1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1991 Regents of the University of California. 2.\" All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" %sccs.include.redist.man% 5.\" 6.\" @(#)re_comp.3 6.4 (Berkeley) 03/29/92 7.\" 8.Dd 9.Dt REGEX 3 10.Os 11.Sh NAME 12.Nm re_comp , 13.Nm re_exec 14.Nd regular expression handler 15.Sh SYNOPSIS 16.Fd #include <unistd.h> 17.Ft char * 18.Fn re_comp "const char *s" 19.Ft int 20.Fn re_exec "const char *s" 21.Bf -symbolic 22This interface is made obsolete by: 23.Ef 24.Xr regexp 3 . 25.Pp 26.Sh DESCRIPTION 27The 28.Fn re_comp 29function 30compiles a string into an internal form suitable for pattern matching. 31The 32.Fn re_exec 33function 34checks the argument string against the last string passed to 35.Fn re_comp . 36.Pp 37The 38.Fn re_comp 39function 40returns 0 if the string 41.Fa s 42was compiled successfully; otherwise a string containing an 43error message is returned. If 44.Fn re_comp 45is passed 0 or a null string, it returns without changing the currently 46compiled regular expression. 47.Pp 48The 49.Fn re_exec 50function 51returns 1 if the string 52.Fa s 53matches the last compiled regular expression, 0 if the string 54.Fa s 55failed to match the last compiled regular expression, and \-1 if the compiled 56regular expression was invalid (indicating an internal error). 57.Pp 58The strings passed to both 59.Fn re_comp 60and 61.Fn re_exec 62may have trailing or embedded newline characters; 63they are terminated by 64.Dv NUL Ns s. 65The regular expressions recognized are described in the manual entry for 66.Xr ed 1 , 67given the above difference. 68.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 69The 70.Fn re_exec 71function 72returns \-1 for an internal error. 73.Pp 74The 75.Fn re_comp 76function 77returns one of the following strings if an error occurs: 78.Bd -unfilled -offset indent 79No previous regular expression, 80Regular expression too long, 81unmatched \e(, 82missing ], 83too many \e(\e) pairs, 84unmatched \e). 85.Ed 86.Sh SEE ALSO 87.Xr ed 1 , 88.Xr ex 1 , 89.Xr egrep 1 , 90.Xr fgrep 1 , 91.Xr grep 1 , 92.Xr regexp 3 93.Sh HISTORY 94The 95.Fn re_comp 96and 97.Fn re_exec 98functions appeared in 99.Bx 4.0 . 100