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authorph10 <ph10@2f5784b3-3f2a-0410-8824-cb99058d5e15>2012-01-15 15:44:47 +0000
committerph10 <ph10@2f5784b3-3f2a-0410-8824-cb99058d5e15>2012-01-15 15:44:47 +0000
commitfa0d15f15c45a08d2896941e29b8e7b6ca2b6230 (patch)
tree70c34ec6c7f0ad13116a18b9232a7188f4623021 /doc/pcre.txt
parent95c03735ce9ffcbd3a199aea4008b2414eac09cf (diff)
downloadpcre-fa0d15f15c45a08d2896941e29b8e7b6ca2b6230.tar.gz
Fix HTML documentation and rebuild.
git-svn-id: svn://vcs.exim.org/pcre/code/trunk@878 2f5784b3-3f2a-0410-8824-cb99058d5e15
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/pcre.txt')
-rw-r--r--doc/pcre.txt189
1 files changed, 96 insertions, 93 deletions
diff --git a/doc/pcre.txt b/doc/pcre.txt
index 68e0142..6740394 100644
--- a/doc/pcre.txt
+++ b/doc/pcre.txt
@@ -554,37 +554,40 @@ UTF-8 and UTF-16 SUPPORT
to the configure command. This setting applies to both libraries,
adding support for UTF-8 to the 8-bit library and support for UTF-16 to
- the 16-bit library. It is not possible to build one library with UTF
- support and the other without in the same configuration. (For backwards
- compatibility, --enable-utf8 is a synonym of --enable-utf.)
-
- Of itself, this setting does not make PCRE treat strings as UTF-8 or
- UTF-16. As well as compiling PCRE with this option, you also have have
+ the 16-bit library. There are no separate options for enabling UTF-8
+ and UTF-16 independently because that would allow ridiculous settings
+ such as requesting UTF-16 support while building only the 8-bit
+ library. It is not possible to build one library with UTF support and
+ the other without in the same configuration. (For backwards compatibil-
+ ity, --enable-utf8 is a synonym of --enable-utf.)
+
+ Of itself, this setting does not make PCRE treat strings as UTF-8 or
+ UTF-16. As well as compiling PCRE with this option, you also have have
to set the PCRE_UTF8 or PCRE_UTF16 option when you call one of the pat-
tern compiling functions.
- If you set --enable-utf when compiling in an EBCDIC environment, PCRE
+ If you set --enable-utf when compiling in an EBCDIC environment, PCRE
expects its input to be either ASCII or UTF-8 (depending on the runtime
- option). It is not possible to support both EBCDIC and UTF-8 codes in
+ option). It is not possible to support both EBCDIC and UTF-8 codes in
the same version of the library. Consequently, --enable-utf and
--enable-ebcdic are mutually exclusive.
UNICODE CHARACTER PROPERTY SUPPORT
- UTF support allows the libraries to process character codepoints up to
- 0x10ffff in the strings that they handle. On its own, however, it does
+ UTF support allows the libraries to process character codepoints up to
+ 0x10ffff in the strings that they handle. On its own, however, it does
not provide any facilities for accessing the properties of such charac-
ters. If you want to be able to use the pattern escapes \P, \p, and \X,
which refer to Unicode character properties, you must add
--enable-unicode-properties
- to the configure command. This implies UTF support, even if you have
+ to the configure command. This implies UTF support, even if you have
not explicitly requested it.
- Including Unicode property support adds around 30K of tables to the
- PCRE library. Only the general category properties such as Lu and Nd
+ Including Unicode property support adds around 30K of tables to the
+ PCRE library. Only the general category properties such as Lu and Nd
are supported. Details are given in the pcrepattern documentation.
@@ -594,9 +597,9 @@ JUST-IN-TIME COMPILER SUPPORT
--enable-jit
- This support is available only for certain hardware architectures. If
- this option is set for an unsupported architecture, a compile time
- error occurs. See the pcrejit documentation for a discussion of JIT
+ This support is available only for certain hardware architectures. If
+ this option is set for an unsupported architecture, a compile time
+ error occurs. See the pcrejit documentation for a discussion of JIT
usage. When JIT support is enabled, pcregrep automatically makes use of
it, unless you add
@@ -607,14 +610,14 @@ JUST-IN-TIME COMPILER SUPPORT
CODE VALUE OF NEWLINE
- By default, PCRE interprets the linefeed (LF) character as indicating
- the end of a line. This is the normal newline character on Unix-like
- systems. You can compile PCRE to use carriage return (CR) instead, by
+ By default, PCRE interprets the linefeed (LF) character as indicating
+ the end of a line. This is the normal newline character on Unix-like
+ systems. You can compile PCRE to use carriage return (CR) instead, by
adding
--enable-newline-is-cr
- to the configure command. There is also a --enable-newline-is-lf
+ to the configure command. There is also a --enable-newline-is-lf
option, which explicitly specifies linefeed as the newline character.
Alternatively, you can specify that line endings are to be indicated by
@@ -626,40 +629,40 @@ CODE VALUE OF NEWLINE
--enable-newline-is-anycrlf
- which causes PCRE to recognize any of the three sequences CR, LF, or
+ which causes PCRE to recognize any of the three sequences CR, LF, or
CRLF as indicating a line ending. Finally, a fifth option, specified by
--enable-newline-is-any
causes PCRE to recognize any Unicode newline sequence.
- Whatever line ending convention is selected when PCRE is built can be
- overridden when the library functions are called. At build time it is
+ Whatever line ending convention is selected when PCRE is built can be
+ overridden when the library functions are called. At build time it is
conventional to use the standard for your operating system.
WHAT \R MATCHES
- By default, the sequence \R in a pattern matches any Unicode newline
- sequence, whatever has been selected as the line ending sequence. If
+ By default, the sequence \R in a pattern matches any Unicode newline
+ sequence, whatever has been selected as the line ending sequence. If
you specify
--enable-bsr-anycrlf
- the default is changed so that \R matches only CR, LF, or CRLF. What-
- ever is selected when PCRE is built can be overridden when the library
+ the default is changed so that \R matches only CR, LF, or CRLF. What-
+ ever is selected when PCRE is built can be overridden when the library
functions are called.
POSIX MALLOC USAGE
- When the 8-bit library is called through the POSIX interface (see the
- pcreposix documentation), additional working storage is required for
- holding the pointers to capturing substrings, because PCRE requires
+ When the 8-bit library is called through the POSIX interface (see the
+ pcreposix documentation), additional working storage is required for
+ holding the pointers to capturing substrings, because PCRE requires
three integers per substring, whereas the POSIX interface provides only
- two. If the number of expected substrings is small, the wrapper func-
- tion uses space on the stack, because this is faster than using mal-
- loc() for each call. The default threshold above which the stack is no
+ two. If the number of expected substrings is small, the wrapper func-
+ tion uses space on the stack, because this is faster than using mal-
+ loc() for each call. The default threshold above which the stack is no
longer used is 10; it can be changed by adding a setting such as
--with-posix-malloc-threshold=20
@@ -669,19 +672,19 @@ POSIX MALLOC USAGE
HANDLING VERY LARGE PATTERNS
- Within a compiled pattern, offset values are used to point from one
- part to another (for example, from an opening parenthesis to an alter-
- nation metacharacter). By default, two-byte values are used for these
- offsets, leading to a maximum size for a compiled pattern of around
- 64K. This is sufficient to handle all but the most gigantic patterns.
- Nevertheless, some people do want to process truly enormous patterns,
- so it is possible to compile PCRE to use three-byte or four-byte off-
+ Within a compiled pattern, offset values are used to point from one
+ part to another (for example, from an opening parenthesis to an alter-
+ nation metacharacter). By default, two-byte values are used for these
+ offsets, leading to a maximum size for a compiled pattern of around
+ 64K. This is sufficient to handle all but the most gigantic patterns.
+ Nevertheless, some people do want to process truly enormous patterns,
+ so it is possible to compile PCRE to use three-byte or four-byte off-
sets by adding a setting such as
--with-link-size=3
- to the configure command. The value given must be 2, 3, or 4. For the
- 16-bit library, a value of 3 is rounded up to 4. Using longer offsets
+ to the configure command. The value given must be 2, 3, or 4. For the
+ 16-bit library, a value of 3 is rounded up to 4. Using longer offsets
slows down the operation of PCRE because it has to load additional data
when handling them.
@@ -689,92 +692,92 @@ HANDLING VERY LARGE PATTERNS
AVOIDING EXCESSIVE STACK USAGE
When matching with the pcre_exec() function, PCRE implements backtrack-
- ing by making recursive calls to an internal function called match().
- In environments where the size of the stack is limited, this can se-
- verely limit PCRE's operation. (The Unix environment does not usually
+ ing by making recursive calls to an internal function called match().
+ In environments where the size of the stack is limited, this can se-
+ verely limit PCRE's operation. (The Unix environment does not usually
suffer from this problem, but it may sometimes be necessary to increase
- the maximum stack size. There is a discussion in the pcrestack docu-
- mentation.) An alternative approach to recursion that uses memory from
- the heap to remember data, instead of using recursive function calls,
- has been implemented to work round the problem of limited stack size.
+ the maximum stack size. There is a discussion in the pcrestack docu-
+ mentation.) An alternative approach to recursion that uses memory from
+ the heap to remember data, instead of using recursive function calls,
+ has been implemented to work round the problem of limited stack size.
If you want to build a version of PCRE that works this way, add
--disable-stack-for-recursion
- to the configure command. With this configuration, PCRE will use the
- pcre_stack_malloc and pcre_stack_free variables to call memory manage-
- ment functions. By default these point to malloc() and free(), but you
+ to the configure command. With this configuration, PCRE will use the
+ pcre_stack_malloc and pcre_stack_free variables to call memory manage-
+ ment functions. By default these point to malloc() and free(), but you
can replace the pointers so that your own functions are used instead.
- Separate functions are provided rather than using pcre_malloc and
- pcre_free because the usage is very predictable: the block sizes
- requested are always the same, and the blocks are always freed in
- reverse order. A calling program might be able to implement optimized
- functions that perform better than malloc() and free(). PCRE runs
+ Separate functions are provided rather than using pcre_malloc and
+ pcre_free because the usage is very predictable: the block sizes
+ requested are always the same, and the blocks are always freed in
+ reverse order. A calling program might be able to implement optimized
+ functions that perform better than malloc() and free(). PCRE runs
noticeably more slowly when built in this way. This option affects only
the pcre_exec() function; it is not relevant for pcre_dfa_exec().
LIMITING PCRE RESOURCE USAGE
- Internally, PCRE has a function called match(), which it calls repeat-
- edly (sometimes recursively) when matching a pattern with the
- pcre_exec() function. By controlling the maximum number of times this
- function may be called during a single matching operation, a limit can
- be placed on the resources used by a single call to pcre_exec(). The
- limit can be changed at run time, as described in the pcreapi documen-
- tation. The default is 10 million, but this can be changed by adding a
+ Internally, PCRE has a function called match(), which it calls repeat-
+ edly (sometimes recursively) when matching a pattern with the
+ pcre_exec() function. By controlling the maximum number of times this
+ function may be called during a single matching operation, a limit can
+ be placed on the resources used by a single call to pcre_exec(). The
+ limit can be changed at run time, as described in the pcreapi documen-
+ tation. The default is 10 million, but this can be changed by adding a
setting such as
--with-match-limit=500000
- to the configure command. This setting has no effect on the
+ to the configure command. This setting has no effect on the
pcre_dfa_exec() matching function.
- In some environments it is desirable to limit the depth of recursive
+ In some environments it is desirable to limit the depth of recursive
calls of match() more strictly than the total number of calls, in order
- to restrict the maximum amount of stack (or heap, if --disable-stack-
+ to restrict the maximum amount of stack (or heap, if --disable-stack-
for-recursion is specified) that is used. A second limit controls this;
- it defaults to the value that is set for --with-match-limit, which
- imposes no additional constraints. However, you can set a lower limit
+ it defaults to the value that is set for --with-match-limit, which
+ imposes no additional constraints. However, you can set a lower limit
by adding, for example,
--with-match-limit-recursion=10000
- to the configure command. This value can also be overridden at run
+ to the configure command. This value can also be overridden at run
time.
CREATING CHARACTER TABLES AT BUILD TIME
- PCRE uses fixed tables for processing characters whose code values are
- less than 256. By default, PCRE is built with a set of tables that are
- distributed in the file pcre_chartables.c.dist. These tables are for
+ PCRE uses fixed tables for processing characters whose code values are
+ less than 256. By default, PCRE is built with a set of tables that are
+ distributed in the file pcre_chartables.c.dist. These tables are for
ASCII codes only. If you add
--enable-rebuild-chartables
- to the configure command, the distributed tables are no longer used.
- Instead, a program called dftables is compiled and run. This outputs
+ to the configure command, the distributed tables are no longer used.
+ Instead, a program called dftables is compiled and run. This outputs
the source for new set of tables, created in the default locale of your
C runtime system. (This method of replacing the tables does not work if
- you are cross compiling, because dftables is run on the local host. If
- you need to create alternative tables when cross compiling, you will
+ you are cross compiling, because dftables is run on the local host. If
+ you need to create alternative tables when cross compiling, you will
have to do so "by hand".)
USING EBCDIC CODE
- PCRE assumes by default that it will run in an environment where the
- character code is ASCII (or Unicode, which is a superset of ASCII).
- This is the case for most computer operating systems. PCRE can, how-
+ PCRE assumes by default that it will run in an environment where the
+ character code is ASCII (or Unicode, which is a superset of ASCII).
+ This is the case for most computer operating systems. PCRE can, how-
ever, be compiled to run in an EBCDIC environment by adding
--enable-ebcdic
to the configure command. This setting implies --enable-rebuild-charta-
- bles. You should only use it if you know that you are in an EBCDIC
- environment (for example, an IBM mainframe operating system). The
+ bles. You should only use it if you know that you are in an EBCDIC
+ environment (for example, an IBM mainframe operating system). The
--enable-ebcdic option is incompatible with --enable-utf.
@@ -788,18 +791,18 @@ PCREGREP OPTIONS FOR COMPRESSED FILE SUPPORT
--enable-pcregrep-libbz2
to the configure command. These options naturally require that the rel-
- evant libraries are installed on your system. Configuration will fail
+ evant libraries are installed on your system. Configuration will fail
if they are not.
PCREGREP BUFFER SIZE
- pcregrep uses an internal buffer to hold a "window" on the file it is
+ pcregrep uses an internal buffer to hold a "window" on the file it is
scanning, in order to be able to output "before" and "after" lines when
- it finds a match. The size of the buffer is controlled by a parameter
+ it finds a match. The size of the buffer is controlled by a parameter
whose default value is 20K. The buffer itself is three times this size,
but because of the way it is used for holding "before" lines, the long-
- est line that is guaranteed to be processable is the parameter size.
+ est line that is guaranteed to be processable is the parameter size.
You can change the default parameter value by adding, for example,
--with-pcregrep-bufsize=50K
@@ -814,24 +817,24 @@ PCRETEST OPTION FOR LIBREADLINE SUPPORT
--enable-pcretest-libreadline
- to the configure command, pcretest is linked with the libreadline
- library, and when its input is from a terminal, it reads it using the
+ to the configure command, pcretest is linked with the libreadline
+ library, and when its input is from a terminal, it reads it using the
readline() function. This provides line-editing and history facilities.
Note that libreadline is GPL-licensed, so if you distribute a binary of
pcretest linked in this way, there may be licensing issues.
- Setting this option causes the -lreadline option to be added to the
- pcretest build. In many operating environments with a sytem-installed
+ Setting this option causes the -lreadline option to be added to the
+ pcretest build. In many operating environments with a sytem-installed
libreadline this is sufficient. However, in some environments (e.g. if
- an unmodified distribution version of readline is in use), some extra
- configuration may be necessary. The INSTALL file for libreadline says
+ an unmodified distribution version of readline is in use), some extra
+ configuration may be necessary. The INSTALL file for libreadline says
this:
"Readline uses the termcap functions, but does not link with the
termcap or curses library itself, allowing applications which link
with readline the to choose an appropriate library."
- If your environment has not been set up so that an appropriate library
+ If your environment has not been set up so that an appropriate library
is automatically included, you may need to add something like
LIBS="-ncurses"