Provided by: libpcre2-dev_10.42-1_amd64 bug

NAME

       PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

BUILDING PCRE2


       PCRE2  is  distributed  with  a  configure script that can be used to build the library in
       Unix-like environments using the applications known as Autotools. Also in the distribution
       are  files  to  support  building  using  CMake instead of configure. The text file README
       contains general information about building with Autotools  (some  of  which  is  repeated
       below), and also has some comments about building on various operating systems. There is a
       lot more information about building PCRE2 without using Autotools  (including  information
       about  using  CMake  and  building "by hand") in the text file called NON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD.
       You should consult this file as well as the README file if you are building in a non-Unix-
       like environment.

PCRE2 BUILD-TIME OPTIONS


       The  rest  of  this document describes the optional features of PCRE2 that can be selected
       when the library is compiled. It assumes use of the configure script, where  the  optional
       features  are  selected or deselected by providing options to configure before running the
       make command. However, the same options can be selected in both  Unix-like  and  non-Unix-
       like environments if you are using CMake instead of configure to build PCRE2.

       If  you  are  not  using  Autotools  or CMake, option selection can be done by editing the
       config.h file, or by passing parameter settings to the  compiler,  as  described  in  NON-
       AUTOTOOLS-BUILD.

       The  complete  list of options for configure (which includes the standard ones such as the
       selection of the installation directory) can be obtained by running

         ./configure --help

       The following sections include descriptions of "on/off" options  whose  names  begin  with
       --enable  or  --disable.  Because  of the way that configure works, --enable and --disable
       always come in pairs, so the complementary  option  always  exists  as  well,  but  as  it
       specifies  the  default, it is not described.  Options that specify values have names that
       start with --with. At the end of a configure  run,  a  summary  of  the  configuration  is
       output.

BUILDING 8-BIT, 16-BIT AND 32-BIT LIBRARIES


       By  default,  a  library called libpcre2-8 is built, containing functions that take string
       arguments contained in arrays of bytes, interpreted either as single-byte  characters,  or
       UTF-8 strings. You can also build two other libraries, called libpcre2-16 and libpcre2-32,
       which process strings that are contained in  arrays  of  16-bit  and  32-bit  code  units,
       respectively.  These  can be interpreted either as single-unit characters or UTF-16/UTF-32
       strings. To build these additional libraries, add one or both  of  the  following  to  the
       configure command:

         --enable-pcre2-16
         --enable-pcre2-32

       If you do not want the 8-bit library, add

         --disable-pcre2-8

       as well. At least one of the three libraries must be built. Note that the POSIX wrapper is
       for the 8-bit library only, and that pcre2grep is an 8-bit program. Neither of  these  are
       built if you select only the 16-bit or 32-bit libraries.

BUILDING SHARED AND STATIC LIBRARIES


       The  Autotools  PCRE2  building  process  uses  libtool  to  build  both shared and static
       libraries by default. You can suppress an unwanted library by adding one of

         --disable-shared
         --disable-static

       to the configure command.

UNICODE AND UTF SUPPORT


       By default, PCRE2 is built with support for Unicode and UTF character strings.   To  build
       it without Unicode support, add

         --disable-unicode

       to  the configure command. This setting applies to all three libraries. It is not possible
       to build one library with Unicode support and another without in the same configuration.

       Of itself, Unicode support does not make PCRE2 treat strings as UTF-8, UTF-16  or  UTF-32.
       To  do that, applications that use the library can set the PCRE2_UTF option when they call
       pcre2_compile() to compile a pattern.  Alternatively, patterns may be started with  (*UTF)
       unless the application has locked this out by setting PCRE2_NEVER_UTF.

       UTF  support  allows  the libraries to process character code points up to 0x10ffff in the
       strings that they handle. Unicode support also gives access to the Unicode  properties  of
       characters,  using  pattern  escapes  such  as  \P,  \p, and \X. Only the general category
       properties such as Lu and  Nd,  script  names,  and  some  bi-directional  properties  are
       supported. Details are given in the pcre2pattern documentation.

       Pattern  escapes  such  as \d and \w do not by default make use of Unicode properties. The
       application can request  that  they  do  by  setting  the  PCRE2_UCP  option.  Unless  the
       application  has  set  PCRE2_NEVER_UCP,  a  pattern may also request this by starting with
       (*UCP).

DISABLING THE USE OF \C


       The \C escape sequence, which matches a single code unit, even in a UTF  mode,  can  cause
       unpredictable behaviour because it may leave the current matching point in the middle of a
       multi-code-unit  character.  The  application   can   lock   it   out   by   setting   the
       PCRE2_NEVER_BACKSLASH_C  option  when  calling pcre2_compile(). There is also a build-time
       option

         --enable-never-backslash-C

       (note the upper case C) which locks out the use of \C entirely.

JUST-IN-TIME COMPILER SUPPORT


       Just-in-time (JIT) compiler support is included in the build by specifying

         --enable-jit

       This support is available only for certain hardware architectures. If this option  is  set
       for an unsupported architecture, a building error occurs.  If in doubt, use

         --enable-jit=auto

       which  enables  JIT  only  if  the  current hardware is supported. You can check if JIT is
       enabled in the configuration summary that is output at the end of a configure run. If  you
       are enabling JIT under SELinux you may also want to add

         --enable-jit-sealloc

       which enables the use of an execmem allocator in JIT that is compatible with SELinux. This
       has no effect if JIT is not enabled. See the pcre2jit documentation for  a  discussion  of
       JIT  usage.  When  JIT support is enabled, pcre2grep automatically makes use of it, unless
       you add

         --disable-pcre2grep-jit

       to the configure command.

NEWLINE RECOGNITION


       By default, PCRE2 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 PCRE2 to use
       carriage return (CR) instead, by adding

         --enable-newline-is-cr

       to the configure command. There is also an --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 the two-character
       sequence CRLF (CR immediately followed by LF). If you want this, add

         --enable-newline-is-crlf

       to the configure command. There is a fourth option, specified by

         --enable-newline-is-anycrlf

       which causes PCRE2 to recognize any of the three sequences CR, LF, or CRLF as indicating a
       line ending. A fifth option, specified by

         --enable-newline-is-any

       causes  PCRE2 to recognize any Unicode newline sequence. The Unicode newline sequences are
       the three just mentioned, plus the single characters VT (vertical tab, U+000B),  FF  (form
       feed,  U+000C),  NEL  (next  line, U+0085), LS (line separator, U+2028), and PS (paragraph
       separator, U+2029). The final option is

         --enable-newline-is-nul

       which causes NUL (binary zero) to be set as the default line-ending character.

       Whatever default line ending convention is selected when PCRE2 is built can be  overridden
       by  applications that use the library. At build time it is recommended to use the standard
       for your operating system.

WHAT \R MATCHES


       By  default,  the  sequence  \R  in  a  pattern  matches  any  Unicode  newline  sequence,
       independently of what 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. Whatever is selected when
       PCRE2 is built can be overridden by applications that use the library.

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 alternation metacharacter). By default, in the
       8-bit and 16-bit libraries, two-byte values are used  for  these  offsets,  leading  to  a
       maximum  size  for a compiled pattern of around 64 thousand code units. 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 PCRE2 to use three-byte or four-byte
       offsets 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. In these libraries, using longer offsets slows down the
       operation of PCRE2 because it has to load additional data  when  handling  them.  For  the
       32-bit  library  the value is always 4 and cannot be overridden; the value of --with-link-
       size is ignored.

LIMITING PCRE2 RESOURCE USAGE


       The pcre2_match() function increments a counter each time it goes  round  its  main  loop.
       Putting a limit on this counter controls the amount of computing resource used by a single
       call to pcre2_match(). The limit can be changed at run time, as described in the  pcre2api
       documentation. 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 also  applies  to  the  pcre2_dfa_match()  matching
       function, and to JIT matching (though the counting is done differently).

       The pcre2_match() function uses heap memory to record backtracking points. The more nested
       backtracking points there are (that is, the deeper the search tree), the  more  memory  is
       needed.  There is an upper limit, specified in kibibytes (units of 1024 bytes). This limit
       can be changed at run time, as described in the pcre2api documentation. The default  limit
       (in effect unlimited) is 20 million. You can change this by a setting such as

         --with-heap-limit=500

       which  limits  the  amount  of  heap  to  500 KiB. This limit applies only to interpretive
       matching in pcre2_match() and pcre2_dfa_match(), which may also use the heap for  internal
       workspace  when processing complicated patterns. This limit does not apply when JIT (which
       has its own memory arrangements) is used.

       You can also explicitly limit the  depth  of  nested  backtracking  in  the  pcre2_match()
       interpreter.  This limit defaults to the value that is set for --with-match-limit. You can
       set a lower default limit by adding, for example,

         --with-match-limit-depth=10000

       to the configure command. This value can be overridden  at  run  time.  This  depth  limit
       indirectly  limits  the  amount  of heap memory that is used, but because the size of each
       backtracking "frame" depends on the number of capturing  parentheses  in  a  pattern,  the
       amount  of  heap  that is used before the limit is reached varies from pattern to pattern.
       This limit was more useful in versions before 10.30, where function recursion was used for
       backtracking.

       As well as applying to pcre2_match(), the depth limit also controls the depth of recursive
       function calls in pcre2_dfa_match(). These are  used  for  lookaround  assertions,  atomic
       groups, and recursion within patterns.  The limit does not apply to JIT matching.

CREATING CHARACTER TABLES AT BUILD TIME


       PCRE2  uses fixed tables for processing characters whose code points are less than 256. By
       default, PCRE2  is  built  with  a  set  of  tables  that  are  distributed  in  the  file
       src/pcre2_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 pcre2_dftables is compiled and run. This outputs the source for new set of  tables,
       created  in  the  default  locale  of your C run-time system. This method of replacing the
       tables does not work if you are cross compiling, because pcre2_dftables needs to be run on
       the local host and therefore not compiled with the cross compiler.

       If  you need to create alternative tables when cross compiling, you will have to do so "by
       hand".  There  may  also  be  other  reasons  for  creating  tables  manually.   To  cause
       pcre2_dftables to be built on the local host, run a normal compiling command, and then run
       the program with the output file as its argument, for example:

         cc src/pcre2_dftables.c -o pcre2_dftables
         ./pcre2_dftables src/pcre2_chartables.c

       This builds the tables in the default locale of the local host. If you want to  specify  a
       locale, you must use the -L option:

         LC_ALL=fr_FR ./pcre2_dftables -L src/pcre2_chartables.c

       You  can  also  specify  -b  (with or without -L). This causes the tables to be written in
       binary instead of as source code. A set of binary tables can be loaded into memory  by  an
       application  and  passed  to  pcre2_compile() in the same way as tables created by calling
       pcre2_maketables(). The tables are  just  a  string  of  bytes,  independent  of  hardware
       characteristics  such  as  endianness.  This means they can be bundled with an application
       that runs in different environments, to ensure consistent behaviour.

USING EBCDIC CODE


       PCRE2 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. PCRE2 can, however, be compiled to run in an 8-bit  EBCDIC  environment
       by adding

         --enable-ebcdic --disable-unicode

       to  the  configure  command.  This setting implies --enable-rebuild-chartables. You should
       only use it if you know that you are  in  an  EBCDIC  environment  (for  example,  an  IBM
       mainframe operating system).

       It  is  not  possible  to  support  both EBCDIC and UTF-8 codes in the same version of the
       library. Consequently, --enable-unicode and --enable-ebcdic are mutually exclusive.

       The EBCDIC character that corresponds to an ASCII LF is assumed to have the value 0x15  by
       default.  However,  in  some EBCDIC environments, 0x25 is used. In such an environment you
       should use

         --enable-ebcdic-nl25

       as well as, or instead of, --enable-ebcdic. The EBCDIC character for CR has the same value
       as  in  ASCII,  namely,  0x0d.  Whichever  of 0x15 and 0x25 is not chosen as LF is made to
       correspond to the Unicode NEL character (which, in Unicode, is 0x85).

       The options that select newline behaviour, such as --enable-newline-is-cr, and  equivalent
       run-time options, refer to these character values in an EBCDIC environment.

PCRE2GREP SUPPORT FOR EXTERNAL SCRIPTS


       By  default  pcre2grep  supports  the  use  of  callouts  with string arguments within the
       patterns it is matching. There are two kinds: one that generates output using local  code,
       and another that calls an external program or script.  If --disable-pcre2grep-callout-fork
       is added to the configure command, only  the  first  kind  of  callout  is  supported;  if
       --disable-pcre2grep-callout is used, all callouts are completely ignored. For more details
       of pcre2grep callouts, see the pcre2grep documentation.

PCRE2GREP OPTIONS FOR COMPRESSED FILE SUPPORT


       By default, pcre2grep reads all files  as  plain  text.  You  can  build  it  so  that  it
       recognizes  files  whose  names  end  in  .gz or .bz2, and reads them with libz or libbz2,
       respectively, by adding one or both of

         --enable-pcre2grep-libz
         --enable-pcre2grep-libbz2

       to the configure command. These options naturally require that the relevant libraries  are
       installed on your system. Configuration will fail if they are not.

PCRE2GREP BUFFER SIZE


       pcre2grep  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  default
       starting  size  of  the  buffer  is 20KiB. The buffer itself is three times this size, but
       because of the way it is used for  holding  "before"  lines,  the  longest  line  that  is
       guaranteed to be processable is the notional buffer size. If a longer line is encountered,
       pcre2grep automatically expands the buffer, up to a specified maximum size, whose  default
       is  1MiB  or  the  starting  size,  whichever  is  the  larger. You can change the default
       parameter values by adding, for example,

         --with-pcre2grep-bufsize=51200
         --with-pcre2grep-max-bufsize=2097152

       to the configure command. The caller of pcre2grep  can  override  these  values  by  using
       --buffer-size and --max-buffer-size on the command line.

PCRE2TEST OPTION FOR LIBREADLINE SUPPORT


       If you add one of

         --enable-pcre2test-libreadline
         --enable-pcre2test-libedit

       to  the  configure  command,  pcre2test  is linked with the libreadline orlibedit library,
       respectively, 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 pcre2test linked in  this  way,  there  may  be
       licensing  issues.  These  can be avoided by linking instead with libedit, which has a BSD
       licence.

       Setting --enable-pcre2test-libreadline causes the -lreadline option to  be  added  to  the
       pcre2test  build.  In  many operating environments with a sytem-installed readline library
       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 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  is  automatically
       included, you may need to add something like

         LIBS="-ncurses"

       immediately before the configure command.

INCLUDING DEBUGGING CODE


       If you add

         --enable-debug

       to the configure command, additional debugging code is included in the build. This feature
       is intended for use by the PCRE2 maintainers.

DEBUGGING WITH VALGRIND SUPPORT


       If you add

         --enable-valgrind

       to the configure command, PCRE2 will use  valgrind  annotations  to  mark  certain  memory
       regions  as unaddressable. This allows it to detect invalid memory accesses, and is mostly
       useful for debugging PCRE2 itself.

CODE COVERAGE REPORTING


       If your C compiler is gcc, you can build a version of  PCRE2  that  can  generate  a  code
       coverage  report  for its test suite. To enable this, you must install lcov version 1.6 or
       above. Then specify

         --enable-coverage

       to the configure command and build PCRE2 in the usual way.

       Note that using  ccache  (a  caching  C  compiler)  is  incompatible  with  code  coverage
       reporting. If you have configured ccache to run automatically on your system, you must set
       the environment variable

         CCACHE_DISABLE=1

       before running make to build PCRE2, so that ccache is not used.

       When --enable-coverage is used, the following addition targets are added to the Makefile:

         make coverage

       This creates a fresh coverage report for the PCRE2 test suite. It is equivalent to running
       "make  coverage-reset",  "make  coverage-baseline", "make check", and then "make coverage-
       report".

         make coverage-reset

       This zeroes the coverage counters, but does nothing else.

         make coverage-baseline

       This captures baseline coverage information.

         make coverage-report

       This creates the coverage report.

         make coverage-clean-report

       This removes the generated coverage report without cleaning the coverage data itself.

         make coverage-clean-data

       This removes the captured coverage data without removing the  coverage  files  created  at
       compile time (*.gcno).

         make coverage-clean

       This  cleans  all  coverage  data  including  the  generated  coverage  report.  For  more
       information about code coverage, see the gcov and lcov documentation.

DISABLING THE Z AND T FORMATTING MODIFIERS


       The C99 standard defines formatting modifiers z and t for  size_t  and  ptrdiff_t  values,
       respectively.  By  default,  PCRE2  uses  these  modifiers  in environments other than old
       versions of Microsoft Visual Studio when __STDC_VERSION__  is  defined  and  has  a  value
       greater than or equal to 199901L (indicating support for C99).  However, there is at least
       one environment that claims to be C99 but does not support these modifiers. If

         --disable-percent-zt

       is specified, no use is made of the z or t modifiers. Instead of %td or  %zu,  a  suitable
       format is used depending in the size of long for the platform.

SUPPORT FOR FUZZERS


       There is a special option for use by people who want to run fuzzing tests on PCRE2:

         --enable-fuzz-support

       At  present  this  applies  only  to the 8-bit library. If set, it causes an extra library
       called libpcre2-fuzzsupport.a to be built, but  not  installed.  This  contains  a  single
       function called LLVMFuzzerTestOneInput() whose arguments are a pointer to a string and the
       length of the string. When called, this function tries to compile the string as a pattern,
       and if that succeeds, to match it.  This is done both with no options and with some random
       options bits that are generated from the string.

       Setting --enable-fuzz-support also causes a binary called pcre2fuzzcheck  to  be  created.
       This is normally run under valgrind or used when PCRE2 is compiled with address sanitizing
       enabled. It calls the fuzzing function and outputs information about what it is doing. The
       input strings are specified by arguments: if an argument starts with "=" the rest of it is
       a literal input string. Otherwise, it is assumed to be a file name, and  the  contents  of
       the file are the test string.

OBSOLETE OPTION


       In  versions  of PCRE2 prior to 10.30, there were two ways of handling backtracking in the
       pcre2_match() function. The default was to use the system stack, but if

         --disable-stack-for-recursion

       was set, memory on the heap was used. From release 10.30 onwards  this  has  changed  (the
       stack is no longer used) and this option now does nothing except give a warning.

SEE ALSO


       pcre2api(3), pcre2-config(3).

AUTHOR


       Philip Hazel
       Retired from University Computing Service
       Cambridge, England.

REVISION


       Last updated: 27 July 2022
       Copyright (c) 1997-2022 University of Cambridge.