re_comp(3C)

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUES | ERRORS | USAGE | SEE ALSO

NAME

re_comp, re_exec– compile and execute regular expressions

SYNOPSIS

#include <re_comp.h>

char *re_comp(const char *string);
int re_exec(const char *string);

DESCRIPTION

The re_comp() function converts a regular expression string (RE) into an internal form suitable for pattern matching. The re_exec() function compares the string pointed to by the string argument with the last regular expression passed to re_comp().

If re_comp() is called with a null pointer argument, the current regular expression remains unchanged.

Strings passed to both re_comp() and re_exec() must be terminated by a null byte, and may include NEWLINE characters.

The re_comp() and re_exec() functions support simple regular expressions, which are defined on the regexp(5) manual page. The regular expressions of the form \{m\}, \{m,\}, or \{m,n\} are not supported.

RETURN VALUES

The re_comp() function returns a null pointer when the string pointed to by the string argument is successfully converted. Otherwise, a pointer to one of the following error message strings is returned:

No previous regular expression
Regular expression too long
unmatched \ (
missing ]
too many \ ( \ ) pairs
unmatched \ )

Upon successful completion, re_exec() returns 1 if string matches the last compiled regular expression. Otherwise, re_exec() returns 0 if string fails to match the last compiled regular expression, and -1 if the compiled regular expression is invalid (indicating an internal error).

ERRORS

No errors are defined.

USAGE

For portability to implementations conforming to X/Open standards prior to SUS, regcomp(3C) and regexec(3C) are preferred to these functions. See standards(5).

SEE ALSO

grep(1), regcmp(1), regcmp(3C), regcomp(3C), regexec(3C), regexpr(3GEN), regexp(5), standards(5)

SunOS 5.9  Last Revised 26 Feb 1997

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUES | ERRORS | USAGE | SEE ALSO