re_comp(3C)						   Standard C Library Functions 					       re_comp(3C)

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() func-
       tion 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  func-
       tions.  See standards(5).

SEE ALSO

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

SunOS 5.11							    26 Feb 1997 						       re_comp(3C)