xref: /netbsd/lib/libcompat/4.3/re_comp.3 (revision bf9ec67e)
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32.\"     from: @(#)re_comp.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
33.\"	$NetBSD: re_comp.3,v 1.8 2002/02/07 07:00:35 ross Exp $
34.\"
35.Dd June 4, 1993
36.Dt RE_COMP 3
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm re_comp ,
40.Nm re_exec
41.Nd regular expression handler
42.Sh LIBRARY
43.Lb libcompat
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.Fd #include \*[Lt]re_comp.h\*[Gt]
46.Ft char *
47.Fn re_comp "const char *s"
48.Ft int
49.Fn re_exec "const char *s"
50.Sh DESCRIPTION
51.Bf -symbolic
52This interface is made obsolete by
53.Xr regex 3 .
54It is available from the compatibility library, libcompat.
55.Ef
56.Pp
57The
58.Fn re_comp
59function
60compiles a string into an internal form suitable for pattern matching.
61The
62.Fn re_exec
63function
64checks the argument string against the last string passed to
65.Fn re_comp .
66.Pp
67The
68.Fn re_comp
69function
70returns 0 if the string
71.Fa s
72was compiled successfully; otherwise a string containing an
73error message is returned. If
74.Fn re_comp
75is passed 0 or a null string, it returns without changing the currently
76compiled regular expression.
77.Pp
78The
79.Fn re_exec
80function
81returns 1 if the string
82.Fa s
83matches the last compiled regular expression, 0 if the string
84.Fa s
85failed to match the last compiled regular expression, and \-1 if the compiled
86regular expression was invalid (indicating an internal error).
87.Pp
88The strings passed to both
89.Fn re_comp
90and
91.Fn re_exec
92may have trailing or embedded newline characters;
93they are terminated by
94.Dv NUL Ns s .
95The regular expressions recognized are described in the manual entry for
96.Xr ed 1 ,
97given the above difference.
98.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
99The
100.Fn re_exec
101function
102returns \-1 for an internal error.
103.Pp
104The
105.Fn re_comp
106function
107returns one of the following strings if an error occurs:
108.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
109No previous regular expression,
110Regular expression too long,
111unmatched \e(,
112missing ],
113too many \e(\e) pairs,
114unmatched \e).
115.Ed
116.Sh SEE ALSO
117.Xr ed 1 ,
118.Xr egrep 1 ,
119.Xr ex 1 ,
120.Xr fgrep 1 ,
121.Xr grep 1 ,
122.Xr regex 3
123.Sh HISTORY
124The
125.Fn re_comp
126and
127.Fn re_exec
128functions appeared in
129.Bx 4.0 .
130