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NAME

       PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

PCRE2 REGULAR EXPRESSION SYNTAX SUMMARY


       The  full  syntax and semantics of the regular expressions that are supported by PCRE2 are
       described in the pcre2pattern documentation.  This  document  contains  a  quick-reference
       summary of the syntax.

QUOTING


         \x         where x is non-alphanumeric is a literal x
         \Q...\E    treat enclosed characters as literal

ESCAPED CHARACTERS


       This  table  applies  to  ASCII  and Unicode environments. An unrecognized escape sequence
       causes an error.

         \a         alarm, that is, the BEL character (hex 07)
         \cx        "control-x", where x is any ASCII printing character
         \e         escape (hex 1B)
         \f         form feed (hex 0C)
         \n         newline (hex 0A)
         \r         carriage return (hex 0D)
         \t         tab (hex 09)
         \0dd       character with octal code 0dd
         \ddd       character with octal code ddd, or backreference
         \o{ddd..}  character with octal code ddd..
         \N{U+hh..} character with Unicode code point hh.. (Unicode mode only)
         \xhh       character with hex code hh
         \x{hh..}   character with hex code hh..

       If PCRE2_ALT_BSUX or PCRE2_EXTRA_ALT_BSUX is set ("ALT_BSUX mode"), the following are also
       recognized:

         \U         the character "U"
         \uhhhh     character with hex code hhhh
         \u{hh..}   character with hex code hh.. but only for EXTRA_ALT_BSUX

       When  \x  is  not  followed  by  {,  from  zero to two hexadecimal digits are read, but in
       ALT_BSUX mode \x must be followed  by  two  hexadecimal  digits  to  be  recognized  as  a
       hexadecimal  escape;  otherwise  it  matches  a literal "x".  Likewise, if \u (in ALT_BSUX
       mode) is not followed by four hexadecimal digits or (in EXTRA_ALT_BSUX mode) a sequence of
       hex digits in curly brackets, it matches a literal "u".

       Note  that \0dd is always an octal code. The treatment of backslash followed by a non-zero
       digit is complicated; for  details  see  the  section  "Non-printing  characters"  in  the
       pcre2pattern  documentation, where details of escape processing in EBCDIC environments are
       also given. \N{U+hh..} is synonymous with \x{hh..} in PCRE2 but is not supported in EBCDIC
       environments.  Note  that  \N  not  followed  by  an opening curly bracket has a different
       meaning (see below).

CHARACTER TYPES


         .          any character except newline;
                      in dotall mode, any character whatsoever
         \C         one code unit, even in UTF mode (best avoided)
         \d         a decimal digit
         \D         a character that is not a decimal digit
         \h         a horizontal white space character
         \H         a character that is not a horizontal white space character
         \N         a character that is not a newline
         \p{xx}     a character with the xx property
         \P{xx}     a character without the xx property
         \R         a newline sequence
         \s         a white space character
         \S         a character that is not a white space character
         \v         a vertical white space character
         \V         a character that is not a vertical white space character
         \w         a "word" character
         \W         a "non-word" character
         \X         a Unicode extended grapheme cluster

       \C is dangerous because it may leave the current matching point in the middle of  a  UTF-8
       or  UTF-16  character.  The  application  can  lock  out  the  use  of  \C  by setting the
       PCRE2_NEVER_BACKSLASH_C option. It is also possible to build PCRE2  with  the  use  of  \C
       permanently disabled.

       By  default,  \d,  \s,  and  \w  match only ASCII characters, even in UTF-8 mode or in the
       16-bit and 32-bit libraries. However, if locale-specific matching is happening, \s and  \w
       may  also  match characters with code points in the range 128-255. If the PCRE2_UCP option
       is set, the behaviour of these escape sequences is changed to use Unicode  properties  and
       they match many more characters.

       Property descriptions in \p and \P are matched caselessly; hyphens, underscores, and white
       space are ignored, in accordance with Unicode's "loose matching" rules.

GENERAL CATEGORY PROPERTIES FOR \p and \P


         C          Other
         Cc         Control
         Cf         Format
         Cn         Unassigned
         Co         Private use
         Cs         Surrogate

         L          Letter
         Ll         Lower case letter
         Lm         Modifier letter
         Lo         Other letter
         Lt         Title case letter
         Lu         Upper case letter
         Lc         Ll, Lu, or Lt
         L&         Ll, Lu, or Lt

         M          Mark
         Mc         Spacing mark
         Me         Enclosing mark
         Mn         Non-spacing mark

         N          Number
         Nd         Decimal number
         Nl         Letter number
         No         Other number

         P          Punctuation
         Pc         Connector punctuation
         Pd         Dash punctuation
         Pe         Close punctuation
         Pf         Final punctuation
         Pi         Initial punctuation
         Po         Other punctuation
         Ps         Open punctuation

         S          Symbol
         Sc         Currency symbol
         Sk         Modifier symbol
         Sm         Mathematical symbol
         So         Other symbol

         Z          Separator
         Zl         Line separator
         Zp         Paragraph separator
         Zs         Space separator

PCRE2 SPECIAL CATEGORY PROPERTIES FOR \p and \P


         Xan        Alphanumeric: union of properties L and N
         Xps        POSIX space: property Z or tab, NL, VT, FF, CR
         Xsp        Perl space: property Z or tab, NL, VT, FF, CR
         Xuc        Univerally-named character: one that can be
                      represented by a Universal Character Name
         Xwd        Perl word: property Xan or underscore

       Perl and POSIX space are now the same. Perl added VT to its space character set at release
       5.18.

BINARY PROPERTIES FOR \p AND \P


       Unicode  defines  a number of binary properties, that is, properties whose only values are
       true or false. You can obtain a list of those that are recognized by \p and \P, along with
       their abbreviations, by running this command:

         pcre2test -LP

SCRIPT MATCHING WITH \p AND \P


       Many  script  names  and  their  4-letter  abbreviations  are  recognized in \p{sc:...} or
       \p{scx:...} items, or on their own with \p (and also \P of course). You can obtain a  list
       of these scripts by running this command:

         pcre2test -LS

THE BIDI_CLASS PROPERTY FOR \p AND \P


         \p{Bidi_Class:<class>}   matches a character with the given class
         \p{BC:<class>}           matches a character with the given class

       The recognized classes are:

         AL          Arabic letter
         AN          Arabic number
         B           paragraph separator
         BN          boundary neutral
         CS          common separator
         EN          European number
         ES          European separator
         ET          European terminator
         FSI         first strong isolate
         L           left-to-right
         LRE         left-to-right embedding
         LRI         left-to-right isolate
         LRO         left-to-right override
         NSM         non-spacing mark
         ON          other neutral
         PDF         pop directional format
         PDI         pop directional isolate
         R           right-to-left
         RLE         right-to-left embedding
         RLI         right-to-left isolate
         RLO         right-to-left override
         S           segment separator
         WS          which space

CHARACTER CLASSES


         [...]       positive character class
         [^...]      negative character class
         [x-y]       range (can be used for hex characters)
         [[:xxx:]]   positive POSIX named set
         [[:^xxx:]]  negative POSIX named set

         alnum       alphanumeric
         alpha       alphabetic
         ascii       0-127
         blank       space or tab
         cntrl       control character
         digit       decimal digit
         graph       printing, excluding space
         lower       lower case letter
         print       printing, including space
         punct       printing, excluding alphanumeric
         space       white space
         upper       upper case letter
         word        same as \w
         xdigit      hexadecimal digit

       In  PCRE2,  POSIX character set names recognize only ASCII characters by default, but some
       of them use Unicode properties if PCRE2_UCP is set. You can use \Q...\E inside a character
       class.

QUANTIFIERS


         ?           0 or 1, greedy
         ?+          0 or 1, possessive
         ??          0 or 1, lazy
         *           0 or more, greedy
         *+          0 or more, possessive
         *?          0 or more, lazy
         +           1 or more, greedy
         ++          1 or more, possessive
         +?          1 or more, lazy
         {n}         exactly n
         {n,m}       at least n, no more than m, greedy
         {n,m}+      at least n, no more than m, possessive
         {n,m}?      at least n, no more than m, lazy
         {n,}        n or more, greedy
         {n,}+       n or more, possessive
         {n,}?       n or more, lazy

ANCHORS AND SIMPLE ASSERTIONS


         \b          word boundary
         \B          not a word boundary
         ^           start of subject
                       also after an internal newline in multiline mode
                       (after any newline if PCRE2_ALT_CIRCUMFLEX is set)
         \A          start of subject
         $           end of subject
                       also before newline at end of subject
                       also before internal newline in multiline mode
         \Z          end of subject
                       also before newline at end of subject
         \z          end of subject
         \G          first matching position in subject

REPORTED MATCH POINT SETTING


         \K          set reported start of match

       From  release  10.38  \K  is  not  permitted  by  default  in  lookaround  assertions, for
       compatibility with Perl. However, if the PCRE2_EXTRA_ALLOW_LOOKAROUND_BSK option  is  set,
       the  previous behaviour is re-enabled. When this option is set, \K is honoured in positive
       assertions, but ignored in negative ones.

ALTERNATION


         expr|expr|expr...

CAPTURING


         (...)           capture group
         (?<name>...)    named capture group (Perl)
         (?'name'...)    named capture group (Perl)
         (?P<name>...)   named capture group (Python)
         (?:...)         non-capture group
         (?|...)         non-capture group; reset group numbers for
                          capture groups in each alternative

       In non-UTF modes, names may contain underscores and  ASCII  letters  and  digits;  in  UTF
       modes, any Unicode letters and Unicode decimal digits are permitted. In both cases, a name
       must not start with a digit.

ATOMIC GROUPS


         (?>...)         atomic non-capture group
         (*atomic:...)   atomic non-capture group

COMMENT


         (?#....)        comment (not nestable)

OPTION SETTING

       Changes of these options within a group are automatically cancelled  at  the  end  of  the
       group.

         (?i)            caseless
         (?J)            allow duplicate named groups
         (?m)            multiline
         (?n)            no auto capture
         (?s)            single line (dotall)
         (?U)            default ungreedy (lazy)
         (?x)            extended: ignore white space except in classes
         (?xx)           as (?x) but also ignore space and tab in classes
         (?-...)         unset option(s)
         (?^)            unset imnsx options

       Unsetting  x  or  xx  unsets  both.  Several  options may be set at once, and a mixture of
       setting and unsetting such as (?i-x) is allowed, but there may be only one hyphen. Setting
       (but  no  unsetting) is allowed after (?^ for example (?^in). An option setting may appear
       at the start of a non-capture group, for example (?i:...).

       The following are recognized only at the very start of a  pattern  or  after  one  of  the
       newline or \R options with similar syntax. More than one of them may appear. For the first
       three, d is a decimal number.

         (*LIMIT_DEPTH=d) set the backtracking limit to d
         (*LIMIT_HEAP=d)  set the heap size limit to d * 1024 bytes
         (*LIMIT_MATCH=d) set the match limit to d
         (*NOTEMPTY)      set PCRE2_NOTEMPTY when matching
         (*NOTEMPTY_ATSTART) set PCRE2_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART when matching
         (*NO_AUTO_POSSESS) no auto-possessification (PCRE2_NO_AUTO_POSSESS)
         (*NO_DOTSTAR_ANCHOR) no .* anchoring (PCRE2_NO_DOTSTAR_ANCHOR)
         (*NO_JIT)       disable JIT optimization
         (*NO_START_OPT) no start-match optimization (PCRE2_NO_START_OPTIMIZE)
         (*UTF)          set appropriate UTF mode for the library in use
         (*UCP)          set PCRE2_UCP (use Unicode properties for \d etc)

       Note that LIMIT_DEPTH, LIMIT_HEAP, and LIMIT_MATCH can only reduce the value of the limits
       set   by   the   caller   of   pcre2_match()  or  pcre2_dfa_match(),  not  increase  them.
       LIMIT_RECURSION is an obsolete synonym for LIMIT_DEPTH. The application can lock  out  the
       use  of  (*UTF)  and  (*UCP)  by  setting  the PCRE2_NEVER_UTF or PCRE2_NEVER_UCP options,
       respectively, at compile time.

NEWLINE CONVENTION


       These are recognized only at the very start of the pattern or after option settings with a
       similar syntax.

         (*CR)           carriage return only
         (*LF)           linefeed only
         (*CRLF)         carriage return followed by linefeed
         (*ANYCRLF)      all three of the above
         (*ANY)          any Unicode newline sequence
         (*NUL)          the NUL character (binary zero)

WHAT \R MATCHES


       These  are recognized only at the very start of the pattern or after option setting with a
       similar syntax.

         (*BSR_ANYCRLF)  CR, LF, or CRLF
         (*BSR_UNICODE)  any Unicode newline sequence

LOOKAHEAD AND LOOKBEHIND ASSERTIONS


         (?=...)                     )
         (*pla:...)                  ) positive lookahead
         (*positive_lookahead:...)   )

         (?!...)                     )
         (*nla:...)                  ) negative lookahead
         (*negative_lookahead:...)   )

         (?<=...)                    )
         (*plb:...)                  ) positive lookbehind
         (*positive_lookbehind:...)  )

         (?<!...)                    )
         (*nlb:...)                  ) negative lookbehind
         (*negative_lookbehind:...)  )

       Each top-level branch of a lookbehind must be of a fixed length.

NON-ATOMIC LOOKAROUND ASSERTIONS


       These assertions are specific to PCRE2 and are not Perl-compatible.

         (?*...)                                )
         (*napla:...)                           ) synonyms
         (*non_atomic_positive_lookahead:...)   )

         (?<*...)                               )
         (*naplb:...)                           ) synonyms
         (*non_atomic_positive_lookbehind:...)  )

SCRIPT RUNS


         (*script_run:...)           ) script run, can be backtracked into
         (*sr:...)                   )

         (*atomic_script_run:...)    ) atomic script run
         (*asr:...)                  )

BACKREFERENCES


         \n              reference by number (can be ambiguous)
         \gn             reference by number
         \g{n}           reference by number
         \g+n            relative reference by number (PCRE2 extension)
         \g-n            relative reference by number
         \g{+n}          relative reference by number (PCRE2 extension)
         \g{-n}          relative reference by number
         \k<name>        reference by name (Perl)
         \k'name'        reference by name (Perl)
         \g{name}        reference by name (Perl)
         \k{name}        reference by name (.NET)
         (?P=name)       reference by name (Python)

SUBROUTINE REFERENCES (POSSIBLY RECURSIVE)


         (?R)            recurse whole pattern
         (?n)            call subroutine by absolute number
         (?+n)           call subroutine by relative number
         (?-n)           call subroutine by relative number
         (?&name)        call subroutine by name (Perl)
         (?P>name)       call subroutine by name (Python)
         \g<name>        call subroutine by name (Oniguruma)
         \g'name'        call subroutine by name (Oniguruma)
         \g<n>           call subroutine by absolute number (Oniguruma)
         \g'n'           call subroutine by absolute number (Oniguruma)
         \g<+n>          call subroutine by relative number (PCRE2 extension)
         \g'+n'          call subroutine by relative number (PCRE2 extension)
         \g<-n>          call subroutine by relative number (PCRE2 extension)
         \g'-n'          call subroutine by relative number (PCRE2 extension)

CONDITIONAL PATTERNS


         (?(condition)yes-pattern)
         (?(condition)yes-pattern|no-pattern)

         (?(n)               absolute reference condition
         (?(+n)              relative reference condition
         (?(-n)              relative reference condition
         (?(<name>)          named reference condition (Perl)
         (?('name')          named reference condition (Perl)
         (?(name)            named reference condition (PCRE2, deprecated)
         (?(R)               overall recursion condition
         (?(Rn)              specific numbered group recursion condition
         (?(R&name)          specific named group recursion condition
         (?(DEFINE)          define groups for reference
         (?(VERSION[>]=n.m)  test PCRE2 version
         (?(assert)          assertion condition

       Note the ambiguity of (?(R) and (?(Rn)  which  might  be  named  reference  conditions  or
       recursion  tests. Such a condition is interpreted as a reference condition if the relevant
       named group exists.

BACKTRACKING CONTROL


       All backtracking control verbs may be in the form (*VERB:NAME). For (*MARK)  the  name  is
       mandatory,  for  the  others  it  is  optional.  (*SKIP) changes its behaviour if :NAME is
       present. The others just set a name for passing back to the caller, but this is not a name
       that (*SKIP) can see. The following act immediately they are reached:

         (*ACCEPT)       force successful match
         (*FAIL)         force backtrack; synonym (*F)
         (*MARK:NAME)    set name to be passed back; synonym (*:NAME)

       The  following  act only when a subsequent match failure causes a backtrack to reach them.
       They all force a match failure, but they differ in what  happens  afterwards.  Those  that
       advance the start-of-match point do so only if the pattern is not anchored.

         (*COMMIT)       overall failure, no advance of starting point
         (*PRUNE)        advance to next starting character
         (*SKIP)         advance to current matching position
         (*SKIP:NAME)    advance to position corresponding to an earlier
                         (*MARK:NAME); if not found, the (*SKIP) is ignored
         (*THEN)         local failure, backtrack to next alternation

       The  effect  of  one  of  these verbs in a group called as a subroutine is confined to the
       subroutine call.

CALLOUTS


         (?C)            callout (assumed number 0)
         (?Cn)           callout with numerical data n
         (?C"text")      callout with string data

       The allowed string delimiters are ` ' " ^ % # $ (which are the same for the start and  the
       end),  and  the  starting  delimiter  { matched with the ending delimiter }. To encode the
       ending delimiter within the string, double it.

SEE ALSO


       pcre2pattern(3), pcre2api(3), pcre2callout(3), pcre2matching(3), pcre2(3).

AUTHOR


       Philip Hazel
       Retired from University Computing Service
       Cambridge, England.

REVISION


       Last updated: 12 January 2022
       Copyright (c) 1997-2022 University of Cambridge.