  tree,  and  tries  the  next  alternative
       branch  at  that  level.  This often involves backing up (moving to the
       left) in the subject string as well.  The  order  in  which  repetition
       branches  are  tried  is controlled by the greedy or ungreedy nature of
       the quantifier.

       If a leaf node is reached, a matching string has  been  found,  and  at
       that  point the algorithm stops. Thus, if there is more than one possi-
       ble match, this algorithm returns the first one that it finds.  Whether
       this  is the shortest, the longest, or some intermediate length depends
       on the way the greedy and ungreedy repetition quantifiers are specified
       in the pattern.

       Because  it  ends  up  with a single path through the tree, it is rela-
       tively straightforward for this algorithm to keep  track  of  the  sub-
       strings  that  are  matched  by portions of the pattern in parentheses.
       This provides support for capturing parentheses and backreferences.


THE ALTERNATIVE MATCHING ALGORITHM

       This algorithm conducts a breadth-first search of  the  tree.  Starting
       from  the  first  matching  point  in the subject, it scans the subject
       string from left to right, once, character by character, and as it does
       this,  it remembers all the paths through the tree that represent valid
       matches. In Friedl's terminology, this is a kind  of  "DFA  algorithm",
       though  it is not implemented as a traditional finite state machine (it
       keeps multiple states active simultaneously).

       Although the general principle of this matching algorithm  is  that  it
       scans  the subject string only once, without backtracking, there is one
       exception: when a lookaround assertion is encountered,  the  characters
       following  or  preceding the current point have to be independently in-
       spected.

       The scan continues until either the end of the subject is  reached,  or
       there  are  no more unterminated paths. At this point, terminated paths
       represent the different matching possibilities (if there are none,  the
       match  has  failed).   Thus,  if there is more than one possible match,
       this algorithm finds all of them, and in particular, it finds the long-
       est.  The  matches are returned in decreasing order of length. There is
       an option to stop the algorithm after the first match (which is  neces-
       sarily the shortest) is found.

       Note that all the matches that are found start at the same point in the
       subject. If the pattern

         cat(er(pillar)?)?

       is matched against the string "the caterpillar catchment",  the  result
       is  the  three  strings "caterpillar", "cater", and "cat" that start at
       the fifth character of the subject. The algorithm  does  not  automati-
       cally move on to find matches that start at later positions.

       PCRE2's "auto-possessification" optimization usually applies to charac-
       ter repeats at the end of a pattern (as well as internally). For  exam-
       ple, the pattern "a\d+" is compiled as if it were "a\d++" because there
       is no point even considering the possibility of backtracking  into  the
       repeated  digits.  For  DFA matching, this means that only one possible
       match is found. If you really do want multiple matches in  such  cases,
       either  use  an ungreedy repeat ("a\d+?") or set the PCRE2_NO_AUTO_POS-
       SESS option when compiling.

       There are a number of features of PCRE2 regular  expressions  that  are
       not  supported  or behave differently in the alternative matching func-
       tion. Those that are not supported cause an error if encountered.

       1. Because the algorithm finds all possible matches, the greedy or  un-
       greedy  nature of repetition quantifiers is not relevant (though it may
       affect auto-possessification,  as  just  described).  During  matching,
       greedy  and  ungreedy  quantifiers are treated in exactly the same way.
       However, possessive quantifiers can make a difference when what follows
       could  also  match  what  is  quantified, for example in a pattern like
       this:

         ^a++\w!

       This pattern matches "aaab!" but not "aaa!", which would be matched  by
       a  non-possessive quantifier. Similarly, if an atomic group is present,
       it is matched as if it were a standalone pattern at the current  point,
       and  the  longest match is then "locked in" for the rest of the overall
       pattern.

       2. When dealing with multiple paths through the tree simultaneously, it
       is  not  straightforward  to  keep track of captured substrings for the
       different matching possibilities, and PCRE2's  implementation  of  this
       algorithm does not attempt to do this. This means that no captured sub-
       strings are available.

       3. Because no substrings are captured, backreferences within  the  pat-
       tern are not supported.

       4.  For  the same reason, conditional expressions that use a backrefer-
       ence as the condition or test for a specific group  recursion  are  not
       supported.

       5. Again for the same reason, script runs are not supported.

       6. Because many paths through the tree may be active, the \K escape se-
       quence, which resets the start of the match when encountered  (but  may
       be on some paths and not on others), is not supported.

       7.  Callouts  are  supported, but the value of the capture_top field is
       always 1, and the value of the capture_last field is always 0.

       8. The \C escape sequence, which (in  the  standard  algorithm)  always
       matches  a  single  code  unit, even in a UTF mode, is not supported in
       these modes, because the alternative algorithm moves through  the  sub-
       ject  string  one  character  (not code unit) at a time, for all active
       paths through the tree.

       9. Except for (*FAIL), the backtracking control verbs such as  (*PRUNE)
       are  not  supported.  (*FAIL)  is supported, and behaves like a failing
       negative assertion.

       10. The PCRE2_MATCH_INVALID_UTF option for pcre2_compile() is not  sup-
       ported by pcre2_dfa_match().


ADVANTAGES OF THE ALTERNATIVE ALGORITHM

       Using  the alternative matching algorithm provides the following advan-
       tages:

       1. All possible matches (at a single point in the subject) are automat-
       ically  found,  and  in particular, the longest match is found. To find
       more than one match using the standard algorithm, you have to do kludgy
       things with callouts.

       2.  Because  the  alternative  algorithm  scans the subject string just
       once, and never needs to backtrack (except for lookbehinds), it is pos-
       sible  to  pass  very  long subject strings to the matching function in
       several pieces, checking for partial matching each time. Although it is
       also  possible  to  do  multi-segment matching using the standard algo-
       rithm, by retaining partially matched substrings, it  is  more  compli-
       cated. The pcre2partial documentation gives details of partial matching
       and discusses multi-segment matching.


DISADVANTAGES OF THE ALTERNATIVE ALGORITHM

       The alternative algorithm suffers from a number of disadvantages:

       1. It is substantially slower than  the  standard  algorithm.  This  is
       partly  because  it has to search for all possible matches, but is also
       because it is less susceptible to optimization.

       2. Capturing parentheses, backreferences,  script  runs,  and  matching
       within invalid UTF string are not supported.

       3. Although atomic groups are supported, their use does not provide the
       performance advantage that it does for the standard algorithm.


AUTHOR

       Philip Hazel
       University Computing Service
       Cambridge, England.


REVISION

       Last updated: 23 May 2019
       Copyright (c) 1997-2019 University of Cambridge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


PCRE2PARTIAL(3)            Library Functions Manual            PCRE2PARTIAL(3)



NAME
       PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions

PARTIAL MATCHING IN PCRE2

       In  normal use of PCRE2, if there is a match up to the end of a subject
       string, but more characters are needed to  match  the  entire  pattern,
       PCRE2_ERROR_NOMATCH  is  returned,  just  like any other failing match.
       There are circumstances where it might be helpful to  distinguish  this
       "partial match" case.

       One  example  is  an application where the subject string is very long,
       and not all available at once. The requirement here is to be able to do
       the  matching  segment  by segment, but special action is needed when a
       matched substring spans the boundary between two segments.

       Another example is checking a user input string as it is typed, to  en-
       sure  that  it conforms to a required format. Invalid characters can be
       immediately diagnosed and rejected, giving instant feedback.

       Partial matching is a PCRE2-specific feature; it is  not  Perl-compati-
       ble.  It  is  requested  by  setting  one  of the PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD or
       PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT options when calling a matching function.  The  dif-
       ference  between  the  two options is whether or not a partial match is
       preferred to an alternative complete match, though the  details  differ
       between  the  two  types of matching function. If both options are set,
       PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD takes precedence.

       If you want to use partial matching with just-in-time  optimized  code,
       as  well  as  setting a partial match option for the matching function,
       you must also call pcre2_jit_compile() with one or both  of  these  op-
       tions:

         PCRE2_JIT_PARTIAL_HARD
         PCRE2_JIT_PARTIAL_SOFT

       PCRE2_JIT_COMPLETE  should also be set if you are going to run non-par-
       tial matches on the same pattern. Separate code is  compiled  for  each
       mode.  If  the appropriate JIT mode has not been compiled, interpretive
       matching code is used.

       Setting a partial matching option disables two of PCRE2's standard  op-
       timization  hints. PCRE2 remembers the last literal code unit in a pat-
       tern, and abandons matching immediately if it is  not  present  in  the
       subject  string.  This optimization cannot be used for a subject string
       that might match only partially. PCRE2 also remembers a minimum  length
       of  a matching string, and does not bother to run the matching function
       on shorter strings. This optimization  is  also  disabled  for  partial
       matching.


REQUIREMENTS FOR A PARTIAL MATCH

       A  possible  partial  match  occurs during matching when the end of the
       subject string is reached successfully, but either more characters  are
       needed  to complete the match, or the addition of more characters might
       change what is matched.

       Example 1: if the pattern is /abc/ and the subject is "ab", more  char-
       acters  are  definitely  needed  to complete a match. In this case both
       hard and soft matching options yield a partial match.

       Example 2: if the pattern is /ab+/ and the subject is "ab", a  complete
       match  can  be  found, but the addition of more characters might change
       what is matched. In this case, only PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD returns  a  par-
       tial match; PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT returns the complete match.

       On  reaching the end of the subject, when PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD is set, if
       the next pattern item is \z, \Z, \b, \B, or $ there is always a partial
       match.   Otherwise, for both options, the next pattern item must be one
       that inspects a character, and at least one of the  following  must  be
       true:

       (1)  At  least  one  character has already been inspected. An inspected
       character need not form part of the final  matched  string;  lookbehind
       assertions  and the \K escape sequence provide ways of inspecting char-
       acters before the start of a matched string.

       (2) The pattern contains one or more lookbehind assertions. This condi-
       tion  exists in case there is a lookbehind that inspects characters be-
       fore the start of the match.

       (3) There is a special case when the whole pattern can match  an  empty
       string.   When  the  starting  point  is at the end of the subject, the
       empty string match is a possibility, and if PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT  is  set
       and  neither  of the above conditions is true, it is returned. However,
       because adding more characters  might  result  in  a  non-empty  match,
       PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD  returns  a  partial match, which in this case means
       "there is going to be a match at this point, but until some more  char-
       acters are added, we do not know if it will be an empty string or some-
       thing longer".


PARTIAL MATCHING USING pcre2_match()

       When  a  partial  matching  option  is  set,  the  result  of   calling
       pcre2_match() can be one of the following:

       A successful match
         A complete match has been found, starting and ending within this sub-
         ject.

       PCRE2_ERROR_NOMATCH
         No match can start anywhere in this subject.

       PCRE2_ERROR_PARTIAL
         Adding more characters may result in a complete match that  uses  one
         or more characters from the end of this subject.

       When a partial match is returned, the first two elements in the ovector
       point to the portion of the subject that was matched, but the values in
       the rest of the ovector are undefined. The appearance of \K in the pat-
       tern has no effect for a partial match. Consider this pattern:

         /abc\K123/

       If it is matched against "456abc123xyz" the result is a complete match,
       and  the ovector defines the matched string as "123", because \K resets
       the "start of match" point. However, if a partial  match  is  requested
       and  the subject string is "456abc12", a partial match is found for the
       string "abc12", because all these characters are needed  for  a  subse-
       quent re-match with additional characters.

       If  there  is more than one partial match, the first one that was found
       provides the data that is returned. Consider this pattern:

         /123\w+X|dogY/

       If this is matched against the subject string "abc123dog", both  alter-
       natives  fail  to  match,  but the end of the subject is reached during
       matching, so PCRE2_ERROR_PARTIAL is returned. The offsets are set to  3
       and  9, identifying "123dog" as the first partial match. (In this exam-
       ple, there are two partial matches, because "dog" on its own  partially
       matches the second alternative.)

   How a partial match is processed by pcre2_match()

       What happens when a partial match is identified depends on which of the
       two partial matching options is set.

       If PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD is set, PCRE2_ERROR_PARTIAL is returned  as  soon
       as  a partial match is found, without continuing to search for possible
       complete matches. This option is "hard" because it prefers  an  earlier
       partial match over a later complete match. For this reason, the assump-
       tion is made that the end of the supplied subject  string  is  not  the
       true  end of the available data, which is why \z, \Z, \b, \B, and $ al-
       ways give a partial match.

       If PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT is set, the  partial  match  is  remembered,  but
       matching continues as normal, and other alternatives in the pattern are
       tried. If no complete match can be found,  PCRE2_ERROR_PARTIAL  is  re-
       turned instead of PCRE2_ERROR_NOMATCH. This option is "soft" because it
       prefers a complete match over a partial match. All the various matching
       items  in a pattern behave as if the subject string is potentially com-
       plete; \z, \Z, and $ match at the end of the subject,  as  normal,  and
       for \b and \B the end of the subject is treated as a non-alphanumeric.

       The  difference  between the two partial matching options can be illus-
       trated by a pattern such as:

         /dog(sbody)?/

       This matches either "dog" or "dogsbody", greedily (that is, it  prefers
       the  longer  string  if  possible). If it is matched against the string
       "dog" with PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT, it yields a complete  match  for  "dog".
       However,  if  PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD is set, the result is PCRE2_ERROR_PAR-
       TIAL. On the other hand, if the pattern is made ungreedy the result  is
       different:

         /dog(sbody)??/

       In  this  case  the  result  is always a complete match because that is
       found first, and matching never  continues  after  finding  a  complete
       match. It might be easier to follow this explanation by thinking of the
       two patterns like this:

         /dog(sbody)?/    is the same as  /dogsbody|dog/
         /dog(sbody)??/   is the same as  /dog|dogsbody/

       The second pattern will never match "dogsbody", because it will  always
       find the shorter match first.

   Example of partial matching using pcre2test

       The  pcre2test data modifiers partial_hard (or ph) and partial_soft (or
       ps) set PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD and PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT,  respectively,  when
       calling  pcre2_match(). Here is a run of pcre2test using a pattern that
       matches the whole subject in the form of a date:

           re> /^\d?\d(jan|feb|mar|apr|may|jun|jul|aug|sep|oct|nov|dec)\d\d$/
         data> 25dec3\=ph
         Partial match: 23dec3
         data> 3ju\=ph
         Partial match: 3ju
         data> 3juj\=ph
         No match

       This example gives the same results for  both  hard  and  soft  partial
       matching options. Here is an example where there is a difference:

           re> /^\d?\d(jan|feb|mar|apr|may|jun|jul|aug|sep|oct|nov|dec)\d\d$/
         data> 25jun04\=ps
          0: 25jun04
          1: jun
         data> 25jun04\=ph
         Partial match: 25jun04

       With   PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT,  the  subject  is  matched  completely.  For
       PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD, however, the subject is assumed not to be complete,
       so there is only a partial match.


MULTI-SEGMENT MATCHING WITH pcre2_match()

       PCRE  was  not originally designed with multi-segment matching in mind.
       However, over time, features (including  partial  matching)  that  make
       multi-segment matching possible have been added. A very long string can
       be searched segment by segment  by  calling  pcre2_match()  repeatedly,
       with the aim of achieving the same results that would happen if the en-
       tire string was available for searching all  the  time.  Normally,  the
       strings  that  are  being  sought are much shorter than each individual
       segment, and are in the middle of very long strings, so the pattern  is
       normally not anchored.

       Special  logic  must  be implemented to handle a matched substring that
       spans a segment boundary. PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD should be used, because it
       returns  a  partial match at the end of a segment whenever there is the
       possibility of changing  the  match  by  adding  more  characters.  The
       PCRE2_NOTBOL option should also be set for all but the first segment.

       When a partial match occurs, the next segment must be added to the cur-
       rent subject and the match re-run, using the  startoffset  argument  of
       pcre2_match()  to  begin  at the point where the partial match started.
       For example:

           re> /\d?\d(jan|feb|mar|apr|may|jun|jul|aug|sep|oct|nov|dec)\d\d/
         data> ...the date is 23ja\=ph
         Partial match: 23ja
         data> ...the date is 23jan19 and on that day...\=offset=15
          0: 23jan19
          1: jan

       Note the use of the offset modifier to start the new  match  where  the
       partial match was found. In this example, the next segment was added to
       the one in which  the  partial  match  was  found.  This  is  the  most
       straightforward approach, typically using a memory buffer that is twice
       the size of each segment. After a partial match, the first half of  the
       buffer  is discarded, the second half is moved to the start of the buf-
       fer, and a new segment is added before repeating the match  as  in  the
       example above. After a no match, the entire buffer can be discarded.

       If there are memory constraints, you may want to discard text that pre-
       cedes a partial match before adding the  next  segment.  Unfortunately,
       this  is  not  at  present straightforward. In cases such as the above,
       where the pattern does not contain any lookbehinds, it is sufficient to
       retain  only  the  partially matched substring. However, if the pattern
       contains a lookbehind assertion, characters that precede the  start  of
       the  partial match may have been inspected during the matching process.
       When pcre2test displays a partial match, it indicates these  characters
       with '<' if the allusedtext modifier is set:

           re> "(?<=123)abc"
         data> xx123ab\=ph,allusedtext
         Partial match: 123ab
                        <<<

       However,  the  allusedtext  modifier is not available for JIT matching,
       because JIT matching does not record  the  first  (or  last)  consulted
       characters.  For this reason, this information is not available via the
       API. It is therefore not possible in general to obtain the exact number
       of characters that must be retained in order to get the right match re-
       sult. If you cannot retain the  entire  segment,  you  must  find  some
       heuristic way of choosing.

       If  you know the approximate length of the matching substrings, you can
       use that to decide how much text to retain. The only lookbehind  infor-
       mation  that  is  currently  available via the API is the length of the
       longest individual lookbehind in a pattern, but this can be  misleading
       if  there  are  nested  lookbehinds.  The  value  returned  by  calling
       pcre2_pattern_info() with the PCRE2_INFO_MAXLOOKBEHIND  option  is  the
       maximum number of characters (not code units) that any individual look-
       behind  moves  back  when  it  is  processed.   A   pattern   such   as
       "(?<=(?<!b)a)"  has a maximum lookbehind value of one, but inspects two
       characters before its starting point.

       In a non-UTF or a 32-bit case, moving back is just a  subtraction,  but
       in  UTF-8  or  UTF-16  you  have  to count characters while moving back
       through the code units.


PARTIAL MATCHING USING pcre2_dfa_match()

       The DFA function moves along the subject string character by character,
       without  backtracking,  searching  for  all possible matches simultane-
       ously. If the end of the subject is reached before the end of the  pat-
       tern, there is the possibility of a partial match.

       When PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT is set, PCRE2_ERROR_PARTIAL is returned only if
       there have been no complete matches. Otherwise,  the  complete  matches
       are  returned.   If  PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD  is  set, a partial match takes
       precedence over any complete matches. The portion of  the  string  that
       was  matched  when  the  longest  partial match was found is set as the
       first matching string.

       Because the DFA function always searches for all possible matches,  and
       there  is no difference between greedy and ungreedy repetition, its be-
       haviour is different from the pcre2_match(). Consider the string  "dog"
       matched against this ungreedy pattern:

         /dog(sbody)??/

       Whereas  the  standard  function stops as soon as it finds the complete
       match for "dog", the DFA function also  finds  the  partial  match  for
       "dogsbody", and so returns that when PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD is set.


MULTI-SEGMENT MATCHING WITH pcre2_dfa_match()

       When a partial match has been found using the DFA matching function, it
       is possible to continue the match by providing additional subject  data
       and  calling  the function again with the same compiled regular expres-
       sion, this time setting the PCRE2_DFA_RESTART option. You must pass the
       same working space as before, because this is where details of the pre-
       vious partial match are stored. You can set the  PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT  or
       PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD  options  with PCRE2_DFA_RESTART to continue partial
       matching over multiple segments. Here is an example using pcre2test:

           re> /^\d?\d(jan|feb|mar|apr|may|jun|jul|aug|sep|oct|nov|dec)\d\d$/
         data> 23ja\=dfa,ps
         Partial match: 23ja
         data> n05\=dfa,dfa_restart
          0: n05

       The first call has "23ja" as the subject, and requests  partial  match-
       ing;  the  second  call  has  "n05"  as  the  subject for the continued
       (restarted) match.  Notice that when the match is  complete,  only  the
       last  part  is  shown;  PCRE2 does not retain the previously partially-
       matched string. It is up to the calling program to do that if it  needs
       to.  This  means  that, for an unanchored pattern, if a continued match
       fails, it is not possible to try again at a  new  starting  point.  All
       this facility is capable of doing is continuing with the previous match
       attempt. For example, consider this pattern:

         1234|3789

       If the first part of the subject is "ABC123", a partial  match  of  the
       first  alternative  is found at offset 3. There is no partial match for
       the second alternative, because such a match does not start at the same
       point  in  the  subject  string. Attempting to continue with the string
       "7890" does not yield a match  because  only  those  alternatives  that
       match  at one point in the subject are remembered. Depending on the ap-
       plication, this may or may not be what you want.

       If you do want to allow for starting again at the next  character,  one
       way  of  doing it is to retain some or all of the segment and try a new
       complete match, as described for pcre2_match() above. Another possibil-
       ity  is to work with two buffers. If a partial match at offset n in the
       first buffer is followed by "no match" when PCRE2_DFA_RESTART  is  used
       on  the  second buffer, you can then try a new match starting at offset
       n+1 in the first buffer.


AUTHOR

       Philip Hazel
       University Computing Service
       Cambridge, England.


REVISION

       Last updated: 04 September 2019
       Copyright (c) 1997-2019 University of Cambridge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


PCRE2PATTERN(3)            Library Functions Manual            PCRE2PATTERN(3)



NAME
       PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

PCRE2 REGULAR EXPRESSION DETAILS

       The  syntax and semantics of the regular expressions that are supported
       by PCRE2 are described in detail below. There is a quick-reference syn-
       tax  summary  in the pcre2syntax page. PCRE2 tries to match Perl syntax
       and semantics as closely as it can.  PCRE2 also supports some  alterna-
       tive  regular  expression syntax (which does not conflict with the Perl
       syntax) in order to provide some compatibility with regular expressions
       in Python, .NET, and Oniguruma.

       Perl's  regular expressions are described in its own documentation, and
       regular expressions in general are covered in a number of  books,  some
       of which have copious examples. Jeffrey Friedl's "Mastering Regular Ex-
       pressions", published by O'Reilly, covers regular expressions in  great
       detail.  This description of PCRE2's regular expressions is intended as
       reference material.

       This document discusses the regular expression patterns that  are  sup-
       ported  by  PCRE2  when  its  main matching function, pcre2_match(), is
       used.   PCRE2   also   has   an    alternative    matching    function,
       pcre2_dfa_match(),  which  matches  using a different algorithm that is
       not Perl-compatible. Some of  the  features  discussed  below  are  not
       available  when  DFA matching is used. The advantages and disadvantages
       of the alternative function, and how it differs from the  normal  func-
       tion, are discussed in the pcre2matching page.


SPECIAL START-OF-PATTERN ITEMS

       A  number  of options that can be passed to pcre2_compile() can also be
       set by special items at the start of a pattern. These are not Perl-com-
       patible,  but  are provided to make these options accessible to pattern
       writers who are not able to change the program that processes the  pat-
       tern.  Any  number  of these items may appear, but they must all be to-
       gether right at the start of the pattern string, and the  letters  must
       be in upper case.

   UTF support

       In the 8-bit and 16-bit PCRE2 libraries, characters may be coded either
       as single code units, or as multiple UTF-8 or UTF-16 code units. UTF-32
       can  be  specified  for the 32-bit library, in which case it constrains
       the character values to valid  Unicode  code  points.  To  process  UTF
       strings,  PCRE2  must be built to include Unicode support (which is the
       default). When using UTF strings you must  either  call  the  compiling
       function  with  one or both of the PCRE2_UTF or PCRE2_MATCH_INVALID_UTF
       options, or the pattern must start with the  special  sequence  (*UTF),
       which  is  equivalent  to setting the relevant PCRE2_UTF. How setting a
       UTF mode affects pattern matching is mentioned in several places below.
       There is also a summary of features in the pcre2unicode page.

       Some applications that allow their users to supply patterns may wish to
       restrict  them  to  non-UTF  data  for   security   reasons.   If   the
       PCRE2_NEVER_UTF  option is passed to pcre2_compile(), (*UTF) is not al-
       lowed, and its appearance in a pattern causes an error.

   Unicode property support

       Another special sequence that may appear at the start of a  pattern  is
       (*UCP).   This  has the same effect as setting the PCRE2_UCP option: it
       causes sequences such as \d and \w to use Unicode properties to  deter-
       mine character types, instead of recognizing only characters with codes
       less than 256 via a lookup table. If also causes upper/lower casing op-
       erations  to  use  Unicode  properties  for characters with code points
       greater than 127, even when UTF is not set.

       Some applications that allow their users to supply patterns may wish to
       restrict  them  for  security reasons. If the PCRE2_NEVER_UCP option is
       passed to pcre2_compile(), (*UCP) is not allowed, and its appearance in
       a pattern causes an error.

   Locking out empty string matching

       Starting a pattern with (*NOTEMPTY) or (*NOTEMPTY_ATSTART) has the same
       effect as passing the PCRE2_NOTEMPTY or  PCRE2_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART  option
       to whichever matching function is subsequently called to match the pat-
       tern. These options lock out the matching of empty strings, either  en-
       tirely, or only at the start of the subject.

   Disabling auto-possessification

       If  a pattern starts with (*NO_AUTO_POSSESS), it has the same effect as
       setting the PCRE2_NO_AUTO_POSSESS option. This stops PCRE2 from  making
       quantifiers  possessive  when  what  follows  cannot match the repeated
       item. For example, by default a+b is treated as a++b. For more details,
       see the pcre2api documentation.

   Disabling start-up optimizations

       If  a  pattern  starts  with (*NO_START_OPT), it has the same effect as
       setting the PCRE2_NO_START_OPTIMIZE option. This disables several opti-
       mizations  for  quickly  reaching "no match" results. For more details,
       see the pcre2api documentation.

   Disabling automatic anchoring

       If a pattern starts with (*NO_DOTSTAR_ANCHOR), it has the  same  effect
       as  setting the PCRE2_NO_DOTSTAR_ANCHOR option. This disables optimiza-
       tions that apply to patterns whose top-level branches all start with .*
       (match  any  number of arbitrary characters). For more details, see the
       pcre2api documentation.

   Disabling JIT compilation

       If a pattern that starts with (*NO_JIT) is  successfully  compiled,  an
       attempt  by  the  application  to apply the JIT optimization by calling
       pcre2_jit_compile() is ignored.

   Setting match resource limits

       The pcre2_match() function contains a counter that is incremented every
       time it goes round its main loop. The caller of pcre2_match() can set a
       limit on this counter, which therefore limits the amount  of  computing
       resource used for a match. The maximum depth of nested backtracking can
       also be limited; this indirectly restricts the amount  of  heap  memory
       that  is  used,  but there is also an explicit memory limit that can be
       set.

       These facilities are provided to catch runaway matches  that  are  pro-
       voked  by patterns with huge matching trees. A common example is a pat-
       tern with nested unlimited repeats applied to a long string  that  does
       not  match. When one of these limits is reached, pcre2_match() gives an
       error return. The limits can also be set by items at the start  of  the
       pattern of the form

         (*LIMIT_HEAP=d)
         (*LIMIT_MATCH=d)
         (*LIMIT_DEPTH=d)

       where d is any number of decimal digits. However, the value of the set-
       ting must be less than the value set (or defaulted) by  the  caller  of
       pcre2_match()  for  it  to have any effect. In other words, the pattern
       writer can lower the limits set by the programmer, but not raise  them.
       If  there  is  more  than one setting of one of these limits, the lower
       value is used. The heap limit is specified in kibibytes (units of  1024
       bytes).

       Prior  to  release  10.30, LIMIT_DEPTH was called LIMIT_RECURSION. This
       name is still recognized for backwards compatibility.

       The heap limit applies only when the pcre2_match() or pcre2_dfa_match()
       interpreters are used for matching. It does not apply to JIT. The match
       limit is used (but in a different way) when JIT is being used, or  when
       pcre2_dfa_match() is called, to limit computing resource usage by those
       matching functions. The depth limit is ignored by JIT but  is  relevant
       for  DFA  matching, which uses function recursion for recursions within
       the pattern and for lookaround assertions and atomic  groups.  In  this
       case, the depth limit controls the depth of such recursion.

   Newline conventions

       PCRE2  supports six different conventions for indicating line breaks in
       strings: a single CR (carriage return) character, a  single  LF  (line-
       feed) character, the two-character sequence CRLF, any of the three pre-
       ceding, any Unicode newline sequence,  or  the  NUL  character  (binary
       zero).  The  pcre2api  page  has further discussion about newlines, and
       shows how to set the newline convention when calling pcre2_compile().

       It is also possible to specify a newline convention by starting a  pat-
       tern string with one of the following sequences:

         (*CR)        carriage return
         (*LF)        linefeed
         (*CRLF)      carriage return, followed by linefeed
         (*ANYCRLF)   any of the three above
         (*ANY)       all Unicode newline sequences
         (*NUL)       the NUL character (binary zero)

       These override the default and the options given to the compiling func-
       tion. For example, on a Unix system where LF is the default newline se-
       quence, the pattern

         (*CR)a.b

       changes the convention to CR. That pattern matches "a\nb" because LF is
       no longer a newline. If more than one of these settings is present, the
       last one is used.

       The  newline  convention affects where the circumflex and dollar asser-
       tions are true. It also affects the interpretation of the dot metachar-
       acter  when  PCRE2_DOTALL  is not set, and the behaviour of \N when not
       followed by an opening brace. However, it does not affect what  the  \R
       escape  sequence  matches.  By default, this is any Unicode newline se-
       quence, for Perl compatibility. However, this can be changed;  see  the
       next section and the description of \R in the section entitled "Newline
       sequences" below. A change of \R setting can be combined with a  change
       of newline convention.

   Specifying what \R matches

       It is possible to restrict \R to match only CR, LF, or CRLF (instead of
       the complete set  of  Unicode  line  endings)  by  setting  the  option
       PCRE2_BSR_ANYCRLF  at compile time. This effect can also be achieved by
       starting a pattern with (*BSR_ANYCRLF).  For  completeness,  (*BSR_UNI-
       CODE) is also recognized, corresponding to PCRE2_BSR_UNICODE.


EBCDIC CHARACTER CODES

       PCRE2  can be compiled to run in an environment that uses EBCDIC as its
       character code instead of ASCII or Unicode (typically a mainframe  sys-
       tem).  In  the  sections below, character code values are ASCII or Uni-
       code; in an EBCDIC environment these characters may have different code
       values, and there are no code points greater than 255.


CHARACTERS AND METACHARACTERS

       A  regular  expression  is  a pattern that is matched against a subject
       string from left to right. Most characters stand for  themselves  in  a
       pattern,  and  match  the corresponding characters in the subject. As a
       trivial example, the pattern

         The quick brown fox

       matches a portion of a subject string that is identical to itself. When
       caseless matching is specified (the PCRE2_CASELESS option), letters are
       matched independently of case.

       The power of regular expressions comes from the ability to include wild
       cards, character classes, alternatives, and repetitions in the pattern.
       These are encoded in the pattern by the use of metacharacters, which do
       not  stand  for  themselves but instead are interpreted in some special
       way.

       There are two different sets of metacharacters: those that  are  recog-
       nized  anywhere in the pattern except within square brackets, and those
       that are recognized within square brackets.  Outside  square  brackets,
       the metacharacters are as follows:

         \      general escape character with several uses
         ^      assert start of string (or line, in multiline mode)
         $      assert end of string (or line, in multiline mode)
         .      match any character except newline (by default)
         [      start character class definition
         |      start of alternative branch
         (      start group or control verb
         )      end group or control verb
         *      0 or more quantifier
         +      1 or more quantifier; also "possessive quantifier"
         ?      0 or 1 quantifier; also quantifier minimizer
         {      start min/max quantifier

       Part  of  a  pattern  that is in square brackets is called a "character
       class". In a character class the only metacharacters are:

         \      general escape character
         ^      negate the class, but only if the first character
         -      indicates character range
         [      POSIX character class (if followed by POSIX syntax)
         ]      terminates the character class

       The following sections describe the use of each of the metacharacters.


BACKSLASH

       The backslash character has several uses. Firstly, if it is followed by
       a  character that is not a digit or a letter, it takes away any special
       meaning that character may have. This use of  backslash  as  an  escape
       character applies both inside and outside character classes.

       For  example,  if you want to match a * character, you must write \* in
       the pattern. This escaping action applies whether or not the  following
       character  would  otherwise be interpreted as a metacharacter, so it is
       always safe to precede a non-alphanumeric  with  backslash  to  specify
       that it stands for itself.  In particular, if you want to match a back-
       slash, you write \\.

       In a UTF mode, only ASCII digits and letters have any  special  meaning
       after  a  backslash.  All  other characters (in particular, those whose
       code points are greater than 127) are treated as literals.

       If a pattern is compiled with the  PCRE2_EXTENDED  option,  most  white
       space  in the pattern (other than in a character class), and characters
       between a # outside a character class and the next newline,  inclusive,
       are ignored. An escaping backslash can be used to include a white space
       or # character as part of the pattern.

       If you want to treat all characters in a sequence as literals, you  can
       do so by putting them between \Q and \E. This is different from Perl in
       that $ and @ are handled as literals in  \Q...\E  sequences  in  PCRE2,
       whereas  in Perl, $ and @ cause variable interpolation. Also, Perl does
       "double-quotish backslash interpolation" on any backslashes between  \Q
       and  \E which, its documentation says, "may lead to confusing results".
       PCRE2 treats a backslash between \Q and \E just like any other  charac-
       ter. Note the following examples:

         Pattern            PCRE2 matches   Perl matches

         \Qabc$xyz\E        abc$xyz        abc followed by the
                                             contents of $xyz
         \Qabc\$xyz\E       abc\$xyz       abc\$xyz
         \Qabc\E\$\Qxyz\E   abc$xyz        abc$xyz
         \QA\B\E            A\B            A\B
         \Q\\E              \              \\E

       The  \Q...\E  sequence  is recognized both inside and outside character
       classes.  An isolated \E that is not preceded by \Q is ignored.  If  \Q
       is  not followed by \E later in the pattern, the literal interpretation
       continues to the end of the pattern (that is,  \E  is  assumed  at  the
       end).  If  the  isolated \Q is inside a character class, this causes an
       error, because the character class  is  not  terminated  by  a  closing
       square bracket.

   Non-printing characters

       A second use of backslash provides a way of encoding non-printing char-
       acters in patterns in a visible manner. There is no restriction on  the
       appearance  of non-printing characters in a pattern, but when a pattern
       is being prepared by text editing, it is often easier to use one of the
       following  escape  sequences  instead of the binary character it repre-
       sents. In an ASCII or Unicode environment, these escapes  are  as  fol-
       lows:

         \a          alarm, that is, the BEL character (hex 07)
         \cx         "control-x", where x is any printable ASCII character
         \e          escape (hex 1B)
         \f          form feed (hex 0C)
         \n          linefeed (hex 0A)
         \r          carriage return (hex 0D) (but see below)
         \t          tab (hex 09)
         \0dd        character with octal code 0dd
         \ddd        character with octal code ddd, or backreference
         \o{ddd..}   character with octal code ddd..
         \xhh        character with hex code hh
         \x{hhh..}   character with hex code hhh..
         \N{U+hhh..} character with Unicode hex code point hhh..

       By  default, after \x that is not followed by {, from zero to two hexa-
       decimal digits are read (letters can be in upper or  lower  case).  Any
       number of hexadecimal digits may appear between \x{ and }. If a charac-
       ter other than a hexadecimal digit appears between \x{  and  },  or  if
       there is no terminating }, an error occurs.

       Characters whose code points are less than 256 can be defined by either
       of the two syntaxes for \x or by an octal sequence. There is no differ-
       ence in the way they are handled. For example, \xdc is exactly the same
       as \x{dc} or \334.  However, using the braced versions does  make  such
       sequences easier to read.

       Support  is  available  for some ECMAScript (aka JavaScript) escape se-
       quences via two compile-time options. If PCRE2_ALT_BSUX is set, the se-
       quence  \x  followed  by { is not recognized. Only if \x is followed by
       two hexadecimal digits is it recognized as a character  escape.  Other-
       wise  it  is interpreted as a literal "x" character. In this mode, sup-
       port for code points greater than 256 is provided by \u, which must  be
       followed  by  four hexadecimal digits; otherwise it is interpreted as a
       literal "u" character.

       PCRE2_EXTRA_ALT_BSUX has the same effect as PCRE2_ALT_BSUX and, in  ad-
       dition, \u{hhh..} is recognized as the character specified by hexadeci-
       mal code point.  There may be any number of  hexadecimal  digits.  This
       syntax is from ECMAScript 6.

       The  \N{U+hhh..} escape sequence is recognized only when PCRE2 is oper-
       ating in UTF mode. Perl also uses \N{name}  to  specify  characters  by
       Unicode  name;  PCRE2  does  not support this. Note that when \N is not
       followed by an opening brace (curly bracket) it has an entirely differ-
       ent meaning, matching any character that is not a newline.

       There  are some legacy applications where the escape sequence \r is ex-
       pected to match a newline. If the  PCRE2_EXTRA_ESCAPED_CR_IS_LF  option
       is  set,  \r  in  a  pattern is converted to \n so that it matches a LF
       (linefeed) instead of a CR (carriage return) character.

       The precise effect of \cx on ASCII characters is as follows: if x is  a
       lower  case  letter,  it  is converted to upper case. Then bit 6 of the
       character (hex 40) is inverted. Thus \cA to \cZ become hex 01 to hex 1A
       (A  is  41, Z is 5A), but \c{ becomes hex 3B ({ is 7B), and \c; becomes
       hex 7B (; is 3B). If the code unit following \c has a value  less  than
       32 or greater than 126, a compile-time error occurs.

       When  PCRE2  is  compiled in EBCDIC mode, \N{U+hhh..} is not supported.
       \a, \e, \f, \n, \r, and \t generate the appropriate EBCDIC code values.
       The \c escape is processed as specified for Perl in the perlebcdic doc-
       ument. The only characters that are allowed after \c are A-Z,  a-z,  or
       one  of @, [, \, ], ^, _, or ?. Any other character provokes a compile-
       time error. The sequence \c@ encodes character code  0;  after  \c  the
       letters  (in either case) encode characters 1-26 (hex 01 to hex 1A); [,
       \, ], ^, and _ encode characters 27-31 (hex 1B to hex 1F), and \c?  be-
       comes either 255 (hex FF) or 95 (hex 5F).

       Thus,  apart  from  \c?, these escapes generate the same character code
       values as they do in an ASCII environment, though the meanings  of  the
       values  mostly  differ. For example, \cG always generates code value 7,
       which is BEL in ASCII but DEL in EBCDIC.

       The sequence \c? generates DEL (127, hex 7F) in an  ASCII  environment,
       but  because  127  is  not a control character in EBCDIC, Perl makes it
       generate the APC character. Unfortunately, there are  several  variants
       of  EBCDIC.  In  most  of them the APC character has the value 255 (hex
       FF), but in the one Perl calls POSIX-BC its value is 95  (hex  5F).  If
       certain other characters have POSIX-BC values, PCRE2 makes \c? generate
       95; otherwise it generates 255.

       After \0 up to two further octal digits are read. If  there  are  fewer
       than  two  digits,  just  those that are present are used. Thus the se-
       quence \0\x\015 specifies two binary zeros followed by a  CR  character
       (code value 13). Make sure you supply two digits after the initial zero
       if the pattern character that follows is itself an octal digit.

       The escape \o must be followed by a sequence of octal digits,  enclosed
       in  braces.  An  error occurs if this is not the case. This escape is a
       recent addition to Perl; it provides way of specifying  character  code
       points  as  octal  numbers  greater than 0777, and it also allows octal
       numbers and backreferences to be unambiguously specified.

       For greater clarity and unambiguity, it is best to avoid following \ by
       a digit greater than zero. Instead, use \o{} or \x{} to specify numeri-
       cal character code points, and \g{} to specify backreferences. The fol-
       lowing paragraphs describe the old, ambiguous syntax.

       The handling of a backslash followed by a digit other than 0 is compli-
       cated, and Perl has changed over time, causing PCRE2 also to change.

       Outside a character class, PCRE2 reads the digit and any following dig-
       its as a decimal number. If the number is less than 10, begins with the
       digit 8 or 9, or if there are  at  least  that  many  previous  capture
       groups  in the expression, the entire sequence is taken as a backrefer-
       ence. A description of how this works is  given  later,  following  the
       discussion  of parenthesized groups.  Otherwise, up to three octal dig-
       its are read to form a character code.

       Inside a character class, PCRE2 handles \8 and \9 as the literal  char-
       acters  "8"  and "9", and otherwise reads up to three octal digits fol-
       lowing the backslash, using them to generate a data character. Any sub-
       sequent  digits  stand for themselves. For example, outside a character
       class:

         \040   is another way of writing an ASCII space
         \40    is the same, provided there are fewer than 40
                   previous capture groups
         \7     is always a backreference
         \11    might be a backreference, or another way of
                   writing a tab
         \011   is always a tab
         \0113  is a tab followed by the character "3"
         \113   might be a backreference, otherwise the
                   character with octal code 113
         \377   might be a backreference, otherwise
                   the value 255 (decimal)
         \81    is always a backreference

       Note that octal values of 100 or greater that are specified using  this
       syntax  must  not be introduced by a leading zero, because no more than
       three octal digits are ever read.

   Constraints on character values

       Characters that are specified using octal or  hexadecimal  numbers  are
       limited to certain values, as follows:

         8-bit non-UTF mode    no greater than 0xff
         16-bit non-UTF mode   no greater than 0xffff
         32-bit non-UTF mode   no greater than 0xffffffff
         All UTF modes         no greater than 0x10ffff and a valid code point

       Invalid Unicode code points are all those in the range 0xd800 to 0xdfff
       (the so-called "surrogate" code points). The check  for  these  can  be
       disabled  by  the  caller  of  pcre2_compile()  by  setting  the option
       PCRE2_EXTRA_ALLOW_SURROGATE_ESCAPES. However, this is possible only  in
       UTF-8  and  UTF-32 modes, because these values are not representable in
       UTF-16.

   Escape sequences in character classes

       All the sequences that define a single character value can be used both
       inside  and  outside character classes. In addition, inside a character
       class, \b is interpreted as the backspace character (hex 08).

       When not followed by an opening brace, \N is not allowed in a character
       class.   \B,  \R, and \X are not special inside a character class. Like
       other unrecognized alphabetic escape sequences, they  cause  an  error.
       Outside a character class, these sequences have different meanings.

   Unsupported escape sequences

       In  Perl,  the  sequences  \F, \l, \L, \u, and \U are recognized by its
       string handler and used to modify the case of following characters.  By
       default,  PCRE2  does  not  support these escape sequences in patterns.
       However, if either of the PCRE2_ALT_BSUX  or  PCRE2_EXTRA_ALT_BSUX  op-
       tions  is set, \U matches a "U" character, and \u can be used to define
       a character by code point, as described above.

   Absolute and relative backreferences

       The sequence \g followed by a signed or unsigned number, optionally en-
       closed  in  braces,  is  an absolute or relative backreference. A named
       backreference can be coded as \g{name}.  Backreferences  are  discussed
       later, following the discussion of parenthesized groups.

   Absolute and relative subroutine calls

       For  compatibility with Oniguruma, the non-Perl syntax \g followed by a
       name or a number enclosed either in angle brackets or single quotes, is
       an  alternative syntax for referencing a capture group as a subroutine.
       Details are discussed later.   Note  that  \g{...}  (Perl  syntax)  and
       \g<...> (Oniguruma syntax) are not synonymous. The former is a backref-
       erence; the latter is a subroutine call.

   Generic character types

       Another use of backslash is for specifying generic character types:

         \d     any decimal digit
         \D     any character that is not a decimal digit
         \h     any horizontal white space character
         \H     any character that is not a horizontal white space character
         \N     any character that is not a newline
         \s     any white space character
         \S     any character that is not a white space character
         \v     any vertical white space character
         \V     any character that is not a vertical white space character
         \w     any "word" character
         \W     any "non-word" character

       The \N escape sequence has the same meaning as  the  "."  metacharacter
       when  PCRE2_DOTALL is not set, but setting PCRE2_DOTALL does not change
       the meaning of \N. Note that when \N is followed by an opening brace it
       has a different meaning. See the section entitled "Non-printing charac-
       ters" above for details. Perl also uses \N{name} to specify  characters
       by Unicode name; PCRE2 does not support this.

       Each  pair of lower and upper case escape sequences partitions the com-
       plete set of characters into two disjoint  sets.  Any  given  character
       matches  one, and only one, of each pair. The sequences can appear both
       inside and outside character classes. They each match one character  of
       the  appropriate  type.  If the current matching point is at the end of
       the subject string, all of them fail, because there is no character  to
       match.

       The  default  \s  characters  are HT (9), LF (10), VT (11), FF (12), CR
       (13), and space (32), which are defined as white space in the  "C"  lo-
       cale.  This  list may vary if locale-specific matching is taking place.
       For example, in some locales the "non-breaking space" character  (\xA0)
       is recognized as white space, and in others the VT character is not.

       A  "word"  character is an underscore or any character that is a letter
       or digit.  By default, the definition of letters  and  digits  is  con-
       trolled by PCRE2's low-valued character tables, and may vary if locale-
       specific matching is taking place (see "Locale support" in the pcre2api
       page).  For  example,  in  a French locale such as "fr_FR" in Unix-like
       systems, or "french" in Windows, some character codes greater than  127
       are  used  for  accented letters, and these are then matched by \w. The
       use of locales with Unicode is discouraged.

       By default, characters whose code points are  greater  than  127  never
       match \d, \s, or \w, and always match \D, \S, and \W, although this may
       be different for characters in the range 128-255  when  locale-specific
       matching  is  happening.   These escape sequences retain their original
       meanings from before Unicode support was available,  mainly  for  effi-
       ciency  reasons.  If  the  PCRE2_UCP  option  is  set, the behaviour is
       changed so that Unicode properties  are  used  to  determine  character
       types, as follows:

         \d  any character that matches \p{Nd} (decimal digit)
         \s  any character that matches \p{Z} or \h or \v
         \w  any character that matches \p{L} or \p{N}, plus underscore

       The  upper case escapes match the inverse sets of characters. Note that
       \d matches only decimal digits, whereas \w matches any  Unicode  digit,
       as well as any Unicode letter, and underscore. Note also that PCRE2_UCP
       affects \b, and \B because they are defined in  terms  of  \w  and  \W.
       Matching these sequences is noticeably slower when PCRE2_UCP is set.

       The  sequences  \h, \H, \v, and \V, in contrast to the other sequences,
       which match only ASCII characters by default, always match  a  specific
       list  of  code  points, whether or not PCRE2_UCP is set. The horizontal
       space characters are:

         U+0009     Horizontal tab (HT)
         U+0020     Space
         U+00A0     Non-break space
         U+1680     Ogham space mark
         U+180E     Mongolian vowel separator
         U+2000     En quad
         U+2001     Em quad
         U+2002     En space
         U+2003     Em space
         U+2004     Three-per-em space
         U+2005     Four-per-em space
         U+2006     Six-per-em space
         U+2007     Figure space
         U+2008     Punctuation space
         U+2009     Thin space
         U+200A     Hair space
         U+202F     Narrow no-break space
         U+205F     Medium mathematical space
         U+3000     Ideographic space

       The vertical space characters are:

         U+000A     Linefeed (LF)
         U+000B     Vertical tab (VT)
         U+000C     Form feed (FF)
         U+000D     Carriage return (CR)
         U+0085     Next line (NEL)
         U+2028     Line separator
         U+2029     Paragraph separator

       In 8-bit, non-UTF-8 mode, only the characters  with  code  points  less
       than 256 are relevant.

   Newline sequences

       Outside  a  character class, by default, the escape sequence \R matches
       any Unicode newline sequence. In 8-bit non-UTF-8 mode \R is  equivalent
       to the following:

         (?>\r\n|\n|\x0b|\f|\r|\x85)

       This is an example of an "atomic group", details of which are given be-
       low.  This particular group matches either the  two-character  sequence
       CR  followed  by  LF,  or  one  of  the single characters LF (linefeed,
       U+000A), VT (vertical tab, U+000B), FF (form feed,  U+000C),  CR  (car-
       riage  return,  U+000D), or NEL (next line, U+0085). Because this is an
       atomic group, the two-character sequence is treated as  a  single  unit
       that cannot be split.

       In other modes, two additional characters whose code points are greater
       than 255 are added: LS (line separator, U+2028) and PS (paragraph sepa-
       rator,  U+2029).  Unicode support is not needed for these characters to
       be recognized.

       It is possible to restrict \R to match only CR, LF, or CRLF (instead of
       the  complete  set  of  Unicode  line  endings)  by  setting the option
       PCRE2_BSR_ANYCRLF at compile time. (BSR is an  abbrevation  for  "back-
       slash R".) This can be made the default when PCRE2 is built; if this is
       the case, the other behaviour can be requested via  the  PCRE2_BSR_UNI-
       CODE  option. It is also possible to specify these settings by starting
       a pattern string with one of the following sequences:

         (*BSR_ANYCRLF)   CR, LF, or CRLF only
         (*BSR_UNICODE)   any Unicode newline sequence

       These override the default and the options given to the compiling func-
       tion.  Note that these special settings, which are not Perl-compatible,
       are recognized only at the very start of a pattern, and that they  must
       be  in upper case. If more than one of them is present, the last one is
       used. They can be combined with a change of newline convention; for ex-
       ample, a pattern can start with:

         (*ANY)(*BSR_ANYCRLF)

       They  can also be combined with the (*UTF) or (*UCP) special sequences.
       Inside a character class, \R is treated as an unrecognized  escape  se-
       quence, and causes an error.

   Unicode character properties

       When  PCRE2  is  built  with Unicode support (the default), three addi-
       tional escape sequences that match characters with specific  properties
       are available. They can be used in any mode, though in 8-bit and 16-bit
       non-UTF modes these sequences are of course limited to testing  charac-
       ters  whose code points are less than U+0100 and U+10000, respectively.
       In 32-bit non-UTF mode, code points greater than 0x10ffff (the  Unicode
       limit)  may  be  encountered. These are all treated as being in the Un-
       known script and with an unassigned type. The  extra  escape  sequences
       are:

         \p{xx}   a character with the xx property
         \P{xx}   a character without the xx property
         \X       a Unicode extended grapheme cluster

       The property names represented by xx above are case-sensitive. There is
       support for Unicode script names, Unicode general category  properties,
       "Any",  which  matches any character (including newline), and some spe-
       cial PCRE2 properties (described in  the  next  section).   Other  Perl
       properties such as "InMusicalSymbols" are not supported by PCRE2.  Note
       that \P{Any} does not match any characters, so always  causes  a  match
       failure.

       Sets of Unicode characters are defined as belonging to certain scripts.
       A character from one of these sets can be matched using a script  name.
       For example:

         \p{Greek}
         \P{Han}

       Unassigned characters (and in non-UTF 32-bit mode, characters with code
       points greater than 0x10FFFF) are assigned the "Unknown" script. Others
       that  are not part of an identified script are lumped together as "Com-
       mon". The current list of scripts is:

       Adlam, Ahom, Anatolian_Hieroglyphs, Arabic,  Armenian,  Avestan,  Bali-
       nese,  Bamum,  Bassa_Vah,  Batak, Bengali, Bhaiksuki, Bopomofo, Brahmi,
       Braille, Buginese, Buhid, Canadian_Aboriginal, Carian,  Caucasian_Alba-
       nian,  Chakma,  Cham,  Cherokee, Chorasmian, Common, Coptic, Cuneiform,
       Cypriot, Cyrillic, Deseret, Devanagari, Dives_Akuru,  Dogra,  Duployan,
       Egyptian_Hieroglyphs, Elbasan, Elymaic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Glagolitic,
       Gothic, Grantha, Greek, Gujarati, Gunjala_Gondi, Gurmukhi, Han, Hangul,
       Hanifi_Rohingya,  Hanunoo,  Hatran, Hebrew, Hiragana, Imperial_Aramaic,
       Inherited,  Inscriptional_Pahlavi,  Inscriptional_Parthian,   Javanese,
       Kaithi,  Kannada,  Katakana, Kayah_Li, Kharoshthi, Khitan_Small_Script,
       Khmer, Khojki, Khudawadi, Lao, Latin,  Lepcha,  Limbu,  Linear_A,  Lin-
       ear_B,  Lisu,  Lycian,  Lydian,  Mahajani, Makasar, Malayalam, Mandaic,
       Manichaean,   Marchen,   Masaram_Gondi,   Medefaidrin,    Meetei_Mayek,
       Mende_Kikakui, Meroitic_Cursive, Meroitic_Hieroglyphs, Miao, Modi, Mon-
       golian, Mro, Multani,  Myanmar,  Nabataean,  Nandinagari,  New_Tai_Lue,
       Newa,  Nko,  Nushu, Nyakeng_Puachue_Hmong, Ogham, Ol_Chiki, Old_Hungar-
       ian, Old_Italic, Old_North_Arabian, Old_Permic,  Old_Persian,  Old_Sog-
       dian,   Old_South_Arabian,   Old_Turkic,  Oriya,  Osage,  Osmanya,  Pa-
       hawh_Hmong,    Palmyrene,    Pau_Cin_Hau,     Phags_Pa,     Phoenician,
       Psalter_Pahlavi,  Rejang,  Runic,  Samaritan, Saurashtra, Sharada, Sha-
       vian, Siddham, SignWriting, Sinhala,  Sogdian,  Sora_Sompeng,  Soyombo,
       Sundanese,  Syloti_Nagri,  Syriac, Tagalog, Tagbanwa, Tai_Le, Tai_Tham,
       Tai_Viet, Takri, Tamil, Tangut, Telugu, Thaana,  Thai,  Tibetan,  Tifi-
       nagh, Tirhuta, Ugaritic, Unknown, Vai, Wancho, Warang_Citi, Yezidi, Yi,
       Zanabazar_Square.

       Each character has exactly one Unicode general category property, spec-
       ified  by a two-letter abbreviation. For compatibility with Perl, nega-
       tion can be specified by including a  circumflex  between  the  opening
       brace  and  the  property  name.  For  example,  \p{^Lu} is the same as
       \P{Lu}.

       If only one letter is specified with \p or \P, it includes all the gen-
       eral  category properties that start with that letter. In this case, in
       the absence of negation, the curly brackets in the escape sequence  are
       optional; these two examples have the same effect:

         \p{L}
         \pL

       The following general category property codes are supported:

         C     Other
         Cc    Control
         Cf    Format
         Cn    Unassigned
         Co    Private use
         Cs    Surrogate

         L     Letter
         Ll    Lower case letter
         Lm    Modifier letter
         Lo    Other letter
         Lt    Title case letter
         Lu    Upper case letter

         M     Mark
         Mc    Spacing mark
         Me    Enclosing mark
         Mn    Non-spacing mark

         N     Number
         Nd    Decimal number
         Nl    Letter number
         No    Other number

         P     Punctuation
         Pc    Connector punctuation
         Pd    Dash punctuation
         Pe    Close punctuation
         Pf    Final punctuation
         Pi    Initial punctuation
         Po    Other punctuation
         Ps    Open punctuation

         S     Symbol
         Sc    Currency symbol
         Sk    Modifier symbol
         Sm    Mathematical symbol
         So    Other symbol

         Z     Separator
         Zl    Line separator
         Zp    Paragraph separator
         Zs    Space separator

       The  special property L& is also supported: it matches a character that
       has the Lu, Ll, or Lt property, in other words, a letter  that  is  not
       classified as a modifier or "other".

       The  Cs  (Surrogate)  property  applies  only  to characters whose code
       points are in the range U+D800 to U+DFFF. These characters are no  dif-
       ferent  to any other character when PCRE2 is not in UTF mode (using the
       16-bit or 32-bit library).  However, they  are  not  valid  in  Unicode
       strings and so cannot be tested by PCRE2 in UTF mode, unless UTF valid-
       ity  checking  has   been   turned   off   (see   the   discussion   of
       PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK in the pcre2api page).

       The  long  synonyms  for  property  names  that  Perl supports (such as
       \p{Letter}) are not supported by PCRE2, nor is it permitted  to  prefix
       any of these properties with "Is".

       No character that is in the Unicode table has the Cn (unassigned) prop-
       erty.  Instead, this property is assumed for any code point that is not
       in the Unicode table.

       Specifying  caseless  matching  does not affect these escape sequences.
       For example, \p{Lu} always matches only upper  case  letters.  This  is
       different from the behaviour of current versions of Perl.

       Matching  characters by Unicode property is not fast, because PCRE2 has
       to do a multistage table lookup in order to find  a  character's  prop-
       erty. That is why the traditional escape sequences such as \d and \w do
       not use Unicode properties in PCRE2 by default,  though  you  can  make
       them  do  so by setting the PCRE2_UCP option or by starting the pattern
       with (*UCP).

   Extended grapheme clusters

       The \X escape matches any number of Unicode  characters  that  form  an
       "extended grapheme cluster", and treats the sequence as an atomic group
       (see below).  Unicode supports various kinds of composite character  by
       giving  each  character  a grapheme breaking property, and having rules
       that use these properties to define the boundaries of extended grapheme
       clusters.  The rules are defined in Unicode Standard Annex 29, "Unicode
       Text Segmentation". Unicode 11.0.0 abandoned the use of  some  previous
       properties  that had been used for emojis.  Instead it introduced vari-
       ous emoji-specific properties. PCRE2  uses  only  the  Extended  Picto-
       graphic property.

       \X  always  matches  at least one character. Then it decides whether to
       add additional characters according to the following rules for ending a
       cluster:

       1. End at the end of the subject string.

       2.  Do not end between CR and LF; otherwise end after any control char-
       acter.

       3. Do not break Hangul (a Korean  script)  syllable  sequences.  Hangul
       characters  are of five types: L, V, T, LV, and LVT. An L character may
       be followed by an L, V, LV, or LVT character; an LV or V character  may
       be followed by a V or T character; an LVT or T character may be follwed
       only by a T character.

       4. Do not end before extending  characters  or  spacing  marks  or  the
       "zero-width  joiner" character. Characters with the "mark" property al-
       ways have the "extend" grapheme breaking property.

       5. Do not end after prepend characters.

       6. Do not break within emoji modifier sequences or emoji zwj sequences.
       That is, do not break between characters with the Extended_Pictographic
       property.  Extend and ZWJ characters are allowed  between  the  charac-
       ters.

       7.  Do not break within emoji flag sequences. That is, do not break be-
       tween regional indicator (RI) characters if there are an odd number  of
       RI characters before the break point.

       8. Otherwise, end the cluster.

   PCRE2's additional properties

       As  well as the standard Unicode properties described above, PCRE2 sup-
       ports four more that make it possible to convert traditional escape se-
       quences  such  as \w and \s to use Unicode properties. PCRE2 uses these
       non-standard, non-Perl properties internally  when  PCRE2_UCP  is  set.
       However, they may also be used explicitly. These properties are:

         Xan   Any alphanumeric character
         Xps   Any POSIX space character
         Xsp   Any Perl space character
         Xwd   Any Perl "word" character

       Xan  matches  characters that have either the L (letter) or the N (num-
       ber) property. Xps matches the characters tab, linefeed, vertical  tab,
       form  feed,  or carriage return, and any other character that has the Z
       (separator) property.  Xsp is the same as Xps; in PCRE1 it used to  ex-
       clude  vertical  tab,  for  Perl  compatibility,  but Perl changed. Xwd
       matches the same characters as Xan, plus underscore.

       There is another non-standard property, Xuc, which matches any  charac-
       ter  that  can  be represented by a Universal Character Name in C++ and
       other programming languages. These are the characters $,  @,  `  (grave
       accent),  and  all  characters with Unicode code points greater than or
       equal to U+00A0, except for the surrogates U+D800 to U+DFFF. Note  that
       most  base  (ASCII) characters are excluded. (Universal Character Names
       are of the form \uHHHH or \UHHHHHHHH where H is  a  hexadecimal  digit.
       Note that the Xuc property does not match these sequences but the char-
       acters that they represent.)

   Resetting the match start

       In normal use, the escape sequence \K  causes  any  previously  matched
       characters not to be included in the final matched sequence that is re-
       turned. For example, the pattern:

         foo\Kbar

       matches "foobar", but reports that it has matched "bar".  \K  does  not
       interact with anchoring in any way. The pattern:

         ^foo\Kbar

       matches  only  when  the  subject  begins with "foobar" (in single line
       mode), though it again reports the matched string as "bar".  This  fea-
       ture  is similar to a lookbehind assertion (described below).  However,
       in this case, the part of the subject before the real  match  does  not
       have  to be of fixed length, as lookbehind assertions do. The use of \K
       does not interfere with the setting of captured substrings.  For  exam-
       ple, when the pattern

         (foo)\Kbar

       matches "foobar", the first substring is still set to "foo".

       Perl  documents  that  the use of \K within assertions is "not well de-
       fined". In PCRE2, \K is acted upon when it occurs inside  positive  as-
       sertions,  but is ignored in negative assertions. Note that when a pat-
       tern such as (?=ab\K) matches, the reported start of the match  can  be
       greater  than  the end of the match. Using \K in a lookbehind assertion
       at the start of a pattern can also lead to odd  effects.  For  example,
       consider this pattern:

         (?<=\Kfoo)bar

       If  the  subject  is  "foobar", a call to pcre2_match() with a starting
       offset of 3 succeeds and reports the matching string as "foobar",  that
       is,  the  start  of  the reported match is earlier than where the match
       started.

   Simple assertions

       The final use of backslash is for certain simple assertions. An  asser-
       tion  specifies a condition that has to be met at a particular point in
       a match, without consuming any characters from the subject string.  The
       use  of groups for more complicated assertions is described below.  The
       backslashed assertions are:

         \b     matches at a word boundary
         \B     matches when not at a word boundary
         \A     matches at the start of the subject
         \Z     matches at the end of the subject
                 also matches before a newline at the end of the subject
         \z     matches only at the end of the subject
         \G     matches at the first matching position in the subject

       Inside a character class, \b has a different meaning;  it  matches  the
       backspace  character.  If  any  other  of these assertions appears in a
       character class, an "invalid escape sequence" error is generated.

       A word boundary is a position in the subject string where  the  current
       character  and  the previous character do not both match \w or \W (i.e.
       one matches \w and the other matches \W), or the start or  end  of  the
       string  if  the  first or last character matches \w, respectively. When
       PCRE2 is built with Unicode support, the meanings of \w and \W  can  be
       changed by setting the PCRE2_UCP option. When this is done, it also af-
       fects \b and \B. Neither PCRE2 nor Perl has a separate "start of  word"
       or  "end  of  word" metasequence. However, whatever follows \b normally
       determines which it is. For example, the fragment \ba  matches  "a"  at
       the start of a word.

       The  \A,  \Z,  and \z assertions differ from the traditional circumflex
       and dollar (described in the next section) in that they only ever match
       at  the  very start and end of the subject string, whatever options are
       set. Thus, they are independent of multiline mode. These  three  asser-
       tions  are  not  affected  by the PCRE2_NOTBOL or PCRE2_NOTEOL options,
       which affect only the behaviour of the circumflex and dollar  metachar-
       acters.  However,  if the startoffset argument of pcre2_match() is non-
       zero, indicating that matching is to start at a point  other  than  the
       beginning  of  the subject, \A can never match.  The difference between
       \Z and \z is that \Z matches before a newline at the end of the  string
       as well as at the very end, whereas \z matches only at the end.

       The  \G assertion is true only when the current matching position is at
       the start point of the matching process, as specified by the  startoff-
       set  argument  of  pcre2_match().  It differs from \A when the value of
       startoffset is non-zero. By calling pcre2_match() multiple  times  with
       appropriate  arguments,  you  can  mimic Perl's /g option, and it is in
       this kind of implementation where \G can be useful.

       Note, however, that PCRE2's implementation of \G,  being  true  at  the
       starting  character  of  the matching process, is subtly different from
       Perl's, which defines it as true at the end of the previous  match.  In
       Perl,  these  can  be  different when the previously matched string was
       empty. Because PCRE2 does just one match at a time, it cannot reproduce
       this behaviour.

       If  all  the alternatives of a pattern begin with \G, the expression is
       anchored to the starting match position, and the "anchored" flag is set
       in the compiled regular expression.


CIRCUMFLEX AND DOLLAR

       The  circumflex  and  dollar  metacharacters are zero-width assertions.
       That is, they test for a particular condition being true  without  con-
       suming any characters from the subject string. These two metacharacters
       are concerned with matching the starts and ends of lines. If  the  new-
       line  convention is set so that only the two-character sequence CRLF is
       recognized as a newline, isolated CR and LF characters are  treated  as
       ordinary data characters, and are not recognized as newlines.

       Outside a character class, in the default matching mode, the circumflex
       character is an assertion that is true only  if  the  current  matching
       point  is  at the start of the subject string. If the startoffset argu-
       ment of pcre2_match() is non-zero, or if PCRE2_NOTBOL is  set,  circum-
       flex  can  never match if the PCRE2_MULTILINE option is unset. Inside a
       character class, circumflex has an entirely different meaning (see  be-
       low).

       Circumflex  need  not be the first character of the pattern if a number
       of alternatives are involved, but it should be the first thing in  each
       alternative  in  which  it appears if the pattern is ever to match that
       branch. If all possible alternatives start with a circumflex, that  is,
       if  the  pattern  is constrained to match only at the start of the sub-
       ject, it is said to be an "anchored" pattern.  (There  are  also  other
       constructs that can cause a pattern to be anchored.)

       The  dollar  character is an assertion that is true only if the current
       matching point is at the end of the subject string, or immediately  be-
       fore  a newline at the end of the string (by default), unless PCRE2_NO-
       TEOL is set. Note, however, that it does not actually  match  the  new-
       line.  Dollar need not be the last character of the pattern if a number
       of alternatives are involved, but it should be the  last  item  in  any
       branch  in which it appears. Dollar has no special meaning in a charac-
       ter class.

       The meaning of dollar can be changed so that it  matches  only  at  the
       very  end  of the string, by setting the PCRE2_DOLLAR_ENDONLY option at
       compile time. This does not affect the \Z assertion.

       The meanings of the circumflex and dollar metacharacters are changed if
       the  PCRE2_MULTILINE  option  is  set.  When this is the case, a dollar
       character matches before any newlines in the string, as well as at  the
       very  end, and a circumflex matches immediately after internal newlines
       as well as at the start of the subject string. It does not match  after
       a  newline  that ends the string, for compatibility with Perl. However,
       this can be changed by setting the PCRE2_ALT_CIRCUMFLEX option.

       For example, the pattern /^abc$/ matches the subject string  "def\nabc"
       (where  \n  represents a newline) in multiline mode, but not otherwise.
       Consequently, patterns that are anchored in single  line  mode  because
       all  branches  start  with  ^ are not anchored in multiline mode, and a
       match for circumflex is  possible  when  the  startoffset  argument  of
       pcre2_match()  is  non-zero. The PCRE2_DOLLAR_ENDONLY option is ignored
       if PCRE2_MULTILINE is set.

       When the newline convention (see "Newline  conventions"  below)  recog-
       nizes  the two-character sequence CRLF as a newline, this is preferred,
       even if the single characters CR and LF are  also  recognized  as  new-
       lines.  For  example,  if  the newline convention is "any", a multiline
       mode circumflex matches before "xyz" in the string "abc\r\nxyz"  rather
       than  after  CR, even though CR on its own is a valid newline. (It also
       matches at the very start of the string, of course.)

       Note that the sequences \A, \Z, and \z can be used to match  the  start
       and  end of the subject in both modes, and if all branches of a pattern
       start with \A it is always anchored, whether or not PCRE2_MULTILINE  is
       set.


FULL STOP (PERIOD, DOT) AND \N

       Outside a character class, a dot in the pattern matches any one charac-
       ter in the subject string except (by default) a character  that  signi-
       fies the end of a line.

       When  a line ending is defined as a single character, dot never matches
       that character; when the two-character sequence CRLF is used, dot  does
       not  match  CR  if  it  is immediately followed by LF, but otherwise it
       matches all characters (including isolated CRs and LFs). When any  Uni-
       code  line endings are being recognized, dot does not match CR or LF or
       any of the other line ending characters.

       The behaviour of dot with regard to newlines can  be  changed.  If  the
       PCRE2_DOTALL  option  is  set, a dot matches any one character, without
       exception.  If the two-character sequence CRLF is present in  the  sub-
       ject string, it takes two dots to match it.

       The  handling of dot is entirely independent of the handling of circum-
       flex and dollar, the only relationship being  that  they  both  involve
       newlines. Dot has no special meaning in a character class.

       The  escape  sequence  \N when not followed by an opening brace behaves
       like a dot, except that it is not affected by the PCRE2_DOTALL  option.
       In  other words, it matches any character except one that signifies the
       end of a line.

       When \N is followed by an opening brace it has a different meaning. See
       the  section entitled "Non-printing characters" above for details. Perl
       also uses \N{name} to specify characters by Unicode  name;  PCRE2  does
       not support this.


MATCHING A SINGLE CODE UNIT

       Outside  a character class, the escape sequence \C matches any one code
       unit, whether or not a UTF mode is set. In the 8-bit library, one  code
       unit  is  one  byte;  in the 16-bit library it is a 16-bit unit; in the
       32-bit library it is a 32-bit unit. Unlike a  dot,  \C  always  matches
       line-ending  characters.  The  feature  is provided in Perl in order to
       match individual bytes in UTF-8 mode, but it is unclear how it can use-
       fully be used.

       Because  \C  breaks  up characters into individual code units, matching
       one unit with \C in UTF-8 or UTF-16 mode means that  the  rest  of  the
       string may start with a malformed UTF character. This has undefined re-
       sults, because PCRE2 assumes that it is matching character by character
       in a valid UTF string (by default it checks the subject string's valid-
       ity at  the  start  of  processing  unless  the  PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK  or
       PCRE2_MATCH_INVALID_UTF option is used).

       An   application   can   lock   out  the  use  of  \C  by  setting  the
       PCRE2_NEVER_BACKSLASH_C option when compiling a  pattern.  It  is  also
       possible to build PCRE2 with the use of \C permanently disabled.

       PCRE2  does  not allow \C to appear in lookbehind assertions (described
       below) in UTF-8 or UTF-16 modes, because this would make it  impossible
       to  calculate  the  length  of  the lookbehind. Neither the alternative
       matching function pcre2_dfa_match() nor the JIT optimizer support \C in
       these UTF modes.  The former gives a match-time error; the latter fails
       to optimize and so the match is always run using the interpreter.

       In the 32-bit library, however, \C is always supported  (when  not  ex-
       plicitly  locked  out)  because  it  always matches a single code unit,
       whether or not UTF-32 is specified.

       In general, the \C escape sequence is best avoided. However, one way of
       using  it  that avoids the problem of malformed UTF-8 or UTF-16 charac-
       ters is to use a lookahead to check the length of the  next  character,
       as  in  this  pattern,  which could be used with a UTF-8 string (ignore
       white space and line breaks):

         (?| (?=[\x00-\x7f])(\C) |
             (?=[\x80-\x{7ff}])(\C)(\C) |
             (?=[\x{800}-\x{ffff}])(\C)(\C)(\C) |
             (?=[\x{10000}-\x{1fffff}])(\C)(\C)(\C)(\C))

       In this example, a group that starts  with  (?|  resets  the  capturing
       parentheses  numbers in each alternative (see "Duplicate Group Numbers"
       below). The assertions at the start of each branch check the next UTF-8
       character  for  values whose encoding uses 1, 2, 3, or 4 bytes, respec-
       tively. The character's individual bytes are then captured by  the  ap-
       propriate number of \C groups.


SQUARE BRACKETS AND CHARACTER CLASSES

       An opening square bracket introduces a character class, terminated by a
       closing square bracket. A closing square bracket on its own is not spe-
       cial  by  default.  If a closing square bracket is required as a member
       of the class, it should be the first data character in the class (after
       an  initial  circumflex,  if present) or escaped with a backslash. This
       means that, by default, an empty class cannot be defined.  However,  if
       the  PCRE2_ALLOW_EMPTY_CLASS option is set, a closing square bracket at
       the start does end the (empty) class.

       A character class matches a single character in the subject. A  matched
       character must be in the set of characters defined by the class, unless
       the first character in the class definition is a circumflex,  in  which
       case the subject character must not be in the set defined by the class.
       If a circumflex is actually required as a member of the  class,  ensure
       it is not the first character, or escape it with a backslash.

       For  example, the character class [aeiou] matches any lower case vowel,
       while [^aeiou] matches any character that is not a  lower  case  vowel.
       Note that a circumflex is just a convenient notation for specifying the
       characters that are in the class by enumerating those that are  not.  A
       class  that starts with a circumflex is not an assertion; it still con-
       sumes a character from the subject string, and therefore  it  fails  if
       the current pointer is at the end of the string.

       Characters  in  a class may be specified by their code points using \o,
       \x, or \N{U+hh..} in the usual way. When caseless matching is set,  any
       letters  in a class represent both their upper case and lower case ver-
       sions, so for example, a caseless [aeiou] matches "A" as well  as  "a",
       and  a  caseless [^aeiou] does not match "A", whereas a caseful version
       would.

       Characters that might indicate line breaks are  never  treated  in  any
       special  way  when matching character classes, whatever line-ending se-
       quence is  in  use,  and  whatever  setting  of  the  PCRE2_DOTALL  and
       PCRE2_MULTILINE  options  is  used. A class such as [^a] always matches
       one of these characters.

       The generic character type escape sequences \d, \D, \h, \H, \p, \P, \s,
       \S,  \v,  \V,  \w,  and \W may appear in a character class, and add the
       characters that they  match  to  the  class.  For  example,  [\dABCDEF]
       matches  any  hexadecimal digit. In UTF modes, the PCRE2_UCP option af-
       fects the meanings of \d, \s, \w and their upper case partners, just as
       it does when they appear outside a character class, as described in the
       section entitled "Generic character types" above. The  escape  sequence
       \b  has  a  different  meaning inside a character class; it matches the
       backspace character. The sequences \B, \R, and \X are not  special  in-
       side  a  character class. Like any other unrecognized escape sequences,
       they cause an error. The same is true for \N when not  followed  by  an
       opening brace.

       The  minus (hyphen) character can be used to specify a range of charac-
       ters in a character class. For example, [d-m] matches  any  letter  be-
       tween  d and m, inclusive. If a minus character is required in a class,
       it must be escaped with a backslash or appear in a  position  where  it
       cannot  be interpreted as indicating a range, typically as the first or
       last character in the class, or immediately after a range. For example,
       [b-d-z] matches letters in the range b to d, a hyphen character, or z.

       Perl treats a hyphen as a literal if it appears before or after a POSIX
       class (see below) or before or after a character type escape such as as
       \d  or  \H.   However,  unless  the hyphen is the last character in the
       class, Perl outputs a warning in its warning  mode,  as  this  is  most
       likely  a user error. As PCRE2 has no facility for warning, an error is
       given in these cases.

       It is not possible to have the literal character "]" as the end charac-
       ter  of a range. A pattern such as [W-]46] is interpreted as a class of
       two characters ("W" and "-") followed by a literal string "46]", so  it
       would  match  "W46]"  or  "-46]". However, if the "]" is escaped with a
       backslash it is interpreted as the end of range, so [W-\]46] is  inter-
       preted  as a class containing a range followed by two other characters.
       The octal or hexadecimal representation of "]" can also be used to  end
       a range.

       Ranges normally include all code points between the start and end char-
       acters, inclusive. They can also be used for code points specified  nu-
       merically,  for  example [\000-\037]. Ranges can include any characters
       that are valid for the current mode. In any  UTF  mode,  the  so-called
       "surrogate"  characters (those whose code points lie between 0xd800 and
       0xdfff inclusive) may not  be  specified  explicitly  by  default  (the
       PCRE2_EXTRA_ALLOW_SURROGATE_ESCAPES  option  disables this check). How-
       ever, ranges such as [\x{d7ff}-\x{e000}], which include the surrogates,
       are always permitted.

       There  is  a  special  case in EBCDIC environments for ranges whose end
       points are both specified as literal letters in the same case. For com-
       patibility  with Perl, EBCDIC code points within the range that are not
       letters are omitted. For example, [h-k] matches only  four  characters,
       even though the codes for h and k are 0x88 and 0x92, a range of 11 code
       points. However, if the range is specified  numerically,  for  example,
       [\x88-\x92] or [h-\x92], all code points are included.

       If a range that includes letters is used when caseless matching is set,
       it matches the letters in either case. For example, [W-c] is equivalent
       to  [][\\^_`wxyzabc],  matched  caselessly,  and  in a non-UTF mode, if
       character tables for a French locale are in  use,  [\xc8-\xcb]  matches
       accented E characters in both cases.

       A  circumflex  can  conveniently  be used with the upper case character
       types to specify a more restricted set of characters than the  matching
       lower  case  type.  For example, the class [^\W_] matches any letter or
       digit, but not underscore, whereas [\w] includes underscore. A positive
       character class should be read as "something OR something OR ..." and a
       negative class as "NOT something AND NOT something AND NOT ...".

       The only metacharacters that are recognized in  character  classes  are
       backslash,  hyphen  (only  where  it can be interpreted as specifying a
       range), circumflex (only at the start), opening  square  bracket  (only
       when  it can be interpreted as introducing a POSIX class name, or for a
       special compatibility feature - see the next  two  sections),  and  the
       terminating  closing  square  bracket.  However, escaping other non-al-
       phanumeric characters does no harm.


POSIX CHARACTER CLASSES

       Perl supports the POSIX notation for character classes. This uses names
       enclosed  by [: and :] within the enclosing square brackets. PCRE2 also
       supports this notation. For example,

         [01[:alpha:]%]

       matches "0", "1", any alphabetic character, or "%". The supported class
       names are:

         alnum    letters and digits
         alpha    letters
         ascii    character codes 0 - 127
         blank    space or tab only
         cntrl    control characters
         digit    decimal digits (same as \d)
         graph    printing characters, excluding space
         lower    lower case letters
         print    printing characters, including space
         punct    printing characters, excluding letters and digits and space
         space    white space (the same as \s from PCRE2 8.34)
         upper    upper case letters
         word     "word" characters (same as \w)
         xdigit   hexadecimal digits

       The  default  "space" characters are HT (9), LF (10), VT (11), FF (12),
       CR (13), and space (32). If locale-specific matching is  taking  place,
       the  list  of  space characters may be different; there may be fewer or
       more of them. "Space" and \s match the same set of characters.

       The name "word" is a Perl extension, and "blank"  is  a  GNU  extension
       from  Perl  5.8. Another Perl extension is negation, which is indicated
       by a ^ character after the colon. For example,

         [12[:^digit:]]

       matches "1", "2", or any non-digit. PCRE2 (and Perl) also recognize the
       POSIX syntax [.ch.] and [=ch=] where "ch" is a "collating element", but
       these are not supported, and an error is given if they are encountered.

       By default, characters with values greater than 127 do not match any of
       the POSIX character classes, although this may be different for charac-
       ters in the range 128-255 when locale-specific matching  is  happening.
       However,  if the PCRE2_UCP option is passed to pcre2_compile(), some of
       the classes are changed so that Unicode character properties are  used.
       This  is  achieved  by  replacing  certain POSIX classes with other se-
       quences, as follows:

         [:alnum:]  becomes  \p{Xan}
         [:alpha:]  becomes  \p{L}
         [:blank:]  becomes  \h
         [:cntrl:]  becomes  \p{Cc}
         [:digit:]  becomes  \p{Nd}
         [:lower:]  becomes  \p{Ll}
         [:space:]  becomes  \p{Xps}
         [:upper:]  becomes  \p{Lu}
         [:word:]   becomes  \p{Xwd}

       Negated versions, such as [:^alpha:] use \P instead of \p. Three  other
       POSIX classes are handled specially in UCP mode:

       [:graph:] This  matches  characters that have glyphs that mark the page
                 when printed. In Unicode property terms, it matches all char-
                 acters with the L, M, N, P, S, or Cf properties, except for:

                   U+061C           Arabic Letter Mark
                   U+180E           Mongolian Vowel Separator
                   U+2066 - U+2069  Various "isolate"s


       [:print:] This  matches  the  same  characters  as [:graph:] plus space
                 characters that are not controls, that  is,  characters  with
                 the Zs property.

       [:punct:] This matches all characters that have the Unicode P (punctua-
                 tion) property, plus those characters with code  points  less
                 than 256 that have the S (Symbol) property.

       The  other  POSIX classes are unchanged, and match only characters with
       code points less than 256.


COMPATIBILITY FEATURE FOR WORD BOUNDARIES

       In the POSIX.2 compliant library that was included in 4.4BSD Unix,  the
       ugly  syntax  [[:<:]]  and [[:>:]] is used for matching "start of word"
       and "end of word". PCRE2 treats these items as follows:

         [[:<:]]  is converted to  \b(?=\w)
         [[:>:]]  is converted to  \b(?<=\w)

       Only these exact character sequences are recognized. A sequence such as
       [a[:<:]b]  provokes  error  for  an unrecognized POSIX class name. This
       support is not compatible with Perl. It is provided to help  migrations
       from other environments, and is best not used in any new patterns. Note
       that \b matches at the start and the end of a word (see "Simple  asser-
       tions"  above),  and in a Perl-style pattern the preceding or following
       character normally shows which is wanted, without the need for the  as-
       sertions  that are used above in order to give exactly the POSIX behav-
       iour.


VERTICAL BAR

       Vertical bar characters are used to separate alternative patterns.  For
       example, the pattern

         gilbert|sullivan

       matches  either "gilbert" or "sullivan". Any number of alternatives may
       appear, and an empty  alternative  is  permitted  (matching  the  empty
       string). The matching process tries each alternative in turn, from left
       to right, and the first one that succeeds is used. If the  alternatives
       are  within a group (defined below), "succeeds" means matching the rest
       of the main pattern as well as the alternative in the group.


INTERNAL OPTION SETTING

       The settings  of  the  PCRE2_CASELESS,  PCRE2_MULTILINE,  PCRE2_DOTALL,
       PCRE2_EXTENDED,  PCRE2_EXTENDED_MORE, and PCRE2_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE options
       can be changed from within the pattern by a  sequence  of  letters  en-
       closed  between  "(?"   and ")". These options are Perl-compatible, and
       are described in detail in the pcre2api documentation. The option  let-
       ters are:

         i  for PCRE2_CASELESS
         m  for PCRE2_MULTILINE
         n  for PCRE2_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE
         s  for PCRE2_DOTALL
         x  for PCRE2_EXTENDED
         xx for PCRE2_EXTENDED_MORE

       For example, (?im) sets caseless, multiline matching. It is also possi-
       ble to unset these options by preceding the relevant letters with a hy-
       phen,  for  example (?-im). The two "extended" options are not indepen-
       dent; unsetting either one cancels the effects of both of them.

       A  combined  setting  and  unsetting  such  as  (?im-sx),  which   sets
       PCRE2_CASELESS  and  PCRE2_MULTILINE  while  unsetting PCRE2_DOTALL and
       PCRE2_EXTENDED, is also permitted. Only one hyphen may  appear  in  the
       options  string.  If a letter appears both before and after the hyphen,
       the option is unset. An empty options setting "(?)" is  allowed.  Need-
       less to say, it has no effect.

       If  the  first character following (? is a circumflex, it causes all of
       the above options to be unset. Thus, (?^) is equivalent  to  (?-imnsx).
       Letters  may  follow  the circumflex to cause some options to be re-in-
       stated, but a hyphen may not appear.

       The PCRE2-specific options PCRE2_DUPNAMES  and  PCRE2_UNGREEDY  can  be
       changed  in  the  same  way as the Perl-compatible options by using the
       characters J and U respectively. However, these are not unset by (?^).

       When one of these option changes occurs at top level (that is, not  in-
       side  group  parentheses),  the  change applies to the remainder of the
       pattern that follows. An option change within a group (see below for  a
       description of groups) affects only that part of the group that follows
       it, so

         (a(?i)b)c

       matches abc and aBc and no other strings  (assuming  PCRE2_CASELESS  is
       not  used).   By this means, options can be made to have different set-
       tings in different parts of the pattern. Any changes made in one alter-
       native  do carry on into subsequent branches within the same group. For
       example,

         (a(?i)b|c)

       matches "ab", "aB", "c", and "C", even though  when  matching  "C"  the
       first  branch  is  abandoned before the option setting. This is because
       the effects of option settings happen at compile time. There  would  be
       some very weird behaviour otherwise.

       As  a  convenient shorthand, if any option settings are required at the
       start of a non-capturing group (see the next section), the option  let-
       ters may appear between the "?" and the ":". Thus the two patterns

         (?i:saturday|sunday)
         (?:(?i)saturday|sunday)

       match exactly the same set of strings.

       Note:  There  are  other  PCRE2-specific options, applying to the whole
       pattern, which can be set by the application when the  compiling  func-
       tion  is  called.  In addition, the pattern can contain special leading
       sequences such as (*CRLF) to override what the application has  set  or
       what  has  been  defaulted.   Details are given in the section entitled
       "Newline sequences" above. There are also the (*UTF) and (*UCP) leading
       sequences  that can be used to set UTF and Unicode property modes; they
       are equivalent to setting the PCRE2_UTF and PCRE2_UCP options,  respec-
       tively.  However,  the  application  can  set  the  PCRE2_NEVER_UTF and
       PCRE2_NEVER_UCP options, which lock out  the  use  of  the  (*UTF)  and
       (*UCP) sequences.


GROUPS

       Groups  are  delimited  by  parentheses  (round brackets), which can be
       nested.  Turning part of a pattern into a group does two things:

       1. It localizes a set of alternatives. For example, the pattern

         cat(aract|erpillar|)

       matches "cataract", "caterpillar", or "cat". Without  the  parentheses,
       it would match "cataract", "erpillar" or an empty string.

       2.  It  creates a "capture group". This means that, when the whole pat-
       tern matches, the portion of the subject string that matched the  group
       is  passed back to the caller, separately from the portion that matched
       the whole pattern.  (This applies  only  to  the  traditional  matching
       function; the DFA matching function does not support capturing.)

       Opening parentheses are counted from left to right (starting from 1) to
       obtain numbers for capture groups. For example, if the string "the  red
       king" is matched against the pattern

         the ((red|white) (king|queen))

       the captured substrings are "red king", "red", and "king", and are num-
       bered 1, 2, and 3, respectively.

       The fact that plain parentheses fulfil  two  functions  is  not  always
       helpful.   There are often times when grouping is required without cap-
       turing. If an opening parenthesis is followed by a question mark and  a
       colon,  the  group  does  not do any capturing, and is not counted when
       computing the number of any subsequent capture groups. For example,  if
       the string "the white queen" is matched against the pattern

         the ((?:red|white) (king|queen))

       the captured substrings are "white queen" and "queen", and are numbered
       1 and 2. The maximum number of capture groups is 65535.

       As a convenient shorthand, if any option settings are required  at  the
       start  of  a non-capturing group, the option letters may appear between
       the "?" and the ":". Thus the two patterns

         (?i:saturday|sunday)
         (?:(?i)saturday|sunday)

       match exactly the same set of strings. Because alternative branches are
       tried  from  left  to right, and options are not reset until the end of
       the group is reached, an option setting in one branch does affect  sub-
       sequent branches, so the above patterns match "SUNDAY" as well as "Sat-
       urday".


DUPLICATE GROUP NUMBERS

       Perl 5.10 introduced a feature whereby each alternative in a group uses
       the  same  numbers  for  its capturing parentheses. Such a group starts
       with (?| and is itself a non-capturing  group.  For  example,  consider
       this pattern:

         (?|(Sat)ur|(Sun))day

       Because  the two alternatives are inside a (?| group, both sets of cap-
       turing parentheses are numbered one. Thus, when  the  pattern  matches,
       you  can  look  at captured substring number one, whichever alternative
       matched. This construct is useful when you want to  capture  part,  but
       not all, of one of a number of alternatives. Inside a (?| group, paren-
       theses are numbered as usual, but the number is reset at the  start  of
       each  branch.  The numbers of any capturing parentheses that follow the
       whole group start after the highest number used in any branch. The fol-
       lowing example is taken from the Perl documentation. The numbers under-
       neath show in which buffer the captured content will be stored.

         # before  ---------------branch-reset----------- after
         / ( a )  (?| x ( y ) z | (p (q) r) | (t) u (v) ) ( z ) /x
         # 1            2         2  3        2     3     4

       A backreference to a capture group uses the most recent value  that  is
       set for the group. The following pattern matches "abcabc" or "defdef":

         /(?|(abc)|(def))\1/

       In  contrast, a subroutine call to a capture group always refers to the
       first one in the pattern with the given number. The  following  pattern
       matches "abcabc" or "defabc":

         /(?|(abc)|(def))(?1)/

       A relative reference such as (?-1) is no different: it is just a conve-
       nient way of computing an absolute group number.

       If a condition test for a group's having matched refers to a non-unique
       number, the test is true if any group with that number has matched.

       An  alternative approach to using this "branch reset" feature is to use
       duplicate named groups, as described in the next section.


NAMED CAPTURE GROUPS

       Identifying capture groups by number is simple, but it can be very hard
       to  keep  track of the numbers in complicated patterns. Furthermore, if
       an expression is modified, the numbers may change. To  help  with  this
       difficulty,  PCRE2  supports the naming of capture groups. This feature
       was not added to Perl until release 5.10. Python had the  feature  ear-
       lier,  and PCRE1 introduced it at release 4.0, using the Python syntax.
       PCRE2 supports both the Perl and the Python syntax.

       In PCRE2,  a  capture  group  can  be  named  in  one  of  three  ways:
       (?<name>...) or (?'name'...) as in Perl, or (?P<name>...) as in Python.
       Names may be up to 32 code units long. When PCRE2_UTF is not set,  they
       may  contain  only  ASCII  alphanumeric characters and underscores, but
       must start with a non-digit. When PCRE2_UTF is set, the syntax of group
       names is extended to allow any Unicode letter or Unicode decimal digit.
       In other words, group names must match one of these patterns:

         ^[_A-Za-z][_A-Za-z0-9]*\z   when PCRE2_UTF is not set
         ^[_\p{L}][_\p{L}\p{Nd}]*\z  when PCRE2_UTF is set

       References to capture groups from other parts of the pattern,  such  as
       backreferences,  recursion,  and conditions, can all be made by name as
       well as by number.

       Named capture groups are allocated numbers as well as names, exactly as
       if  the  names were not present. In both PCRE2 and Perl, capture groups
       are primarily identified by numbers; any names  are  just  aliases  for
       these numbers. The PCRE2 API provides function calls for extracting the
       complete name-to-number translation table from a compiled  pattern,  as
       well  as  convenience  functions  for extracting captured substrings by
       name.

       Warning: When more than one capture group has the same number,  as  de-
       scribed in the previous section, a name given to one of them applies to
       all of them. Perl allows identically numbered groups to have  different
       names.  Consider this pattern, where there are two capture groups, both
       numbered 1:

         (?|(?<AA>aa)|(?<BB>bb))

       Perl allows this, with both names AA and BB  as  aliases  of  group  1.
       Thus, after a successful match, both names yield the same value (either
       "aa" or "bb").

       In an attempt to reduce confusion, PCRE2 does not allow the same  group
       number to be associated with more than one name. The example above pro-
       vokes a compile-time error. However, there is still  scope  for  confu-
       sion. Consider this pattern:

         (?|(?<AA>aa)|(bb))

       Although the second group number 1 is not explicitly named, the name AA
       is still an alias for any group 1. Whether the pattern matches "aa"  or
       "bb", a reference by name to group AA yields the matched string.

       By  default, a name must be unique within a pattern, except that dupli-
       cate names are permitted for groups with the same number, for example:

         (?|(?<AA>aa)|(?<AA>bb))

       The duplicate name constraint can be disabled by setting the PCRE2_DUP-
       NAMES option at compile time, or by the use of (?J) within the pattern,
       as described in the section entitled "Internal Option Setting" above.

       Duplicate names can be useful for patterns where only one  instance  of
       the  named  capture group can match. Suppose you want to match the name
       of a weekday, either as a 3-letter abbreviation or as  the  full  name,
       and  in  both  cases you want to extract the abbreviation. This pattern
       (ignoring the line breaks) does the job:

         (?J)
         (?<DN>Mon|Fri|Sun)(?:day)?|
         (?<DN>Tue)(?:sday)?|
         (?<DN>Wed)(?:nesday)?|
         (?<DN>Thu)(?:rsday)?|
         (?<DN>Sat)(?:urday)?

       There are five capture groups, but only one is ever set after a  match.
       The  convenience  functions for extracting the data by name returns the
       substring for the first (and in this example, the only) group  of  that
       name that matched. This saves searching to find which numbered group it
       was. (An alternative way of solving this problem is to  use  a  "branch
       reset" group, as described in the previous section.)

       If  you make a backreference to a non-unique named group from elsewhere
       in the pattern, the groups to which the name refers are checked in  the
       order  in  which they appear in the overall pattern. The first one that
       is set is used for the reference. For  example,  this  pattern  matches
       both "foofoo" and "barbar" but not "foobar" or "barfoo":

         (?J)(?:(?<n>foo)|(?<n>bar))\k<n>


       If you make a subroutine call to a non-unique named group, the one that
       corresponds to the first occurrence of the name is used. In the absence
       of duplicate numbers this is the one with the lowest number.

       If you use a named reference in a condition test (see the section about
       conditions below), either to check whether a capture group has matched,
       or to check for recursion, all groups with the same name are tested. If
       the condition is true for any one of them,  the  overall  condition  is
       true.  This is the same behaviour as testing by number. For further de-
       tails of the interfaces for handling  named  capture  groups,  see  the
       pcre2api documentation.


REPETITION

       Repetition  is  specified  by  quantifiers, which can follow any of the
       following items:

         a literal data character
         the dot metacharacter
         the \C escape sequence
         the \R escape sequence
         the \X escape sequence
         an escape such as \d or \pL that matches a single character
         a character class
         a backreference
         a parenthesized group (including lookaround assertions)
         a subroutine call (recursive or otherwise)

       The general repetition quantifier specifies a minimum and maximum  num-
       ber  of  permitted matches, by giving the two numbers in curly brackets
       (braces), separated by a comma. The numbers must be  less  than  65536,
       and the first must be less than or equal to the second. For example,

         z{2,4}

       matches  "zz",  "zzz",  or  "zzzz". A closing brace on its own is not a
       special character. If the second number is omitted, but  the  comma  is
       present,  there  is  no upper limit; if the second number and the comma
       are both omitted, the quantifier specifies an exact number of  required
       matches. Thus

         [aeiou]{3,}

       matches at least 3 successive vowels, but may match many more, whereas

         \d{8}

       matches  exactly  8  digits. An opening curly bracket that appears in a
       position where a quantifier is not allowed, or one that does not  match
       the  syntax of a quantifier, is taken as a literal character. For exam-
       ple, {,6} is not a quantifier, but a literal string of four characters.

       In UTF modes, quantifiers apply to characters rather than to individual
       code  units. Thus, for example, \x{100}{2} matches two characters, each
       of which is represented by a two-byte sequence in a UTF-8 string. Simi-
       larly,  \X{3} matches three Unicode extended grapheme clusters, each of
       which may be several code units long (and  they  may  be  of  different
       lengths).

       The quantifier {0} is permitted, causing the expression to behave as if
       the previous item and the quantifier were not present. This may be use-
       ful  for  capture  groups that are referenced as subroutines from else-
       where in the pattern (but see also the section entitled "Defining  cap-
       ture groups for use by reference only" below). Except for parenthesized
       groups, items that have a {0} quantifier are omitted from the  compiled
       pattern.

       For  convenience, the three most common quantifiers have single-charac-
       ter abbreviations:

         *    is equivalent to {0,}
         +    is equivalent to {1,}
         ?    is equivalent to {0,1}

       It is possible to construct infinite loops by following  a  group  that
       can  match no characters with a quantifier that has no upper limit, for
       example:

         (a?)*

       Earlier versions of Perl and PCRE1 used to give  an  error  at  compile
       time for such patterns. However, because there are cases where this can
       be useful, such patterns are now accepted, but whenever an iteration of
       such  a group matches no characters, matching moves on to the next item
       in the pattern instead of repeatedly matching  an  empty  string.  This
       does  not  prevent  backtracking into any of the iterations if a subse-
       quent item fails to match.

       By default, quantifiers are "greedy", that is, they match  as  much  as
       possible (up to the maximum number of permitted times), without causing
       the rest of the pattern to fail. The  classic  example  of  where  this
       gives  problems is in trying to match comments in C programs. These ap-
       pear between /* and */ and within the comment, individual * and / char-
       acters  may appear. An attempt to match C comments by applying the pat-
       tern

         /\*.*\*/

       to the string

         /* first comment */  not comment  /* second comment */

       fails, because it matches the entire string owing to the greediness  of
       the  .*  item. However, if a quantifier is followed by a question mark,
       it ceases to be greedy, and instead matches the minimum number of times
       possible, so the pattern

         /\*.*?\*/

       does  the  right  thing with the C comments. The meaning of the various
       quantifiers is not otherwise changed,  just  the  preferred  number  of
       matches.   Do  not  confuse this use of question mark with its use as a
       quantifier in its own right. Because it has two uses, it can  sometimes
       appear doubled, as in

         \d??\d

       which matches one digit by preference, but can match two if that is the
       only way the rest of the pattern matches.

       If the PCRE2_UNGREEDY option is set (an option that is not available in
       Perl),  the  quantifiers are not greedy by default, but individual ones
       can be made greedy by following them with a  question  mark.  In  other
       words, it inverts the default behaviour.

       When  a  parenthesized  group is quantified with a minimum repeat count
       that is greater than 1 or with a limited maximum, more  memory  is  re-
       quired for the compiled pattern, in proportion to the size of the mini-
       mum or maximum.

       If a pattern starts with  .*  or  .{0,}  and  the  PCRE2_DOTALL  option
       (equivalent  to  Perl's /s) is set, thus allowing the dot to match new-
       lines, the pattern is implicitly  anchored,  because  whatever  follows
       will  be  tried against every character position in the subject string,
       so there is no point in retrying the overall match at any position  af-
       ter  the  first. PCRE2 normally treats such a pattern as though it were
       preceded by \A.

       In cases where it is known that the subject  string  contains  no  new-
       lines,  it  is worth setting PCRE2_DOTALL in order to obtain this opti-
       mization, or alternatively, using ^ to indicate anchoring explicitly.

       However, there are some cases where the optimization  cannot  be  used.
       When  .*   is  inside  capturing  parentheses that are the subject of a
       backreference elsewhere in the pattern, a match at the start  may  fail
       where a later one succeeds. Consider, for example:

         (.*)abc\1

       If  the subject is "xyz123abc123" the match point is the fourth charac-
       ter. For this reason, such a pattern is not implicitly anchored.

       Another case where implicit anchoring is not applied is when the  lead-
       ing  .* is inside an atomic group. Once again, a match at the start may
       fail where a later one succeeds. Consider this pattern:

         (?>.*?a)b

       It matches "ab" in the subject "aab". The use of the backtracking  con-
       trol  verbs  (*PRUNE)  and  (*SKIP) also disable this optimization, and
       there is an option, PCRE2_NO_DOTSTAR_ANCHOR, to do so explicitly.

       When a capture group is repeated, the value captured is  the  substring
       that matched the final iteration. For example, after

         (tweedle[dume]{3}\s*)+

       has matched "tweedledum tweedledee" the value of the captured substring
       is "tweedledee". However, if there are nested capture groups, the  cor-
       responding  captured  values  may have been set in previous iterations.
       For example, after

         (a|(b))+

       matches "aba" the value of the second captured substring is "b".


ATOMIC GROUPING AND POSSESSIVE QUANTIFIERS

       With both maximizing ("greedy") and minimizing ("ungreedy"  or  "lazy")
       repetition,  failure  of what follows normally causes the repeated item
       to be re-evaluated to see if a different number of repeats  allows  the
       rest  of  the pattern to match. Sometimes it is useful to prevent this,
       either to change the nature of the match, or to cause it  fail  earlier
       than  it otherwise might, when the author of the pattern knows there is
       no point in carrying on.

       Consider, for example, the pattern \d+foo when applied to  the  subject
       line

         123456bar

       After matching all 6 digits and then failing to match "foo", the normal
       action of the matcher is to try again with only 5 digits  matching  the
       \d+  item,  and  then  with  4,  and  so on, before ultimately failing.
       "Atomic grouping" (a term taken from Jeffrey  Friedl's  book)  provides
       the means for specifying that once a group has matched, it is not to be
       re-evaluated in this way.

       If we use atomic grouping for the previous example, the  matcher  gives
       up  immediately  on failing to match "foo" the first time. The notation
       is a kind of special parenthesis, starting with (?> as in this example:

         (?>\d+)foo

       Perl 5.28 introduced an experimental alphabetic form starting  with  (*
       which may be easier to remember:

         (*atomic:\d+)foo

       This kind of parenthesized group "locks up" the  part of the pattern it
       contains once it has matched, and a failure further into the pattern is
       prevented  from  backtracking into it. Backtracking past it to previous
       items, however, works as normal.

       An alternative description is that a group of this type matches exactly
       the  string  of  characters  that an identical standalone pattern would
       match, if anchored at the current point in the subject string.

       Atomic groups are not capture groups. Simple cases such  as  the  above
       example  can be thought of as a maximizing repeat that must swallow ev-
       erything it can.  So, while both \d+ and \d+? are  prepared  to  adjust
       the  number  of digits they match in order to make the rest of the pat-
       tern match, (?>\d+) can only match an entire sequence of digits.

       Atomic groups in general can of course contain arbitrarily  complicated
       expressions, and can be nested. However, when the contents of an atomic
       group is just a single repeated item, as in the example above,  a  sim-
       pler  notation, called a "possessive quantifier" can be used. This con-
       sists of an additional + character following a quantifier.  Using  this
       notation, the previous example can be rewritten as

         \d++foo

       Note that a possessive quantifier can be used with an entire group, for
       example:

         (abc|xyz){2,3}+

       Possessive quantifiers are always greedy; the setting of the  PCRE2_UN-
       GREEDY  option  is ignored. They are a convenient notation for the sim-
       pler forms of atomic group. However, there  is  no  difference  in  the
       meaning  of  a  possessive  quantifier and the equivalent atomic group,
       though there may be a performance  difference;  possessive  quantifiers
       should be slightly faster.

       The  possessive  quantifier syntax is an extension to the Perl 5.8 syn-
       tax.  Jeffrey Friedl originated the idea (and the name)  in  the  first
       edition of his book. Mike McCloskey liked it, so implemented it when he
       built Sun's Java package, and PCRE1 copied it from there. It found  its
       way into Perl at release 5.10.

       PCRE2  has  an  optimization  that automatically "possessifies" certain
       simple pattern constructs. For example, the sequence A+B is treated  as
       A++B  because  there is no point in backtracking into a sequence of A's
       when B must follow.  This feature can be disabled by the PCRE2_NO_AUTO-
       POSSESS option, or starting the pattern with (*NO_AUTO_POSSESS).

       When a pattern contains an unlimited repeat inside a group that can it-
       self be repeated an unlimited number of times, the  use  of  an  atomic
       group  is the only way to avoid some failing matches taking a very long
       time indeed. The pattern

         (\D+|<\d+>)*[!?]

       matches an unlimited number of substrings that either consist  of  non-
       digits,  or  digits  enclosed in <>, followed by either ! or ?. When it
       matches, it runs quickly. However, if it is applied to

         aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

       it takes a long time before reporting  failure.  This  is  because  the
       string  can be divided between the internal \D+ repeat and the external
       * repeat in a large number of ways, and all have to be tried. (The  ex-
       ample uses [!?] rather than a single character at the end, because both
       PCRE2 and Perl have an optimization that allows for fast failure when a
       single  character is used. They remember the last single character that
       is required for a match, and fail early if it is  not  present  in  the
       string.)  If  the  pattern  is changed so that it uses an atomic group,
       like this:

         ((?>\D+)|<\d+>)*[!?]

       sequences of non-digits cannot be broken, and failure happens quickly.


BACKREFERENCES

       Outside a character class, a backslash followed by a digit greater than
       0  (and  possibly further digits) is a backreference to a capture group
       earlier (that is, to its left) in the pattern, provided there have been
       that many previous capture groups.

       However,  if the decimal number following the backslash is less than 8,
       it is always taken as a backreference, and  causes  an  error  only  if
       there  are not that many capture groups in the entire pattern. In other
       words, the group that is referenced need not be to the left of the ref-
       erence  for numbers less than 8. A "forward backreference" of this type
       can make sense when a repetition is involved and the group to the right
       has participated in an earlier iteration.

       It  is  not  possible  to have a numerical "forward backreference" to a
       group whose number is 8 or more using this syntax  because  a  sequence
       such  as  \50  is  interpreted as a character defined in octal. See the
       subsection entitled "Non-printing characters" above for further details
       of  the  handling of digits following a backslash. Other forms of back-
       referencing do not suffer from this restriction. In  particular,  there
       is no problem when named capture groups are used (see below).

       Another  way  of  avoiding  the ambiguity inherent in the use of digits
       following a backslash is to use the \g  escape  sequence.  This  escape
       must be followed by a signed or unsigned number, optionally enclosed in
       braces. These examples are all identical:

         (ring), \1
         (ring), \g1
         (ring), \g{1}

       An unsigned number specifies an absolute reference without the  ambigu-
       ity that is present in the older syntax. It is also useful when literal
       digits follow the reference. A signed number is a  relative  reference.
       Consider this example:

         (abc(def)ghi)\g{-1}

       The sequence \g{-1} is a reference to the most recently started capture
       group before \g, that is, is it equivalent to \2 in this example. Simi-
       larly, \g{-2} would be equivalent to \1. The use of relative references
       can be helpful in long patterns, and also in patterns that are  created
       by  joining  together  fragments  that  contain references within them-
       selves.

       The sequence \g{+1} is a reference to the next capture group. This kind
       of  forward  reference can be useful in patterns that repeat. Perl does
       not support the use of + in this way.

       A backreference matches whatever actually  most  recently  matched  the
       capture  group  in  the current subject string, rather than anything at
       all that matches the group (see "Groups as subroutines" below for a way
       of doing that). So the pattern

         (sens|respons)e and \1ibility

       matches  "sense and sensibility" and "response and responsibility", but
       not "sense and responsibility". If caseful matching is in force at  the
       time  of  the backreference, the case of letters is relevant. For exam-
       ple,

         ((?i)rah)\s+\1

       matches "rah rah" and "RAH RAH", but not "RAH  rah",  even  though  the
       original capture group is matched caselessly.

       There  are  several  different  ways of writing backreferences to named
       capture groups. The .NET syntax \k{name} and the Perl  syntax  \k<name>
       or  \k'name'  are  supported,  as  is the Python syntax (?P=name). Perl
       5.10's unified backreference syntax, in which \g can be used  for  both
       numeric  and  named references, is also supported. We could rewrite the
       above example in any of the following ways:

         (?<p1>(?i)rah)\s+\k<p1>
         (?'p1'(?i)rah)\s+\k{p1}
         (?P<p1>(?i)rah)\s+(?P=p1)
         (?<p1>(?i)rah)\s+\g{p1}

       A capture group that is referenced by name may appear  in  the  pattern
       before or after the reference.

       There  may be more than one backreference to the same group. If a group
       has not actually been used in a particular match, backreferences to  it
       always fail by default. For example, the pattern

         (a|(bc))\2

       always  fails  if  it starts to match "a" rather than "bc". However, if
       the PCRE2_MATCH_UNSET_BACKREF option is set at compile time, a backref-
       erence to an unset value matches an empty string.

       Because  there may be many capture groups in a pattern, all digits fol-
       lowing a backslash are taken as part of a potential backreference  num-
       ber.  If  the  pattern continues with a digit character, some delimiter
       must be used to terminate the backreference. If the  PCRE2_EXTENDED  or
       PCRE2_EXTENDED_MORE  option is set, this can be white space. Otherwise,
       the \g{} syntax or an empty comment (see "Comments" below) can be used.

   Recursive backreferences

       A backreference that occurs inside the group to which it  refers  fails
       when  the  group  is  first used, so, for example, (a\1) never matches.
       However, such references can be useful inside repeated groups. For  ex-
       ample, the pattern

         (a|b\1)+

       matches any number of "a"s and also "aba", "ababbaa" etc. At each iter-
       ation of the group, the backreference matches the character string cor-
       responding  to  the  previous iteration. In order for this to work, the
       pattern must be such that the first iteration does not  need  to  match
       the  backreference. This can be done using alternation, as in the exam-
       ple above, or by a quantifier with a minimum of zero.

       For versions of PCRE2 less than 10.25, backreferences of this type used
       to  cause  the  group  that  they  reference to be treated as an atomic
       group.  This restriction no longer applies, and backtracking into  such
       groups can occur as normal.


ASSERTIONS

       An  assertion  is  a  test on the characters following or preceding the
       current matching point that does not consume any characters. The simple
       assertions  coded  as  \b,  \B,  \A,  \G, \Z, \z, ^ and $ are described
       above.

       More complicated assertions are coded as  parenthesized  groups.  There
       are  two  kinds:  those  that look ahead of the current position in the
       subject string, and those that look behind it, and in each case an  as-
       sertion  may  be  positive (must match for the assertion to be true) or
       negative (must not match for the assertion to be  true).  An  assertion
       group is matched in the normal way, and if it is true, matching contin-
       ues after it, but with the matching position in the subject string  re-
       set to what it was before the assertion was processed.

       The  Perl-compatible  lookaround assertions are atomic. If an assertion
       is true, but there is a subsequent matching failure, there is no  back-
       tracking  into  the assertion. However, there are some cases where non-
       atomic assertions can be useful. PCRE2 has some support for these,  de-
       scribed in the section entitled "Non-atomic assertions" below, but they
       are not Perl-compatible.

       A lookaround assertion may appear as the  condition  in  a  conditional
       group  (see  below). In this case, the result of matching the assertion
       determines which branch of the condition is followed.

       Assertion groups are not capture groups. If an assertion contains  cap-
       ture  groups within it, these are counted for the purposes of numbering
       the capture groups in the whole pattern. Within each branch of  an  as-
       sertion,  locally  captured  substrings  may be referenced in the usual
       way. For example, a sequence such as (.)\g{-1} can  be  used  to  check
       that two adjacent characters are the same.

       When  a  branch within an assertion fails to match, any substrings that
       were captured are discarded (as happens with any  pattern  branch  that
       fails  to  match).  A  negative  assertion  is  true  only when all its
       branches fail to match; this means that no captured substrings are ever
       retained  after a successful negative assertion. When an assertion con-
       tains a matching branch, what happens depends on the type of assertion.

       For a positive assertion, internally captured substrings  in  the  suc-
       cessful  branch are retained, and matching continues with the next pat-
       tern item after the assertion. For a  negative  assertion,  a  matching
       branch  means  that  the assertion is not true. If such an assertion is
       being used as a condition in a conditional group (see below),  captured
       substrings  are  retained,  because  matching  continues  with the "no"
       branch of the condition. For other failing negative assertions, control
       passes to the previous backtracking point, thus discarding any captured
       strings within the assertion.

       Most assertion groups may be repeated; though it makes no sense to  as-
       sert the same thing several times, the side effect of capturing in pos-
       itive assertions may occasionally be useful. However, an assertion that
       forms  the  condition  for  a  conditional group may not be quantified.
       PCRE2 used to restrict the repetition of assertions, but  from  release
       10.35  the  only restriction is that an unlimited maximum repetition is
       changed to be one more than the minimum. For example, {3,}  is  treated
       as {3,4}.

   Alphabetic assertion names

       Traditionally,  symbolic  sequences such as (?= and (?<= have been used
       to specify lookaround assertions. Perl 5.28 introduced some  experimen-
       tal alphabetic alternatives which might be easier to remember. They all
       start with (* instead of (? and must be written using lower  case  let-
       ters. PCRE2 supports the following synonyms:

         (*positive_lookahead:  or (*pla: is the same as (?=
         (*negative_lookahead:  or (*nla: is the same as (?!
         (*positive_lookbehind: or (*plb: is the same as (?<=
         (*negative_lookbehind: or (*nlb: is the same as (?<!

       For  example,  (*pla:foo) is the same assertion as (?=foo). In the fol-
       lowing sections, the various assertions are described using the  origi-
       nal symbolic forms.

   Lookahead assertions

       Lookahead assertions start with (?= for positive assertions and (?! for
       negative assertions. For example,

         \w+(?=;)

       matches a word followed by a semicolon, but does not include the  semi-
       colon in the match, and

         foo(?!bar)

       matches  any  occurrence  of  "foo" that is not followed by "bar". Note
       that the apparently similar pattern

         (?!foo)bar

       does not find an occurrence of "bar"  that  is  preceded  by  something
       other  than "foo"; it finds any occurrence of "bar" whatsoever, because
       the assertion (?!foo) is always true when the next three characters are
       "bar". A lookbehind assertion is needed to achieve the other effect.

       If you want to force a matching failure at some point in a pattern, the
       most convenient way to do it is with (?!) because an empty  string  al-
       ways  matches,  so  an assertion that requires there not to be an empty
       string must always fail.  The backtracking control verb (*FAIL) or (*F)
       is a synonym for (?!).

   Lookbehind assertions

       Lookbehind  assertions start with (?<= for positive assertions and (?<!
       for negative assertions. For example,

         (?<!foo)bar

       does find an occurrence of "bar" that is not  preceded  by  "foo".  The
       contents  of  a  lookbehind  assertion are restricted such that all the
       strings it matches must have a fixed length. However, if there are sev-
       eral  top-level  alternatives,  they  do  not all have to have the same
       fixed length. Thus

         (?<=bullock|donkey)

       is permitted, but

         (?<!dogs?|cats?)

       causes an error at compile time. Branches that match  different  length
       strings  are permitted only at the top level of a lookbehind assertion.
       This is an extension compared with Perl, which requires all branches to
       match the same length of string. An assertion such as

         (?<=ab(c|de))

       is  not  permitted,  because  its single top-level branch can match two
       different lengths, but it is acceptable to PCRE2 if  rewritten  to  use
       two top-level branches:

         (?<=abc|abde)

       In  some  cases, the escape sequence \K (see above) can be used instead
       of a lookbehind assertion to get round the fixed-length restriction.

       The implementation of lookbehind assertions is, for  each  alternative,
       to  temporarily  move the current position back by the fixed length and
       then try to match. If there are insufficient characters before the cur-
       rent position, the assertion fails.

       In  UTF-8  and  UTF-16 modes, PCRE2 does not allow the \C escape (which
       matches a single code unit even in a UTF mode) to appear in  lookbehind
       assertions,  because  it makes it impossible to calculate the length of
       the lookbehind. The \X and \R escapes, which can match  different  num-
       bers of code units, are never permitted in lookbehinds.

       "Subroutine"  calls  (see below) such as (?2) or (?&X) are permitted in
       lookbehinds, as long as the called capture group matches a fixed-length
       string.  However,  recursion, that is, a "subroutine" call into a group
       that is already active, is not supported.

       Perl does not support backreferences in lookbehinds. PCRE2 does support
       them,  but  only  if  certain  conditions  are met. The PCRE2_MATCH_UN-
       SET_BACKREF option must not be set, there must be no use of (?| in  the
       pattern  (it creates duplicate group numbers), and if the backreference
       is by name, the name must be unique. Of course,  the  referenced  group
       must  itself  match  a  fixed  length  substring. The following pattern
       matches words containing at least two characters  that  begin  and  end
       with the same character:

          \b(\w)\w++(?<=\1)

       Possessive  quantifiers  can be used in conjunction with lookbehind as-
       sertions to specify efficient matching of fixed-length strings  at  the
       end of subject strings. Consider a simple pattern such as

         abcd$

       when  applied  to  a  long string that does not match. Because matching
       proceeds from left to right, PCRE2 will look for each "a" in  the  sub-
       ject  and  then see if what follows matches the rest of the pattern. If
       the pattern is specified as

         ^.*abcd$

       the initial .* matches the entire string at first, but when this  fails
       (because there is no following "a"), it backtracks to match all but the
       last character, then all but the last two characters, and so  on.  Once
       again  the search for "a" covers the entire string, from right to left,
       so we are no better off. However, if the pattern is written as

         ^.*+(?<=abcd)

       there can be no backtracking for the .*+ item because of the possessive
       quantifier; it can match only the entire string. The subsequent lookbe-
       hind assertion does a single test on the last four  characters.  If  it
       fails,  the  match  fails  immediately. For long strings, this approach
       makes a significant difference to the processing time.

   Using multiple assertions

       Several assertions (of any sort) may occur in succession. For example,

         (?<=\d{3})(?<!999)foo

       matches "foo" preceded by three digits that are not "999". Notice  that
       each  of  the  assertions is applied independently at the same point in
       the subject string. First there is a  check  that  the  previous  three
       characters  are  all  digits,  and  then there is a check that the same
       three characters are not "999".  This pattern does not match "foo" pre-
       ceded  by  six  characters,  the first of which are digits and the last
       three of which are not "999". For example, it  doesn't  match  "123abc-
       foo". A pattern to do that is

         (?<=\d{3}...)(?<!999)foo

       This  time  the  first assertion looks at the preceding six characters,
       checking that the first three are digits, and then the second assertion
       checks that the preceding three characters are not "999".

       Assertions can be nested in any combination. For example,

         (?<=(?<!foo)bar)baz

       matches  an occurrence of "baz" that is preceded by "bar" which in turn
       is not preceded by "foo", while

         (?<=\d{3}(?!999)...)foo

       is another pattern that matches "foo" preceded by three digits and  any
       three characters that are not "999".


NON-ATOMIC ASSERTIONS

       The  traditional Perl-compatible lookaround assertions are atomic. That
       is, if an assertion is true, but there is a subsequent  matching  fail-
       ure,  there  is  no backtracking into the assertion. However, there are
       some cases where non-atomic positive assertions can  be  useful.  PCRE2
       provides these using the following syntax:

         (*non_atomic_positive_lookahead:  or (*napla: or (?*
         (*non_atomic_positive_lookbehind: or (*naplb: or (?<*

       Consider  the  problem  of finding the right-most word in a string that
       also appears earlier in the string, that is, it must  appear  at  least
       twice  in  total.  This pattern returns the required result as captured
       substring 1:

         ^(?x)(*napla: .* \b(\w++)) (?> .*? \b\1\b ){2}

       For a subject such as "word1 word2 word3 word2 word3 word4" the  result
       is  "word3".  How does it work? At the start, ^(?x) anchors the pattern
       and sets the "x" option, which causes white space (introduced for read-
       ability)  to  be  ignored. Inside the assertion, the greedy .* at first
       consumes the entire string, but then has to backtrack until the rest of
       the  assertion can match a word, which is captured by group 1. In other
       words, when the assertion first succeeds, it  captures  the  right-most
       word in the string.

       The  current  matching point is then reset to the start of the subject,
       and the rest of the pattern match checks for  two  occurrences  of  the
       captured  word,  using  an  ungreedy .*? to scan from the left. If this
       succeeds, we are done, but if the last word in the string does not  oc-
       cur  twice,  this  part  of  the pattern fails. If a traditional atomic
       lookhead (?= or (*pla: had been used, the assertion could not be re-en-
       tered,  and  the whole match would fail. The pattern would succeed only
       if the very last word in the subject was found twice.

       Using a non-atomic lookahead, however, means that when  the  last  word
       does  not  occur  twice  in the string, the lookahead can backtrack and
       find the second-last word, and so on, until either the match  succeeds,
       or all words have been tested.

       Two conditions must be met for a non-atomic assertion to be useful: the
       contents of one or more capturing groups must change after a  backtrack
       into  the  assertion,  and  there  must be a backreference to a changed
       group later in the pattern. If this is not the case, the  rest  of  the
       pattern  match  fails exactly as before because nothing has changed, so
       using a non-atomic assertion just wastes resources.

       There is one exception to backtracking into a non-atomic assertion.  If
       an  (*ACCEPT)  control verb is triggered, the assertion succeeds atomi-
       cally. That is, a subsequent match failure cannot  backtrack  into  the
       assertion.

       Non-atomic  assertions  are  not  supported by the alternative matching
       function pcre2_dfa_match(). They are supported by JIT, but only if they
       do not contain any control verbs such as (*ACCEPT). (This may change in
       future). Note that assertions that appear as conditions for conditional
       groups (see below) must be atomic.


SCRIPT RUNS

       In  concept, a script run is a sequence of characters that are all from
       the same Unicode script such as Latin or Greek. However,  because  some
       scripts  are  commonly  used together, and because some diacritical and
       other marks are used with multiple scripts,  it  is  not  that  simple.
       There is a full description of the rules that PCRE2 uses in the section
       entitled "Script Runs" in the pcre2unicode documentation.

       If part of a pattern is enclosed between (*script_run: or (*sr:  and  a
       closing  parenthesis,  it  fails  if the sequence of characters that it
       matches are not a script run. After a failure, normal backtracking  oc-
       curs.  Script runs can be used to detect spoofing attacks using charac-
       ters that look the same, but are from  different  scripts.  The  string
       "paypal.com"  is an infamous example, where the letters could be a mix-
       ture of Latin and Cyrillic. This pattern ensures that the matched char-
       acters in a sequence of non-spaces that follow white space are a script
       run:

         \s+(*sr:\S+)

       To be sure that they are all from the Latin  script  (for  example),  a
       lookahead can be used:

         \s+(?=\p{Latin})(*sr:\S+)

       This works as long as the first character is expected to be a character
       in that script, and not (for example)  punctuation,  which  is  allowed
       with  any script. If this is not the case, a more creative lookahead is
       needed. For example, if digits, underscore, and dots are  permitted  at
       the start:

         \s+(?=[0-9_.]*\p{Latin})(*sr:\S+)


       In  many  cases, backtracking into a script run pattern fragment is not
       desirable. The script run can employ an atomic group to  prevent  this.
       Because  this is a common requirement, a shorthand notation is provided
       by (*atomic_script_run: or (*asr:

         (*asr:...) is the same as (*sr:(?>...))

       Note that the atomic group is inside the script run. Putting it outside
       would not prevent backtracking into the script run pattern.

       Support  for  script runs is not available if PCRE2 is compiled without
       Unicode support. A compile-time error is given if any of the above con-
       structs  is encountered. Script runs are not supported by the alternate
       matching function, pcre2_dfa_match() because they use the  same  mecha-
       nism as capturing parentheses.

       Warning:  The  (*ACCEPT)  control  verb  (see below) should not be used
       within a script run group, because it causes an immediate exit from the
       group, bypassing the script run checking.


CONDITIONAL GROUPS

       It is possible to cause the matching process to obey a pattern fragment
       conditionally or to choose between two alternative fragments, depending
       on  the result of an assertion, or whether a specific capture group has
       already been matched. The two possible forms of conditional group are:

         (?(condition)yes-pattern)
         (?(condition)yes-pattern|no-pattern)

       If the condition is satisfied, the yes-pattern is used;  otherwise  the
       no-pattern  (if present) is used. An absent no-pattern is equivalent to
       an empty string (it always matches). If there are more than two  alter-
       natives  in the group, a compile-time error occurs. Each of the two al-
       ternatives may itself contain nested groups of any form, including con-
       ditional  groups;  the  restriction to two alternatives applies only at
       the level of the condition itself. This pattern fragment is an  example
       where the alternatives are complex:

         (?(1) (A|B|C) | (D | (?(2)E|F) | E) )


       There are five kinds of condition: references to capture groups, refer-
       ences to recursion, two pseudo-conditions called  DEFINE  and  VERSION,
       and assertions.

   Checking for a used capture group by number

       If  the  text between the parentheses consists of a sequence of digits,
       the condition is true if a capture group of that number has  previously
       matched.  If  there is more than one capture group with the same number
       (see the earlier section about duplicate group numbers), the  condition
       is true if any of them have matched. An alternative notation is to pre-
       cede the digits with a plus or minus sign. In this case, the group num-
       ber  is relative rather than absolute. The most recently opened capture
       group can be referenced by (?(-1), the next most recent by (?(-2),  and
       so  on.  Inside  loops  it  can  also make sense to refer to subsequent
       groups. The next capture group can be referenced as (?(+1), and so  on.
       (The  value  zero in any of these forms is not used; it provokes a com-
       pile-time error.)

       Consider the following pattern, which  contains  non-significant  white
       space  to  make it more readable (assume the PCRE2_EXTENDED option) and
       to divide it into three parts for ease of discussion:

         ( \( )?    [^()]+    (?(1) \) )

       The first part matches an optional opening  parenthesis,  and  if  that
       character is present, sets it as the first captured substring. The sec-
       ond part matches one or more characters that are not  parentheses.  The
       third  part  is a conditional group that tests whether or not the first
       capture group matched. If it did, that is, if subject started  with  an
       opening  parenthesis,  the condition is true, and so the yes-pattern is
       executed and a closing parenthesis is required.  Otherwise,  since  no-
       pattern is not present, the conditional group matches nothing. In other
       words, this pattern matches a sequence of  non-parentheses,  optionally
       enclosed in parentheses.

       If  you  were  embedding  this pattern in a larger one, you could use a
       relative reference:

         ...other stuff... ( \( )?    [^()]+    (?(-1) \) ) ...

       This makes the fragment independent of the parentheses  in  the  larger
       pattern.

   Checking for a used capture group by name

       Perl  uses  the  syntax  (?(<name>)...) or (?('name')...) to test for a
       used capture group by name. For compatibility with earlier versions  of
       PCRE1,  which had this facility before Perl, the syntax (?(name)...) is
       also recognized.  Note, however, that undelimited names  consisting  of
       the  letter  R followed by digits are ambiguous (see the following sec-
       tion). Rewriting the above example to use a named group gives this:

         (?<OPEN> \( )?    [^()]+    (?(<OPEN>) \) )

       If the name used in a condition of this kind is a duplicate,  the  test
       is  applied  to  all groups of the same name, and is true if any one of
       them has matched.

   Checking for pattern recursion

       "Recursion" in this sense refers to any subroutine-like call  from  one
       part  of  the  pattern to another, whether or not it is actually recur-
       sive. See the sections entitled "Recursive  patterns"  and  "Groups  as
       subroutines" below for details of recursion and subroutine calls.

       If  a  condition  is the string (R), and there is no capture group with
       the name R, the condition is true if matching is currently in a  recur-
       sion  or  subroutine call to the whole pattern or any capture group. If
       digits follow the letter R, and there is no group with that  name,  the
       condition  is  true  if  the  most recent call is into a group with the
       given number, which must exist somewhere in the overall  pattern.  This
       is a contrived example that is equivalent to a+b:

         ((?(R1)a+|(?1)b))

       However,  in  both  cases,  if there is a capture group with a matching
       name, the condition tests for its being set, as described in  the  sec-
       tion  above,  instead of testing for recursion. For example, creating a
       group with the name R1 by adding (?<R1>)  to  the  above  pattern  com-
       pletely changes its meaning.

       If a name preceded by ampersand follows the letter R, for example:

         (?(R&name)...)

       the  condition  is true if the most recent recursion is into a group of
       that name (which must exist within the pattern).

       This condition does not check the entire recursion stack. It tests only
       the  current  level.  If the name used in a condition of this kind is a
       duplicate, the test is applied to all groups of the same name,  and  is
       true if any one of them is the most recent recursion.

       At "top level", all these recursion test conditions are false.

   Defining capture groups for use by reference only

       If the condition is the string (DEFINE), the condition is always false,
       even if there is a group with the name DEFINE. In this case, there  may
       be only one alternative in the rest of the conditional group. It is al-
       ways skipped if control reaches this point in the pattern; the idea  of
       DEFINE  is that it can be used to define subroutines that can be refer-
       enced from elsewhere. (The use of subroutines is described below.)  For
       example,  a  pattern  to match an IPv4 address such as "192.168.23.245"
       could be written like this (ignore white space and line breaks):

         (?(DEFINE) (?<byte> 2[0-4]\d | 25[0-5] | 1\d\d | [1-9]?\d) )
         \b (?&byte) (\.(?&byte)){3} \b

       The first part of the pattern is a DEFINE group inside which a  another
       group  named "byte" is defined. This matches an individual component of
       an IPv4 address (a number less than 256). When  matching  takes  place,
       this  part  of  the pattern is skipped because DEFINE acts like a false
       condition. The rest of the pattern uses references to the  named  group
       to  match the four dot-separated components of an IPv4 address, insist-
       ing on a word boundary at each end.

   Checking the PCRE2 version

       Programs that link with a PCRE2 library can check the version by  call-
       ing  pcre2_config()  with  appropriate arguments. Users of applications
       that do not have access to the underlying code cannot do this.  A  spe-
       cial  "condition" called VERSION exists to allow such users to discover
       which version of PCRE2 they are dealing with by using this condition to
       match  a string such as "yesno". VERSION must be followed either by "="
       or ">=" and a version number.  For example:

         (?(VERSION>=10.4)yes|no)

       This pattern matches "yes" if the PCRE2 version is greater or equal  to
       10.4,  or "no" otherwise. The fractional part of the version number may
       not contain more than two digits.

   Assertion conditions

       If the condition is not in any of the  above  formats,  it  must  be  a
       parenthesized  assertion.  This may be a positive or negative lookahead
       or lookbehind assertion. However, it must be a traditional  atomic  as-
       sertion, not one of the PCRE2-specific non-atomic assertions.

       Consider  this  pattern,  again containing non-significant white space,
       and with the two alternatives on the second line:

         (?(?=[^a-z]*[a-z])
         \d{2}-[a-z]{3}-\d{2}  |  \d{2}-\d{2}-\d{2} )

       The condition is a positive lookahead assertion  that  matches  an  op-
       tional sequence of non-letters followed by a letter. In other words, it
       tests for the presence of at least one letter in the subject. If a let-
       ter  is  found,  the  subject is matched against the first alternative;
       otherwise it is  matched  against  the  second.  This  pattern  matches
       strings  in  one  of the two forms dd-aaa-dd or dd-dd-dd, where aaa are
       letters and dd are digits.

       When an assertion that is a condition contains capture groups, any cap-
       turing  that  occurs  in  a matching branch is retained afterwards, for
       both positive and negative assertions, because matching always  contin-
       ues  after  the  assertion, whether it succeeds or fails. (Compare non-
       conditional assertions, for which captures are retained only for  posi-
       tive assertions that succeed.)


COMMENTS

       There are two ways of including comments in patterns that are processed
       by PCRE2. In both cases, the start of the comment  must  not  be  in  a
       character  class,  nor  in  the middle of any other sequence of related
       characters such as (?: or a group name or number. The  characters  that
       make up a comment play no part in the pattern matching.

       The  sequence (?# marks the start of a comment that continues up to the
       next closing parenthesis. Nested parentheses are not permitted. If  the
       PCRE2_EXTENDED  or  PCRE2_EXTENDED_MORE  option  is set, an unescaped #
       character also introduces a comment, which in this  case  continues  to
       immediately  after  the next newline character or character sequence in
       the pattern. Which characters are interpreted as newlines is controlled
       by  an option passed to the compiling function or by a special sequence
       at the start of the pattern, as described in the section entitled "New-
       line conventions" above. Note that the end of this type of comment is a
       literal newline sequence in the pattern; escape sequences  that  happen
       to represent a newline do not count. For example, consider this pattern
       when PCRE2_EXTENDED is set, and the default newline convention (a  sin-
       gle linefeed character) is in force:

         abc #comment \n still comment

       On  encountering  the # character, pcre2_compile() skips along, looking
       for a newline in the pattern. The sequence \n is still literal at  this
       stage,  so  it does not terminate the comment. Only an actual character
       with the code value 0x0a (the default newline) does so.


RECURSIVE PATTERNS

       Consider the problem of matching a string in parentheses, allowing  for
       unlimited  nested  parentheses.  Without the use of recursion, the best
       that can be done is to use a pattern that  matches  up  to  some  fixed
       depth  of  nesting.  It  is not possible to handle an arbitrary nesting
       depth.

       For some time, Perl has provided a facility that allows regular expres-
       sions  to recurse (amongst other things). It does this by interpolating
       Perl code in the expression at run time, and the code can refer to  the
       expression itself. A Perl pattern using code interpolation to solve the
       parentheses problem can be created like this:

         $re = qr{\( (?: (?>[^()]+) | (?p{$re}) )* \)}x;

       The (?p{...}) item interpolates Perl code at run time, and in this case
       refers recursively to the pattern in which it appears.

       Obviously,  PCRE2  cannot  support  the interpolation of Perl code. In-
       stead, it supports special syntax for recursion of the entire  pattern,
       and also for individual capture group recursion. After its introduction
       in PCRE1 and Python, this kind of recursion was subsequently introduced
       into Perl at release 5.10.

       A  special  item  that consists of (? followed by a number greater than
       zero and a closing parenthesis is a recursive subroutine  call  of  the
       capture  group of the given number, provided that it occurs inside that
       group. (If not, it is a non-recursive subroutine  call,  which  is  de-
       scribed in the next section.) The special item (?R) or (?0) is a recur-
       sive call of the entire regular expression.

       This PCRE2 pattern solves the nested parentheses  problem  (assume  the
       PCRE2_EXTENDED option is set so that white space is ignored):

         \( ( [^()]++ | (?R) )* \)

       First  it matches an opening parenthesis. Then it matches any number of
       substrings which can either be a sequence of non-parentheses, or a  re-
       cursive match of the pattern itself (that is, a correctly parenthesized
       substring).  Finally there is a closing parenthesis. Note the use of  a
       possessive  quantifier  to  avoid  backtracking  into sequences of non-
       parentheses.

       If this were part of a larger pattern, you would not  want  to  recurse
       the entire pattern, so instead you could use this:

         ( \( ( [^()]++ | (?1) )* \) )

       We  have  put the pattern into parentheses, and caused the recursion to
       refer to them instead of the whole pattern.

       In a larger pattern,  keeping  track  of  parenthesis  numbers  can  be
       tricky.  This is made easier by the use of relative references. Instead
       of (?1) in the pattern above you can write (?-2) to refer to the second
       most  recently  opened  parentheses  preceding  the recursion. In other
       words, a negative number counts capturing  parentheses  leftwards  from
       the point at which it is encountered.

       Be  aware  however, that if duplicate capture group numbers are in use,
       relative references refer to the earliest group  with  the  appropriate
       number. Consider, for example:

         (?|(a)|(b)) (c) (?-2)

       The first two capture groups (a) and (b) are both numbered 1, and group
       (c) is number 2. When the reference (?-2) is  encountered,  the  second
       most  recently opened parentheses has the number 1, but it is the first
       such group (the (a) group) to which the recursion refers. This would be
       the  same if an absolute reference (?1) was used. In other words, rela-
       tive references are just a shorthand for computing a group number.

       It is also possible to refer to subsequent capture groups,  by  writing
       references  such  as  (?+2). However, these cannot be recursive because
       the reference is not inside the parentheses that are  referenced.  They
       are  always  non-recursive  subroutine  calls, as described in the next
       section.

       An alternative approach is to use named parentheses.  The  Perl  syntax
       for  this  is  (?&name);  PCRE1's earlier syntax (?P>name) is also sup-
       ported. We could rewrite the above example as follows:

         (?<pn> \( ( [^()]++ | (?&pn) )* \) )

       If there is more than one group with the same name, the earliest one is
       used.

       The example pattern that we have been looking at contains nested unlim-
       ited repeats, and so the use of a possessive  quantifier  for  matching
       strings  of  non-parentheses  is important when applying the pattern to
       strings that do not match. For example, when this pattern is applied to

         (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa()

       it yields "no match" quickly. However, if a  possessive  quantifier  is
       not  used, the match runs for a very long time indeed because there are
       so many different ways the + and * repeats can carve  up  the  subject,
       and all have to be tested before failure can be reported.

       At  the  end  of a match, the values of capturing parentheses are those
       from the outermost level. If you want to obtain intermediate values,  a
       callout function can be used (see below and the pcre2callout documenta-
       tion). If the pattern above is matched against

         (ab(cd)ef)

       the value for the inner capturing parentheses  (numbered  2)  is  "ef",
       which  is  the last value taken on at the top level. If a capture group
       is not matched at the top level, its final  captured  value  is  unset,
       even  if it was (temporarily) set at a deeper level during the matching
       process.

       Do not confuse the (?R) item with the condition (R),  which  tests  for
       recursion.   Consider  this pattern, which matches text in angle brack-
       ets, allowing for arbitrary nesting. Only digits are allowed in  nested
       brackets  (that is, when recursing), whereas any characters are permit-
       ted at the outer level.

         < (?: (?(R) \d++  | [^<>]*+) | (?R)) * >

       In this pattern, (?(R) is the start of a conditional  group,  with  two
       different  alternatives  for the recursive and non-recursive cases. The
       (?R) item is the actual recursive call.

   Differences in recursion processing between PCRE2 and Perl

       Some former differences between PCRE2 and Perl no longer exist.

       Before release 10.30, recursion processing in PCRE2 differed from  Perl
       in  that  a  recursive  subroutine call was always treated as an atomic
       group. That is, once it had matched some of the subject string, it  was
       never  re-entered,  even if it contained untried alternatives and there
       was a subsequent matching failure. (Historical note:  PCRE  implemented
       recursion before Perl did.)

       Starting  with  release 10.30, recursive subroutine calls are no longer
       treated as atomic. That is, they can be re-entered to try unused alter-
       natives  if  there  is a matching failure later in the pattern. This is
       now compatible with the way Perl works. If you want a  subroutine  call
       to be atomic, you must explicitly enclose it in an atomic group.

       Supporting backtracking into recursions simplifies certain types of re-
       cursive pattern. For example, this pattern matches palindromic strings:

         ^((.)(?1)\2|.?)$

       The second branch in the group matches a single  central  character  in
       the  palindrome  when there are an odd number of characters, or nothing
       when there are an even number of characters, but in order  to  work  it
       has  to  be  able  to  try the second case when the rest of the pattern
       match fails. If you want to match typical palindromic phrases, the pat-
       tern  has  to  ignore  all  non-word characters, which can be done like
       this:

         ^\W*+((.)\W*+(?1)\W*+\2|\W*+.?)\W*+$

       If run with the PCRE2_CASELESS option,  this  pattern  matches  phrases
       such  as "A man, a plan, a canal: Panama!". Note the use of the posses-
       sive quantifier *+ to avoid backtracking  into  sequences  of  non-word
       characters. Without this, PCRE2 takes a great deal longer (ten times or
       more) to match typical phrases, and Perl takes so long that  you  think
       it has gone into a loop.

       Another  way  in which PCRE2 and Perl used to differ in their recursion
       processing is in the handling of captured  values.  Formerly  in  Perl,
       when  a  group  was called recursively or as a subroutine (see the next
       section), it had no access to any values that were captured outside the
       recursion,  whereas  in  PCRE2 these values can be referenced. Consider
       this pattern:

         ^(.)(\1|a(?2))

       This pattern matches "bab". The first capturing parentheses match  "b",
       then in the second group, when the backreference \1 fails to match "b",
       the second alternative matches "a" and then recurses. In the recursion,
       \1  does now match "b" and so the whole match succeeds. This match used
       to fail in Perl, but in later versions (I tried 5.024) it now works.


GROUPS AS SUBROUTINES

       If the syntax for a recursive group call (either by number or by  name)
       is  used  outside the parentheses to which it refers, it operates a bit
       like a subroutine in a programming  language.  More  accurately,  PCRE2
       treats the referenced group as an independent subpattern which it tries
       to match at the current matching position. The called group may be  de-
       fined  before or after the reference. A numbered reference can be abso-
       lute or relative, as in these examples:

         (...(absolute)...)...(?2)...
         (...(relative)...)...(?-1)...
         (...(?+1)...(relative)...

       An earlier example pointed out that the pattern

         (sens|respons)e and \1ibility

       matches "sense and sensibility" and "response and responsibility",  but
       not "sense and responsibility". If instead the pattern

         (sens|respons)e and (?1)ibility

       is  used, it does match "sense and responsibility" as well as the other
       two strings. Another example is  given  in  the  discussion  of  DEFINE
       above.

       Like  recursions,  subroutine  calls  used to be treated as atomic, but
       this changed at PCRE2 release 10.30, so  backtracking  into  subroutine
       calls  can  now  occur. However, any capturing parentheses that are set
       during the subroutine call revert to their previous values afterwards.

       Processing options such as case-independence are fixed when a group  is
       defined,  so  if  it  is  used  as a subroutine, such options cannot be
       changed for different calls. For example, consider this pattern:

         (abc)(?i:(?-1))

       It matches "abcabc". It does not match "abcABC" because the  change  of
       processing option does not affect the called group.

       The  behaviour  of  backtracking control verbs in groups when called as
       subroutines is described in the section entitled "Backtracking verbs in
       subroutines" below.


ONIGURUMA SUBROUTINE SYNTAX

       For  compatibility with Oniguruma, the non-Perl syntax \g followed by a
       name or a number enclosed either in angle brackets or single quotes, is
       an alternative syntax for calling a group as a subroutine, possibly re-
       cursively. Here are two of the examples  used  above,  rewritten  using
       this syntax:

         (?<pn> \( ( (?>[^()]+) | \g<pn> )* \) )
         (sens|respons)e and \g'1'ibility

       PCRE2  supports an extension to Oniguruma: if a number is preceded by a
       plus or a minus sign it is taken as a relative reference. For example:

         (abc)(?i:\g<-1>)

       Note that \g{...} (Perl syntax) and \g<...> (Oniguruma syntax) are  not
       synonymous.  The  former is a backreference; the latter is a subroutine
       call.


CALLOUTS

       Perl has a feature whereby using the sequence (?{...}) causes arbitrary
       Perl  code to be obeyed in the middle of matching a regular expression.
       This makes it possible, amongst other things, to extract different sub-
       strings that match the same pair of parentheses when there is a repeti-
       tion.

       PCRE2 provides a similar feature, but of course it  cannot  obey  arbi-
       trary  Perl  code. The feature is called "callout". The caller of PCRE2
       provides an external function by putting its entry  point  in  a  match
       context  using  the function pcre2_set_callout(), and then passing that
       context to pcre2_match() or pcre2_dfa_match(). If no match  context  is
       passed, or if the callout entry point is set to NULL, callouts are dis-
       abled.

       Within a regular expression, (?C<arg>) indicates a point at  which  the
       external  function  is  to  be  called. There are two kinds of callout:
       those with a numerical argument and those with a string argument.  (?C)
       on  its  own with no argument is treated as (?C0). A numerical argument
       allows the  application  to  distinguish  between  different  callouts.
       String  arguments  were added for release 10.20 to make it possible for
       script languages that use PCRE2 to embed short scripts within  patterns
       in a similar way to Perl.

       During matching, when PCRE2 reaches a callout point, the external func-
       tion is called. It is provided with the number or  string  argument  of
       the  callout, the position in the pattern, and one item of data that is
       also set in the match block. The callout function may cause matching to
       proceed, to backtrack, or to fail.

       By  default,  PCRE2  implements  a  number of optimizations at matching
       time, and one side-effect is that sometimes callouts  are  skipped.  If
       you  need all possible callouts to happen, you need to set options that
       disable the relevant optimizations. More details, including a  complete
       description  of  the programming interface to the callout function, are
       given in the pcre2callout documentation.

   Callouts with numerical arguments

       If you just want to have  a  means  of  identifying  different  callout
       points,  put  a  number  less than 256 after the letter C. For example,
       this pattern has two callout points:

         (?C1)abc(?C2)def

       If the PCRE2_AUTO_CALLOUT flag is passed to pcre2_compile(),  numerical
       callouts  are  automatically installed before each item in the pattern.
       They are all numbered 255. If there is a conditional group in the  pat-
       tern whose condition is an assertion, an additional callout is inserted
       just before the condition. An explicit callout may also be set at  this
       position, as in this example:

         (?(?C9)(?=a)abc|def)

       Note that this applies only to assertion conditions, not to other types
       of condition.

   Callouts with string arguments

       A delimited string may be used instead of a number as a  callout  argu-
       ment.  The  starting  delimiter  must be one of ` ' " ^ % # $ { and the
       ending delimiter is the same as the start, except for {, where the end-
       ing  delimiter  is  }.  If  the  ending  delimiter is needed within the
       string, it must be doubled. For example:

         (?C'ab ''c'' d')xyz(?C{any text})pqr

       The doubling is removed before the string  is  passed  to  the  callout
       function.


BACKTRACKING CONTROL

       There  are  a  number  of  special "Backtracking Control Verbs" (to use
       Perl's terminology) that modify the behaviour  of  backtracking  during
       matching.  They are generally of the form (*VERB) or (*VERB:NAME). Some
       verbs take either form, and may behave differently depending on whether
       or  not  a  name  argument is present. The names are not required to be
       unique within the pattern.

       By default, for compatibility with Perl, a  name  is  any  sequence  of
       characters that does not include a closing parenthesis. The name is not
       processed in any way, and it is  not  possible  to  include  a  closing
       parenthesis   in  the  name.   This  can  be  changed  by  setting  the
       PCRE2_ALT_VERBNAMES option, but the result is no  longer  Perl-compati-
       ble.

       When  PCRE2_ALT_VERBNAMES  is  set,  backslash processing is applied to
       verb names and only an unescaped  closing  parenthesis  terminates  the
       name.  However, the only backslash items that are permitted are \Q, \E,
       and sequences such as \x{100} that define character code points.  Char-
       acter type escapes such as \d are faulted.

       A closing parenthesis can be included in a name either as \) or between
       \Q and \E. In addition to backslash processing, if  the  PCRE2_EXTENDED
       or PCRE2_EXTENDED_MORE option is also set, unescaped whitespace in verb
       names is skipped, and #-comments are recognized, exactly as in the rest
       of  the  pattern.  PCRE2_EXTENDED and PCRE2_EXTENDED_MORE do not affect
       verb names unless PCRE2_ALT_VERBNAMES is also set.

       The maximum length of a name is 255 in the 8-bit library and  65535  in
       the  16-bit and 32-bit libraries. If the name is empty, that is, if the
       closing parenthesis immediately follows the colon, the effect is as  if
       the colon were not there. Any number of these verbs may occur in a pat-
       tern. Except for (*ACCEPT), they may not be quantified.

       Since these verbs are specifically related  to  backtracking,  most  of
       them  can be used only when the pattern is to be matched using the tra-
       ditional matching function, because that uses a backtracking algorithm.
       With  the  exception  of (*FAIL), which behaves like a failing negative
       assertion, the backtracking control verbs cause an error if encountered
       by the DFA matching function.

       The  behaviour  of  these  verbs in repeated groups, assertions, and in
       capture groups called as subroutines (whether or  not  recursively)  is
       documented below.

   Optimizations that affect backtracking verbs

       PCRE2 contains some optimizations that are used to speed up matching by
       running some checks at the start of each match attempt. For example, it
       may  know  the minimum length of matching subject, or that a particular
       character must be present. When one of these optimizations bypasses the
       running  of  a  match,  any  included  backtracking  verbs will not, of
       course, be processed. You can suppress the start-of-match optimizations
       by  setting  the PCRE2_NO_START_OPTIMIZE option when calling pcre2_com-
       pile(), or by starting the pattern with (*NO_START_OPT). There is  more
       discussion of this option in the section entitled "Compiling a pattern"
       in the pcre2api documentation.

       Experiments with Perl suggest that it too  has  similar  optimizations,
       and like PCRE2, turning them off can change the result of a match.

   Verbs that act immediately

       The following verbs act as soon as they are encountered.

          (*ACCEPT) or (*ACCEPT:NAME)

       This  verb causes the match to end successfully, skipping the remainder
       of the pattern. However, when it is inside  a  capture  group  that  is
       called as a subroutine, only that group is ended successfully. Matching
       then continues at the outer level. If (*ACCEPT) in triggered in a posi-
       tive  assertion,  the  assertion succeeds; in a negative assertion, the
       assertion fails.

       If (*ACCEPT) is inside capturing parentheses, the data so far  is  cap-
       tured. For example:

         A((?:A|B(*ACCEPT)|C)D)

       This  matches  "AB", "AAD", or "ACD"; when it matches "AB", "B" is cap-
       tured by the outer parentheses.

       (*ACCEPT) is the only backtracking verb that is allowed to  be  quanti-
       fied  because  an  ungreedy  quantification with a minimum of zero acts
       only when a backtrack happens. Consider, for example,

         (A(*ACCEPT)??B)C

       where A, B, and C may be complex expressions. After matching  "A",  the
       matcher  processes  "BC"; if that fails, causing a backtrack, (*ACCEPT)
       is triggered and the match succeeds. In both cases, all but C  is  cap-
       tured.  Whereas  (*COMMIT) (see below) means "fail on backtrack", a re-
       peated (*ACCEPT) of this type means "succeed on backtrack".

       Warning: (*ACCEPT) should not be used within a script  run  group,  be-
       cause  it causes an immediate exit from the group, bypassing the script
       run checking.

         (*FAIL) or (*FAIL:NAME)

       This verb causes a matching failure, forcing backtracking to occur.  It
       may  be  abbreviated  to  (*F).  It is equivalent to (?!) but easier to
       read. The Perl documentation notes that it is probably useful only when
       combined with (?{}) or (??{}). Those are, of course, Perl features that
       are not present in PCRE2. The nearest equivalent is  the  callout  fea-
       ture, as for example in this pattern:

         a+(?C)(*FAIL)

       A  match  with the string "aaaa" always fails, but the callout is taken
       before each backtrack happens (in this example, 10 times).

       (*ACCEPT:NAME) and (*FAIL:NAME) behave the  same  as  (*MARK:NAME)(*AC-
       CEPT)  and  (*MARK:NAME)(*FAIL),  respectively,  that  is, a (*MARK) is
       recorded just before the verb acts.

   Recording which path was taken

       There is one verb whose main purpose is to track how a  match  was  ar-
       rived  at,  though  it also has a secondary use in conjunction with ad-
       vancing the match starting point (see (*SKIP) below).

         (*MARK:NAME) or (*:NAME)

       A name is always required with this verb. For all the other  backtrack-
       ing control verbs, a NAME argument is optional.

       When  a  match  succeeds, the name of the last-encountered mark name on
       the matching path is passed back to the caller as described in the sec-
       tion entitled "Other information about the match" in the pcre2api docu-
       mentation. This applies to all instances of (*MARK)  and  other  verbs,
       including those inside assertions and atomic groups. However, there are
       differences in those cases when (*MARK) is  used  in  conjunction  with
       (*SKIP) as described below.

       The  mark name that was last encountered on the matching path is passed
       back. A verb without a NAME argument is ignored for this purpose.  Here
       is  an  example of pcre2test output, where the "mark" modifier requests
       the retrieval and outputting of (*MARK) data:

           re> /X(*MARK:A)Y|X(*MARK:B)Z/mark
         data> XY
          0: XY
         MK: A
         XZ
          0: XZ
         MK: B

       The (*MARK) name is tagged with "MK:" in this output, and in this exam-
       ple  it indicates which of the two alternatives matched. This is a more
       efficient way of obtaining this information than putting each  alterna-
       tive in its own capturing parentheses.

       If  a  verb  with a name is encountered in a positive assertion that is
       true, the name is recorded and passed back if it  is  the  last-encoun-
       tered. This does not happen for negative assertions or failing positive
       assertions.

       After a partial match or a failed match, the last encountered  name  in
       the entire match process is returned. For example:

           re> /X(*MARK:A)Y|X(*MARK:B)Z/mark
         data> XP
         No match, mark = B

       Note  that  in  this  unanchored  example the mark is retained from the
       match attempt that started at the letter "X" in the subject. Subsequent
       match attempts starting at "P" and then with an empty string do not get
       as far as the (*MARK) item, but nevertheless do not reset it.

       If you are interested in  (*MARK)  values  after  failed  matches,  you
       should  probably  set the PCRE2_NO_START_OPTIMIZE option (see above) to
       ensure that the match is always attempted.

   Verbs that act after backtracking

       The following verbs do nothing when they are encountered. Matching con-
       tinues  with  what follows, but if there is a subsequent match failure,
       causing a backtrack to the verb, a failure is forced.  That  is,  back-
       tracking  cannot  pass  to  the  left of the verb. However, when one of
       these verbs appears inside an atomic group or in a lookaround assertion
       that  is  true,  its effect is confined to that group, because once the
       group has been matched, there is never any backtracking into it.  Back-
       tracking from beyond an assertion or an atomic group ignores the entire
       group, and seeks a preceding backtracking point.

       These verbs differ in exactly what kind of failure  occurs  when  back-
       tracking  reaches  them.  The behaviour described below is what happens
       when the verb is not in a subroutine or an assertion.  Subsequent  sec-
       tions cover these special cases.

         (*COMMIT) or (*COMMIT:NAME)

       This  verb  causes the whole match to fail outright if there is a later
       matching failure that causes backtracking to reach it. Even if the pat-
       tern  is  unanchored,  no further attempts to find a match by advancing
       the starting point take place. If (*COMMIT) is  the  only  backtracking
       verb that is encountered, once it has been passed pcre2_match() is com-
       mitted to finding a match at the current starting point, or not at all.
       For example:

         a+(*COMMIT)b

       This  matches  "xxaab" but not "aacaab". It can be thought of as a kind
       of dynamic anchor, or "I've started, so I must finish."

       The behaviour of (*COMMIT:NAME) is not the same  as  (*MARK:NAME)(*COM-
       MIT).  It is like (*MARK:NAME) in that the name is remembered for pass-
       ing back to the caller. However, (*SKIP:NAME) searches only  for  names
       that are set with (*MARK), ignoring those set by any of the other back-
       tracking verbs.

       If there is more than one backtracking verb in a pattern,  a  different
       one  that  follows  (*COMMIT) may be triggered first, so merely passing
       (*COMMIT) during a match does not always guarantee that a match must be
       at this starting point.

       Note that (*COMMIT) at the start of a pattern is not the same as an an-
       chor, unless PCRE2's start-of-match optimizations are  turned  off,  as
       shown in this output from pcre2test:

           re> /(*COMMIT)abc/
         data> xyzabc
          0: abc
         data>
         re> /(*COMMIT)abc/no_start_optimize
         data> xyzabc
         No match

       For  the first pattern, PCRE2 knows that any match must start with "a",
       so the optimization skips along the subject to "a" before applying  the
       pattern  to the first set of data. The match attempt then succeeds. The
       second pattern disables the optimization that skips along to the  first
       character.  The  pattern  is  now  applied  starting at "x", and so the
       (*COMMIT) causes the match to fail without trying  any  other  starting
       points.

         (*PRUNE) or (*PRUNE:NAME)

       This  verb causes the match to fail at the current starting position in
       the subject if there is a later matching failure that causes backtrack-
       ing  to  reach it. If the pattern is unanchored, the normal "bumpalong"
       advance to the next starting character then happens.  Backtracking  can
       occur  as  usual to the left of (*PRUNE), before it is reached, or when
       matching to the right of (*PRUNE), but if there  is  no  match  to  the
       right,  backtracking cannot cross (*PRUNE). In simple cases, the use of
       (*PRUNE) is just an alternative to an atomic group or possessive  quan-
       tifier, but there are some uses of (*PRUNE) that cannot be expressed in
       any other way. In an anchored pattern (*PRUNE) has the same  effect  as
       (*COMMIT).

       The behaviour of (*PRUNE:NAME) is not the same as (*MARK:NAME)(*PRUNE).
       It is like (*MARK:NAME) in that the name is remembered for passing back
       to  the  caller. However, (*SKIP:NAME) searches only for names set with
       (*MARK), ignoring those set by other backtracking verbs.

         (*SKIP)

       This verb, when given without a name, is like (*PRUNE), except that  if
       the  pattern  is unanchored, the "bumpalong" advance is not to the next
       character, but to the position in the subject where (*SKIP) was encoun-
       tered.  (*SKIP)  signifies that whatever text was matched leading up to
       it cannot be part of a successful match if there is a  later  mismatch.
       Consider:

         a+(*SKIP)b

       If  the  subject  is  "aaaac...",  after  the first match attempt fails
       (starting at the first character in the  string),  the  starting  point
       skips on to start the next attempt at "c". Note that a possessive quan-
       tifer does not have the same effect as this example; although it  would
       suppress  backtracking  during  the first match attempt, the second at-
       tempt would start at the second character instead  of  skipping  on  to
       "c".

       If  (*SKIP) is used to specify a new starting position that is the same
       as the starting position of the current match, or (by  being  inside  a
       lookbehind)  earlier, the position specified by (*SKIP) is ignored, and
       instead the normal "bumpalong" occurs.

         (*SKIP:NAME)

       When (*SKIP) has an associated name, its behaviour  is  modified.  When
       such  a  (*SKIP) is triggered, the previous path through the pattern is
       searched for the most recent (*MARK) that has the same name. If one  is
       found,  the  "bumpalong" advance is to the subject position that corre-
       sponds to that (*MARK) instead of to where (*SKIP) was encountered.  If
       no (*MARK) with a matching name is found, the (*SKIP) is ignored.

       The  search  for a (*MARK) name uses the normal backtracking mechanism,
       which means that it does not  see  (*MARK)  settings  that  are  inside
       atomic groups or assertions, because they are never re-entered by back-
       tracking. Compare the following pcre2test examples:

           re> /a(?>(*MARK:X))(*SKIP:X)(*F)|(.)/
         data: abc
          0: a
          1: a
         data:
           re> /a(?:(*MARK:X))(*SKIP:X)(*F)|(.)/
         data: abc
          0: b
          1: b

       In the first example, the (*MARK) setting is in an atomic group, so  it
       is not seen when (*SKIP:X) triggers, causing the (*SKIP) to be ignored.
       This allows the second branch of the pattern to be tried at  the  first
       character  position.  In the second example, the (*MARK) setting is not
       in an atomic group. This allows (*SKIP:X) to find the (*MARK)  when  it
       backtracks, and this causes a new matching attempt to start at the sec-
       ond character. This time, the (*MARK) is never seen  because  "a"  does
       not match "b", so the matcher immediately jumps to the second branch of
       the pattern.

       Note that (*SKIP:NAME) searches only for names set by (*MARK:NAME).  It
       ignores names that are set by other backtracking verbs.

         (*THEN) or (*THEN:NAME)

       This  verb  causes  a skip to the next innermost alternative when back-
       tracking reaches it. That  is,  it  cancels  any  further  backtracking
       within  the  current  alternative.  Its name comes from the observation
       that it can be used for a pattern-based if-then-else block:

         ( COND1 (*THEN) FOO | COND2 (*THEN) BAR | COND3 (*THEN) BAZ ) ...

       If the COND1 pattern matches, FOO is tried (and possibly further  items
       after  the  end  of the group if FOO succeeds); on failure, the matcher
       skips to the second alternative and tries COND2,  without  backtracking
       into  COND1.  If that succeeds and BAR fails, COND3 is tried. If subse-
       quently BAZ fails, there are no more alternatives, so there is a  back-
       track  to  whatever came before the entire group. If (*THEN) is not in-
       side an alternation, it acts like (*PRUNE).

       The behaviour of (*THEN:NAME) is not the same  as  (*MARK:NAME)(*THEN).
       It is like (*MARK:NAME) in that the name is remembered for passing back
       to the caller. However, (*SKIP:NAME) searches only for names  set  with
       (*MARK), ignoring those set by other backtracking verbs.

       A  group  that does not contain a | character is just a part of the en-
       closing alternative; it is not a nested alternation with only  one  al-
       ternative. The effect of (*THEN) extends beyond such a group to the en-
       closing alternative.  Consider this pattern, where A, B, etc. are  com-
       plex  pattern  fragments  that  do not contain any | characters at this
       level:

         A (B(*THEN)C) | D

       If A and B are matched, but there is a failure in C, matching does  not
       backtrack into A; instead it moves to the next alternative, that is, D.
       However, if the group containing (*THEN) is given  an  alternative,  it
       behaves differently:

         A (B(*THEN)C | (*FAIL)) | D

       The effect of (*THEN) is now confined to the inner group. After a fail-
       ure in C, matching moves to (*FAIL), which causes the  whole  group  to
       fail  because  there  are  no  more  alternatives to try. In this case,
       matching does backtrack into A.

       Note that a conditional group is not considered as having two  alterna-
       tives,  because  only one is ever used. In other words, the | character
       in a conditional group has a different meaning. Ignoring  white  space,
       consider:

         ^.*? (?(?=a) a | b(*THEN)c )

       If the subject is "ba", this pattern does not match. Because .*? is un-
       greedy, it initially matches zero characters. The condition (?=a)  then
       fails,  the  character  "b"  is matched, but "c" is not. At this point,
       matching does not backtrack to .*? as might perhaps  be  expected  from
       the  presence  of the | character. The conditional group is part of the
       single alternative that comprises the whole pattern, and so  the  match
       fails.  (If  there  was a backtrack into .*?, allowing it to match "b",
       the match would succeed.)

       The verbs just described provide four different "strengths" of  control
       when subsequent matching fails. (*THEN) is the weakest, carrying on the
       match at the next alternative. (*PRUNE) comes next, failing  the  match
       at  the  current starting position, but allowing an advance to the next
       character (for an unanchored pattern). (*SKIP) is similar, except  that
       the advance may be more than one character. (*COMMIT) is the strongest,
       causing the entire match to fail.

   More than one backtracking verb

       If more than one backtracking verb is present in  a  pattern,  the  one
       that  is  backtracked  onto first acts. For example, consider this pat-
       tern, where A, B, etc. are complex pattern fragments:

         (A(*COMMIT)B(*THEN)C|ABD)

       If A matches but B fails, the backtrack to (*COMMIT) causes the  entire
       match to fail. However, if A and B match, but C fails, the backtrack to
       (*THEN) causes the next alternative (ABD) to be tried.  This  behaviour
       is  consistent,  but is not always the same as Perl's. It means that if
       two or more backtracking verbs appear in succession, all the  the  last
       of them has no effect. Consider this example:

         ...(*COMMIT)(*PRUNE)...

       If there is a matching failure to the right, backtracking onto (*PRUNE)
       causes it to be triggered, and its action is taken. There can never  be
       a backtrack onto (*COMMIT).

   Backtracking verbs in repeated groups

       PCRE2 sometimes differs from Perl in its handling of backtracking verbs
       in repeated groups. For example, consider:

         /(a(*COMMIT)b)+ac/

       If the subject is "abac", Perl matches  unless  its  optimizations  are
       disabled,  but  PCRE2  always fails because the (*COMMIT) in the second
       repeat of the group acts.

   Backtracking verbs in assertions

       (*FAIL) in any assertion has its normal effect: it forces an  immediate
       backtrack.  The  behaviour  of  the other backtracking verbs depends on
       whether or not the assertion is standalone or acting as  the  condition
       in a conditional group.

       (*ACCEPT)  in  a  standalone positive assertion causes the assertion to
       succeed without any further processing; captured  strings  and  a  mark
       name  (if  set) are retained. In a standalone negative assertion, (*AC-
       CEPT) causes the assertion to fail without any further processing; cap-
       tured substrings and any mark name are discarded.

       If  the  assertion is a condition, (*ACCEPT) causes the condition to be
       true for a positive assertion and false for a  negative  one;  captured
       substrings are retained in both cases.

       The remaining verbs act only when a later failure causes a backtrack to
       reach them. This means that, for the Perl-compatible assertions,  their
       effect is confined to the assertion, because Perl lookaround assertions
       are atomic. A backtrack that occurs after such an assertion is complete
       does  not  jump  back  into  the  assertion.  Note in particular that a
       (*MARK) name that is set in an assertion is not "seen" by  an  instance
       of (*SKIP:NAME) later in the pattern.

       PCRE2  now supports non-atomic positive assertions, as described in the
       section entitled "Non-atomic assertions" above. These  assertions  must
       be  standalone  (not used as conditions). They are not Perl-compatible.
       For these assertions, a later backtrack does jump back into the  asser-
       tion,  and  therefore verbs such as (*COMMIT) can be triggered by back-
       tracks from later in the pattern.

       The effect of (*THEN) is not allowed to escape beyond an assertion.  If
       there  are no more branches to try, (*THEN) causes a positive assertion
       to be false, and a negative assertion to be true.

       The other backtracking verbs are not treated specially if  they  appear
       in  a  standalone  positive assertion. In a conditional positive asser-
       tion, backtracking (from within the assertion) into (*COMMIT), (*SKIP),
       or  (*PRUNE) causes the condition to be false. However, for both stand-
       alone and conditional negative assertions, backtracking into (*COMMIT),
       (*SKIP), or (*PRUNE) causes the assertion to be true, without consider-
       ing any further alternative branches.

   Backtracking verbs in subroutines

       These behaviours occur whether or not the group is called recursively.

       (*ACCEPT) in a group called as a subroutine causes the subroutine match
       to  succeed without any further processing. Matching then continues af-
       ter the subroutine call. Perl documents this behaviour.  Perl's  treat-
       ment of the other verbs in subroutines is different in some cases.

       (*FAIL)  in  a  group  called as a subroutine has its normal effect: it
       forces an immediate backtrack.

       (*COMMIT), (*SKIP), and (*PRUNE) cause the  subroutine  match  to  fail
       when  triggered  by being backtracked to in a group called as a subrou-
       tine. There is then a backtrack at the outer level.

       (*THEN), when triggered, skips to the next alternative in the innermost
       enclosing  group that has alternatives (its normal behaviour). However,
       if there is no such group within the subroutine's group, the subroutine
       match fails and there is a backtrack at the outer level.


SEE ALSO

       pcre2api(3),    pcre2callout(3),    pcre2matching(3),   pcre2syntax(3),
       pcre2(3).


AUTHOR

       Philip Hazel
       University Computing Service
       Cambridge, England.


REVISION

       Last updated: 24 February 2020
       Copyright (c) 1997-2020 University of Cambridge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


PCRE2PERFORM(3)            Library Functions Manual            PCRE2PERFORM(3)



NAME
       PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

PCRE2 PERFORMANCE

       Two  aspects  of performance are discussed below: memory usage and pro-
       cessing time. The way you express your pattern as a regular  expression
       can affect both of them.


COMPILED PATTERN MEMORY USAGE

       Patterns are compiled by PCRE2 into a reasonably efficient interpretive
       code, so that most simple patterns do not use much memory  for  storing
       the compiled version. However, there is one case where the memory usage
       of a compiled pattern can be unexpectedly  large.  If  a  parenthesized
       group  has  a quantifier with a minimum greater than 1 and/or a limited
       maximum, the whole group is repeated in the compiled code. For example,
       the pattern

         (abc|def){2,4}

       is compiled as if it were

         (abc|def)(abc|def)((abc|def)(abc|def)?)?

       (Technical  aside:  It is done this way so that backtrack points within
       each of the repetitions can be independently maintained.)

       For regular expressions whose quantifiers use only small numbers,  this
       is  not  usually a problem. However, if the numbers are large, and par-
       ticularly if such repetitions are nested, the memory usage  can  become
       an embarrassment. For example, the very simple pattern

         ((ab){1,1000}c){1,3}

       uses  over  50KiB  when compiled using the 8-bit library. When PCRE2 is
       compiled with its default internal pointer size of two bytes, the  size
       limit on a compiled pattern is 65535 code units in the 8-bit and 16-bit
       libraries, and this is reached with the above pattern if the outer rep-
       etition  is  increased from 3 to 4. PCRE2 can be compiled to use larger
       internal pointers and thus handle larger compiled patterns, but  it  is
       better to try to rewrite your pattern to use less memory if you can.

       One  way  of reducing the memory usage for such patterns is to make use
       of PCRE2's "subroutine" facility. Re-writing the above pattern as

         ((ab)(?2){0,999}c)(?1){0,2}

       reduces the memory requirements to around 16KiB, and indeed it  remains
       under  20KiB  even with the outer repetition increased to 100. However,
       this kind of pattern is not always exactly equivalent, because any cap-
       tures  within  subroutine calls are lost when the subroutine completes.
       If this is not a problem, this kind of  rewriting  will  allow  you  to
       process  patterns that PCRE2 cannot otherwise handle. The matching per-
       formance of the two different versions of the pattern are  roughly  the
       same.  (This applies from release 10.30 - things were different in ear-
       lier releases.)


STACK AND HEAP USAGE AT RUN TIME

       From release 10.30, the interpretive (non-JIT) version of pcre2_match()
       uses  very  little system stack at run time. In earlier releases recur-
       sive function calls could use a great deal of  stack,  and  this  could
       cause  problems, but this usage has been eliminated. Backtracking posi-
       tions are now explicitly remembered in memory frames controlled by  the
       code.  An  initial  20KiB  vector  of frames is allocated on the system
       stack (enough for about 100 frames for small patterns), but if this  is
       insufficient,  heap  memory  is  used. The amount of heap memory can be
       limited; if the limit is set to zero, only the initial stack vector  is
       used.  Rewriting patterns to be time-efficient, as described below, may
       also reduce the memory requirements.

       In contrast to  pcre2_match(),  pcre2_dfa_match()  does  use  recursive
       function  calls,  but only for processing atomic groups, lookaround as-
       sertions, and recursion within the pattern. The original version of the
       code  used  to  allocate  quite large internal workspace vectors on the
       stack, which caused some problems for  some  patterns  in  environments
       with  small  stacks.  From release 10.32 the code for pcre2_dfa_match()
       has been re-factored to use heap memory  when  necessary  for  internal
       workspace  when  recursing,  though  recursive function calls are still
       used.

       The "match depth" parameter can be used to limit the depth of  function
       recursion,  and  the  "match  heap"  parameter  to limit heap memory in
       pcre2_dfa_match().


PROCESSING TIME

       Certain items in regular expression patterns are processed  more  effi-
       ciently than others. It is more efficient to use a character class like
       [aeiou]  than  a  set  of   single-character   alternatives   such   as
       (a|e|i|o|u).  In  general,  the simplest construction that provides the
       required behaviour is usually the most efficient. Jeffrey Friedl's book
       contains  a  lot  of useful general discussion about optimizing regular
       expressions for efficient performance. This document contains a few ob-
       servations about PCRE2.

       Using  Unicode  character  properties  (the  \p, \P, and \X escapes) is
       slow, because PCRE2 has to use a multi-stage table lookup  whenever  it
       needs  a  character's  property. If you can find an alternative pattern
       that does not use character properties, it will probably be faster.

       By default, the escape sequences \b, \d, \s,  and  \w,  and  the  POSIX
       character  classes  such  as  [:alpha:]  do not use Unicode properties,
       partly for backwards compatibility, and partly for performance reasons.
       However,  you  can  set  the PCRE2_UCP option or start the pattern with
       (*UCP) if you want Unicode character properties to be  used.  This  can
       double  the  matching  time  for  items  such  as \d, when matched with
       pcre2_match(); the performance loss is less with a DFA  matching  func-
       tion, and in both cases there is not much difference for \b.

       When  a pattern begins with .* not in atomic parentheses, nor in paren-
       theses that are the subject of a backreference,  and  the  PCRE2_DOTALL
       option  is  set,  the pattern is implicitly anchored by PCRE2, since it
       can match only at the start of a subject string.  If  the  pattern  has
       multiple top-level branches, they must all be anchorable. The optimiza-
       tion can be disabled by the PCRE2_NO_DOTSTAR_ANCHOR option, and is  au-
       tomatically disabled if the pattern contains (*PRUNE) or (*SKIP).

       If  PCRE2_DOTALL  is  not set, PCRE2 cannot make this optimization, be-
       cause the dot metacharacter does not then match a newline, and  if  the
       subject  string contains newlines, the pattern may match from the char-
       acter immediately following one of them instead of from the very start.
       For example, the pattern

         .*second

       matches  the subject "first\nand second" (where \n stands for a newline
       character), with the match starting at the seventh character. In  order
       to  do  this, PCRE2 has to retry the match starting after every newline
       in the subject.

       If you are using such a pattern with subject strings that do  not  con-
       tain   newlines,   the   best   performance   is  obtained  by  setting
       PCRE2_DOTALL, or starting the pattern with ^.* or ^.*? to indicate  ex-
       plicit  anchoring.  That saves PCRE2 from having to scan along the sub-
       ject looking for a newline to restart at.

       Beware of patterns that contain nested indefinite  repeats.  These  can
       take  a  long time to run when applied to a string that does not match.
       Consider the pattern fragment

         ^(a+)*

       This can match "aaaa" in 16 different ways, and this  number  increases
       very  rapidly  as the string gets longer. (The * repeat can match 0, 1,
       2, 3, or 4 times, and for each of those cases other than 0 or 4, the  +
       repeats  can  match  different numbers of times.) When the remainder of
       the pattern is such that the entire match is going to fail,  PCRE2  has
       in  principle to try every possible variation, and this can take an ex-
       tremely long time, even for relatively short strings.

       An optimization catches some of the more simple cases such as

         (a+)*b

       where a literal character follows. Before  embarking  on  the  standard
       matching  procedure, PCRE2 checks that there is a "b" later in the sub-
       ject string, and if there is not, it fails the match immediately.  How-
       ever,  when  there  is no following literal this optimization cannot be
       used. You can see the difference by comparing the behaviour of

         (a+)*\d

       with the pattern above. The former gives  a  failure  almost  instantly
       when  applied  to  a  whole  line of "a" characters, whereas the latter
       takes an appreciable time with strings longer than about 20 characters.

       In many cases, the solution to this kind of performance issue is to use
       an  atomic group or a possessive quantifier. This can often reduce mem-
       ory requirements as well. As another example, consider this pattern:

         ([^<]|<(?!inet))+

       It matches from wherever it starts until it encounters "<inet"  or  the
       end  of  the  data,  and is the kind of pattern that might be used when
       processing an XML file. Each iteration of the outer parentheses matches
       either  one  character that is not "<" or a "<" that is not followed by
       "inet". However, each time a parenthesis is processed,  a  backtracking
       position  is  passed,  so this formulation uses a memory frame for each
       matched character. For a long string, a lot of memory is required. Con-
       sider  now  this  rewritten  pattern,  which  matches  exactly the same
       strings:

         ([^<]++|<(?!inet))+

       This runs much faster, because sequences of characters that do not con-
       tain "<" are "swallowed" in one item inside the parentheses, and a pos-
       sessive quantifier is used to stop any backtracking into  the  runs  of
       non-"<"  characters.  This  version also uses a lot less memory because
       entry to a new set of parentheses happens only  when  a  "<"  character
       that  is  not  followed by "inet" is encountered (and we assume this is
       relatively rare).

       This example shows that one way of optimizing performance when matching
       long  subject strings is to write repeated parenthesized subpatterns to
       match more than one character whenever possible.

   SETTING RESOURCE LIMITS

       You can set limits on the amount of processing that  takes  place  when
       matching,  and  on  the amount of heap memory that is used. The default
       values of the limits are very large, and unlikely ever to operate. They
       can  be  changed  when  PCRE2  is  built, and they can also be set when
       pcre2_match() or pcre2_dfa_match() is called. For details of these  in-
       terfaces,  see  the  pcre2build  documentation and the section entitled
       "The match context" in the pcre2api documentation.

       The pcre2test test program has a modifier called  "find_limits"  which,
       if  applied  to  a  subject line, causes it to find the smallest limits
       that allow a pattern to match. This is done by repeatedly matching with
       different limits.


AUTHOR

       Philip Hazel
       University Computing Service
       Cambridge, England.


REVISION

       Last updated: 03 February 2019
       Copyright (c) 1997-2019 University of Cambridge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


PCRE2POSIX(3)              Library Functions Manual              PCRE2POSIX(3)



NAME
       PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

SYNOPSIS

       #include <pcre2posix.h>

       int pcre2_regcomp(regex_t *preg, const char *pattern,
            int cflags);

       int pcre2_regexec(const regex_t *preg, const char *string,
            size_t nmatch, regmatch_t pmatch[], int eflags);

       size_t pcre2_regerror(int errcode, const regex_t *preg,
            char *errbuf, size_t errbuf_size);

       void pcre2_regfree(regex_t *preg);


DESCRIPTION

       This  set of functions provides a POSIX-style API for the PCRE2 regular
       expression 8-bit library. There are no POSIX-style wrappers for PCRE2's
       16-bit  and  32-bit libraries. See the pcre2api documentation for a de-
       scription of PCRE2's native API, which contains much  additional  func-
       tionality.

       The functions described here are wrapper functions that ultimately call
       the PCRE2 native API. Their prototypes are defined in the  pcre2posix.h
       header  file, and they all have unique names starting with pcre2_. How-
       ever, the pcre2posix.h header also contains macro definitions that con-
       vert  the standard POSIX names such regcomp() into pcre2_regcomp() etc.
       This means that a program can use the usual POSIX names without running
       the  risk of accidentally linking with POSIX functions from a different
       library.

       On Unix-like systems the PCRE2 POSIX library is called  libpcre2-posix,
       so  can  be accessed by adding -lpcre2-posix to the command for linking
       an application. Because the POSIX functions call the native ones, it is
       also necessary to add -lpcre2-8.

       Although  they are not defined as protypes in pcre2posix.h, the library
       does contain functions with the POSIX names regcomp() etc. These simply
       pass  their  arguments to the PCRE2 functions. These functions are pro-
       vided for backwards compatibility with earlier versions  of  PCRE2,  so
       that existing programs do not have to be recompiled.

       Calling  the  header  file  pcre2posix.h avoids any conflict with other
       POSIX libraries. It can, of course, be renamed or aliased  as  regex.h,
       which  is  the  "correct"  name,  if there is no clash. It provides two
       structure types, regex_t for compiled internal  forms,  and  regmatch_t
       for returning captured substrings. It also defines some constants whose
       names start with "REG_"; these are used for setting options and identi-
       fying error codes.


USING THE POSIX FUNCTIONS

       Those  POSIX  option bits that can reasonably be mapped to PCRE2 native
       options have been implemented. In addition, the option REG_EXTENDED  is
       defined  with  the  value  zero. This has no effect, but since programs
       that are written to the POSIX interface often use  it,  this  makes  it
       easier  to  slot in PCRE2 as a replacement library. Other POSIX options
       are not even defined.

       There are also some options that are not defined by POSIX.  These  have
       been  added  at  the  request  of users who want to make use of certain
       PCRE2-specific features via the POSIX calling interface or to  add  BSD
       or GNU functionality.

       When  PCRE2  is  called via these functions, it is only the API that is
       POSIX-like in style. The syntax and semantics of  the  regular  expres-
       sions  themselves  are  still  those of Perl, subject to the setting of
       various PCRE2 options, as described below. "POSIX-like in style"  means
       that  the  API  approximates  to  the POSIX definition; it is not fully
       POSIX-compatible, and in multi-unit encoding  domains  it  is  probably
       even less compatible.

       The  descriptions  below use the actual names of the functions, but, as
       described above, the standard POSIX names (without the  pcre2_  prefix)
       may also be used.


COMPILING A PATTERN

       The function pcre2_regcomp() is called to compile a pattern into an in-
       ternal form. By default, the pattern is a C string terminated by a  bi-
       nary zero (but see REG_PEND below). The preg argument is a pointer to a
       regex_t structure that is used as a base for storing information  about
       the  compiled  regular  expression.  (It  is  also  used for input when
       REG_PEND is set.)

       The argument cflags is either zero, or contains one or more of the bits
       defined by the following macros:

         REG_DOTALL

       The  PCRE2_DOTALL  option  is set when the regular expression is passed
       for compilation to the native function. Note  that  REG_DOTALL  is  not
       part of the POSIX standard.

         REG_ICASE

       The  PCRE2_CASELESS option is set when the regular expression is passed
       for compilation to the native function.

         REG_NEWLINE

       The PCRE2_MULTILINE option is set when the regular expression is passed
       for  compilation  to the native function. Note that this does not mimic
       the defined POSIX behaviour for REG_NEWLINE  (see  the  following  sec-
       tion).

         REG_NOSPEC

       The  PCRE2_LITERAL  option is set when the regular expression is passed
       for compilation to the native function. This disables all meta  charac-
       ters  in the pattern, causing it to be treated as a literal string. The
       only other options that are  allowed  with  REG_NOSPEC  are  REG_ICASE,
       REG_NOSUB,  REG_PEND,  and REG_UTF. Note that REG_NOSPEC is not part of
       the POSIX standard.

         REG_NOSUB

       When  a  pattern  that  is  compiled  with  this  flag  is  passed   to
       pcre2_regexec()  for  matching, the nmatch and pmatch arguments are ig-
       nored, and no captured strings are returned. Versions of the  PCRE  li-
       brary  prior to 10.22 used to set the PCRE2_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE compile op-
       tion, but this no longer happens because it disables the use  of  back-
       references.

         REG_PEND

       If  this option is set, the reg_endp field in the preg structure (which
       has the type const char *) must be set to point to the character beyond
       the  end of the pattern before calling pcre2_regcomp(). The pattern it-
       self may now contain binary zeros, which are treated  as  data  charac-
       ters.  Without  REG_PEND,  a binary zero terminates the pattern and the
       re_endp field is ignored. This is a GNU extension to the POSIX standard
       and  should be used with caution in software intended to be portable to
       other systems.

         REG_UCP

       The PCRE2_UCP option is set when the regular expression is  passed  for
       compilation  to  the  native function. This causes PCRE2 to use Unicode
       properties when matchine \d, \w,  etc.,  instead  of  just  recognizing
       ASCII values. Note that REG_UCP is not part of the POSIX standard.

         REG_UNGREEDY

       The  PCRE2_UNGREEDY option is set when the regular expression is passed
       for compilation to the native function. Note that REG_UNGREEDY  is  not
       part of the POSIX standard.

         REG_UTF

       The  PCRE2_UTF  option is set when the regular expression is passed for
       compilation to the native function. This causes the pattern itself  and
       all  data  strings used for matching it to be treated as UTF-8 strings.
       Note that REG_UTF is not part of the POSIX standard.

       In the absence of these flags, no options  are  passed  to  the  native
       function.   This means the the regex is compiled with PCRE2 default se-
       mantics. In particular, the way it handles newline  characters  in  the
       subject  string  is  the Perl way, not the POSIX way. Note that setting
       PCRE2_MULTILINE has only some of the effects specified for REG_NEWLINE.
       It  does not affect the way newlines are matched by the dot metacharac-
       ter (they are not) or by a negative class such as [^a] (they are).

       The yield of pcre2_regcomp() is zero on success,  and  non-zero  other-
       wise.  The preg structure is filled in on success, and one other member
       of the structure (as well as re_endp) is public: re_nsub  contains  the
       number  of capturing subpatterns in the regular expression. Various er-
       ror codes are defined in the header file.

       NOTE: If the yield of pcre2_regcomp() is non-zero, you must not attempt
       to use the contents of the preg structure. If, for example, you pass it
       to pcre2_regexec(), the result is undefined and your program is  likely
       to crash.


MATCHING NEWLINE CHARACTERS

       This area is not simple, because POSIX and Perl take different views of
       things.  It is not possible to get PCRE2 to obey POSIX  semantics,  but
       then PCRE2 was never intended to be a POSIX engine. The following table
       lists the different possibilities for matching  newline  characters  in
       Perl and PCRE2:

                                 Default   Change with

         . matches newline          no     PCRE2_DOTALL
         newline matches [^a]       yes    not changeable
         $ matches \n at end        yes    PCRE2_DOLLAR_ENDONLY
         $ matches \n in middle     no     PCRE2_MULTILINE
         ^ matches \n in middle     no     PCRE2_MULTILINE

       This is the equivalent table for a POSIX-compatible pattern matcher:

                                 Default   Change with

         . matches newline          yes    REG_NEWLINE
         newline matches [^a]       yes    REG_NEWLINE
         $ matches \n at end        no     REG_NEWLINE
         $ matches \n in middle     no     REG_NEWLINE
         ^ matches \n in middle     no     REG_NEWLINE

       This  behaviour  is not what happens when PCRE2 is called via its POSIX
       API. By default, PCRE2's behaviour is the same as Perl's,  except  that
       there  is no equivalent for PCRE2_DOLLAR_ENDONLY in Perl. In both PCRE2
       and Perl, there is no way to stop newline from matching [^a].

       Default POSIX newline handling can be obtained by setting  PCRE2_DOTALL
       and  PCRE2_DOLLAR_ENDONLY  when  calling  pcre2_compile() directly, but
       there is no way to make PCRE2 behave exactly as for the REG_NEWLINE ac-
       tion.  When  using  the  POSIX  API,  passing  REG_NEWLINE  to  PCRE2's
       pcre2_regcomp()  function  causes  PCRE2_MULTILINE  to  be  passed   to
       pcre2_compile(), and REG_DOTALL passes PCRE2_DOTALL. There is no way to
       pass PCRE2_DOLLAR_ENDONLY.


MATCHING A PATTERN

       The function pcre2_regexec() is called to match a compiled pattern preg
       against  a  given string, which is by default terminated by a zero byte
       (but see REG_STARTEND below), subject to the options in eflags.   These
       can be:

         REG_NOTBOL

       The PCRE2_NOTBOL option is set when calling the underlying PCRE2 match-
       ing function.

         REG_NOTEMPTY

       The PCRE2_NOTEMPTY option is set  when  calling  the  underlying  PCRE2
       matching  function.  Note  that  REG_NOTEMPTY  is not part of the POSIX
       standard. However, setting this option can give more POSIX-like  behav-
       iour in some situations.

         REG_NOTEOL

       The PCRE2_NOTEOL option is set when calling the underlying PCRE2 match-
       ing function.

         REG_STARTEND

       When this option  is  set,  the  subject  string  starts  at  string  +
       pmatch[0].rm_so  and  ends  at  string  + pmatch[0].rm_eo, which should
       point to the first character beyond the string. There may be binary ze-
       ros  within  the  subject string, and indeed, using REG_STARTEND is the
       only way to pass a subject string that contains a binary zero.

       Whatever the value of  pmatch[0].rm_so,  the  offsets  of  the  matched
       string  and  any  captured  substrings  are still given relative to the
       start of string itself. (Before PCRE2 release 10.30  these  were  given
       relative  to  string + pmatch[0].rm_so, but this differs from other im-
       plementations.)

       This is a BSD extension, compatible with  but  not  specified  by  IEEE
       Standard  1003.2 (POSIX.2), and should be used with caution in software
       intended to be portable to other systems. Note that  a  non-zero  rm_so
       does  not  imply REG_NOTBOL; REG_STARTEND affects only the location and
       length of the string, not how it is matched. Setting  REG_STARTEND  and
       passing  pmatch as NULL are mutually exclusive; the error REG_INVARG is
       returned.

       If the pattern was compiled with the REG_NOSUB flag, no data about  any
       matched  strings  is  returned.  The  nmatch  and  pmatch  arguments of
       pcre2_regexec() are ignored (except possibly  as  input  for  REG_STAR-
       TEND).

       The  value of nmatch may be zero, and the value pmatch may be NULL (un-
       less REG_STARTEND is set); in  both  these  cases  no  data  about  any
       matched strings is returned.

       Otherwise,  the  portion  of  the string that was matched, and also any
       captured substrings, are returned via the pmatch argument, which points
       to  an  array  of  nmatch structures of type regmatch_t, containing the
       members rm_so and rm_eo. These contain the byte  offset  to  the  first
       character of each substring and the offset to the first character after
       the end of each substring, respectively. The 0th element of the  vector
       relates  to  the  entire portion of string that was matched; subsequent
       elements relate to the capturing subpatterns of the regular expression.
       Unused entries in the array have both structure members set to -1.

       A  successful  match  yields a zero return; various error codes are de-
       fined in the header file, of which REG_NOMATCH is the "expected"  fail-
       ure code.


ERROR MESSAGES

       The  pcre2_regerror()  function  maps  a non-zero errorcode from either
       pcre2_regcomp() or pcre2_regexec() to a printable message. If  preg  is
       not  NULL, the error should have arisen from the use of that structure.
       A message terminated by a binary zero is placed in errbuf. If the  buf-
       fer  is too short, only the first errbuf_size - 1 characters of the er-
       ror message are used. The yield of the function is the size  of  buffer
       needed  to hold the whole message, including the terminating zero. This
       value is greater than errbuf_size if the message was truncated.


MEMORY USAGE

       Compiling a regular expression causes memory to be allocated and  asso-
       ciated  with the preg structure. The function pcre2_regfree() frees all
       such memory, after which preg may no longer be used as a  compiled  ex-
       pression.


AUTHOR

       Philip Hazel
       University Computing Service
       Cambridge, England.


REVISION

       Last updated: 30 January 2019
       Copyright (c) 1997-2019 University of Cambridge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


PCRE2SAMPLE(3)             Library Functions Manual             PCRE2SAMPLE(3)



NAME
       PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

PCRE2 SAMPLE PROGRAM

       A  simple, complete demonstration program to get you started with using
       PCRE2 is supplied in the file pcre2demo.c in the src directory  in  the
       PCRE2 distribution. A listing of this program is given in the pcre2demo
       documentation. If you do not have a copy of the PCRE2 distribution, you
       can save this listing to re-create the contents of pcre2demo.c.

       The  demonstration  program compiles the regular expression that is its
       first argument, and matches it against the subject string in its second
       argument.  No  PCRE2  options are set, and default character tables are
       used. If matching succeeds, the program outputs the portion of the sub-
       ject  that  matched,  together  with  the contents of any captured sub-
       strings.

       If the -g option is given on the command line, the program then goes on
       to check for further matches of the same regular expression in the same
       subject string. The logic is a little bit tricky because of the  possi-
       bility  of  matching an empty string. Comments in the code explain what
       is going on.

       The code in pcre2demo.c is an 8-bit program that uses the  PCRE2  8-bit
       library.  It  handles  strings  and characters that are stored in 8-bit
       code units.  By default, one character corresponds to  one  code  unit,
       but  if  the  pattern starts with "(*UTF)", both it and the subject are
       treated as UTF-8 strings, where characters  may  occupy  multiple  code
       units.

       If  PCRE2  is installed in the standard include and library directories
       for your operating system, you should be able to compile the demonstra-
       tion program using a command like this:

         cc -o pcre2demo pcre2demo.c -lpcre2-8

       If PCRE2 is installed elsewhere, you may need to add additional options
       to the command line. For example, on a Unix-like system that has  PCRE2
       installed  in /usr/local, you can compile the demonstration program us-
       ing a command like this:

         cc -o pcre2demo -I/usr/local/include pcre2demo.c \
            -L/usr/local/lib -lpcre2-8

       Once you have built the demonstration program, you can run simple tests
       like this:

         ./pcre2demo 'cat|dog' 'the cat sat on the mat'
         ./pcre2demo -g 'cat|dog' 'the dog sat on the cat'

       Note  that  there  is  a  much  more comprehensive test program, called
       pcre2test, which supports many more facilities for testing regular  ex-
       pressions  using  all three PCRE2 libraries (8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit,
       though not all three need be installed). The pcre2demo program is  pro-
       vided as a relatively simple coding example.

       If you try to run pcre2demo when PCRE2 is not installed in the standard
       library directory, you may get an error like  this  on  some  operating
       systems (e.g. Solaris):

         ld.so.1: pcre2demo: fatal: libpcre2-8.so.0: open failed: No such file
       or directory

       This is caused by the way shared library support works  on  those  sys-
       tems. You need to add

         -R/usr/local/lib

       (for example) to the compile command to get round this problem.


AUTHOR

       Philip Hazel
       University Computing Service
       Cambridge, England.


REVISION

       Last updated: 02 February 2016
       Copyright (c) 1997-2016 University of Cambridge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PCRE2SERIALIZE(3)          Library Functions Manual          PCRE2SERIALIZE(3)



NAME
       PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

SAVING AND RE-USING PRECOMPILED PCRE2 PATTERNS

       int32_t pcre2_serialize_decode(pcre2_code **codes,
         int32_t number_of_codes, const uint32_t *bytes,
         pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       int32_t pcre2_serialize_encode(pcre2_code **codes,
         int32_t number_of_codes, uint32_t **serialized_bytes,
         PCRE2_SIZE *serialized_size, pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

       void pcre2_serialize_free(uint8_t *bytes);

       int32_t pcre2_serialize_get_number_of_codes(const uint8_t *bytes);

       If  you  are running an application that uses a large number of regular
       expression patterns, it may be useful to store them  in  a  precompiled
       form  instead  of  having to compile them every time the application is
       run. However, if you are using the just-in-time  optimization  feature,
       it is not possible to save and reload the JIT data, because it is posi-
       tion-dependent. The host on which the patterns  are  reloaded  must  be
       running  the  same version of PCRE2, with the same code unit width, and
       must also have the same endianness, pointer width and PCRE2_SIZE  type.
       For  example, patterns compiled on a 32-bit system using PCRE2's 16-bit
       library cannot be reloaded on a 64-bit system, nor can they be reloaded
       using the 8-bit library.

       Note  that  "serialization" in PCRE2 does not convert compiled patterns
       to an abstract format like Java or .NET serialization.  The  serialized
       output  is  really  just  a  bytecode dump, which is why it can only be
       reloaded in the same environment as the one that created it. Hence  the
       restrictions  mentioned  above.   Applications  that are not statically
       linked with a fixed version of PCRE2 must be prepared to recompile pat-
       terns from their sources, in order to be immune to PCRE2 upgrades.


SECURITY CONCERNS

       The facility for saving and restoring compiled patterns is intended for
       use within individual applications.  As  such,  the  data  supplied  to
       pcre2_serialize_decode()  is expected to be trusted data, not data from
       arbitrary external sources.  There  is  only  some  simple  consistency
       checking, not complete validation of what is being re-loaded. Corrupted
       data may cause undefined results. For example, if the length field of a
       pattern in the serialized data is corrupted, the deserializing code may
       read beyond the end of the byte stream that is passed to it.


SAVING COMPILED PATTERNS

       Before compiled patterns can be saved they must be serialized, which in
       PCRE2  means converting the pattern to a stream of bytes. A single byte
       stream may contain any number of compiled patterns, but they  must  all
       use  the same character tables. A single copy of the tables is included
       in the byte stream (its size is 1088 bytes). For more details of  char-
       acter  tables,  see the section on locale support in the pcre2api docu-
       mentation.

       The function pcre2_serialize_encode() creates a serialized byte  stream
       from  a  list of compiled patterns. Its first two arguments specify the
       list, being a pointer to a vector of pointers to compiled patterns, and
       the length of the vector. The third and fourth arguments point to vari-
       ables which are set to point to the created byte stream and its length,
       respectively.  The  final  argument  is a pointer to a general context,
       which can be used to specify custom memory  mangagement  functions.  If
       this  argument  is NULL, malloc() is used to obtain memory for the byte
       stream. The yield of the function is the number of serialized patterns,
       or one of the following negative error codes:

         PCRE2_ERROR_BADDATA      the number of patterns is zero or less
         PCRE2_ERROR_BADMAGIC     mismatch of id bytes in one of the patterns
         PCRE2_ERROR_MEMORY       memory allocation failed
         PCRE2_ERROR_MIXEDTABLES  the patterns do not all use the same tables
         PCRE2_ERROR_NULL         the 1st, 3rd, or 4th argument is NULL

       PCRE2_ERROR_BADMAGIC  means  either that a pattern's code has been cor-
       rupted, or that a slot in the vector does not point to a compiled  pat-
       tern.

       Once a set of patterns has been serialized you can save the data in any
       appropriate manner. Here is sample code that compiles two patterns  and
       writes them to a file. It assumes that the variable fd refers to a file
       that is open for output. The error checking that should be present in a
       real application has been omitted for simplicity.

         int errorcode;
         uint8_t *bytes;
         PCRE2_SIZE erroroffset;
         PCRE2_SIZE bytescount;
         pcre2_code *list_of_codes[2];
         list_of_codes[0] = pcre2_compile("first pattern",
           PCRE2_ZERO_TERMINATED, 0, &errorcode, &erroroffset, NULL);
         list_of_codes[1] = pcre2_compile("second pattern",
           PCRE2_ZERO_TERMINATED, 0, &errorcode, &erroroffset, NULL);
         errorcode = pcre2_serialize_encode(list_of_codes, 2, &bytes,
           &bytescount, NULL);
         errorcode = fwrite(bytes, 1, bytescount, fd);

       Note  that  the  serialized data is binary data that may contain any of
       the 256 possible byte values. On systems that make  a  distinction  be-
       tween  binary  and non-binary data, be sure that the file is opened for
       binary output.

       Serializing a set of patterns leaves the original  data  untouched,  so
       they  can  still  be used for matching. Their memory must eventually be
       freed in the usual way by calling pcre2_code_free(). When you have fin-
       ished with the byte stream, it too must be freed by calling pcre2_seri-
       alize_free(). If this function is called with a NULL argument,  it  re-
       turns immediately without doing anything.


RE-USING PRECOMPILED PATTERNS

       In  order to re-use a set of saved patterns you must first make the se-
       rialized byte stream available in main memory (for example, by  reading
       from a file). The management of this memory block is up to the applica-
       tion. You can use the pcre2_serialize_get_number_of_codes() function to
       find  out how many compiled patterns are in the serialized data without
       actually decoding the patterns:

         uint8_t *bytes = <serialized data>;
         int32_t number_of_codes = pcre2_serialize_get_number_of_codes(bytes);

       The pcre2_serialize_decode() function reads a byte stream and recreates
       the compiled patterns in new memory blocks, setting pointers to them in
       a vector. The first two arguments are a pointer to  a  suitable  vector
       and its length, and the third argument points to a byte stream. The fi-
       nal argument is a pointer to a general context, which can  be  used  to
       specify  custom  memory mangagement functions for the decoded patterns.
       If this argument is NULL, malloc() and free() are used. After deserial-
       ization, the byte stream is no longer needed and can be discarded.

         int32_t number_of_codes;
         pcre2_code *list_of_codes[2];
         uint8_t *bytes = <serialized data>;
         int32_t number_of_codes =
           pcre2_serialize_decode(list_of_codes, 2, bytes, NULL);

       If  the  vector  is  not  large enough for all the patterns in the byte
       stream, it is filled with those that fit, and  the  remainder  are  ig-
       nored.  The yield of the function is the number of decoded patterns, or
       one of the following negative error codes:

         PCRE2_ERROR_BADDATA    second argument is zero or less
         PCRE2_ERROR_BADMAGIC   mismatch of id bytes in the data
         PCRE2_ERROR_BADMODE    mismatch of code unit size or PCRE2 version
         PCRE2_ERROR_BADSERIALIZEDDATA  other sanity check failure
         PCRE2_ERROR_MEMORY     memory allocation failed
         PCRE2_ERROR_NULL       first or third argument is NULL

       PCRE2_ERROR_BADMAGIC may mean that the data is corrupt, or that it  was
       compiled on a system with different endianness.

       Decoded patterns can be used for matching in the usual way, and must be
       freed by calling pcre2_code_free(). However, be aware that there  is  a
       potential  race  issue if you are using multiple patterns that were de-
       coded from a single byte stream in a multithreaded application. A  sin-
       gle  copy  of  the character tables is used by all the decoded patterns
       and a reference count is used to arrange for its memory to be automati-
       cally  freed when the last pattern is freed, but there is no locking on
       this reference count. Therefore, if you want to call  pcre2_code_free()
       for  these  patterns  in  different  threads, you must arrange your own
       locking, and ensure that pcre2_code_free()  cannot  be  called  by  two
       threads at the same time.

       If  a pattern was processed by pcre2_jit_compile() before being serial-
       ized, the JIT data is discarded and so is no longer available  after  a
       save/restore  cycle.  You can, however, process a restored pattern with
       pcre2_jit_compile() if you wish.


AUTHOR

       Philip Hazel
       University Computing Service
       Cambridge, England.


REVISION

       Last updated: 27 June 2018
       Copyright (c) 1997-2018 University of Cambridge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


PCRE2SYNTAX(3)             Library Functions Manual             PCRE2SYNTAX(3)



NAME
       PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

PCRE2 REGULAR EXPRESSION SYNTAX SUMMARY

       The  full syntax and semantics of the regular expressions that are sup-
       ported by PCRE2 are described in the pcre2pattern  documentation.  This
       document contains a quick-reference summary of the syntax.


QUOTING

         \x         where x is non-alphanumeric is a literal x
         \Q...\E    treat enclosed characters as literal


ESCAPED CHARACTERS

       This  table  applies to ASCII and Unicode environments. An unrecognized
       escape sequence causes an error.

         \a         alarm, that is, the BEL character (hex 07)
         \cx        "control-x", where x is any ASCII printing character
         \e         escape (hex 1B)
         \f         form feed (hex 0C)
         \n         newline (hex 0A)
         \r         carriage return (hex 0D)
         \t         tab (hex 09)
         \0dd       character with octal code 0dd
         \ddd       character with octal code ddd, or backreference
         \o{ddd..}  character with octal code ddd..
         \N{U+hh..} character with Unicode code point hh.. (Unicode mode only)
         \xhh       character with hex code hh
         \x{hh..}   character with hex code hh..

       If PCRE2_ALT_BSUX or PCRE2_EXTRA_ALT_BSUX is set ("ALT_BSUX mode"), the
       following are also recognized:

         \U         the character "U"
         \uhhhh     character with hex code hhhh
         \u{hh..}   character with hex code hh.. but only for EXTRA_ALT_BSUX

       When  \x  is not followed by {, from zero to two hexadecimal digits are
       read, but in ALT_BSUX mode \x must be followed by two hexadecimal  dig-
       its  to  be  recognized as a hexadecimal escape; otherwise it matches a
       literal "x".  Likewise, if \u (in ALT_BSUX mode)  is  not  followed  by
       four  hexadecimal  digits or (in EXTRA_ALT_BSUX mode) a sequence of hex
       digits in curly brackets, it matches a literal "u".

       Note that \0dd is always an octal code. The treatment of backslash fol-
       lowed  by  a non-zero digit is complicated; for details see the section
       "Non-printing characters" in the pcre2pattern documentation, where  de-
       tails  of  escape  processing  in  EBCDIC  environments are also given.
       \N{U+hh..} is synonymous with \x{hh..} in PCRE2 but is not supported in
       EBCDIC  environments.  Note  that  \N  not followed by an opening curly
       bracket has a different meaning (see below).


CHARACTER TYPES

         .          any character except newline;
                      in dotall mode, any character whatsoever
         \C         one code unit, even in UTF mode (best avoided)
         \d         a decimal digit
         \D         a character that is not a decimal digit
         \h         a horizontal white space character
         \H         a character that is not a horizontal white space character
         \N         a character that is not a newline
         \p{xx}     a character with the xx property
         \P{xx}     a character without the xx property
         \R         a newline sequence
         \s         a white space character
         \S         a character that is not a white space character
         \v         a vertical white space character
         \V         a character that is not a vertical white space character
         \w         a "word" character
         \W         a "non-word" character
         \X         a Unicode extended grapheme cluster

       \C is dangerous because it may leave the current matching point in  the
       middle of a UTF-8 or UTF-16 character. The application can lock out the
       use of \C by setting the PCRE2_NEVER_BACKSLASH_C  option.  It  is  also
       possible to build PCRE2 with the use of \C permanently disabled.

       By  default,  \d, \s, and \w match only ASCII characters, even in UTF-8
       mode or in the 16-bit and 32-bit libraries. However, if locale-specific
       matching  is  happening,  \s and \w may also match characters with code
       points in the range 128-255. If the PCRE2_UCP option is set, the behav-
       iour of these escape sequences is changed to use Unicode properties and
       they match many more characters.


GENERAL CATEGORY PROPERTIES FOR \p and \P

         C          Other
         Cc         Control
         Cf         Format
         Cn         Unassigned
         Co         Private use
         Cs         Surrogate

         L          Letter
         Ll         Lower case letter
         Lm         Modifier letter
         Lo         Other letter
         Lt         Title case letter
         Lu         Upper case letter
         L&         Ll, Lu, or Lt

         M          Mark
         Mc         Spacing mark
         Me         Enclosing mark
         Mn         Non-spacing mark

         N          Number
         Nd         Decimal number
         Nl         Letter number
         No         Other number

         P          Punctuation
         Pc         Connector punctuation
         Pd         Dash punctuation
         Pe         Close punctuation
         Pf         Final punctuation
         Pi         Initial punctuation
         Po         Other punctuation
         Ps         Open punctuation

         S          Symbol
         Sc         Currency symbol
         Sk         Modifier symbol
         Sm         Mathematical symbol
         So         Other symbol

         Z          Separator
         Zl         Line separator
         Zp         Paragraph separator
         Zs         Space separator


PCRE2 SPECIAL CATEGORY PROPERTIES FOR \p and \P

         Xan        Alphanumeric: union of properties L and N
         Xps        POSIX space: property Z or tab, NL, VT, FF, CR
         Xsp        Perl space: property Z or tab, NL, VT, FF, CR
         Xuc        Univerally-named character: one that can be
                      represented by a Universal Character Name
         Xwd        Perl word: property Xan or underscore

       Perl and POSIX space are now the same. Perl added VT to its space char-
       acter set at release 5.18.


SCRIPT NAMES FOR \p AND \P

       Adlam,  Ahom,  Anatolian_Hieroglyphs,  Arabic, Armenian, Avestan, Bali-
       nese, Bamum, Bassa_Vah, Batak, Bengali,  Bhaiksuki,  Bopomofo,  Brahmi,
       Braille,  Buginese, Buhid, Canadian_Aboriginal, Carian, Caucasian_Alba-
       nian, Chakma, Cham, Cherokee, Chorasmian,  Common,  Coptic,  Cuneiform,
       Cypriot,  Cyrillic,  Deseret, Devanagari, Dives_Akuru, Dogra, Duployan,
       Egyptian_Hieroglyphs, Elbasan, Elymaic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Glagolitic,
       Gothic, Grantha, Greek, Gujarati, Gunjala_Gondi, Gurmukhi, Han, Hangul,
       Hanifi_Rohingya, Hanunoo, Hatran, Hebrew,  Hiragana,  Imperial_Aramaic,
       Inherited,   Inscriptional_Pahlavi,  Inscriptional_Parthian,  Javanese,
       Kaithi, Kannada, Katakana, Kayah_Li,  Kharoshthi,  Khitan_Small_Script,
       Khmer,  Khojki,  Khudawadi,  Lao,  Latin, Lepcha, Limbu, Linear_A, Lin-
       ear_B, Lisu, Lycian, Lydian,  Mahajani,  Makasar,  Malayalam,  Mandaic,
       Manichaean,    Marchen,   Masaram_Gondi,   Medefaidrin,   Meetei_Mayek,
       Mende_Kikakui, Meroitic_Cursive, Meroitic_Hieroglyphs, Miao, Modi, Mon-
       golian,  Mro,  Multani,  Myanmar,  Nabataean, Nandinagari, New_Tai_Lue,
       Newa, Nko, Nushu, Nyakeng_Puachue_Hmong, Ogham,  Ol_Chiki,  Old_Hungar-
       ian,  Old_Italic,  Old_North_Arabian, Old_Permic, Old_Persian, Old_Sog-
       dian,  Old_South_Arabian,  Old_Turkic,  Oriya,  Osage,   Osmanya,   Pa-
       hawh_Hmong,     Palmyrene,     Pau_Cin_Hau,    Phags_Pa,    Phoenician,
       Psalter_Pahlavi, Rejang, Runic, Samaritan,  Saurashtra,  Sharada,  Sha-
       vian,  Siddham,  SignWriting,  Sinhala, Sogdian, Sora_Sompeng, Soyombo,
       Sundanese, Syloti_Nagri, Syriac, Tagalog, Tagbanwa,  Tai_Le,  Tai_Tham,
       Tai_Viet,  Takri,  Tamil,  Tangut, Telugu, Thaana, Thai, Tibetan, Tifi-
       nagh, Tirhuta, Ugaritic, Vai, Wancho,  Warang_Citi,  Yezidi,  Yi,  Zan-
       abazar_Square.


CHARACTER CLASSES

         [...]       positive character class
         [^...]      negative character class
         [x-y]       range (can be used for hex characters)
         [[:xxx:]]   positive POSIX named set
         [[:^xxx:]]  negative POSIX named set

         alnum       alphanumeric
         alpha       alphabetic
         ascii       0-127
         blank       space or tab
         cntrl       control character
         digit       decimal digit
         graph       printing, excluding space
         lower       lower case letter
         print       printing, including space
         punct       printing, excluding alphanumeric
         space       white space
         upper       upper case letter
         word        same as \w
         xdigit      hexadecimal digit

       In  PCRE2, POSIX character set names recognize only ASCII characters by
       default, but some of them use Unicode properties if PCRE2_UCP  is  set.
       You can use \Q...\E inside a character class.


QUANTIFIERS

         ?           0 or 1, greedy
         ?+          0 or 1, possessive
         ??          0 or 1, lazy
         *           0 or more, greedy
         *+          0 or more, possessive
         *?          0 or more, lazy
         +           1 or more, greedy
         ++          1 or more, possessive
         +?          1 or more, lazy
         {n}         exactly n
         {n,m}       at least n, no more than m, greedy
         {n,m}+      at least n, no more than m, possessive
         {n,m}?      at least n, no more than m, lazy
         {n,}        n or more, greedy
         {n,}+       n or more, possessive
         {n,}?       n or more, lazy


ANCHORS AND SIMPLE ASSERTIONS

         \b          word boundary
         \B          not a word boundary
         ^           start of subject
                       also after an internal newline in multiline mode
                       (after any newline if PCRE2_ALT_CIRCUMFLEX is set)
         \A          start of subject
         $           end of subject
                       also before newline at end of subject
                       also before internal newline in multiline mode
         \Z          end of subject
                       also before newline at end of subject
         \z          end of subject
         \G          first matching position in subject


REPORTED MATCH POINT SETTING

         \K          set reported start of match

       \K is honoured in positive assertions, but ignored in negative ones.


ALTERNATION

         expr|expr|expr...


CAPTURING

         (...)           capture group
         (?<name>...)    named capture group (Perl)
         (?'name'...)    named capture group (Perl)
         (?P<name>...)   named capture group (Python)
         (?:...)         non-capture group
         (?|...)         non-capture group; reset group numbers for
                          capture groups in each alternative

       In  non-UTF  modes, names may contain underscores and ASCII letters and
       digits; in UTF modes, any Unicode letters and  Unicode  decimal  digits
       are permitted. In both cases, a name must not start with a digit.


ATOMIC GROUPS

         (?>...)         atomic non-capture group
         (*atomic:...)   atomic non-capture group


COMMENT

         (?#....)        comment (not nestable)


OPTION SETTING
       Changes  of these options within a group are automatically cancelled at
       the end of the group.

         (?i)            caseless
         (?J)            allow duplicate named groups
         (?m)            multiline
         (?n)            no auto capture
         (?s)            single line (dotall)
         (?U)            default ungreedy (lazy)
         (?x)            extended: ignore white space except in classes
         (?xx)           as (?x) but also ignore space and tab in classes
         (?-...)         unset option(s)
         (?^)            unset imnsx options

       Unsetting x or xx unsets both. Several options may be set at once,  and
       a mixture of setting and unsetting such as (?i-x) is allowed, but there
       may be only one hyphen. Setting (but no unsetting) is allowed after (?^
       for example (?^in). An option setting may appear at the start of a non-
       capture group, for example (?i:...).

       The following are recognized only at the very start of a pattern or af-
       ter one of the newline or \R options with similar syntax. More than one
       of them may appear. For the first three, d is a decimal number.

         (*LIMIT_DEPTH=d) set the backtracking limit to d
         (*LIMIT_HEAP=d)  set the heap size limit to d * 1024 bytes
         (*LIMIT_MATCH=d) set the match limit to d
         (*NOTEMPTY)      set PCRE2_NOTEMPTY when matching
         (*NOTEMPTY_ATSTART) set PCRE2_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART when matching
         (*NO_AUTO_POSSESS) no auto-possessification (PCRE2_NO_AUTO_POSSESS)
         (*NO_DOTSTAR_ANCHOR) no .* anchoring (PCRE2_NO_DOTSTAR_ANCHOR)
         (*NO_JIT)       disable JIT optimization
         (*NO_START_OPT) no start-match optimization (PCRE2_NO_START_OPTIMIZE)
         (*UTF)          set appropriate UTF mode for the library in use
         (*UCP)          set PCRE2_UCP (use Unicode properties for \d etc)

       Note that LIMIT_DEPTH, LIMIT_HEAP, and LIMIT_MATCH can only reduce  the
       value   of   the   limits   set  by  the  caller  of  pcre2_match()  or
       pcre2_dfa_match(), not increase them. LIMIT_RECURSION  is  an  obsolete
       synonym for LIMIT_DEPTH. The application can lock out the use of (*UTF)
       and (*UCP) by setting the PCRE2_NEVER_UTF or  PCRE2_NEVER_UCP  options,
       respectively, at compile time.


NEWLINE CONVENTION

       These are recognized only at the very start of the pattern or after op-
       tion settings with a similar syntax.

         (*CR)           carriage return only
         (*LF)           linefeed only
         (*CRLF)         carriage return followed by linefeed
         (*ANYCRLF)      all three of the above
         (*ANY)          any Unicode newline sequence
         (*NUL)          the NUL character (binary zero)


WHAT \R MATCHES

       These are recognized only at the very start of the pattern or after op-
       tion setting with a similar syntax.

         (*BSR_ANYCRLF)  CR, LF, or CRLF
         (*BSR_UNICODE)  any Unicode newline sequence


LOOKAHEAD AND LOOKBEHIND ASSERTIONS

         (?=...)                     )
         (*pla:...)                  ) positive lookahead
         (*positive_lookahead:...)   )

         (?!...)                     )
         (*nla:...)                  ) negative lookahead
         (*negative_lookahead:...)   )

         (?<=...)                    )
         (*plb:...)                  ) positive lookbehind
         (*positive_lookbehind:...)  )

         (?<!...)                    )
         (*nlb:...)                  ) negative lookbehind
         (*negative_lookbehind:...)  )

       Each top-level branch of a lookbehind must be of a fixed length.


NON-ATOMIC LOOKAROUND ASSERTIONS

       These assertions are specific to PCRE2 and are not Perl-compatible.

         (?*...)                                )
         (*napla:...)                           ) synonyms
         (*non_atomic_positive_lookahead:...)   )

         (?<*...)                               )
         (*naplb:...)                           ) synonyms
         (*non_atomic_positive_lookbehind:...)  )


SCRIPT RUNS

         (*script_run:...)           ) script run, can be backtracked into
         (*sr:...)                   )

         (*atomic_script_run:...)    ) atomic script run
         (*asr:...)                  )


BACKREFERENCES

         \n              reference by number (can be ambiguous)
         \gn             reference by number
         \g{n}           reference by number
         \g+n            relative reference by number (PCRE2 extension)
         \g-n            relative reference by number
         \g{+n}          relative reference by number (PCRE2 extension)
         \g{-n}          relative reference by number
         \k<name>        reference by name (Perl)
         \k'name'        reference by name (Perl)
         \g{name}        reference by name (Perl)
         \k{name}        reference by name (.NET)
         (?P=name)       reference by name (Python)


SUBROUTINE REFERENCES (POSSIBLY RECURSIVE)

         (?R)            recurse whole pattern
         (?n)            call subroutine by absolute number
         (?+n)           call subroutine by relative number
         (?-n)           call subroutine by relative number
         (?&name)        call subroutine by name (Perl)
         (?P>name)       call subroutine by name (Python)
         \g<name>        call subroutine by name (Oniguruma)
         \g'name'        call subroutine by name (Oniguruma)
         \g<n>           call subroutine by absolute number (Oniguruma)
         \g'n'           call subroutine by absolute number (Oniguruma)
         \g<+n>          call subroutine by relative number (PCRE2 extension)
         \g'+n'          call subroutine by relative number (PCRE2 extension)
         \g<-n>          call subroutine by relative number (PCRE2 extension)
         \g'-n'          call subroutine by relative number (PCRE2 extension)


CONDITIONAL PATTERNS

         (?(condition)yes-pattern)
         (?(condition)yes-pattern|no-pattern)

         (?(n)               absolute reference condition
         (?(+n)              relative reference condition
         (?(-n)              relative reference condition
         (?(<name>)          named reference condition (Perl)
         (?('name')          named reference condition (Perl)
         (?(name)            named reference condition (PCRE2, deprecated)
         (?(R)               overall recursion condition
         (?(Rn)              specific numbered group recursion condition
         (?(R&name)          specific named group recursion condition
         (?(DEFINE)          define groups for reference
         (?(VERSION[>]=n.m)  test PCRE2 version
         (?(assert)          assertion condition

       Note  the  ambiguity of (?(R) and (?(Rn) which might be named reference
       conditions or recursion tests. Such a condition  is  interpreted  as  a
       reference condition if the relevant named group exists.


BACKTRACKING CONTROL

       All  backtracking  control  verbs  may be in the form (*VERB:NAME). For
       (*MARK) the name is mandatory, for the others it is  optional.  (*SKIP)
       changes  its  behaviour if :NAME is present. The others just set a name
       for passing back to the caller, but this is not a name that (*SKIP) can
       see. The following act immediately they are reached:

         (*ACCEPT)       force successful match
         (*FAIL)         force backtrack; synonym (*F)
         (*MARK:NAME)    set name to be passed back; synonym (*:NAME)

       The  following  act only when a subsequent match failure causes a back-
       track to reach them. They all force a match failure, but they differ in
       what happens afterwards. Those that advance the start-of-match point do
       so only if the pattern is not anchored.

         (*COMMIT)       overall failure, no advance of starting point
         (*PRUNE)        advance to next starting character
         (*SKIP)         advance to current matching position
         (*SKIP:NAME)    advance to position corresponding to an earlier
                         (*MARK:NAME); if not found, the (*SKIP) is ignored
         (*THEN)         local failure, backtrack to next alternation

       The effect of one of these verbs in a group called as a  subroutine  is
       confined to the subroutine call.


CALLOUTS

         (?C)            callout (assumed number 0)
         (?Cn)           callout with numerical data n
         (?C"text")      callout with string data

       The allowed string delimiters are ` ' " ^ % # $ (which are the same for
       the start and the end), and the starting delimiter { matched  with  the
       ending  delimiter  }. To encode the ending delimiter within the string,
       double it.


SEE ALSO

       pcre2pattern(3),   pcre2api(3),   pcre2callout(3),    pcre2matching(3),
       pcre2(3).


AUTHOR

       Philip Hazel
       University Computing Service
       Cambridge, England.


REVISION

       Last updated: 28 December 2019
       Copyright (c) 1997-2019 University of Cambridge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


PCRE2UNICODE(3)            Library Functions Manual            PCRE2UNICODE(3)



NAME
       PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

UNICODE AND UTF SUPPORT

       PCRE2 is normally built with Unicode support, though if you do not need
       it, you can build it  without,  in  which  case  the  library  will  be
       smaller. With Unicode support, PCRE2 has knowledge of Unicode character
       properties and can process strings of text in UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32
       format (depending on the code unit width), but this is not the default.
       Unless specifically requested, PCRE2 treats each code unit in a  string
       as one character.

       There  are two ways of telling PCRE2 to switch to UTF mode, where char-
       acters may consist of more than one code unit and the range  of  values
       is constrained. The program can call pcre2_compile() with the PCRE2_UTF
       option, or the pattern may start with the  sequence  (*UTF).   However,
       the  latter  facility  can be locked out by the PCRE2_NEVER_UTF option.
       That is, the programmer can prevent the supplier of  the  pattern  from
       switching to UTF mode.

       Note   that  the  PCRE2_MATCH_INVALID_UTF  option  (see  below)  forces
       PCRE2_UTF to be set.

       In UTF mode, both the pattern and any subject strings that are  matched
       against  it are treated as UTF strings instead of strings of individual
       one-code-unit characters. There are also some other changes to the  way
       characters are handled, as documented below.


UNICODE PROPERTY SUPPORT

       When  PCRE2 is built with Unicode support, the escape sequences \p{..},
       \P{..}, and \X can be used. This is not dependent on the PCRE2_UTF set-
       ting.   The  Unicode  properties  that can be tested are limited to the
       general category properties such as Lu for an upper case letter  or  Nd
       for  a  decimal number, the Unicode script names such as Arabic or Han,
       and the derived properties Any and L&. Full  lists  are  given  in  the
       pcre2pattern  and  pcre2syntax  documentation. Only the short names for
       properties are supported. For example, \p{L} matches a letter. Its Perl
       synonym,  \p{Letter},  is  not  supported.   Furthermore, in Perl, many
       properties may optionally be prefixed by "Is", for  compatibility  with
       Perl 5.6. PCRE2 does not support this.


WIDE CHARACTERS AND UTF MODES

       Code points less than 256 can be specified in patterns by either braced
       or unbraced hexadecimal escape sequences (for example, \x{b3} or \xb3).
       Larger  values have to use braced sequences. Unbraced octal code points
       up to \777 are also recognized; larger ones can be coded using \o{...}.

       The escape sequence \N{U+<hex digits>} is recognized as another way  of
       specifying  a  Unicode character by code point in a UTF mode. It is not
       allowed in non-UTF mode.

       In UTF mode, repeat quantifiers apply to complete UTF  characters,  not
       to individual code units.

       In UTF mode, the dot metacharacter matches one UTF character instead of
       a single code unit.

       In UTF mode, capture group names are not restricted to ASCII,  and  may
       contain any Unicode letters and decimal digits, as well as underscore.

       The  escape  sequence \C can be used to match a single code unit in UTF
       mode, but its use can lead to some strange effects because it breaks up
       multi-unit  characters  (see  the description of \C in the pcre2pattern
       documentation). For this reason, there is a build-time option that dis-
       ables  support  for  \C completely. There is also a less draconian com-
       pile-time option for locking out the use of \C when a pattern  is  com-
       piled.

       The  use  of  \C  is not supported by the alternative matching function
       pcre2_dfa_match() when in UTF-8 or UTF-16 mode, that is, when a charac-
       ter  may  consist  of  more  than one code unit. The use of \C in these
       modes provokes a match-time error. Also, the JIT optimization does  not
       support \C in these modes. If JIT optimization is requested for a UTF-8
       or UTF-16 pattern that contains \C, it will not succeed,  and  so  when
       pcre2_match() is called, the matching will be carried out by the inter-
       pretive function.

       The character escapes \b, \B, \d, \D, \s, \S, \w, and \W correctly test
       characters  of  any  code  value,  but, by default, the characters that
       PCRE2 recognizes as digits, spaces, or word characters remain the  same
       set  as  in  non-UTF mode, all with code points less than 256. This re-
       mains true even when PCRE2 is built to include Unicode support, because
       to  do  otherwise  would  slow down matching in many common cases. Note
       that this also applies to \b and \B, because they are defined in  terms
       of  \w  and \W. If you want to test for a wider sense of, say, "digit",
       you can use explicit Unicode property tests such  as  \p{Nd}.  Alterna-
       tively, if you set the PCRE2_UCP option, the way that the character es-
       capes work is changed so that Unicode properties are used to  determine
       which  characters  match.  There  are  more  details  in the section on
       generic character types in the pcre2pattern documentation.

       Similarly, characters that match the POSIX named character classes  are
       all low-valued characters, unless the PCRE2_UCP option is set.

       However,  the  special horizontal and vertical white space matching es-
       capes (\h, \H, \v, and \V) do match all the appropriate Unicode charac-
       ters, whether or not PCRE2_UCP is set.


UNICODE CASE-EQUIVALENCE

       If  either  PCRE2_UTF  or PCRE2_UCP is set, upper/lower case processing
       makes use of Unicode properties except for characters whose code points
       are less than 128 and that have at most two case-equivalent values. For
       these, a direct table lookup is used for speed. A few  Unicode  charac-
       ters  such as Greek sigma have more than two code points that are case-
       equivalent, and these are treated specially. Setting PCRE2_UCP  without
       PCRE2_UTF  allows  Unicode-style  case processing for non-UTF character
       encodings such as UCS-2.


SCRIPT RUNS

       The pattern constructs (*script_run:...) and  (*atomic_script_run:...),
       with  synonyms (*sr:...) and (*asr:...), verify that the string matched
       within the parentheses is a script run. In concept, a script run  is  a
       sequence  of characters that are all from the same Unicode script. How-
       ever, because some scripts are commonly used together, and because some
       diacritical  and  other marks are used with multiple scripts, it is not
       that simple.

       Every Unicode character has a Script property, mostly with a value cor-
       responding  to the name of a script, such as Latin, Greek, or Cyrillic.
       There are also three special values:

       "Unknown" is used for code points that have not been assigned, and also
       for  the surrogate code points. In the PCRE2 32-bit library, characters
       whose code points are greater  than  the  Unicode  maximum  (U+10FFFF),
       which  are  accessible  only  in non-UTF mode, are assigned the Unknown
       script.

       "Common" is used for characters that are used with many scripts.  These
       include  punctuation,  emoji,  mathematical, musical, and currency sym-
       bols, and the ASCII digits 0 to 9.

       "Inherited" is used for characters such as diacritical marks that  mod-
       ify a previous character. These are considered to take on the script of
       the character that they modify.

       Some Inherited characters are used with many scripts, but many of  them
       are  only  normally  used  with a small number of scripts. For example,
       U+102E0 (Coptic Epact thousands mark) is used only with Arabic and Cop-
       tic.  In  order  to  make it possible to check this, a Unicode property
       called Script Extension exists. Its value is a list of scripts that ap-
       ply to the character. For the majority of characters, the list contains
       just one script, the same one as  the  Script  property.  However,  for
       characters  such  as  U+102E0 more than one Script is listed. There are
       also some Common characters that have a single,  non-Common  script  in
       their Script Extension list.

       The next section describes the basic rules for deciding whether a given
       string of characters is a script run. Note,  however,  that  there  are
       some  special cases involving the Chinese Han script, and an additional
       constraint for decimal digits. These are  covered  in  subsequent  sec-
       tions.

   Basic script run rules

       A string that is less than two characters long is a script run. This is
       the only case in which an Unknown character can be  part  of  a  script
       run.  Longer strings are checked using only the Script Extensions prop-
       erty, not the basic Script property.

       If a character's Script Extension property is the single value  "Inher-
       ited", it is always accepted as part of a script run. This is also true
       for the property "Common", subject to the checking  of  decimal  digits
       described below. All the remaining characters in a script run must have
       at least one script in common in their Script Extension lists. In  set-
       theoretic terminology, the intersection of all the sets of scripts must
       not be empty.

       A simple example is an Internet name such as "google.com". The  letters
       are all in the Latin script, and the dot is Common, so this string is a
       script run.  However, the Cyrillic letter "o" looks exactly the same as
       the  Latin "o"; a string that looks the same, but with Cyrillic "o"s is
       not a script run.

       More interesting examples involve characters with more than one  script
       in their Script Extension. Consider the following characters:

         U+060C  Arabic comma
         U+06D4  Arabic full stop

       The  first  has the Script Extension list Arabic, Hanifi Rohingya, Syr-
       iac, and Thaana; the second has just Arabic and Hanifi  Rohingya.  Both
       of  them  could  appear  in  script runs of either Arabic or Hanifi Ro-
       hingya. The first could also appear in Syriac or  Thaana  script  runs,
       but the second could not.

   The Chinese Han script

       The  Chinese  Han  script  is  commonly  used in conjunction with other
       scripts for writing certain languages. Japanese uses the  Hiragana  and
       Katakana  scripts  together  with Han; Korean uses Hangul and Han; Tai-
       wanese Mandarin uses Bopomofo and Han.  These  three  combinations  are
       treated  as special cases when checking script runs and are, in effect,
       "virtual scripts". Thus, a script run may contain a  mixture  of  Hira-
       gana,  Katakana,  and Han, or a mixture of Hangul and Han, or a mixture
       of Bopomofo and Han, but not, for example,  a  mixture  of  Hangul  and
       Bopomofo  and  Han. PCRE2 (like Perl) follows Unicode's Technical Stan-
       dard  39   ("Unicode   Security   Mechanisms",   http://unicode.org/re-
       ports/tr39/) in allowing such mixtures.

   Decimal digits

       Unicode  contains  many sets of 10 decimal digits in different scripts,
       and some scripts (including the Common script) contain  more  than  one
       set.  Some  of these decimal digits them are visually indistinguishable
       from the common ASCII digits. In addition to the  script  checking  de-
       scribed  above,  if a script run contains any decimal digits, they must
       all come from the same set of 10 adjacent characters.


VALIDITY OF UTF STRINGS

       When the PCRE2_UTF option is set, the strings passed  as  patterns  and
       subjects are (by default) checked for validity on entry to the relevant
       functions. If an invalid UTF string is passed, a negative error code is
       returned.  The  code  unit offset to the offending character can be ex-
       tracted from the match data  block  by  calling  pcre2_get_startchar(),
       which is used for this purpose after a UTF error.

       In  some  situations, you may already know that your strings are valid,
       and therefore want to skip these checks in  order  to  improve  perfor-
       mance,  for  example in the case of a long subject string that is being
       scanned repeatedly.  If you set the PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK option  at  com-
       pile  time  or at match time, PCRE2 assumes that the pattern or subject
       it is given (respectively) contains only valid UTF code unit sequences.

       If you pass an invalid UTF string when PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK is  set,  the
       result  is undefined and your program may crash or loop indefinitely or
       give incorrect results. There is, however, one mode  of  matching  that
       can  handle  invalid  UTF  subject  strings. This is enabled by passing
       PCRE2_MATCH_INVALID_UTF to pcre2_compile() and is  discussed  below  in
       the  next  section.  The  rest  of  this  section  covers the case when
       PCRE2_MATCH_INVALID_UTF is not set.

       Passing PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK to pcre2_compile()  just  disables  the  UTF
       check  for  the  pattern; it does not also apply to subject strings. If
       you want to disable the check for a subject string you must  pass  this
       same option to pcre2_match() or pcre2_dfa_match().

       UTF-16 and UTF-32 strings can indicate their endianness by special code
       knows as a byte-order mark (BOM). The PCRE2  functions  do  not  handle
       this, expecting strings to be in host byte order.

       Unless  PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK  is  set, a UTF string is checked before any
       other  processing  takes  place.  In  the  case  of  pcre2_match()  and
       pcre2_dfa_match()  calls  with a non-zero starting offset, the check is
       applied only to that part of the subject that could be inspected during
       matching,  and  there is a check that the starting offset points to the
       first code unit of a character or to the end of the subject.  If  there
       are  no  lookbehind  assertions in the pattern, the check starts at the
       starting offset.  Otherwise, it starts at the  length  of  the  longest
       lookbehind  before  the starting offset, or at the start of the subject
       if there are not that many characters before the starting offset.  Note
       that the sequences \b and \B are one-character lookbehinds.

       In  addition  to checking the format of the string, there is a check to
       ensure that all code points lie in the range U+0 to U+10FFFF, excluding
       the  surrogate  area. The so-called "non-character" code points are not
       excluded because Unicode corrigendum #9 makes it clear that they should
       not be.

       Characters  in  the "Surrogate Area" of Unicode are reserved for use by
       UTF-16, where they are used in pairs to encode code points with  values
       greater  than  0xFFFF. The code points that are encoded by UTF-16 pairs
       are available independently in the  UTF-8  and  UTF-32  encodings.  (In
       other  words, the whole surrogate thing is a fudge for UTF-16 which un-
       fortunately messes up UTF-8 and UTF-32.)

       Setting PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK at compile time does not disable  the  error
       that  is  given if an escape sequence for an invalid Unicode code point
       is encountered in the pattern. If you want to  allow  escape  sequences
       such  as  \x{d800}  (a  surrogate code point) you can set the PCRE2_EX-
       TRA_ALLOW_SURROGATE_ESCAPES extra option.  However,  this  is  possible
       only  in  UTF-8  and  UTF-32 modes, because these values are not repre-
       sentable in UTF-16.

   Errors in UTF-8 strings

       The following negative error codes are given for invalid UTF-8 strings:

         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR1
         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR2
         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR3
         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR4
         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR5

       The string ends with a truncated UTF-8 character;  the  code  specifies
       how  many bytes are missing (1 to 5). Although RFC 3629 restricts UTF-8
       characters to be no longer than 4 bytes, the  encoding  scheme  (origi-
       nally  defined  by  RFC  2279)  allows  for  up to 6 bytes, and this is
       checked first; hence the possibility of 4 or 5 missing bytes.

         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR6
         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR7
         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR8
         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR9
         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR10

       The two most significant bits of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th byte of
       the  character  do  not have the binary value 0b10 (that is, either the
       most significant bit is 0, or the next bit is 1).

         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR11
         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR12

       A character that is valid by the RFC 2279 rules is either 5 or 6  bytes
       long; these code points are excluded by RFC 3629.

         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR13

       A 4-byte character has a value greater than 0x10ffff; these code points
       are excluded by RFC 3629.

         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR14

       A 3-byte character has a value in the  range  0xd800  to  0xdfff;  this
       range  of code points are reserved by RFC 3629 for use with UTF-16, and
       so are excluded from UTF-8.

         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR15
         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR16
         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR17
         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR18
         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR19

       A 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, or 6-byte character is "overlong", that is, it  codes
       for  a  value that can be represented by fewer bytes, which is invalid.
       For example, the two bytes 0xc0, 0xae give the value 0x2e,  whose  cor-
       rect coding uses just one byte.

         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR20

       The two most significant bits of the first byte of a character have the
       binary value 0b10 (that is, the most significant bit is 1 and the  sec-
       ond  is  0). Such a byte can only validly occur as the second or subse-
       quent byte of a multi-byte character.

         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF8_ERR21

       The first byte of a character has the value 0xfe or 0xff. These  values
       can never occur in a valid UTF-8 string.

   Errors in UTF-16 strings

       The  following  negative  error  codes  are  given  for  invalid UTF-16
       strings:

         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF16_ERR1  Missing low surrogate at end of string
         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF16_ERR2  Invalid low surrogate follows high surrogate
         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF16_ERR3  Isolated low surrogate


   Errors in UTF-32 strings

       The following  negative  error  codes  are  given  for  invalid  UTF-32
       strings:

         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF32_ERR1  Surrogate character (0xd800 to 0xdfff)
         PCRE2_ERROR_UTF32_ERR2  Code point is greater than 0x10ffff


MATCHING IN INVALID UTF STRINGS

       You can run pattern matches on subject strings that may contain invalid
       UTF sequences if you  call  pcre2_compile()  with  the  PCRE2_MATCH_IN-
       VALID_UTF  option.  This  is  supported by pcre2_match(), including JIT
       matching, but not by pcre2_dfa_match(). When PCRE2_MATCH_INVALID_UTF is
       set,  it  forces  PCRE2_UTF  to be set as well. Note, however, that the
       pattern itself must be a valid UTF string.

       Setting PCRE2_MATCH_INVALID_UTF does not  affect  what  pcre2_compile()
       generates,  but  if pcre2_jit_compile() is subsequently called, it does
       generate different code. If JIT is not used, the option affects the be-
       haviour of the interpretive code in pcre2_match(). When PCRE2_MATCH_IN-
       VALID_UTF is set at compile  time,  PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK  is  ignored  at
       match time.

       In  this  mode,  an  invalid  code  unit  sequence in the subject never
       matches any pattern item. It does not match  dot,  it  does  not  match
       \p{Any},  it does not even match negative items such as [^X]. A lookbe-
       hind assertion fails if it encounters an invalid sequence while  moving
       the  current  point backwards. In other words, an invalid UTF code unit
       sequence acts as a barrier which no match can cross.

       You can also think of this as the subject being split up into fragments
       of  valid UTF, delimited internally by invalid code unit sequences. The
       pattern is matched fragment by fragment. The  result  of  a  successful
       match,  however,  is  given  as code unit offsets in the entire subject
       string in the usual way. There are a few points to consider:

       The internal boundaries are not interpreted as the beginnings  or  ends
       of  lines  and  so  do not match circumflex or dollar characters in the
       pattern.

       If pcre2_match() is called with an offset that  points  to  an  invalid
       UTF-sequence,  that  sequence  is  skipped, and the match starts at the
       next valid UTF character, or the end of the subject.

       At internal fragment boundaries, \b and \B behave in the same way as at
       the  beginning  and end of the subject. For example, a sequence such as
       \bWORD\b would match an instance of WORD that is surrounded by  invalid
       UTF code units.

       Using  PCRE2_MATCH_INVALID_UTF, an application can run matches on arbi-
       trary data, knowing that any matched  strings  that  are  returned  are
       valid UTF. This can be useful when searching for UTF text in executable
       or other binary files.


AUTHOR

       Philip Hazel
       University Computing Service
       Cambridge, England.


REVISION

       Last updated: 23 February 2020
       Copyright (c) 1997-2020 University of Cambridge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


