3 <title>pcre_compile specification</title>
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6 <h1>pcre_compile man page</h1>
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19 <b>#include <pcre.h></b>
22 <b>pcre *pcre_compile(const char *<i>pattern</i>, int <i>options</i>,</b>
23 <b>const char **<i>errptr</i>, int *<i>erroffset</i>,</b>
24 <b>const unsigned char *<i>tableptr</i>);</b>
27 <b>pcre16 *pcre16_compile(PCRE_SPTR16 <i>pattern</i>, int <i>options</i>,</b>
28 <b>const char **<i>errptr</i>, int *<i>erroffset</i>,</b>
29 <b>const unsigned char *<i>tableptr</i>);</b>
35 This function compiles a regular expression into an internal form. It is the
36 same as <b>pcre[16]_compile2()</b>, except for the absence of the
37 <i>errorcodeptr</i> argument. Its arguments are:
39 <i>pattern</i> A zero-terminated string containing the
40 regular expression to be compiled
41 <i>options</i> Zero or more option bits
42 <i>errptr</i> Where to put an error message
43 <i>erroffset</i> Offset in pattern where error was found
44 <i>tableptr</i> Pointer to character tables, or NULL to
45 use the built-in default
49 PCRE_ANCHORED Force pattern anchoring
50 PCRE_AUTO_CALLOUT Compile automatic callouts
51 PCRE_BSR_ANYCRLF \R matches only CR, LF, or CRLF
52 PCRE_BSR_UNICODE \R matches all Unicode line endings
53 PCRE_CASELESS Do caseless matching
54 PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY $ not to match newline at end
55 PCRE_DOTALL . matches anything including NL
56 PCRE_DUPNAMES Allow duplicate names for subpatterns
57 PCRE_EXTENDED Ignore whitespace and # comments
58 PCRE_EXTRA PCRE extra features
59 (not much use currently)
60 PCRE_FIRSTLINE Force matching to be before newline
61 PCRE_JAVASCRIPT_COMPAT JavaScript compatibility
62 PCRE_MULTILINE ^ and $ match newlines within data
63 PCRE_NEWLINE_ANY Recognize any Unicode newline sequence
64 PCRE_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF Recognize CR, LF, and CRLF as newline
66 PCRE_NEWLINE_CR Set CR as the newline sequence
67 PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF Set CRLF as the newline sequence
68 PCRE_NEWLINE_LF Set LF as the newline sequence
69 PCRE_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE Disable numbered capturing paren-
70 theses (named ones available)
71 PCRE_NO_UTF16_CHECK Do not check the pattern for UTF-16
72 validity (only relevant if
74 PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK Do not check the pattern for UTF-8
75 validity (only relevant if
77 PCRE_UCP Use Unicode properties for \d, \w, etc.
78 PCRE_UNGREEDY Invert greediness of quantifiers
79 PCRE_UTF16 Run in <b>pcre16_compile()</b> UTF-16 mode
80 PCRE_UTF8 Run in <b>pcre_compile()</b> UTF-8 mode
82 PCRE must be built with UTF support in order to use PCRE_UTF8/16 and
83 PCRE_NO_UTF8/16_CHECK, and with UCP support if PCRE_UCP is used.
86 The yield of the function is a pointer to a private data structure that
87 contains the compiled pattern, or NULL if an error was detected. Note that
88 compiling regular expressions with one version of PCRE for use with a different
89 version is not guaranteed to work and may cause crashes.
92 There is a complete description of the PCRE native API in the
93 <a href="pcreapi.html"><b>pcreapi</b></a>
94 page and a description of the POSIX API in the
95 <a href="pcreposix.html"><b>pcreposix</b></a>
98 Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.