regexpr(3GEN)                                        String Pattern-Matching Library Functions                                       regexpr(3GEN)

NAME

       regexpr, compile, step, advance - regular expression compile and match routines

SYNOPSIS

       cc [flag...] [file...] -lgen [library...]

       #include <regexpr.h>

       char *compile(char *instring, char *expbuf, const char *endbuf);

       int step(const char *string, const char *expbuf);

       int advance(const char *string, const char *expbuf);

       extern char *loc1, loc2, locs;

       extern int nbra, regerrno, reglength;

       extern char *braslist[], *braelist[];

DESCRIPTION

       These  routines are used to compile regular expressions and match the compiled expressions against lines.  The regular expressions compiled
       are in the form used by ed(1).

       The parameter instring is a null-terminated string representing the regular expression.

       The parameter expbuf points to the place where the compiled regular expression is to be placed.  If expbuf is  NULL,  compile()  uses  mal-
       loc(3C) to allocate the space for the compiled regular expression.  If an error occurs, this space is freed.  It is the user's responsibil-
       ity to free unneeded space after the compiled regular expression is no longer needed.

       The parameter endbuf is one more than the highest address where the compiled regular expression may be placed.  This argument is ignored if
       expbuf  is  NULL. If the compiled expression cannot fit in (endbuf-expbuf) bytes, compile() returns NULL and regerrno (see below) is set to
       50.

       The parameter  string is a pointer to a string of characters to be checked for a match. This string should be null-terminated.

       The parameter expbuf is the compiled regular expression obtained by a call of the function compile().

       The function step() returns non-zero if the given string matches the regular expression, and zero if the  expressions  do  not  match.   If
       there is a match, two external character pointers are set as a side effect to the call to step(). The variables set in step() are  loc1 and
       loc2. loc1 is a pointer to the first character that matched the regular expression. The variable loc2 points to  the  character  after  the
       last character that matches the regular expression.  Thus if the regular expression matches the entire line, loc1 points to the first char-
       acter of string and loc2 points to the null at the end of string.

       The purpose of step() is to step through the string argument until a match is found or until the end of string is reached.
        If the regular expression begins with ^, step() tries to match the regular expression at the beginning of the string only.

       The  advance() function is similar to step(); but, it only sets the variable loc2 and always restricts  matches to  the  beginning  of  the
       string.

       If  one  is  looking for successive matches in the same string of characters, locs should be set equal to loc2, and step() should be called
       with string equal to loc2.  locs is used by commands like ed and sed so that global substitutions like s/y*//g do not loop forever, and  is
       NULL by default.

       The external variable nbra is used to determine the number of subexpressions in the compiled regular expression.  braslist and braelist are
       arrays of character pointers that point to the start and end of the nbra subexpressions in the matched string.   For example, after calling
       step()  or  advance() with string sabcdefg and regular expression (abcdef), braslist[0]  will point at a and braelist[0] will point at g.
       These arrays are used by commands like ed  and sed for substitute replacement patterns that contain the 
 notation for subexpressions.

       Note that it is not necessary to use the external variables regerrno, nbra, loc1, loc2 locs, braelist, and braslist if one is only checking
       whether or not a string matches a regular expression.

EXAMPLES

       Example 1: The following is similar to the regular expression code from grep:

       #include<regexpr.h>
        . . .
       if(compile(*argv, (char *)0, (char *)0) == (char *)0)
            regerr(regerrno);
        . . .
       if (step(linebuf, expbuf))
          succeed();

RETURN VALUES

       If  compile() succeeds, it returns a non-NULL pointer whose value depends on expbuf.  If expbuf is non-NULL, compile() returns a pointer to
       the byte after the last byte in the compiled regular expression.   The length of the compiled regular expression is  stored  in  reglength.
       Otherwise, compile() returns a pointer to the space allocated by malloc(3C).

       The  functions  step() and advance() return non-zero if the given string matches the regular expression, and zero if the expressions do not
       match.

ERRORS

       If an error is detected when compiling the regular expression, a NULL pointer is returned from compile() and regerrno is set to one of  the
       non-zero error numbers indicated below:

       ERROR                         MEANING
       11                            Range endpoint too large.
       16                            Bad Number.
       25                            "digit" out or range.
       36                            Illegal or missing delimiter.
       41                            No remembered string search.
       42                            (~) imbalance.
       43                            Too many (.
       44                            More  than 2 numbers given in
                                     [~}.
       45                            } expected after .
       46                            First number  exceeds  second
                                     in {~}.
       49                            [] imbalance.
       50                            Regular expression overflow.

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE         |      ATTRIBUTE VALUE        |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |MT-Level                     |MT-Safe                      |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       ed(1), grep(1), sed(1), malloc(3C), attributes(5), regexp(5)

NOTES

       When  compiling  multi-threaded  applications,  the  _REENTRANT flag must be defined on the compile line.  This flag should only be used in
       multi-threaded applications.

SunOS 5.10                                                          29 Dec 1996                                                      regexpr(3GEN)