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NAME

       perlreapi - Perl regular expression plugin interface

DESCRIPTION

       As of Perl 5.9.5 there is a new interface for plugging and using regular expression
       engines other than the default one.

       Each engine is supposed to provide access to a constant structure of the following format:

           typedef struct regexp_engine {
               REGEXP* (*comp) (pTHX_
                                const SV * const pattern, const U32 flags);
               I32     (*exec) (pTHX_
                                REGEXP * const rx,
                                char* stringarg,
                                char* strend, char* strbeg,
                                SSize_t minend, SV* sv,
                                void* data, U32 flags);
               char*   (*intuit) (pTHX_
                                  REGEXP * const rx, SV *sv,
                                  const char * const strbeg,
                                  char *strpos, char *strend, U32 flags,
                                  struct re_scream_pos_data_s *data);
               SV*     (*checkstr) (pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx);
               void    (*free) (pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx);
               void    (*numbered_buff_FETCH) (pTHX_
                                               REGEXP * const rx,
                                               const I32 paren,
                                               SV * const sv);
               void    (*numbered_buff_STORE) (pTHX_
                                               REGEXP * const rx,
                                               const I32 paren,
                                               SV const * const value);
               I32     (*numbered_buff_LENGTH) (pTHX_
                                                REGEXP * const rx,
                                                const SV * const sv,
                                                const I32 paren);
               SV*     (*named_buff) (pTHX_
                                      REGEXP * const rx,
                                      SV * const key,
                                      SV * const value,
                                      U32 flags);
               SV*     (*named_buff_iter) (pTHX_
                                           REGEXP * const rx,
                                           const SV * const lastkey,
                                           const U32 flags);
               SV*     (*qr_package)(pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx);
           #ifdef USE_ITHREADS
               void*   (*dupe) (pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx, CLONE_PARAMS *param);
           #endif
               REGEXP* (*op_comp) (...);

       When a regexp is compiled, its "engine" field is then set to point at the appropriate
       structure, so that when it needs to be used Perl can find the right routines to do so.

       In order to install a new regexp handler, $^H{regcomp} is set to an integer which (when
       casted appropriately) resolves to one of these structures.  When compiling, the "comp"
       method is executed, and the resulting "regexp" structure's engine field is expected to
       point back at the same structure.

       The pTHX_ symbol in the definition is a macro used by Perl under threading to provide an
       extra argument to the routine holding a pointer back to the interpreter that is executing
       the regexp. So under threading all routines get an extra argument.

Callbacks

   comp
           REGEXP* comp(pTHX_ const SV * const pattern, const U32 flags);

       Compile the pattern stored in "pattern" using the given "flags" and return a pointer to a
       prepared "REGEXP" structure that can perform the match.  See "The REGEXP structure" below
       for an explanation of the individual fields in the REGEXP struct.

       The "pattern" parameter is the scalar that was used as the pattern.  Previous versions of
       Perl would pass two "char*" indicating the start and end of the stringified pattern; the
       following snippet can be used to get the old parameters:

           STRLEN plen;
           char*  exp = SvPV(pattern, plen);
           char* xend = exp + plen;

       Since any scalar can be passed as a pattern, it's possible to implement an engine that
       does something with an array (""ook" =~ [ qw/ eek hlagh / ]") or with the non-stringified
       form of a compiled regular expression (""ook" =~ qr/eek/").  Perl's own engine will always
       stringify everything using the snippet above, but that doesn't mean other engines have to.

       The "flags" parameter is a bitfield which indicates which of the "msixpn" flags the regex
       was compiled with.  It also contains additional info, such as if "use locale" is in
       effect.

       The "eogc" flags are stripped out before being passed to the comp routine.  The regex
       engine does not need to know if any of these are set, as those flags should only affect
       what Perl does with the pattern and its match variables, not how it gets compiled and
       executed.

       By the time the comp callback is called, some of these flags have already had effect
       (noted below where applicable).  However most of their effect occurs after the comp
       callback has run, in routines that read the "rx->extflags" field which it populates.

       In general the flags should be preserved in "rx->extflags" after compilation, although the
       regex engine might want to add or delete some of them to invoke or disable some special
       behavior in Perl.  The flags along with any special behavior they cause are documented
       below:

       The pattern modifiers:

       "/m" - RXf_PMf_MULTILINE
           If this is in "rx->extflags" it will be passed to "Perl_fbm_instr" by "pp_split" which
           will treat the subject string as a multi-line string.

       "/s" - RXf_PMf_SINGLELINE
       "/i" - RXf_PMf_FOLD
       "/x" - RXf_PMf_EXTENDED
           If present on a regex, "#" comments will be handled differently by the tokenizer in
           some cases.

           TODO: Document those cases.

       "/p" - RXf_PMf_KEEPCOPY
           TODO: Document this

       Character set
           The character set rules are determined by an enum that is contained in this field.
           This is still experimental and subject to change, but the current interface returns
           the rules by use of the in-line function "get_regex_charset(const U32 flags)".  The
           only currently documented value returned from it is REGEX_LOCALE_CHARSET, which is set
           if "use locale" is in effect. If present in "rx->extflags", "split" will use the
           locale dependent definition of whitespace when RXf_SKIPWHITE or RXf_WHITE is in
           effect.  ASCII whitespace is defined as per isSPACE, and by the internal macros
           "is_utf8_space" under UTF-8, and "isSPACE_LC" under "use locale".

       Additional flags:

       RXf_SPLIT
           This flag was removed in perl 5.18.0.  "split ' '" is now special-cased solely in the
           parser.  RXf_SPLIT is still #defined, so you can test for it.  This is how it used to
           work:

           If "split" is invoked as "split ' '" or with no arguments (which really means "split('
           ', $_)", see split), Perl will set this flag.  The regex engine can then check for it
           and set the SKIPWHITE and WHITE extflags.  To do this, the Perl engine does:

               if (flags & RXf_SPLIT && r->prelen == 1 && r->precomp[0] == ' ')
                   r->extflags |= (RXf_SKIPWHITE|RXf_WHITE);

       These flags can be set during compilation to enable optimizations in the "split" operator.

       RXf_SKIPWHITE
           This flag was removed in perl 5.18.0.  It is still #defined, so you can set it, but
           doing so will have no effect.  This is how it used to work:

           If the flag is present in "rx->extflags" "split" will delete whitespace from the start
           of the subject string before it's operated on.  What is considered whitespace depends
           on if the subject is a UTF-8 string and if the "RXf_PMf_LOCALE" flag is set.

           If RXf_WHITE is set in addition to this flag, "split" will behave like "split " ""
           under the Perl engine.

       RXf_START_ONLY
           Tells the split operator to split the target string on newlines ("\n") without
           invoking the regex engine.

           Perl's engine sets this if the pattern is "/^/" ("plen == 1 && *exp == '^'"), even
           under "/^/s"; see split.  Of course a different regex engine might want to use the
           same optimizations with a different syntax.

       RXf_WHITE
           Tells the split operator to split the target string on whitespace without invoking the
           regex engine.  The definition of whitespace varies depending on if the target string
           is a UTF-8 string and on if RXf_PMf_LOCALE is set.

           Perl's engine sets this flag if the pattern is "\s+".

       RXf_NULL
           Tells the split operator to split the target string on characters.  The definition of
           character varies depending on if the target string is a UTF-8 string.

           Perl's engine sets this flag on empty patterns, this optimization makes "split //"
           much faster than it would otherwise be.  It's even faster than "unpack".

       RXf_NO_INPLACE_SUBST
           Added in perl 5.18.0, this flag indicates that a regular expression might perform an
           operation that would interfere with inplace substitution. For instance it might
           contain lookbehind, or assign to non-magical variables (such as $REGMARK and
           $REGERROR) during matching.  "s///" will skip certain optimisations when this is set.

   exec
           I32 exec(pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx,
                    char *stringarg, char* strend, char* strbeg,
                    SSize_t minend, SV* sv,
                    void* data, U32 flags);

       Execute a regexp. The arguments are

       rx  The regular expression to execute.

       sv  This is the SV to be matched against.  Note that the actual char array to be matched
           against is supplied by the arguments described below; the SV is just used to determine
           UTF8ness, "pos()" etc.

       strbeg
           Pointer to the physical start of the string.

       strend
           Pointer to the character following the physical end of the string (i.e.  the "\0", if
           any).

       stringarg
           Pointer to the position in the string where matching should start; it might not be
           equal to "strbeg" (for example in a later iteration of "/.../g").

       minend
           Minimum length of string (measured in bytes from "stringarg") that must match; if the
           engine reaches the end of the match but hasn't reached this position in the string, it
           should fail.

       data
           Optimisation data; subject to change.

       flags
           Optimisation flags; subject to change.

   intuit
           char* intuit(pTHX_
                       REGEXP * const rx,
                       SV *sv,
                       const char * const strbeg,
                       char *strpos,
                       char *strend,
                       const U32 flags,
                       struct re_scream_pos_data_s *data);

       Find the start position where a regex match should be attempted, or possibly if the regex
       engine should not be run because the pattern can't match.  This is called, as appropriate,
       by the core, depending on the values of the "extflags" member of the "regexp" structure.

       Arguments:

           rx:     the regex to match against
           sv:     the SV being matched: only used for utf8 flag; the string
                   itself is accessed via the pointers below. Note that on
                   something like an overloaded SV, SvPOK(sv) may be false
                   and the string pointers may point to something unrelated to
                   the SV itself.
           strbeg: real beginning of string
           strpos: the point in the string at which to begin matching
           strend: pointer to the byte following the last char of the string
           flags   currently unused; set to 0
           data:   currently unused; set to NULL

   checkstr
           SV* checkstr(pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx);

       Return a SV containing a string that must appear in the pattern. Used by "split" for
       optimising matches.

   free
           void free(pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx);

       Called by Perl when it is freeing a regexp pattern so that the engine can release any
       resources pointed to by the "pprivate" member of the "regexp" structure.  This is only
       responsible for freeing private data; Perl will handle releasing anything else contained
       in the "regexp" structure.

   Numbered capture callbacks
       Called to get/set the value of "$`", "$'", $& and their named equivalents, ${^PREMATCH},
       ${^POSTMATCH} and ${^MATCH}, as well as the numbered capture groups ($1, $2, ...).

       The "paren" parameter will be 1 for $1, 2 for $2 and so forth, and have these symbolic
       values for the special variables:

           ${^PREMATCH}  RX_BUFF_IDX_CARET_PREMATCH
           ${^POSTMATCH} RX_BUFF_IDX_CARET_POSTMATCH
           ${^MATCH}     RX_BUFF_IDX_CARET_FULLMATCH
           $`            RX_BUFF_IDX_PREMATCH
           $'            RX_BUFF_IDX_POSTMATCH
           $&            RX_BUFF_IDX_FULLMATCH

       Note that in Perl 5.17.3 and earlier, the last three constants were also used for the
       caret variants of the variables.

       The names have been chosen by analogy with Tie::Scalar methods names with an additional
       LENGTH callback for efficiency.  However named capture variables are currently not tied
       internally but implemented via magic.

       numbered_buff_FETCH

           void numbered_buff_FETCH(pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx, const I32 paren,
                                    SV * const sv);

       Fetch a specified numbered capture.  "sv" should be set to the scalar to return, the
       scalar is passed as an argument rather than being returned from the function because when
       it's called Perl already has a scalar to store the value, creating another one would be
       redundant.  The scalar can be set with "sv_setsv", "sv_setpvn" and friends, see perlapi.

       This callback is where Perl untaints its own capture variables under taint mode (see
       perlsec).  See the "Perl_reg_numbered_buff_fetch" function in regcomp.c for how to untaint
       capture variables if that's something you'd like your engine to do as well.

       numbered_buff_STORE

           void    (*numbered_buff_STORE) (pTHX_
                                           REGEXP * const rx,
                                           const I32 paren,
                                           SV const * const value);

       Set the value of a numbered capture variable.  "value" is the scalar that is to be used as
       the new value.  It's up to the engine to make sure this is used as the new value (or
       reject it).

       Example:

           if ("ook" =~ /(o*)/) {
               # 'paren' will be '1' and 'value' will be 'ee'
               $1 =~ tr/o/e/;
           }

       Perl's own engine will croak on any attempt to modify the capture variables, to do this in
       another engine use the following callback (copied from "Perl_reg_numbered_buff_store"):

           void
           Example_reg_numbered_buff_store(pTHX_
                                           REGEXP * const rx,
                                           const I32 paren,
                                           SV const * const value)
           {
               PERL_UNUSED_ARG(rx);
               PERL_UNUSED_ARG(paren);
               PERL_UNUSED_ARG(value);

               if (!PL_localizing)
                   Perl_croak(aTHX_ PL_no_modify);
           }

       Actually Perl will not always croak in a statement that looks like it would modify a
       numbered capture variable.  This is because the STORE callback will not be called if Perl
       can determine that it doesn't have to modify the value.  This is exactly how tied
       variables behave in the same situation:

           package CaptureVar;
           use parent 'Tie::Scalar';

           sub TIESCALAR { bless [] }
           sub FETCH { undef }
           sub STORE { die "This doesn't get called" }

           package main;

           tie my $sv => "CaptureVar";
           $sv =~ y/a/b/;

       Because $sv is "undef" when the "y///" operator is applied to it, the transliteration
       won't actually execute and the program won't "die".  This is different to how 5.8 and
       earlier versions behaved since the capture variables were READONLY variables then; now
       they'll just die when assigned to in the default engine.

       numbered_buff_LENGTH

           I32 numbered_buff_LENGTH (pTHX_
                                     REGEXP * const rx,
                                     const SV * const sv,
                                     const I32 paren);

       Get the "length" of a capture variable.  There's a special callback for this so that Perl
       doesn't have to do a FETCH and run "length" on the result, since the length is (in Perl's
       case) known from an offset stored in "rx->offs", this is much more efficient:

           I32 s1  = rx->offs[paren].start;
           I32 s2  = rx->offs[paren].end;
           I32 len = t1 - s1;

       This is a little bit more complex in the case of UTF-8, see what
       "Perl_reg_numbered_buff_length" does with is_utf8_string_loclen.

   Named capture callbacks
       Called to get/set the value of "%+" and "%-", as well as by some utility functions in re.

       There are two callbacks, "named_buff" is called in all the cases the FETCH, STORE, DELETE,
       CLEAR, EXISTS and SCALAR Tie::Hash callbacks would be on changes to "%+" and "%-" and
       "named_buff_iter" in the same cases as FIRSTKEY and NEXTKEY.

       The "flags" parameter can be used to determine which of these operations the callbacks
       should respond to.  The following flags are currently defined:

       Which Tie::Hash operation is being performed from the Perl level on "%+" or "%+", if any:

           RXapif_FETCH
           RXapif_STORE
           RXapif_DELETE
           RXapif_CLEAR
           RXapif_EXISTS
           RXapif_SCALAR
           RXapif_FIRSTKEY
           RXapif_NEXTKEY

       If "%+" or "%-" is being operated on, if any.

           RXapif_ONE /* %+ */
           RXapif_ALL /* %- */

       If this is being called as "re::regname", "re::regnames" or "re::regnames_count", if any.
       The first two will be combined with "RXapif_ONE" or "RXapif_ALL".

           RXapif_REGNAME
           RXapif_REGNAMES
           RXapif_REGNAMES_COUNT

       Internally "%+" and "%-" are implemented with a real tied interface via
       Tie::Hash::NamedCapture.  The methods in that package will call back into these functions.
       However the usage of Tie::Hash::NamedCapture for this purpose might change in future
       releases.  For instance this might be implemented by magic instead (would need an
       extension to mgvtbl).

       named_buff

           SV*     (*named_buff) (pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx, SV * const key,
                                  SV * const value, U32 flags);

       named_buff_iter

           SV*     (*named_buff_iter) (pTHX_
                                       REGEXP * const rx,
                                       const SV * const lastkey,
                                       const U32 flags);

   qr_package
           SV* qr_package(pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx);

       The package the qr// magic object is blessed into (as seen by "ref qr//").  It is
       recommended that engines change this to their package name for identification regardless
       of if they implement methods on the object.

       The package this method returns should also have the internal "Regexp" package in its
       @ISA.  "qr//->isa("Regexp")" should always be true regardless of what engine is being
       used.

       Example implementation might be:

           SV*
           Example_qr_package(pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx)
           {
               PERL_UNUSED_ARG(rx);
               return newSVpvs("re::engine::Example");
           }

       Any method calls on an object created with "qr//" will be dispatched to the package as a
       normal object.

           use re::engine::Example;
           my $re = qr//;
           $re->meth; # dispatched to re::engine::Example::meth()

       To retrieve the "REGEXP" object from the scalar in an XS function use the "SvRX" macro,
       see "REGEXP Functions" in perlapi.

           void meth(SV * rv)
           PPCODE:
               REGEXP * re = SvRX(sv);

   dupe
           void* dupe(pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx, CLONE_PARAMS *param);

       On threaded builds a regexp may need to be duplicated so that the pattern can be used by
       multiple threads.  This routine is expected to handle the duplication of any private data
       pointed to by the "pprivate" member of the "regexp" structure.  It will be called with the
       preconstructed new "regexp" structure as an argument, the "pprivate" member will point at
       the old private structure, and it is this routine's responsibility to construct a copy and
       return a pointer to it (which Perl will then use to overwrite the field as passed to this
       routine.)

       This allows the engine to dupe its private data but also if necessary modify the final
       structure if it really must.

       On unthreaded builds this field doesn't exist.

   op_comp
       This is private to the Perl core and subject to change. Should be left null.

The REGEXP structure

       The REGEXP struct is defined in regexp.h.  All regex engines must be able to correctly
       build such a structure in their "comp" routine.

       The REGEXP structure contains all the data that Perl needs to be aware of to properly work
       with the regular expression.  It includes data about optimisations that Perl can use to
       determine if the regex engine should really be used, and various other control info that
       is needed to properly execute patterns in various contexts, such as if the pattern
       anchored in some way, or what flags were used during the compile, or if the program
       contains special constructs that Perl needs to be aware of.

       In addition it contains two fields that are intended for the private use of the regex
       engine that compiled the pattern.  These are the "intflags" and "pprivate" members.
       "pprivate" is a void pointer to an arbitrary structure, whose use and management is the
       responsibility of the compiling engine.  Perl will never modify either of these values.

           typedef struct regexp {
               /* what engine created this regexp? */
               const struct regexp_engine* engine;

               /* what re is this a lightweight copy of? */
               struct regexp* mother_re;

               /* Information about the match that the Perl core uses to manage
                * things */
               U32 extflags;   /* Flags used both externally and internally */
               I32 minlen;     /* mininum possible number of chars in */
                                  string to match */
               I32 minlenret;  /* mininum possible number of chars in $& */
               U32 gofs;       /* chars left of pos that we search from */

               /* substring data about strings that must appear
                  in the final match, used for optimisations */
               struct reg_substr_data *substrs;

               U32 nparens;  /* number of capture groups */

               /* private engine specific data */
               U32 intflags;   /* Engine Specific Internal flags */
               void *pprivate; /* Data private to the regex engine which
                                  created this object. */

               /* Data about the last/current match. These are modified during
                * matching*/
               U32 lastparen;            /* highest close paren matched ($+) */
               U32 lastcloseparen;       /* last close paren matched ($^N) */
               regexp_paren_pair *offs;  /* Array of offsets for (@-) and
                                            (@+) */

               char *subbeg;  /* saved or original string so \digit works
                                 forever. */
               SV_SAVED_COPY  /* If non-NULL, SV which is COW from original */
               I32 sublen;    /* Length of string pointed by subbeg */
               I32 suboffset;  /* byte offset of subbeg from logical start of
                                  str */
               I32 subcoffset; /* suboffset equiv, but in chars (for @-/@+) */

               /* Information about the match that isn't often used */
               I32 prelen;           /* length of precomp */
               const char *precomp;  /* pre-compilation regular expression */

               char *wrapped;  /* wrapped version of the pattern */
               I32 wraplen;    /* length of wrapped */

               I32 seen_evals;   /* number of eval groups in the pattern - for
                                    security checks */
               HV *paren_names;  /* Optional hash of paren names */

               /* Refcount of this regexp */
               I32 refcnt;             /* Refcount of this regexp */
           } regexp;

       The fields are discussed in more detail below:

   "engine"
       This field points at a "regexp_engine" structure which contains pointers to the
       subroutines that are to be used for performing a match.  It is the compiling routine's
       responsibility to populate this field before returning the regexp object.

       Internally this is set to "NULL" unless a custom engine is specified in $^H{regcomp},
       Perl's own set of callbacks can be accessed in the struct pointed to by "RE_ENGINE_PTR".

   "mother_re"
       TODO, see commit 28d8d7f41a.

   "extflags"
       This will be used by Perl to see what flags the regexp was compiled with, this will
       normally be set to the value of the flags parameter by the comp callback.  See the comp
       documentation for valid flags.

   "minlen" "minlenret"
       The minimum string length (in characters) required for the pattern to match.  This is used
       to prune the search space by not bothering to match any closer to the end of a string than
       would allow a match.  For instance there is no point in even starting the regex engine if
       the minlen is 10 but the string is only 5 characters long.  There is no way that the
       pattern can match.

       "minlenret" is the minimum length (in characters) of the string that would be found in $&
       after a match.

       The difference between "minlen" and "minlenret" can be seen in the following pattern:

           /ns(?=\d)/

       where the "minlen" would be 3 but "minlenret" would only be 2 as the \d is required to
       match but is not actually included in the matched content.  This distinction is
       particularly important as the substitution logic uses the "minlenret" to tell if it can do
       in-place substitutions (these can result in considerable speed-up).

   "gofs"
       Left offset from pos() to start match at.

   "substrs"
       Substring data about strings that must appear in the final match.  This is currently only
       used internally by Perl's engine, but might be used in the future for all engines for
       optimisations.

   "nparens", "lastparen", and "lastcloseparen"
       These fields are used to keep track of: how many paren capture groups there are in the
       pattern; which was the highest paren to be closed (see "$+" in perlvar); and which was the
       most recent paren to be closed (see "$^N" in perlvar).

   "intflags"
       The engine's private copy of the flags the pattern was compiled with. Usually this is the
       same as "extflags" unless the engine chose to modify one of them.

   "pprivate"
       A void* pointing to an engine-defined data structure.  The Perl engine uses the
       "regexp_internal" structure (see "Base Structures" in perlreguts) but a custom engine
       should use something else.

   "offs"
       A "regexp_paren_pair" structure which defines offsets into the string being matched which
       correspond to the $& and $1, $2 etc. captures, the "regexp_paren_pair" struct is defined
       as follows:

           typedef struct regexp_paren_pair {
               I32 start;
               I32 end;
           } regexp_paren_pair;

       If "->offs[num].start" or "->offs[num].end" is "-1" then that capture group did not match.
       "->offs[0].start/end" represents $& (or "${^MATCH}" under "/p") and "->offs[paren].end"
       matches $$paren where $paren = 1>.

   "precomp" "prelen"
       Used for optimisations.  "precomp" holds a copy of the pattern that was compiled and
       "prelen" its length.  When a new pattern is to be compiled (such as inside a loop) the
       internal "regcomp" operator checks if the last compiled "REGEXP"'s "precomp" and "prelen"
       are equivalent to the new one, and if so uses the old pattern instead of compiling a new
       one.

       The relevant snippet from "Perl_pp_regcomp":

               if (!re || !re->precomp || re->prelen != (I32)len ||
                   memNE(re->precomp, t, len))
               /* Compile a new pattern */

   "paren_names"
       This is a hash used internally to track named capture groups and their offsets.  The keys
       are the names of the buffers the values are dualvars, with the IV slot holding the number
       of buffers with the given name and the pv being an embedded array of I32.  The values may
       also be contained independently in the data array in cases where named backreferences are
       used.

   "substrs"
       Holds information on the longest string that must occur at a fixed offset from the start
       of the pattern, and the longest string that must occur at a floating offset from the start
       of the pattern.  Used to do Fast-Boyer-Moore searches on the string to find out if its
       worth using the regex engine at all, and if so where in the string to search.

   "subbeg" "sublen" "saved_copy" "suboffset" "subcoffset"
       Used during the execution phase for managing search and replace patterns, and for
       providing the text for $&, $1 etc. "subbeg" points to a buffer (either the original
       string, or a copy in the case of "RX_MATCH_COPIED(rx)"), and "sublen" is the length of the
       buffer.  The "RX_OFFS" start and end indices index into this buffer.

       In the presence of the "REXEC_COPY_STR" flag, but with the addition of the
       "REXEC_COPY_SKIP_PRE" or "REXEC_COPY_SKIP_POST" flags, an engine can choose not to copy
       the full buffer (although it must still do so in the presence of "RXf_PMf_KEEPCOPY" or the
       relevant bits being set in "PL_sawampersand").  In this case, it may set "suboffset" to
       indicate the number of bytes from the logical start of the buffer to the physical start
       (i.e. "subbeg").  It should also set "subcoffset", the number of characters in the offset.
       The latter is needed to support "@-" and "@+" which work in characters, not bytes.

   "wrapped" "wraplen"
       Stores the string "qr//" stringifies to. The Perl engine for example stores "(?^:eek)" in
       the case of "qr/eek/".

       When using a custom engine that doesn't support the "(?:)" construct for inline modifiers,
       it's probably best to have "qr//" stringify to the supplied pattern, note that this will
       create undesired patterns in cases such as:

           my $x = qr/a|b/;  # "a|b"
           my $y = qr/c/i;   # "c"
           my $z = qr/$x$y/; # "a|bc"

       There's no solution for this problem other than making the custom engine understand a
       construct like "(?:)".

   "seen_evals"
       This stores the number of eval groups in the pattern.  This is used for security purposes
       when embedding compiled regexes into larger patterns with "qr//".

   "refcnt"
       The number of times the structure is referenced.  When this falls to 0, the regexp is
       automatically freed by a call to "pregfree".  This should be set to 1 in each engine's
       "comp" routine.

HISTORY

       Originally part of perlreguts.

AUTHORS

       Originally written by Yves Orton, expanded by Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason.

LICENSE

       Copyright 2006 Yves Orton and 2007 Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason.

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
       terms as Perl itself.