PCREPRECOMPILE(3)					     Library Functions Manual						 PCREPRECOMPILE(3)

NAME

       PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions

SAVING AND RE-USING PRECOMPILED PCRE PATTERNS

       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.  If you are not using	any  private  character  tables  (see  the
       pcre_maketables() documentation), this is relatively straightforward. If you are using private tables, it is a little bit more complicated.
       However, if you are using the just-in-time optimization feature, it is not possible to save and reload the JIT data.

       If you save compiled patterns to a file, you can copy them to a different host and run them there. If the two hosts have different  endian-
       ness (byte order), you should run the pcre[16|32]_pattern_to_host_byte_order() function on the new host before trying to match the pattern.
       The matching functions return PCRE_ERROR_BADENDIANNESS if they detect a pattern with the wrong endianness.

       Compiling regular expressions with one version of PCRE for use with a different version is not guaranteed to work and  may  cause  crashes,
       and saving and restoring a compiled pattern loses any JIT optimization data.

SAVING A COMPILED PATTERN


       The value returned by pcre[16|32]_compile() points to a single block of memory that holds the compiled pattern and associated data. You can
       find the length of this block in bytes by calling pcre[16|32]_fullinfo() with an argument of PCRE_INFO_SIZE. You can then save the data	in
       any  appropriate  manner.  Here	is  sample code for the 8-bit library that compiles a pattern and writes it to a file. It assumes that the
       variable fd refers to a file that is open for output:

	 int erroroffset, rc, size;
	 char *error;
	 pcre *re;

	 re = pcre_compile("my pattern", 0, &error, &erroroffset, NULL);
	 if (re == NULL) { ... handle errors ... }
	 rc = pcre_fullinfo(re, NULL, PCRE_INFO_SIZE, &size);
	 if (rc < 0) { ... handle errors ... }
	 rc = fwrite(re, 1, size, fd);
	 if (rc != size) { ... handle errors ... }

       In this example, the bytes that comprise the compiled pattern are copied exactly. Note that this 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.

       If you want to write more than one pattern to a file, you will have to devise a way of separating them. For  binary  data,  preceding  each
       pattern	with its length is probably the most straightforward approach. Another possibility is to write out the data in hexadecimal instead
       of binary, one pattern to a line.

       Saving compiled patterns in a file is only one possible way of storing them for later use. They could equally well be saved in a  database,
       or in the memory of some daemon process that passes them via sockets to the processes that want them.

       If  the	pattern  has been studied, it is also possible to save the normal study data in a similar way to the compiled pattern itself. How-
       ever, if the PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE was used, the just-in-time data that is created cannot be saved because it is too dependent on the cur-
       rent  environment. When studying generates additional information, pcre[16|32]_study() returns a pointer to a pcre[16|32]_extra data block.
       Its format is defined in the section on matching a pattern in the pcreapi documentation. The study_data field points to	the  binary  study
       data,  and  this  is  what  you must save (not the pcre[16|32]_extra block itself). The length of the study data can be obtained by calling
       pcre[16|32]_fullinfo() with an argument of PCRE_INFO_STUDYSIZE. Remember to check that pcre[16|32]_study()  did	return	a  non-NULL  value
       before trying to save the study data.

RE-USING A PRECOMPILED PATTERN

       Re-using  a precompiled pattern is straightforward. Having reloaded it into main memory, called pcre[16|32]_pattern_to_host_byte_order() if
       necessary, you pass its pointer to pcre[16|32]_exec() or pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec() in the usual way.

       However, if you passed a pointer to custom character tables when the pattern was compiled (the tableptr argument of pcre[16|32]_compile()),
       you must now pass a similar pointer to pcre[16|32]_exec() or pcre[16|32]_dfa_exec(), because the value saved with the compiled pattern will
       obviously be nonsense. A field in a pcre[16|32]_extra() block is used to pass this data, as described in the section on matching a  pattern
       in the pcreapi documentation.

       Warning:  The  tables  that  pcre_exec() and pcre_dfa_exec() use must be the same as those that were used when the pattern was compiled. If
       this is not the case, the behaviour is undefined.

       If you did not provide custom character tables when the pattern was compiled, the pointer in the compiled pattern is NULL, which causes the
       matching functions to use PCRE's internal tables. Thus, you do not need to take any special action at run time in this case.

       If you saved study data with the compiled pattern, you need to create your own pcre[16|32]_extra data block and set the study_data field to
       point to the reloaded study data. You must also set the PCRE_EXTRA_STUDY_DATA bit in the  flags	field  to  indicate  that  study  data	is
       present. Then pass the pcre[16|32]_extra block to the matching function in the usual way. If the pattern was studied for just-in-time opti-
       mization, that data cannot be saved, and so is lost by a save/restore cycle.

COMPATIBILITY WITH DIFFERENT PCRE RELEASES


       In general, it is safest to recompile all saved patterns when you update to a new PCRE release, though not  all	updates  actually  require
       this.

AUTHOR


       Philip Hazel
       University Computing Service
       Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.

REVISION


       Last updated: 12 November 2013
       Copyright (c) 1997-2013 University of Cambridge.

PCRE 8.34							 12 November 2013						 PCREPRECOMPILE(3)