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diff --git a/doc/html/README.txt b/doc/html/README.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..88f2dfd --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/html/README.txt @@ -0,0 +1,991 @@ +README file for PCRE (Perl-compatible regular expression library) +----------------------------------------------------------------- + +The latest release of PCRE is always available in three alternative formats +from: + + ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/pcre-xxx.tar.gz + ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/pcre-xxx.tar.bz2 + ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/pcre-xxx.zip + +There is a mailing list for discussion about the development of PCRE at +pcre-dev@exim.org. You can access the archives and subscribe or manage your +subscription here: + + https://lists.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/pcre-dev + +Please read the NEWS file if you are upgrading from a previous release. +The contents of this README file are: + + The PCRE APIs + Documentation for PCRE + Contributions by users of PCRE + Building PCRE on non-Unix-like systems + Building PCRE without using autotools + Building PCRE using autotools + Retrieving configuration information + Shared libraries + Cross-compiling using autotools + Using HP's ANSI C++ compiler (aCC) + Compiling in Tru64 using native compilers + Using Sun's compilers for Solaris + Using PCRE from MySQL + Making new tarballs + Testing PCRE + Character tables + File manifest + + +The PCRE APIs +------------- + +PCRE is written in C, and it has its own API. There are three sets of +functions, one for the 8-bit library, which processes strings of bytes, one for +the 16-bit library, which processes strings of 16-bit values, and one for the +32-bit library, which processes strings of 32-bit values. The distribution also +includes a set of C++ wrapper functions (see the pcrecpp man page for details), +courtesy of Google Inc., which can be used to call the 8-bit PCRE library from +C++. + +In addition, there is a set of C wrapper functions (again, just for the 8-bit +library) that are based on the POSIX regular expression API (see the pcreposix +man page). These end up in the library called libpcreposix. Note that this just +provides a POSIX calling interface to PCRE; the regular expressions themselves +still follow Perl syntax and semantics. The POSIX API is restricted, and does +not give full access to all of PCRE's facilities. + +The header file for the POSIX-style functions is called pcreposix.h. The +official POSIX name is regex.h, but I did not want to risk possible problems +with existing files of that name by distributing it that way. To use PCRE with +an existing program that uses the POSIX API, pcreposix.h will have to be +renamed or pointed at by a link. + +If you are using the POSIX interface to PCRE and there is already a POSIX regex +library installed on your system, as well as worrying about the regex.h header +file (as mentioned above), you must also take care when linking programs to +ensure that they link with PCRE's libpcreposix library. Otherwise they may pick +up the POSIX functions of the same name from the other library. + +One way of avoiding this confusion is to compile PCRE with the addition of +-Dregcomp=PCREregcomp (and similarly for the other POSIX functions) to the +compiler flags (CFLAGS if you are using "configure" -- see below). This has the +effect of renaming the functions so that the names no longer clash. Of course, +you have to do the same thing for your applications, or write them using the +new names. + + +Documentation for PCRE +---------------------- + +If you install PCRE in the normal way on a Unix-like system, you will end up +with a set of man pages whose names all start with "pcre". The one that is just +called "pcre" lists all the others. In addition to these man pages, the PCRE +documentation is supplied in two other forms: + + 1. There are files called doc/pcre.txt, doc/pcregrep.txt, and + doc/pcretest.txt in the source distribution. The first of these is a + concatenation of the text forms of all the section 3 man pages except + the listing of pcredemo.c and those that summarize individual functions. + The other two are the text forms of the section 1 man pages for the + pcregrep and pcretest commands. These text forms are provided for ease of + scanning with text editors or similar tools. They are installed in + <prefix>/share/doc/pcre, where <prefix> is the installation prefix + (defaulting to /usr/local). + + 2. A set of files containing all the documentation in HTML form, hyperlinked + in various ways, and rooted in a file called index.html, is distributed in + doc/html and installed in <prefix>/share/doc/pcre/html. + +Users of PCRE have contributed files containing the documentation for various +releases in CHM format. These can be found in the Contrib directory of the FTP +site (see next section). + + +Contributions by users of PCRE +------------------------------ + +You can find contributions from PCRE users in the directory + + ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/Contrib + +There is a README file giving brief descriptions of what they are. Some are +complete in themselves; others are pointers to URLs containing relevant files. +Some of this material is likely to be well out-of-date. Several of the earlier +contributions provided support for compiling PCRE on various flavours of +Windows (I myself do not use Windows). Nowadays there is more Windows support +in the standard distribution, so these contibutions have been archived. + +A PCRE user maintains downloadable Windows binaries of the pcregrep and +pcretest programs here: + + http://www.rexegg.com/pcregrep-pcretest.html + + +Building PCRE on non-Unix-like systems +-------------------------------------- + +For a non-Unix-like system, please read the comments in the file +NON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD, though if your system supports the use of "configure" and +"make" you may be able to build PCRE using autotools in the same way as for +many Unix-like systems. + +PCRE can also be configured using the GUI facility provided by CMake's +cmake-gui command. This creates Makefiles, solution files, etc. The file +NON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD has information about CMake. + +PCRE has been compiled on many different operating systems. It should be +straightforward to build PCRE on any system that has a Standard C compiler and +library, because it uses only Standard C functions. + + +Building PCRE without using autotools +------------------------------------- + +The use of autotools (in particular, libtool) is problematic in some +environments, even some that are Unix or Unix-like. See the NON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD +file for ways of building PCRE without using autotools. + + +Building PCRE using autotools +----------------------------- + +If you are using HP's ANSI C++ compiler (aCC), please see the special note +in the section entitled "Using HP's ANSI C++ compiler (aCC)" below. + +The following instructions assume the use of the widely used "configure; make; +make install" (autotools) process. + +To build PCRE on system that supports autotools, first run the "configure" +command from the PCRE distribution directory, with your current directory set +to the directory where you want the files to be created. This command is a +standard GNU "autoconf" configuration script, for which generic instructions +are supplied in the file INSTALL. + +Most commonly, people build PCRE within its own distribution directory, and in +this case, on many systems, just running "./configure" is sufficient. However, +the usual methods of changing standard defaults are available. For example: + +CFLAGS='-O2 -Wall' ./configure --prefix=/opt/local + +This command specifies that the C compiler should be run with the flags '-O2 +-Wall' instead of the default, and that "make install" should install PCRE +under /opt/local instead of the default /usr/local. + +If you want to build in a different directory, just run "configure" with that +directory as current. For example, suppose you have unpacked the PCRE source +into /source/pcre/pcre-xxx, but you want to build it in /build/pcre/pcre-xxx: + +cd /build/pcre/pcre-xxx +/source/pcre/pcre-xxx/configure + +PCRE is written in C and is normally compiled as a C library. However, it is +possible to build it as a C++ library, though the provided building apparatus +does not have any features to support this. + +There are some optional features that can be included or omitted from the PCRE +library. They are also documented in the pcrebuild man page. + +. By default, both shared and static libraries are built. You can change this + by adding one of these options to the "configure" command: + + --disable-shared + --disable-static + + (See also "Shared libraries on Unix-like systems" below.) + +. By default, only the 8-bit library is built. If you add --enable-pcre16 to + the "configure" command, the 16-bit library is also built. If you add + --enable-pcre32 to the "configure" command, the 32-bit library is also built. + If you want only the 16-bit or 32-bit library, use --disable-pcre8 to disable + building the 8-bit library. + +. If you are building the 8-bit library and want to suppress the building of + the C++ wrapper library, you can add --disable-cpp to the "configure" + command. Otherwise, when "configure" is run without --disable-pcre8, it will + try to find a C++ compiler and C++ header files, and if it succeeds, it will + try to build the C++ wrapper. + +. If you want to include support for just-in-time compiling, which can give + large performance improvements on certain platforms, add --enable-jit to the + "configure" command. This support is available only for certain hardware + architectures. If you try to enable it on an unsupported architecture, there + will be a compile time error. + +. When JIT support is enabled, pcregrep automatically makes use of it, unless + you add --disable-pcregrep-jit to the "configure" command. + +. If you want to make use of the support for UTF-8 Unicode character strings in + the 8-bit library, or UTF-16 Unicode character strings in the 16-bit library, + or UTF-32 Unicode character strings in the 32-bit library, you must add + --enable-utf to the "configure" command. Without it, the code for handling + UTF-8, UTF-16 and UTF-8 is not included in the relevant library. Even + when --enable-utf is included, the use of a UTF encoding still has to be + enabled by an option at run time. When PCRE is compiled with this option, its + input can only either be ASCII or UTF-8/16/32, even when running on EBCDIC + platforms. It is not possible to use both --enable-utf and --enable-ebcdic at + the same time. + +. There are no separate options for enabling UTF-8, UTF-16 and UTF-32 + independently because that would allow ridiculous settings such as requesting + UTF-16 support while building only the 8-bit library. However, the option + --enable-utf8 is retained for backwards compatibility with earlier releases + that did not support 16-bit or 32-bit character strings. It is synonymous with + --enable-utf. It is not possible to configure one library with UTF support + and the other without in the same configuration. + +. If, in addition to support for UTF-8/16/32 character strings, you want to + include support for the \P, \p, and \X sequences that recognize Unicode + character properties, you must add --enable-unicode-properties to the + "configure" command. This adds about 30K to the size of the library (in the + form of a property table); only the basic two-letter properties such as Lu + are supported. + +. You can build PCRE to recognize either CR or LF or the sequence CRLF or any + of the preceding, or any of the Unicode newline sequences as indicating the + end of a line. Whatever you specify at build time is the default; the caller + of PCRE can change the selection at run time. The default newline indicator + is a single LF character (the Unix standard). You can specify the default + newline indicator by adding --enable-newline-is-cr or --enable-newline-is-lf + or --enable-newline-is-crlf or --enable-newline-is-anycrlf or + --enable-newline-is-any to the "configure" command, respectively. + + If you specify --enable-newline-is-cr or --enable-newline-is-crlf, some of + the standard tests will fail, because the lines in the test files end with + LF. Even if the files are edited to change the line endings, there are likely + to be some failures. With --enable-newline-is-anycrlf or + --enable-newline-is-any, many tests should succeed, but there may be some + failures. + +. By default, the sequence \R in a pattern matches any Unicode line ending + sequence. This is independent of the option specifying what PCRE considers to + be the end of a line (see above). However, the caller of PCRE can restrict \R + to match only CR, LF, or CRLF. You can make this the default by adding + --enable-bsr-anycrlf to the "configure" command (bsr = "backslash R"). + +. When called via the POSIX interface, PCRE uses malloc() to get additional + storage for processing capturing parentheses if there are more than 10 of + them in a pattern. You can increase this threshold by setting, for example, + + --with-posix-malloc-threshold=20 + + on the "configure" command. + +. PCRE has a counter that limits the depth of nesting of parentheses in a + pattern. This limits the amount of system stack that a pattern uses when it + is compiled. The default is 250, but you can change it by setting, for + example, + + --with-parens-nest-limit=500 + +. PCRE has a counter that can be set to limit the amount of resources it uses + when matching a pattern. If the limit is exceeded during a match, the match + fails. The default is ten million. You can change the default by setting, for + example, + + --with-match-limit=500000 + + on the "configure" command. This is just the default; individual calls to + pcre_exec() can supply their own value. There is more discussion on the + pcreapi man page. + +. There is a separate counter that limits the depth of recursive function calls + during a matching process. This also has a default of ten million, which is + essentially "unlimited". You can change the default by setting, for example, + + --with-match-limit-recursion=500000 + + Recursive function calls use up the runtime stack; running out of stack can + cause programs to crash in strange ways. There is a discussion about stack + sizes in the pcrestack man page. + +. The default maximum compiled pattern size is around 64K. You can increase + this by adding --with-link-size=3 to the "configure" command. In the 8-bit + library, PCRE then uses three bytes instead of two for offsets to different + parts of the compiled pattern. In the 16-bit library, --with-link-size=3 is + the same as --with-link-size=4, which (in both libraries) uses four-byte + offsets. Increasing the internal link size reduces performance. In the 32-bit + library, the only supported link size is 4. + +. You can build PCRE so that its internal match() function that is called from + pcre_exec() does not call itself recursively. Instead, it uses memory blocks + obtained from the heap via the special functions pcre_stack_malloc() and + pcre_stack_free() to save data that would otherwise be saved on the stack. To + build PCRE like this, use + + --disable-stack-for-recursion + + on the "configure" command. PCRE runs more slowly in this mode, but it may be + necessary in environments with limited stack sizes. This applies only to the + normal execution of the pcre_exec() function; if JIT support is being + successfully used, it is not relevant. Equally, it does not apply to + pcre_dfa_exec(), which does not use deeply nested recursion. There is a + discussion about stack sizes in the pcrestack man page. + +. For speed, PCRE uses four tables for manipulating and identifying characters + whose code point values are less than 256. By default, it uses a set of + tables for ASCII encoding that is part of the distribution. If you specify + + --enable-rebuild-chartables + + a program called dftables is compiled and run in the default C locale when + you obey "make". It builds a source file called pcre_chartables.c. If you do + not specify this option, pcre_chartables.c is created as a copy of + pcre_chartables.c.dist. See "Character tables" below for further information. + +. It is possible to compile PCRE for use on systems that use EBCDIC as their + character code (as opposed to ASCII/Unicode) by specifying + + --enable-ebcdic + + This automatically implies --enable-rebuild-chartables (see above). However, + when PCRE is built this way, it always operates in EBCDIC. It cannot support + both EBCDIC and UTF-8/16/32. There is a second option, --enable-ebcdic-nl25, + which specifies that the code value for the EBCDIC NL character is 0x25 + instead of the default 0x15. + +. In environments where valgrind is installed, if you specify + + --enable-valgrind + + PCRE 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 PCRE itself. + +. In environments where the gcc compiler is used and lcov version 1.6 or above + is installed, if you specify + + --enable-coverage + + the build process implements a code coverage report for the test suite. The + report is generated by running "make coverage". If ccache is installed on + your system, it must be disabled when building PCRE for coverage reporting. + You can do this by setting the environment variable CCACHE_DISABLE=1 before + running "make" to build PCRE. There is more information about coverage + reporting in the "pcrebuild" documentation. + +. The pcregrep program currently supports only 8-bit data files, and so + requires the 8-bit PCRE library. It is possible to compile pcregrep to use + libz and/or libbz2, in order to read .gz and .bz2 files (respectively), by + specifying one or both of + + --enable-pcregrep-libz + --enable-pcregrep-libbz2 + + Of course, the relevant libraries must be installed on your system. + +. The default size (in bytes) of the internal buffer used by pcregrep can be + set by, for example: + + --with-pcregrep-bufsize=51200 + + The value must be a plain integer. The default is 20480. + +. It is possible to compile pcretest so that it links with the libreadline + or libedit libraries, by specifying, respectively, + + --enable-pcretest-libreadline or --enable-pcretest-libedit + + If this is done, when pcretest's input is from a terminal, it reads it using + the readline() function. This provides line-editing and history facilities. + Note that libreadline is GPL-licenced, so if you distribute a binary of + pcretest linked in this way, there may be licensing issues. These can be + avoided by linking with libedit (which has a BSD licence) instead. + + Enabling libreadline causes the -lreadline option to be added to the pcretest + 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), it may be necessary + to specify something like LIBS="-lncurses" as well. This is because, to quote + the readline INSTALL, "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 you get error + messages about missing functions tgetstr, tgetent, tputs, tgetflag, or tgoto, + this is the problem, and linking with the ncurses library should fix it. + +The "configure" script builds the following files for the basic C library: + +. Makefile the makefile that builds the library +. config.h build-time configuration options for the library +. pcre.h the public PCRE header file +. pcre-config script that shows the building settings such as CFLAGS + that were set for "configure" +. libpcre.pc ) data for the pkg-config command +. libpcre16.pc ) +. libpcre32.pc ) +. libpcreposix.pc ) +. libtool script that builds shared and/or static libraries + +Versions of config.h and pcre.h are distributed in the PCRE tarballs under the +names config.h.generic and pcre.h.generic. These are provided for those who +have to built PCRE without using "configure" or CMake. If you use "configure" +or CMake, the .generic versions are not used. + +When building the 8-bit library, if a C++ compiler is found, the following +files are also built: + +. libpcrecpp.pc data for the pkg-config command +. pcrecpparg.h header file for calling PCRE via the C++ wrapper +. pcre_stringpiece.h header for the C++ "stringpiece" functions + +The "configure" script also creates config.status, which is an executable +script that can be run to recreate the configuration, and config.log, which +contains compiler output from tests that "configure" runs. + +Once "configure" has run, you can run "make". This builds the the libraries +libpcre, libpcre16 and/or libpcre32, and a test program called pcretest. If you +enabled JIT support with --enable-jit, a test program called pcre_jit_test is +built as well. + +If the 8-bit library is built, libpcreposix and the pcregrep command are also +built, and if a C++ compiler was found on your system, and you did not disable +it with --disable-cpp, "make" builds the C++ wrapper library, which is called +libpcrecpp, as well as some test programs called pcrecpp_unittest, +pcre_scanner_unittest, and pcre_stringpiece_unittest. + +The command "make check" runs all the appropriate tests. Details of the PCRE +tests are given below in a separate section of this document. + +You can use "make install" to install PCRE into live directories on your +system. The following are installed (file names are all relative to the +<prefix> that is set when "configure" is run): + + Commands (bin): + pcretest + pcregrep (if 8-bit support is enabled) + pcre-config + + Libraries (lib): + libpcre16 (if 16-bit support is enabled) + libpcre32 (if 32-bit support is enabled) + libpcre (if 8-bit support is enabled) + libpcreposix (if 8-bit support is enabled) + libpcrecpp (if 8-bit and C++ support is enabled) + + Configuration information (lib/pkgconfig): + libpcre16.pc + libpcre32.pc + libpcre.pc + libpcreposix.pc + libpcrecpp.pc (if C++ support is enabled) + + Header files (include): + pcre.h + pcreposix.h + pcre_scanner.h ) + pcre_stringpiece.h ) if C++ support is enabled + pcrecpp.h ) + pcrecpparg.h ) + + Man pages (share/man/man{1,3}): + pcregrep.1 + pcretest.1 + pcre-config.1 + pcre.3 + pcre*.3 (lots more pages, all starting "pcre") + + HTML documentation (share/doc/pcre/html): + index.html + *.html (lots more pages, hyperlinked from index.html) + + Text file documentation (share/doc/pcre): + AUTHORS + COPYING + ChangeLog + LICENCE + NEWS + README + pcre.txt (a concatenation of the man(3) pages) + pcretest.txt the pcretest man page + pcregrep.txt the pcregrep man page + pcre-config.txt the pcre-config man page + +If you want to remove PCRE from your system, you can run "make uninstall". +This removes all the files that "make install" installed. However, it does not +remove any directories, because these are often shared with other programs. + + +Retrieving configuration information +------------------------------------ + +Running "make install" installs the command pcre-config, which can be used to +recall information about the PCRE configuration and installation. For example: + + pcre-config --version + +prints the version number, and + + pcre-config --libs + +outputs information about where the library is installed. This command can be +included in makefiles for programs that use PCRE, saving the programmer from +having to remember too many details. + +The pkg-config command is another system for saving and retrieving information +about installed libraries. Instead of separate commands for each library, a +single command is used. For example: + + pkg-config --cflags pcre + +The data is held in *.pc files that are installed in a directory called +<prefix>/lib/pkgconfig. + + +Shared libraries +---------------- + +The default distribution builds PCRE as shared libraries and static libraries, +as long as the operating system supports shared libraries. Shared library +support relies on the "libtool" script which is built as part of the +"configure" process. + +The libtool script is used to compile and link both shared and static +libraries. They are placed in a subdirectory called .libs when they are newly +built. The programs pcretest and pcregrep are built to use these uninstalled +libraries (by means of wrapper scripts in the case of shared libraries). When +you use "make install" to install shared libraries, pcregrep and pcretest are +automatically re-built to use the newly installed shared libraries before being +installed themselves. However, the versions left in the build directory still +use the uninstalled libraries. + +To build PCRE using static libraries only you must use --disable-shared when +configuring it. For example: + +./configure --prefix=/usr/gnu --disable-shared + +Then run "make" in the usual way. Similarly, you can use --disable-static to +build only shared libraries. + + +Cross-compiling using autotools +------------------------------- + +You can specify CC and CFLAGS in the normal way to the "configure" command, in +order to cross-compile PCRE for some other host. However, you should NOT +specify --enable-rebuild-chartables, because if you do, the dftables.c source +file is compiled and run on the local host, in order to generate the inbuilt +character tables (the pcre_chartables.c file). This will probably not work, +because dftables.c needs to be compiled with the local compiler, not the cross +compiler. + +When --enable-rebuild-chartables is not specified, pcre_chartables.c is created +by making a copy of pcre_chartables.c.dist, which is a default set of tables +that assumes ASCII code. Cross-compiling with the default tables should not be +a problem. + +If you need to modify the character tables when cross-compiling, you should +move pcre_chartables.c.dist out of the way, then compile dftables.c by hand and +run it on the local host to make a new version of pcre_chartables.c.dist. +Then when you cross-compile PCRE this new version of the tables will be used. + + +Using HP's ANSI C++ compiler (aCC) +---------------------------------- + +Unless C++ support is disabled by specifying the "--disable-cpp" option of the +"configure" script, you must include the "-AA" option in the CXXFLAGS +environment variable in order for the C++ components to compile correctly. + +Also, note that the aCC compiler on PA-RISC platforms may have a defect whereby +needed libraries fail to get included when specifying the "-AA" compiler +option. If you experience unresolved symbols when linking the C++ programs, +use the workaround of specifying the following environment variable prior to +running the "configure" script: + + CXXLDFLAGS="-lstd_v2 -lCsup_v2" + + +Compiling in Tru64 using native compilers +----------------------------------------- + +The following error may occur when compiling with native compilers in the Tru64 +operating system: + + CXX libpcrecpp_la-pcrecpp.lo +cxx: Error: /usr/lib/cmplrs/cxx/V7.1-006/include/cxx/iosfwd, line 58: #error + directive: "cannot include iosfwd -- define __USE_STD_IOSTREAM to + override default - see section 7.1.2 of the C++ Using Guide" +#error "cannot include iosfwd -- define __USE_STD_IOSTREAM to override default +- see section 7.1.2 of the C++ Using Guide" + +This may be followed by other errors, complaining that 'namespace "std" has no +member'. The solution to this is to add the line + +#define __USE_STD_IOSTREAM 1 + +to the config.h file. + + +Using Sun's compilers for Solaris +--------------------------------- + +A user reports that the following configurations work on Solaris 9 sparcv9 and +Solaris 9 x86 (32-bit): + + Solaris 9 sparcv9: ./configure --disable-cpp CC=/bin/cc CFLAGS="-m64 -g" + Solaris 9 x86: ./configure --disable-cpp CC=/bin/cc CFLAGS="-g" + + +Using PCRE from MySQL +--------------------- + +On systems where both PCRE and MySQL are installed, it is possible to make use +of PCRE from within MySQL, as an alternative to the built-in pattern matching. +There is a web page that tells you how to do this: + + http://www.mysqludf.org/lib_mysqludf_preg/index.php + + +Making new tarballs +------------------- + +The command "make dist" creates three PCRE tarballs, in tar.gz, tar.bz2, and +zip formats. The command "make distcheck" does the same, but then does a trial +build of the new distribution to ensure that it works. + +If you have modified any of the man page sources in the doc directory, you +should first run the PrepareRelease script before making a distribution. This +script creates the .txt and HTML forms of the documentation from the man pages. + + +Testing PCRE +------------ + +To test the basic PCRE library on a Unix-like system, run the RunTest script. +There is another script called RunGrepTest that tests the options of the +pcregrep command. If the C++ wrapper library is built, three test programs +called pcrecpp_unittest, pcre_scanner_unittest, and pcre_stringpiece_unittest +are also built. When JIT support is enabled, another test program called +pcre_jit_test is built. + +Both the scripts and all the program tests are run if you obey "make check" or +"make test". For other environments, see the instructions in +NON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD. + +The RunTest script runs the pcretest test program (which is documented in its +own man page) on each of the relevant testinput files in the testdata +directory, and compares the output with the contents of the corresponding +testoutput files. RunTest uses a file called testtry to hold the main output +from pcretest. Other files whose names begin with "test" are used as working +files in some tests. + +Some tests are relevant only when certain build-time options were selected. For +example, the tests for UTF-8/16/32 support are run only if --enable-utf was +used. RunTest outputs a comment when it skips a test. + +Many of the tests that are not skipped are run up to three times. The second +run forces pcre_study() to be called for all patterns except for a few in some +tests that are marked "never study" (see the pcretest program for how this is +done). If JIT support is available, the non-DFA tests are run a third time, +this time with a forced pcre_study() with the PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE option. +This testing can be suppressed by putting "nojit" on the RunTest command line. + +The entire set of tests is run once for each of the 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit +libraries that are enabled. If you want to run just one set of tests, call +RunTest with either the -8, -16 or -32 option. + +If valgrind is installed, you can run the tests under it by putting "valgrind" +on the RunTest command line. To run pcretest on just one or more specific test +files, give their numbers as arguments to RunTest, for example: + + RunTest 2 7 11 + +You can also specify ranges of tests such as 3-6 or 3- (meaning 3 to the +end), or a number preceded by ~ to exclude a test. For example: + + Runtest 3-15 ~10 + +This runs tests 3 to 15, excluding test 10, and just ~13 runs all the tests +except test 13. Whatever order the arguments are in, the tests are always run +in numerical order. + +You can also call RunTest with the single argument "list" to cause it to output +a list of tests. + +The first test file can be fed directly into the perltest.pl script to check +that Perl gives the same results. The only difference you should see is in the +first few lines, where the Perl version is given instead of the PCRE version. + +The second set of tests check pcre_fullinfo(), pcre_study(), +pcre_copy_substring(), pcre_get_substring(), pcre_get_substring_list(), error +detection, and run-time flags that are specific to PCRE, as well as the POSIX +wrapper API. It also uses the debugging flags to check some of the internals of +pcre_compile(). + +If you build PCRE with a locale setting that is not the standard C locale, the +character tables may be different (see next paragraph). In some cases, this may +cause failures in the second set of tests. For example, in a locale where the +isprint() function yields TRUE for characters in the range 128-255, the use of +[:isascii:] inside a character class defines a different set of characters, and +this shows up in this test as a difference in the compiled code, which is being +listed for checking. Where the comparison test output contains [\x00-\x7f] the +test will contain [\x00-\xff], and similarly in some other cases. This is not a +bug in PCRE. + +The third set of tests checks pcre_maketables(), the facility for building a +set of character tables for a specific locale and using them instead of the +default tables. The tests make use of the "fr_FR" (French) locale. Before +running the test, the script checks for the presence of this locale by running +the "locale" command. If that command fails, or if it doesn't include "fr_FR" +in the list of available locales, the third test cannot be run, and a comment +is output to say why. If running this test produces instances of the error + + ** Failed to set locale "fr_FR" + +in the comparison output, it means that locale is not available on your system, +despite being listed by "locale". This does not mean that PCRE is broken. + +[If you are trying to run this test on Windows, you may be able to get it to +work by changing "fr_FR" to "french" everywhere it occurs. Alternatively, use +RunTest.bat. The version of RunTest.bat included with PCRE 7.4 and above uses +Windows versions of test 2. More info on using RunTest.bat is included in the +document entitled NON-UNIX-USE.] + +The fourth and fifth tests check the UTF-8/16/32 support and error handling and +internal UTF features of PCRE that are not relevant to Perl, respectively. The +sixth and seventh tests do the same for Unicode character properties support. + +The eighth, ninth, and tenth tests check the pcre_dfa_exec() alternative +matching function, in non-UTF-8/16/32 mode, UTF-8/16/32 mode, and UTF-8/16/32 +mode with Unicode property support, respectively. + +The eleventh test checks some internal offsets and code size features; it is +run only when the default "link size" of 2 is set (in other cases the sizes +change) and when Unicode property support is enabled. + +The twelfth test is run only when JIT support is available, and the thirteenth +test is run only when JIT support is not available. They test some JIT-specific +features such as information output from pcretest about JIT compilation. + +The fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth tests are run only in 8-bit mode, and +the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth tests are run only in 16/32-bit +mode. These are tests that generate different output in the two modes. They are +for general cases, UTF-8/16/32 support, and Unicode property support, +respectively. + +The twentieth test is run only in 16/32-bit mode. It tests some specific +16/32-bit features of the DFA matching engine. + +The twenty-first and twenty-second tests are run only in 16/32-bit mode, when +the link size is set to 2 for the 16-bit library. They test reloading +pre-compiled patterns. + +The twenty-third and twenty-fourth tests are run only in 16-bit mode. They are +for general cases, and UTF-16 support, respectively. + +The twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth tests are run only in 32-bit mode. They are +for general cases, and UTF-32 support, respectively. + + +Character tables +---------------- + +For speed, PCRE uses four tables for manipulating and identifying characters +whose code point values are less than 256. The final argument of the +pcre_compile() function is a pointer to a block of memory containing the +concatenated tables. A call to pcre_maketables() can be used to generate a set +of tables in the current locale. If the final argument for pcre_compile() is +passed as NULL, a set of default tables that is built into the binary is used. + +The source file called pcre_chartables.c contains the default set of tables. By +default, this is created as a copy of pcre_chartables.c.dist, which contains +tables for ASCII coding. However, if --enable-rebuild-chartables is specified +for ./configure, a different version of pcre_chartables.c is built by the +program dftables (compiled from dftables.c), which uses the ANSI C character +handling functions such as isalnum(), isalpha(), isupper(), islower(), etc. to +build the table sources. This means that the default C locale which is set for +your system will control the contents of these default tables. You can change +the default tables by editing pcre_chartables.c and then re-building PCRE. If +you do this, you should take care to ensure that the file does not get +automatically re-generated. The best way to do this is to move +pcre_chartables.c.dist out of the way and replace it with your customized +tables. + +When the dftables program is run as a result of --enable-rebuild-chartables, +it uses the default C locale that is set on your system. It does not pay +attention to the LC_xxx environment variables. In other words, it uses the +system's default locale rather than whatever the compiling user happens to have +set. If you really do want to build a source set of character tables in a +locale that is specified by the LC_xxx variables, you can run the dftables +program by hand with the -L option. For example: + + ./dftables -L pcre_chartables.c.special + +The first two 256-byte tables provide lower casing and case flipping functions, +respectively. The next table consists of three 32-byte bit maps which identify +digits, "word" characters, and white space, respectively. These are used when +building 32-byte bit maps that represent character classes for code points less +than 256. + +The final 256-byte table has bits indicating various character types, as +follows: + + 1 white space character + 2 letter + 4 decimal digit + 8 hexadecimal digit + 16 alphanumeric or '_' + 128 regular expression metacharacter or binary zero + +You should not alter the set of characters that contain the 128 bit, as that +will cause PCRE to malfunction. + + +File manifest +------------- + +The distribution should contain the files listed below. Where a file name is +given as pcre[16|32]_xxx it means that there are three files, one with the name +pcre_xxx, one with the name pcre16_xx, and a third with the name pcre32_xxx. + +(A) Source files of the PCRE library functions and their headers: + + dftables.c auxiliary program for building pcre_chartables.c + when --enable-rebuild-chartables is specified + + pcre_chartables.c.dist a default set of character tables that assume ASCII + coding; used, unless --enable-rebuild-chartables is + specified, by copying to pcre[16]_chartables.c + + pcreposix.c ) + pcre[16|32]_byte_order.c ) + pcre[16|32]_compile.c ) + pcre[16|32]_config.c ) + pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec.c ) + pcre[16|32]_exec.c ) + pcre[16|32]_fullinfo.c ) + pcre[16|32]_get.c ) sources for the functions in the library, + pcre[16|32]_globals.c ) and some internal functions that they use + pcre[16|32]_jit_compile.c ) + pcre[16|32]_maketables.c ) + pcre[16|32]_newline.c ) + pcre[16|32]_refcount.c ) + pcre[16|32]_string_utils.c ) + pcre[16|32]_study.c ) + pcre[16|32]_tables.c ) + pcre[16|32]_ucd.c ) + pcre[16|32]_version.c ) + pcre[16|32]_xclass.c ) + pcre_ord2utf8.c ) + pcre_valid_utf8.c ) + pcre16_ord2utf16.c ) + pcre16_utf16_utils.c ) + pcre16_valid_utf16.c ) + pcre32_utf32_utils.c ) + pcre32_valid_utf32.c ) + + pcre[16|32]_printint.c ) debugging function that is used by pcretest, + ) and can also be #included in pcre_compile() + + pcre.h.in template for pcre.h when built by "configure" + pcreposix.h header for the external POSIX wrapper API + pcre_internal.h header for internal use + sljit/* 16 files that make up the JIT compiler + ucp.h header for Unicode property handling + + config.h.in template for config.h, which is built by "configure" + + pcrecpp.h public header file for the C++ wrapper + pcrecpparg.h.in template for another C++ header file + pcre_scanner.h public header file for C++ scanner functions + pcrecpp.cc ) + pcre_scanner.cc ) source for the C++ wrapper library + + pcre_stringpiece.h.in template for pcre_stringpiece.h, the header for the + C++ stringpiece functions + pcre_stringpiece.cc source for the C++ stringpiece functions + +(B) Source files for programs that use PCRE: + + pcredemo.c simple demonstration of coding calls to PCRE + pcregrep.c source of a grep utility that uses PCRE + pcretest.c comprehensive test program + +(C) Auxiliary files: + + 132html script to turn "man" pages into HTML + AUTHORS information about the author of PCRE + ChangeLog log of changes to the code + CleanTxt script to clean nroff output for txt man pages + Detrail script to remove trailing spaces + HACKING some notes about the internals of PCRE + INSTALL generic installation instructions + LICENCE conditions for the use of PCRE + COPYING the same, using GNU's standard name + Makefile.in ) template for Unix Makefile, which is built by + ) "configure" + Makefile.am ) the automake input that was used to create + ) Makefile.in + NEWS important changes in this release + NON-UNIX-USE the previous name for NON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD + NON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD notes on building PCRE without using autotools + PrepareRelease script to make preparations for "make dist" + README this file + RunTest a Unix shell script for running tests + RunGrepTest a Unix shell script for pcregrep tests + aclocal.m4 m4 macros (generated by "aclocal") + config.guess ) files used by libtool, + config.sub ) used only when building a shared library + configure a configuring shell script (built by autoconf) + configure.ac ) the autoconf input that was used to build + ) "configure" and config.h + depcomp ) script to find program dependencies, generated by + ) automake + doc/*.3 man page sources for PCRE + doc/*.1 man page sources for pcregrep and pcretest + doc/index.html.src the base HTML page + doc/html/* HTML documentation + doc/pcre.txt plain text version of the man pages + doc/pcretest.txt plain text documentation of test program + doc/perltest.txt plain text documentation of Perl test program + install-sh a shell script for installing files + libpcre16.pc.in template for libpcre16.pc for pkg-config + libpcre32.pc.in template for libpcre32.pc for pkg-config + libpcre.pc.in template for libpcre.pc for pkg-config + libpcreposix.pc.in template for libpcreposix.pc for pkg-config + libpcrecpp.pc.in template for libpcrecpp.pc for pkg-config + ltmain.sh file used to build a libtool script + missing ) common stub for a few missing GNU programs while + ) installing, generated by automake + mkinstalldirs script for making install directories + perltest.pl Perl test program + pcre-config.in source of script which retains PCRE information + pcre_jit_test.c test program for the JIT compiler + pcrecpp_unittest.cc ) + pcre_scanner_unittest.cc ) test programs for the C++ wrapper + pcre_stringpiece_unittest.cc ) + testdata/testinput* test data for main library tests + testdata/testoutput* expected test results + testdata/grep* input and output for pcregrep tests + testdata/* other supporting test files + +(D) Auxiliary files for cmake support + + cmake/COPYING-CMAKE-SCRIPTS + cmake/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake + cmake/FindEditline.cmake + cmake/FindReadline.cmake + CMakeLists.txt + config-cmake.h.in + +(E) Auxiliary files for VPASCAL + + makevp.bat + makevp_c.txt + makevp_l.txt + pcregexp.pas + +(F) Auxiliary files for building PCRE "by hand" + + pcre.h.generic ) a version of the public PCRE header file + ) for use in non-"configure" environments + config.h.generic ) a version of config.h for use in non-"configure" + ) environments + +(F) Miscellaneous + + RunTest.bat a script for running tests under Windows + +Philip Hazel +Email local part: ph10 +Email domain: cam.ac.uk +Last updated: 17 January 2014 |