pcre2_match(3) — Linux manual page

NAME \| SYNOPSIS \| DESCRIPTION \| COLOPHON

PCRE2_MATCH(3)          Library Functions Manual          PCRE2_MATCH(3)

NAME top

       PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

SYNOPSIS top


       #include <pcre2.h>

       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);

DESCRIPTION top


       This function matches a compiled regular expression against a
       given subject string, using a matching algorithm that is similar
       to Perl's. It returns offsets to what it has matched and to
       captured substrings via the match_data block, which can be
       processed by functions with names that start with
       pcre2_get_ovector_...() or pcre2_substring_...(). The return from
       pcre2_match() is one more than the highest numbered capturing
       pair that has been set (for example, 1 if there are no captures),
       zero if the vector of offsets is too small, or a negative error
       code for no match and other errors. The function arguments are:

         code         Points to the compiled pattern
         subject      Points to the subject string
         length       Length of the subject string
         startoffset  Offset in the subject at which to start matching
         options      Option bits
         match_data   Points to a match data block, for results
         mcontext     Points to a match context, or is NULL

       A match context is needed only if you want to:

         Set up a callout function
         Set a matching offset limit
         Change the heap memory limit
         Change the backtracking match limit
         Change the backtracking depth limit
         Set custom memory management specifically for the match

       The length and startoffset values are code units, not characters.
       The length may be given as PCRE2_ZERO_TERMINATED for a subject
       that is terminated by a binary zero code unit. The options are:

         PCRE2_ANCHORED          Match only at the first position
         PCRE2_COPY_MATCHED_SUBJECT
                                 On success, make a private subject copy
         PCRE2_DISABLE_RECURSELOOP_CHECK
                                 Only useful in rare cases; use with
       care
         PCRE2_ENDANCHORED       Pattern can match only at end of
       subject
         PCRE2_NOTBOL            Subject string is not the beginning of
       a line
         PCRE2_NOTEOL            Subject string is not the end of a line
         PCRE2_NOTEMPTY          An empty string is not a valid match
         PCRE2_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART  An empty string at the start of the
       subject
                                  is not a valid match
         PCRE2_NO_JIT            Do not use JIT matching
         PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK      Do not check the subject for UTF
                                  validity (only relevant if PCRE2_UTF
                                  was set at compile time)
         PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD      Return PCRE2_ERROR_PARTIAL for a
       partial
                                  match even if there is a full match
         PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT      Return PCRE2_ERROR_PARTIAL for a
       partial
                                  match if no full matches are found

       For details of partial matching, see the pcre2partial page. There
       is a complete description of the PCRE2 native API in the pcre2api
       page and a description of the POSIX API in the pcre2posix page.

COLOPHON top

       This page is part of the PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular
       Expressions) project.  Information about the project can be found
       at ⟨http://www.pcre.org/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this
       manual page, see
       ⟨http://bugs.exim.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=PCRE⟩.  This page was
       obtained from the tarball fetched from
       ⟨https://github.com/PhilipHazel/pcre2.git⟩ on 2024-06-14.  If you
       discover any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page,
       or you believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for
       the page, or you have corrections or improvements to the
       information in this COLOPHON (which is not part of the original
       manual page), send a mail to man-pages@man7.org

PCRE2 10.43                  27 January 2024              PCRE2_MATCH(3)