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+<HTML>
+<HEAD>
+<TITLE>pcretest specification</TITLE>
+</HEAD>
+<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#00005A">
+<H1>pcretest specification</H1>
+This HTML document has been generated automatically from the original man page.
+If there is any nonsense in it, please consult the man page in case the
+conversion went wrong.
+<UL>
+<LI><A NAME="TOC1" HREF="#SEC1">NAME</A>
+<LI><A NAME="TOC2" HREF="#SEC2">SYNOPSIS</A>
+<LI><A NAME="TOC3" HREF="#SEC3">OPTIONS</A>
+<LI><A NAME="TOC4" HREF="#SEC4">DESCRIPTION</A>
+<LI><A NAME="TOC5" HREF="#SEC5">PATTERN MODIFIERS</A>
+<LI><A NAME="TOC6" HREF="#SEC6">DATA LINES</A>
+<LI><A NAME="TOC7" HREF="#SEC7">OUTPUT FROM PCRETEST</A>
+<LI><A NAME="TOC8" HREF="#SEC8">AUTHOR</A>
+</UL>
+<LI><A NAME="SEC1" HREF="#TOC1">NAME</A>
+<P>
+pcretest - a program for testing Perl-compatible regular expressions.
+</P>
+<LI><A NAME="SEC2" HREF="#TOC1">SYNOPSIS</A>
+<P>
+<B>pcretest [-d] [-i] [-m] [-o osize] [-p] [-t] [source] [destination]</B>
+</P>
+<P>
+<B>pcretest</B> 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 man page describes the features of the test program; for
+details of the regular expressions themselves, see the <B>pcre</B> man page.
+</P>
+<LI><A NAME="SEC3" HREF="#TOC1">OPTIONS</A>
+<P>
+<B>-d</B>
+Behave as if each regex had the <B>/D</B> modifier (see below); the internal
+form is output after compilation.
+</P>
+<P>
+<B>-i</B>
+Behave as if each regex had the <B>/I</B> modifier; information about the
+compiled pattern is given after compilation.
+</P>
+<P>
+<B>-m</B>
+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, <B>-s</B> is a synonym for <B>-m</B>.
+</P>
+<P>
+<B>-o</B> <I>osize</I>
+Set the number of elements in the output vector that is used when calling PCRE
+to be <I>osize</I>. 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>
+<P>
+<B>-p</B>
+Behave as if each regex has <B>/P</B> modifier; the POSIX wrapper API is used
+to call PCRE. None of the other options has any effect when <B>-p</B> is set.
+</P>
+<P>
+<B>-t</B>
+Run each compile, study, and match 20000 times with a timer, and output
+resulting time per compile or match (in milliseconds). Do not set <B>-t</B> with
+<B>-m</B>, because you will then get the size output 20000 times and the timing
+will be distorted.
+</P>
+<LI><A NAME="SEC4" HREF="#TOC1">DESCRIPTION</A>
+<P>
+If <B>pcretest</B> 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&#62;" to prompt for regular
+expressions, and "data&#62;" to prompt for data lines.
+</P>
+<P>
+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 number of data
+lines to be matched against the pattern. 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
+</P>
+<P>
+<PRE>
+ /(a|bc)x+yz/
+</PRE>
+</P>
+<P>
+White space before the initial delimiter is ignored. A regular expression may
+be continued over several input lines, in which case the newline characters are
+included within it. It is possible to include the delimiter within the pattern
+by escaping it, for example
+</P>
+<P>
+<PRE>
+ /abc\/def/
+</PRE>
+</P>
+<P>
+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 followed by a backslash, for
+example,
+</P>
+<P>
+<PRE>
+ /abc/\
+</PRE>
+</P>
+<P>
+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
+</P>
+<P>
+<PRE>
+ /abc\/
+</PRE>
+</P>
+<P>
+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.
+</P>
+<LI><A NAME="SEC5" HREF="#TOC1">PATTERN MODIFIERS</A>
+<P>
+The pattern may be followed by <B>i</B>, <B>m</B>, <B>s</B>, or <B>x</B> to set the
+PCRE_CASELESS, PCRE_MULTILINE, PCRE_DOTALL, or PCRE_EXTENDED options,
+respectively. For example:
+</P>
+<P>
+<PRE>
+ /caseless/i
+</PRE>
+</P>
+<P>
+These modifier letters have the same effect as they do in Perl. There are
+others which set PCRE options that do not correspond to anything in Perl:
+<B>/A</B>, <B>/E</B>, and <B>/X</B> set PCRE_ANCHORED, PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY, and
+PCRE_EXTRA respectively.
+</P>
+<P>
+Searching for all possible matches within each subject string can be requested
+by the <B>/g</B> or <B>/G</B> modifier. After finding a match, PCRE is called
+again to search the remainder of the subject string. The difference between
+<B>/g</B> and <B>/G</B> is that the former uses the <I>startoffset</I> argument to
+<B>pcre_exec()</B> 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).
+</P>
+<P>
+If any call to <B>pcre_exec()</B> in a <B>/g</B> or <B>/G</B> 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 handles such cases when using the
+<B>/g</B> modifier or the <B>split()</B> function.
+</P>
+<P>
+There are a number of other modifiers for controlling the way <B>pcretest</B>
+operates.
+</P>
+<P>
+The <B>/+</B> 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.
+</P>
+<P>
+The <B>/L</B> modifier must be followed directly by the name of a locale, for
+example,
+</P>
+<P>
+<PRE>
+ /pattern/Lfr
+</PRE>
+</P>
+<P>
+For this reason, it must be the last modifier letter. The given locale is set,
+<B>pcre_maketables()</B> is called to build a set of character tables for the
+locale, and this is then passed to <B>pcre_compile()</B> when compiling the
+regular expression. Without an <B>/L</B> modifier, NULL is passed as the tables
+pointer; that is, <B>/L</B> applies only to the expression on which it appears.
+</P>
+<P>
+The <B>/I</B> modifier requests that <B>pcretest</B> output information about the
+compiled expression (whether it is anchored, has a fixed first character, and
+so on). It does this by calling <B>pcre_fullinfo()</B> after compiling an
+expression, and outputting the information it gets back. If the pattern is
+studied, the results of that are also output.
+</P>
+<P>
+The <B>/D</B> modifier is a PCRE debugging feature, which also assumes <B>/I</B>.
+It causes the internal form of compiled regular expressions to be output after
+compilation.
+</P>
+<P>
+The <B>/S</B> modifier causes <B>pcre_study()</B> to be called after the
+expression has been compiled, and the results used when the expression is
+matched.
+</P>
+<P>
+The <B>/M</B> modifier causes the size of memory block used to hold the compiled
+pattern to be output.
+</P>
+<P>
+The <B>/P</B> modifier causes <B>pcretest</B> to call PCRE via the POSIX wrapper
+API rather than its native API. When this is done, all other modifiers except
+<B>/i</B>, <B>/m</B>, and <B>/+</B> are ignored. REG_ICASE is set if <B>/i</B> is
+present, and REG_NEWLINE is set if <B>/m</B> is present. The wrapper functions
+force PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY always, and PCRE_DOTALL unless REG_NEWLINE is set.
+</P>
+<P>
+The <B>/8</B> modifier causes <B>pcretest</B> to call PCRE with the PCRE_UTF8
+option set. This turns on the (currently incomplete) support for UTF-8
+character handling in PCRE, provided 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.
+</P>
+<LI><A NAME="SEC6" HREF="#TOC1">DATA LINES</A>
+<P>
+Before each data line is passed to <B>pcre_exec()</B>, leading and trailing
+whitespace is removed, and it is then scanned for \ escapes. The following are
+recognized:
+</P>
+<P>
+<PRE>
+ \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 UTF-8 character
+</PRE>
+</P>
+<P>
+<PRE>
+ \A pass the PCRE_ANCHORED option to <B>pcre_exec()</B>
+ \B pass the PCRE_NOTBOL option to <B>pcre_exec()</B>
+ \Cdd call pcre_copy_substring() for substring dd
+ after a successful match (any decimal number
+ less than 32)
+ \Gdd call pcre_get_substring() for substring dd
+ after a successful match (any decimal number
+ less than 32)
+ \L call pcre_get_substringlist() after a
+ successful match
+ \N pass the PCRE_NOTEMPTY option to <B>pcre_exec()</B>
+ \Odd set the size of the output vector passed to
+ <B>pcre_exec()</B> to dd (any number of decimal
+ digits)
+ \Z pass the PCRE_NOTEOL option to <B>pcre_exec()</B>
+</PRE>
+</P>
+<P>
+When \O is used, it may be higher or lower than the size set by the <B>-O</B>
+option (or defaulted to 45); \O applies only to the call of <B>pcre_exec()</B>
+for the line in which it appears.
+</P>
+<P>
+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 terminates the data input.
+</P>
+<P>
+If <B>/P</B> was present on the regex, causing the POSIX wrapper API to be used,
+only <B>\B</B>, and <B>\Z</B> have any effect, causing REG_NOTBOL and REG_NOTEOL
+to be passed to <B>regexec()</B> respectively.
+</P>
+<P>
+The use of \x{hh...} to represent UTF-8 characters is not dependent on the use
+of the <B>/8</B> 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.
+</P>
+<LI><A NAME="SEC7" HREF="#TOC1">OUTPUT FROM PCRETEST</A>
+<P>
+When a match succeeds, pcretest outputs the list of captured substrings that
+<B>pcre_exec()</B> returns, starting with number 0 for the string that matched
+the whole pattern. Here is an example of an interactive pcretest run.
+</P>
+<P>
+<PRE>
+ $ pcretest
+ PCRE version 2.06 08-Jun-1999
+</PRE>
+</P>
+<P>
+<PRE>
+ re&#62; /^abc(\d+)/
+ data&#62; abc123
+ 0: abc123
+ 1: 123
+ data&#62; xyz
+ No match
+</PRE>
+</P>
+<P>
+If the strings contain any non-printing characters, they are output as \0x
+escapes, or as \x{...} escapes if the <B>/8</B> modifier was present on the
+pattern. If the pattern has the <B>/+</B> modifier, then the output for
+substring 0 is followed by the the rest of the subject string, identified by
+"0+" like this:
+</P>
+<P>
+<PRE>
+ re&#62; /cat/+
+ data&#62; cataract
+ 0: cat
+ 0+ aract
+</PRE>
+</P>
+<P>
+If the pattern has the <B>/g</B> or <B>/G</B> modifier, the results of successive
+matching attempts are output in sequence, like this:
+</P>
+<P>
+<PRE>
+ re&#62; /\Bi(\w\w)/g
+ data&#62; Mississippi
+ 0: iss
+ 1: ss
+ 0: iss
+ 1: ss
+ 0: ipp
+ 1: pp
+</PRE>
+</P>
+<P>
+"No match" is output only if the first match attempt fails.
+</P>
+<P>
+If any of the sequences <B>\C</B>, <B>\G</B>, or <B>\L</B> 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
+parentheses after each string for <B>\C</B> and <B>\G</B>.
+</P>
+<P>
+Note that while patterns can be continued over several lines (a plain "&#62;"
+prompt is used for continuations), data lines may not. However newlines can be
+included in data by means of the \n escape.
+</P>
+<LI><A NAME="SEC8" HREF="#TOC1">AUTHOR</A>
+<P>
+Philip Hazel &#60;ph10@cam.ac.uk&#62;
+<BR>
+University Computing Service,
+<BR>
+New Museums Site,
+<BR>
+Cambridge CB2 3QG, England.
+<BR>
+Phone: +44 1223 334714
+</P>
+<P>
+Last updated: 15 August 2001
+<BR>
+Copyright (c) 1997-2001 University of Cambridge.