pcre2serialize - compatible regular expressions (revised API)
Please see following description for synopsis
PCRE2SERIALIZE(3) Library Functions Manual PCRE2SERIALIZE(3)
NAME
PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)
SAVING AND RE-USING PRECOMPILED PCRE2 PATTERNS
int32_t pcre2_serialize_decode(pcre2_code **codes,
int32_t number_of_codes, const uint32_t *bytes,
pcre2_general_context *gcontext);
int32_t pcre2_serialize_encode(pcre2_code **codes,
int32_t number_of_codes, uint32_t **serialized_bytes,
PCRE2_SIZE *serialized_size, pcre2_general_context *gcontext);
void pcre2_serialize_free(uint8_t *bytes);
int32_t pcre2_serialize_get_number_of_codes(const uint8_t *bytes);
If you are running an application that uses a large number of regular
expression patterns, it may be useful to store them in a precompiled
form instead of having to compile them every time the application is
run. However, if you are using the just-in-time optimization feature,
it is not possible to save and reload the JIT data, because it is posi-
tion-dependent. The host on which the patterns are reloaded must be
running the same version of PCRE2, with the same code unit width, and
must also have the same endianness, pointer width and PCRE2_SIZE type.
For example, patterns compiled on a 32-bit system using PCRE2's 16-bit
library cannot be reloaded on a 64-bit system, nor can they be reloaded
using the 8-bit library.
Note that "serialization" in PCRE2 does not convert compiled patterns
to an abstract format like Java or .NET serialization. The serialized
output is really just a bytecode dump, which is why it can only be
reloaded in the same environment as the one that created it. Hence the
restrictions mentioned above. Applications that are not statically
linked with a fixed version of PCRE2 must be prepared to recompile pat-
terns from their sources, in order to be immune to PCRE2 upgrades.
SECURITY CONCERNS
The facility for saving and restoring compiled patterns is intended for
use within individual applications. As such, the data supplied to
pcre2_serialize_decode() is expected to be trusted data, not data from
arbitrary external sources. There is only some simple consistency
checking, not complete validation of what is being re-loaded. Corrupted
data may cause undefined results. For example, if the length field of a
pattern in the serialized data is corrupted, the deserializing code may
read beyond the end of the byte stream that is passed to it.
SAVING COMPILED PATTERNS
Before compiled patterns can be saved they must be serialized, which in
PCRE2 means converting the pattern to a stream of bytes. A single byte
stream may contain any number of compiled patterns, but they must all
use the same character tables. A single copy of the tables is included
in the byte stream (its size is 1088 bytes). For more details of char-
acter tables, see the section on locale support in the pcre2api docu-
mentation.
The function pcre2_serialize_encode() creates a serialized byte stream
from a list of compiled patterns. Its first two arguments specify the
list, being a pointer to a vector of pointers to compiled patterns, and
the length of the vector. The third and fourth arguments point to vari-
ables which are set to point to the created byte stream and its length,
respectively. The final argument is a pointer to a general context,
which can be used to specify custom memory mangagement functions. If
this argument is NULL, malloc() is used to obtain memory for the byte
stream. The yield of the function is the number of serialized patterns,
or one of the following negative error codes:
PCRE2_ERROR_BADDATA the number of patterns is zero or less
PCRE2_ERROR_BADMAGIC mismatch of id bytes in one of the patterns
PCRE2_ERROR_MEMORY memory allocation failed
PCRE2_ERROR_MIXEDTABLES the patterns do not all use the same tables
PCRE2_ERROR_NULL the 1st, 3rd, or 4th argument is NULL
PCRE2_ERROR_BADMAGIC means either that a pattern's code has been cor-
rupted, or that a slot in the vector does not point to a compiled pat-
tern.
Once a set of patterns has been serialized you can save the data in any
appropriate manner. Here is sample code that compiles two patterns and
writes them to a file. It assumes that the variable fd refers to a file
that is open for output. The error checking that should be present in a
real application has been omitted for simplicity.
int errorcode;
uint8_t *bytes;
PCRE2_SIZE erroroffset;
PCRE2_SIZE bytescount;
pcre2_code *list_of_codes[2];
list_of_codes[0] = pcre2_compile("first pattern",
PCRE2_ZERO_TERMINATED, 0, &errorcode, &erroroffset, NULL);
list_of_codes[1] = pcre2_compile("second pattern",
PCRE2_ZERO_TERMINATED, 0, &errorcode, &erroroffset, NULL);
errorcode = pcre2_serialize_encode(list_of_codes, 2, &bytes,
&bytescount, NULL);
errorcode = fwrite(bytes, 1, bytescount, fd);
Note that the serialized data is binary data that may contain any of
the 256 possible byte values. On systems that make a distinction
between binary and non-binary data, be sure that the file is opened for
binary output.
Serializing a set of patterns leaves the original data untouched, so
they can still be used for matching. Their memory must eventually be
freed in the usual way by calling pcre2_code_free(). When you have fin-
ished with the byte stream, it too must be freed by calling pcre2_seri-
alize_free(). If this function is called with a NULL argument, it
returns immediately without doing anything.
RE-USING PRECOMPILED PATTERNS
In order to re-use a set of saved patterns you must first make the
serialized byte stream available in main memory (for example, by read-
ing from a file). The management of this memory block is up to the
application. You can use the pcre2_serialize_get_number_of_codes()
function to find out how many compiled patterns are in the serialized
data without actually decoding the patterns:
uint8_t *bytes = <serialized data>;
int32_t number_of_codes = pcre2_serialize_get_number_of_codes(bytes);
The pcre2_serialize_decode() function reads a byte stream and recreates
the compiled patterns in new memory blocks, setting pointers to them in
a vector. The first two arguments are a pointer to a suitable vector
and its length, and the third argument points to a byte stream. The
final argument is a pointer to a general context, which can be used to
specify custom memory mangagement functions for the decoded patterns.
If this argument is NULL, malloc() and free() are used. After deserial-
ization, the byte stream is no longer needed and can be discarded.
int32_t number_of_codes;
pcre2_code *list_of_codes[2];
uint8_t *bytes = <serialized data>;
int32_t number_of_codes =
pcre2_serialize_decode(list_of_codes, 2, bytes, NULL);
If the vector is not large enough for all the patterns in the byte
stream, it is filled with those that fit, and the remainder are
ignored. The yield of the function is the number of decoded patterns,
or one of the following negative error codes:
PCRE2_ERROR_BADDATA second argument is zero or less
PCRE2_ERROR_BADMAGIC mismatch of id bytes in the data
PCRE2_ERROR_BADMODE mismatch of code unit size or PCRE2 version
PCRE2_ERROR_BADSERIALIZEDDATA other sanity check failure
PCRE2_ERROR_MEMORY memory allocation failed
PCRE2_ERROR_NULL first or third argument is NULL
PCRE2_ERROR_BADMAGIC may mean that the data is corrupt, or that it was
compiled on a system with different endianness.
Decoded patterns can be used for matching in the usual way, and must be
freed by calling pcre2_code_free(). However, be aware that there is a
potential race issue if you are using multiple patterns that were
decoded from a single byte stream in a multithreaded application. A
single copy of the character tables is used by all the decoded patterns
and a reference count is used to arrange for its memory to be automati-
cally freed when the last pattern is freed, but there is no locking on
this reference count. Therefore, if you want to call pcre2_code_free()
for these patterns in different threads, you must arrange your own
locking, and ensure that pcre2_code_free() cannot be called by two
threads at the same time.
If a pattern was processed by pcre2_jit_compile() before being serial-
ized, the JIT data is discarded and so is no longer available after a
save/restore cycle. You can, however, process a restored pattern with
pcre2_jit_compile() if you wish.
AUTHOR
Philip Hazel
University Computing Service
Cambridge, England.
REVISION
Last updated: 27 June 2018
Copyright (c) 1997-2018 University of Cambridge.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+---------------+------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+------------------+
|Availability | library/pcre2 |
+---------------+------------------+
|Stability | Uncommitted |
+---------------+------------------+
NOTES
Source code for open source software components in Oracle Solaris can
be found at https://www.oracle.com/downloads/opensource/solaris-source-
code-downloads.html.
This software was built from source available at
https://github.com/oracle/solaris-userland. The original community
source was downloaded from https://github.com/Philip-
Hazel/pcre2/releases/download/pcre2-10.39/pcre2-10.39.tar.gz.
Further information about this software can be found on the open source
community website at http://pcre.org/.
PCRE2 10.32 27 June 2018 PCRE2SERIALIZE(3)