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<title>pcre2_compile specification</title>
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<h1>pcre2_compile man page</h1>
<p>
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<p>
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<br><b>
SYNOPSIS
</b><br>
<P>
<b>#include <pcre2.h></b>
</P>
<P>
<b>pcre2_code *pcre2_compile(PCRE2_SPTR <i>pattern</i>, PCRE2_SIZE <i>length</i>,</b>
<b> uint32_t <i>options</i>, int *<i>errorcode</i>, PCRE2_SIZE *<i>erroroffset,</i></b>
<b> pcre2_compile_context *<i>ccontext</i>);</b>
</P>
<br><b>
DESCRIPTION
</b><br>
<P>
This function compiles a regular expression pattern into an internal form. Its
arguments are:
<pre>
<i>pattern</i> A string containing expression to be compiled
<i>length</i> The length of the string or PCRE2_ZERO_TERMINATED
<i>options</i> Option bits
<i>errorcode</i> Where to put an error code
<i>erroffset</i> Where to put an error offset
<i>ccontext</i> Pointer to a compile context or NULL
</pre>
The length of the string and any error offset that is returned are in code
units, not characters. A compile context is needed only if you want to change
<pre>
What \R matches (Unicode newlines or CR, LF, CRLF only)
PCRE2's character tables
The newline character sequence
The compile time nested parentheses limit
</pre>
or provide an external function for stack size checking. The option bits are:
<pre>
PCRE2_ANCHORED Force pattern anchoring
PCRE2_ALT_BSUX Alternative handling of \u, \U, and \x
PCRE2_ALT_CIRCUMFLEX Alternative handling of ^ in multiline mode
PCRE2_AUTO_CALLOUT Compile automatic callouts
PCRE2_CASELESS Do caseless matching
PCRE2_DOLLAR_ENDONLY $ not to match newline at end
PCRE2_DOTALL . matches anything including NL
PCRE2_DUPNAMES Allow duplicate names for subpatterns
PCRE2_EXTENDED Ignore white space and # comments
PCRE2_FIRSTLINE Force matching to be before newline
PCRE2_MATCH_UNSET_BACKREF Match unset back references
PCRE2_MULTILINE ^ and $ match newlines within data
PCRE2_NEVER_BACKSLASH_C Lock out the use of \C in patterns
PCRE2_NEVER_UCP Lock out PCRE2_UCP, e.g. via (*UCP)
PCRE2_NEVER_UTF Lock out PCRE2_UTF, e.g. via (*UTF)
PCRE2_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE Disable numbered capturing paren-
theses (named ones available)
PCRE2_NO_AUTO_POSSESS Disable auto-possessification
PCRE2_NO_DOTSTAR_ANCHOR Disable automatic anchoring for .*
PCRE2_NO_START_OPTIMIZE Disable match-time start optimizations
PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK Do not check the pattern for UTF validity
(only relevant if PCRE2_UTF is set)
PCRE2_UCP Use Unicode properties for \d, \w, etc.
PCRE2_UNGREEDY Invert greediness of quantifiers
PCRE2_UTF Treat pattern and subjects as UTF strings
</pre>
PCRE2 must be built with Unicode support in order to use PCRE2_UTF, PCRE2_UCP
and related options.
</P>
<P>
The yield of the function is a pointer to a private data structure that
contains the compiled pattern, or NULL if an error was detected.
</P>
<P>
There is a complete description of the PCRE2 native API in the
<a href="pcre2api.html"><b>pcre2api</b></a>
page and a description of the POSIX API in the
<a href="pcre2posix.html"><b>pcre2posix</b></a>
page.
<p>
Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE2 index page</a>.
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