xref: /dragonfly/lib/libcompat/4.3/re_comp.3 (revision dc71b7ab)
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28.\"     @(#)re_comp.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
29.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libcompat/4.3/re_comp.3,v 1.6.2.4 2001/12/17 10:08:29 ru Exp $
30.\" $DragonFly: src/lib/libcompat/4.3/re_comp.3,v 1.2 2003/06/17 04:26:48 dillon Exp $
31.\"
32.Dd June 4, 1993
33.Dt RE_COMP 3
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm re_comp ,
37.Nm re_exec
38.Nd regular expression handler
39.Sh LIBRARY
40.Lb libcompat
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.In unistd.h
43.Ft char *
44.Fn re_comp "const char *s"
45.Ft int
46.Fn re_exec "const char *s"
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48.Bf -symbolic
49This interface is made obsolete by
50.Xr regex 3 .
51.Ef
52.Pp
53The
54.Fn re_comp
55function
56compiles a string into an internal form suitable for pattern matching.
57The
58.Fn re_exec
59function
60checks the argument string against the last string passed to
61.Fn re_comp .
62.Pp
63The
64.Fn re_comp
65function
66returns 0 if the string
67.Fa s
68was compiled successfully; otherwise a string containing an
69error message is returned.
70If
71.Fn re_comp
72is passed 0 or a null string, it returns without changing the currently
73compiled regular expression.
74.Pp
75The
76.Fn re_exec
77function
78returns 1 if the string
79.Fa s
80matches the last compiled regular expression, 0 if the string
81.Fa s
82failed to match the last compiled regular expression, and \-1 if the compiled
83regular expression was invalid (indicating an internal error).
84.Pp
85The strings passed to both
86.Fn re_comp
87and
88.Fn re_exec
89may have trailing or embedded newline characters;
90they are terminated by
91.Dv NUL Ns s .
92The regular expressions recognized are described in the manual entry for
93.Xr ed 1 ,
94given the above difference.
95.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
96The
97.Fn re_exec
98function
99returns \-1 for an internal error.
100.Pp
101The
102.Fn re_comp
103function
104returns one of the following strings if an error occurs:
105.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
106No previous regular expression,
107Regular expression too long,
108unmatched \e(,
109missing ],
110too many \e(\e) pairs,
111unmatched \e).
112.Ed
113.Sh SEE ALSO
114.Xr ed 1 ,
115.Xr egrep 1 ,
116.Xr ex 1 ,
117.Xr fgrep 1 ,
118.Xr grep 1 ,
119.Xr regex 3
120.Sh HISTORY
121The
122.Fn re_comp
123and
124.Fn re_exec
125functions appeared in
126.Bx 4.0 .
127