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+PCRETEST(1) PCRETEST(1)
+
+
+
+NAME
+ pcretest - a program for testing Perl-compatible regular expressions.
+
+SYNOPSIS
+ pcretest [-d] [-i] [-m] [-o osize] [-p] [-t] [source] [destination]
+
+ pcretest was written as a test program for the PCRE regular expression
+ library itself, but it can also be used for experimenting with regular
+ expressions. This document describes the features of the test program;
+ for details of the regular expressions themselves, see the pcrepattern
+ documentation. For details of PCRE and its options, see the pcreapi
+ documentation.
+
+
+OPTIONS
+
+
+ -C Output the version number of the PCRE library, and all avail-
+ able information about the optional features that are
+ included, and then exit.
+
+ -d Behave as if each regex had the /D modifier (see below); the
+ internal form is output after compilation.
+
+ -i Behave as if each regex had the /I modifier; information
+ about the compiled pattern is given after compilation.
+
+ -m Output the size of each compiled pattern after it has been
+ compiled. This is equivalent to adding /M to each regular
+ expression. For compatibility with earlier versions of
+ pcretest, -s is a synonym for -m.
+
+ -o osize Set the number of elements in the output vector that is used
+ when calling PCRE to be osize. The default value is 45, which
+ is enough for 14 capturing subexpressions. The vector size
+ can be changed for individual matching calls by including \O
+ in the data line (see below).
+
+ -p Behave as if each regex has /P modifier; the POSIX wrapper
+ API is used to call PCRE. None of the other options has any
+ effect when -p is set.
+
+ -t Run each compile, study, and match many times with a timer,
+ and output resulting time per compile or match (in millisec-
+ onds). Do not set -t with -m, because you will then get the
+ size output 20000 times and the timing will be distorted.
+
+
+DESCRIPTION
+
+ If pcretest is given two filename arguments, it reads from the first
+ and writes to the second. If it is given only one filename argument, it
+ reads from that file and writes to stdout. Otherwise, it reads from
+ stdin and writes to stdout, and prompts for each line of input, using
+ "re>" to prompt for regular expressions, and "data>" to prompt for data
+ lines.
+
+ The program handles any number of sets of input on a single input file.
+ Each set starts with a regular expression, and continues with any num-
+ ber of data lines to be matched against the pattern.
+
+ Each line is matched separately and independently. If you want to do
+ multiple-line matches, you have to use the \n escape sequence in a sin-
+ gle line of input to encode the newline characters. The maximum length
+ of data line is 30,000 characters.
+
+ An empty line signals the end of the data lines, at which point a new
+ regular expression is read. The regular expressions are given enclosed
+ in any non-alphameric delimiters other than backslash, for example
+
+ /(a|bc)x+yz/
+
+ White space before the initial delimiter is ignored. A regular expres-
+ sion may be continued over several input lines, in which case the new-
+ line characters are included within it. It is possible to include the
+ delimiter within the pattern by escaping it, for example
+
+ /abc\/def/
+
+ If you do so, the escape and the delimiter form part of the pattern,
+ but since delimiters are always non-alphameric, this does not affect
+ its interpretation. If the terminating delimiter is immediately fol-
+ lowed by a backslash, for example,
+
+ /abc/\
+
+ then a backslash is added to the end of the pattern. This is done to
+ provide a way of testing the error condition that arises if a pattern
+ finishes with a backslash, because
+
+ /abc\/
+
+ is interpreted as the first line of a pattern that starts with "abc/",
+ causing pcretest to read the next line as a continuation of the regular
+ expression.
+
+
+PATTERN MODIFIERS
+
+ The pattern may be followed by i, m, s, or x to set the PCRE_CASELESS,
+ PCRE_MULTILINE, PCRE_DOTALL, or PCRE_EXTENDED options, respectively.
+ For example:
+
+ /caseless/i
+
+ These modifier letters have the same effect as they do in Perl. There
+ are others that set PCRE options that do not correspond to anything in
+ Perl: /A, /E, /N, /U, and /X set PCRE_ANCHORED, PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY,
+ PCRE_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE, PCRE_UNGREEDY, and PCRE_EXTRA respectively.
+
+ Searching for all possible matches within each subject string can be
+ requested by the /g or /G modifier. After finding a match, PCRE is
+ called again to search the remainder of the subject string. The differ-
+ ence between /g and /G is that the former uses the startoffset argument
+ to pcre_exec() to start searching at a new point within the entire
+ string (which is in effect what Perl does), whereas the latter passes
+ over a shortened substring. This makes a difference to the matching
+ process if the pattern begins with a lookbehind assertion (including \b
+ or \B).
+
+ If any call to pcre_exec() in a /g or /G sequence matches an empty
+ string, the next call is done with the PCRE_NOTEMPTY and PCRE_ANCHORED
+ flags set in order to search for another, non-empty, match at the same
+ point. If this second match fails, the start offset is advanced by
+ one, and the normal match is retried. This imitates the way Perl han-
+ dles such cases when using the /g modifier or the split() function.
+
+ There are a number of other modifiers for controlling the way pcretest
+ operates.
+
+ The /+ modifier requests that as well as outputting the substring that
+ matched the entire pattern, pcretest should in addition output the
+ remainder of the subject string. This is useful for tests where the
+ subject contains multiple copies of the same substring.
+
+ The /L modifier must be followed directly by the name of a locale, for
+ example,
+
+ /pattern/Lfr
+
+ For this reason, it must be the last modifier letter. The given locale
+ is set, pcre_maketables() is called to build a set of character tables
+ for the locale, and this is then passed to pcre_compile() when compil-
+ ing the regular expression. Without an /L modifier, NULL is passed as
+ the tables pointer; that is, /L applies only to the expression on which
+ it appears.
+
+ The /I modifier requests that pcretest output information about the
+ compiled expression (whether it is anchored, has a fixed first charac-
+ ter, and so on). It does this by calling pcre_fullinfo() after compil-
+ ing an expression, and outputting the information it gets back. If the
+ pattern is studied, the results of that are also output.
+
+ The /D modifier is a PCRE debugging feature, which also assumes /I. It
+ causes the internal form of compiled regular expressions to be output
+ after compilation. If the pattern was studied, the information returned
+ is also output.
+
+ The /S modifier causes pcre_study() to be called after the expression
+ has been compiled, and the results used when the expression is matched.
+
+ The /M modifier causes the size of memory block used to hold the com-
+ piled pattern to be output.
+
+ The /P modifier causes pcretest to call PCRE via the POSIX wrapper API
+ rather than its native API. When this is done, all other modifiers
+ except /i, /m, and /+ are ignored. REG_ICASE is set if /i is present,
+ and REG_NEWLINE is set if /m is present. The wrapper functions force
+ PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY always, and PCRE_DOTALL unless REG_NEWLINE is set.
+
+ The /8 modifier causes pcretest to call PCRE with the PCRE_UTF8 option
+ set. This turns on support for UTF-8 character handling in PCRE, pro-
+ vided that it was compiled with this support enabled. This modifier
+ also causes any non-printing characters in output strings to be printed
+ using the \x{hh...} notation if they are valid UTF-8 sequences.
+
+ If the /? modifier is used with /8, it causes pcretest to call
+ pcre_compile() with the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK option, to suppress the
+ checking of the string for UTF-8 validity.
+
+
+CALLOUTS
+
+ If the pattern contains any callout requests, pcretest's callout func-
+ tion will be called. By default, it displays the callout number, and
+ the start and current positions in the text at the callout time. For
+ example, the output
+
+ --->pqrabcdef
+ 0 ^ ^
+
+ indicates that callout number 0 occurred for a match attempt starting
+ at the fourth character of the subject string, when the pointer was at
+ the seventh character. The callout function returns zero (carry on
+ matching) by default.
+
+ Inserting callouts may be helpful when using pcretest to check compli-
+ cated regular expressions. For further information about callouts, see
+ the pcrecallout documentation.
+
+ For testing the PCRE library, additional control of callout behaviour
+ is available via escape sequences in the data, as described in the fol-
+ lowing section. In particular, it is possible to pass in a number as
+ callout data (the default is zero). If the callout function receives a
+ non-zero number, it returns that value instead of zero.
+
+
+DATA LINES
+
+ Before each data line is passed to pcre_exec(), leading and trailing
+ whitespace is removed, and it is then scanned for \ escapes. Some of
+ these are pretty esoteric features, intended for checking out some of
+ the more complicated features of PCRE. If you are just testing "ordi-
+ nary" regular expressions, you probably don't need any of these. The
+ following escapes are recognized:
+
+ \a alarm (= BEL)
+ \b backspace
+ \e escape
+ \f formfeed
+ \n newline
+ \r carriage return
+ \t tab
+ \v vertical tab
+ \nnn octal character (up to 3 octal digits)
+ \xhh hexadecimal character (up to 2 hex digits)
+ \x{hh...} hexadecimal character, any number of digits
+ in UTF-8 mode
+ \A pass the PCRE_ANCHORED option to pcre_exec()
+ \B pass the PCRE_NOTBOL option to pcre_exec()
+ \Cdd call pcre_copy_substring() for substring dd
+ after a successful match (any decimal number
+ less than 32)
+ \Cname call pcre_copy_named_substring() for substring
+ "name" after a successful match (name termin-
+ ated by next non alphanumeric character)
+ \C+ show the current captured substrings at callout
+ time
+ \C- do not supply a callout function
+ \C!n return 1 instead of 0 when callout number n is
+ reached
+ \C!n!m return 1 instead of 0 when callout number n is
+ reached for the nth time
+ \C*n pass the number n (may be negative) as callout
+ data
+ \Gdd call pcre_get_substring() for substring dd
+ after a successful match (any decimal number
+ less than 32)
+ \Gname call pcre_get_named_substring() for substring
+ "name" after a successful match (name termin-
+ ated by next non-alphanumeric character)
+ \L call pcre_get_substringlist() after a
+ successful match
+ \M discover the minimum MATCH_LIMIT setting
+ \N pass the PCRE_NOTEMPTY option to pcre_exec()
+ \Odd set the size of the output vector passed to
+ pcre_exec() to dd (any number of decimal
+ digits)
+ \S output details of memory get/free calls during matching
+ \Z pass the PCRE_NOTEOL option to pcre_exec()
+ \? pass the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK option to
+ pcre_exec()
+
+ If \M is present, pcretest calls pcre_exec() several times, with dif-
+ ferent values in the match_limit field of the pcre_extra data struc-
+ ture, until it finds the minimum number that is needed for pcre_exec()
+ to complete. This number is a measure of the amount of recursion and
+ backtracking that takes place, and checking it out can be instructive.
+ For most simple matches, the number is quite small, but for patterns
+ with very large numbers of matching possibilities, it can become large
+ very quickly with increasing length of subject string.
+
+ When \O is used, it may be higher or lower than the size set by the -O
+ option (or defaulted to 45); \O applies only to the call of pcre_exec()
+ for the line in which it appears.
+
+ A backslash followed by anything else just escapes the anything else.
+ If the very last character is a backslash, it is ignored. This gives a
+ way of passing an empty line as data, since a real empty line termi-
+ nates the data input.
+
+ If /P was present on the regex, causing the POSIX wrapper API to be
+ used, only 0 causing REG_NOTBOL and REG_NOTEOL to be passed to
+ regexec() respectively.
+
+ The use of \x{hh...} to represent UTF-8 characters is not dependent on
+ the use of the /8 modifier on the pattern. It is recognized always.
+ There may be any number of hexadecimal digits inside the braces. The
+ result is from one to six bytes, encoded according to the UTF-8 rules.
+
+
+OUTPUT FROM PCRETEST
+
+ When a match succeeds, pcretest outputs the list of captured substrings
+ that pcre_exec() returns, starting with number 0 for the string that
+ matched the whole pattern. Here is an example of an interactive
+ pcretest run.
+
+ $ pcretest
+ PCRE version 4.00 08-Jan-2003
+
+ re> /^abc(\d+)/
+ data> abc123
+ 0: abc123
+ 1: 123
+ data> xyz
+ No match
+
+ If the strings contain any non-printing characters, they are output as
+ \0x escapes, or as \x{...} escapes if the /8 modifier was present on
+ the pattern. If the pattern has the /+ modifier, then the output for
+ substring 0 is followed by the the rest of the subject string, identi-
+ fied by "0+" like this:
+
+ re> /cat/+
+ data> cataract
+ 0: cat
+ 0+ aract
+
+ If the pattern has the /g or /G modifier, the results of successive
+ matching attempts are output in sequence, like this:
+
+ re> /\Bi(\w\w)/g
+ data> Mississippi
+ 0: iss
+ 1: ss
+ 0: iss
+ 1: ss
+ 0: ipp
+ 1: pp
+
+ "No match" is output only if the first match attempt fails.
+
+ If any of the sequences \C, \G, or \L are present in a data line that
+ is successfully matched, the substrings extracted by the convenience
+ functions are output with C, G, or L after the string number instead of
+ a colon. This is in addition to the normal full list. The string length
+ (that is, the return from the extraction function) is given in paren-
+ theses after each string for \C and \G.
+
+ Note that while patterns can be continued over several lines (a plain
+ ">" prompt is used for continuations), data lines may not. However new-
+ lines can be included in data by means of the \n escape.
+
+
+AUTHOR
+
+ Philip Hazel <ph10@cam.ac.uk>
+ University Computing Service,
+ Cambridge CB2 3QG, England.
+
+Last updated: 09 December 2003
+Copyright (c) 1997-2003 University of Cambridge.