regcmp(3C)						   Standard C Library Functions 						regcmp(3C)

NAME

       regcmp, regex - compile and execute regular expression

SYNOPSIS

       #include <libgen.h>

       char *regcmp(const char *string1, /* char *string2 */ ...,
	    int /*(char*)0*/);

       char *regex(const char *re, const char *subject,
	    /* char *ret0 */ ...);

       extern char *__loc1;

DESCRIPTION

       The  regcmp() function compiles a regular expression (consisting of the concatenated arguments) and returns a pointer to the compiled form.
       The malloc(3C) function is used to create space for the compiled form. It is the user's responsibility to free unneeded space so allocated.
       A  NULL return from regcmp() indicates an incorrect argument. regcmp(1) has been written to generally preclude the need for this routine at
       execution time.

       The regex() function executes a compiled pattern against the subject string. Additional arguments are passed to receive values  back.   The
       regex()	function returns NULL on failure or a pointer to the next unmatched character on success. A global character pointer __loc1 points
       to where the match began.  The regcmp() and regex() functions were mostly borrowed from the editor ed(1); however, the syntax and semantics
       have been changed slightly. The following are the valid symbols and associated meanings.

       []*.^		 This group of symbols retains its meaning as described on the regexp(5) manual page.

       $		 Matches the end of the string; 
 matches a newline.

       -		 Within  brackets  the	minus  means through. For example, [a-z] is equivalent to [abcd...xyz]. The - can appear as itself
			 only if used as the first or last character. For example, the character class expression []-] matches	the  characters  ]
			 and -.

       +		 A regular expression followed by + means one or more times. For example, [0-9]+ is equivalent to [0-9][0-9]*.

       {m} {m,} {m,u}	 Integer values enclosed in {} indicate the number of times the preceding regular expression is to be applied. The value m
			 is the minimum number and u is a number, less than 256, which is the maximum. If only m is present  (that  is,  {m}),	it
			 indicates the exact number of times the regular expression is to be applied. The value {m,} is analogous to {m,infinity}.
			 The plus (+) and star (*) operations are equivalent to {1,} and {0,} respectively.

       ( ... )$n	 The value of the enclosed regular expression is to be returned. The value will be stored in the (n+1)th argument  follow-
			 ing  the  subject argument. At most, ten enclosed regular expressions are allowed. The regex() function makes its assign-
			 ments unconditionally.

       ( ... )		 Parentheses are used for grouping. An operator, for example, *, +, {}, can work  on  a  single  character  or	a  regular
			 expression  enclosed  in parentheses. For example, (a*(cb+)*)$0. By necessity, all the above defined symbols are special.
			 They must, therefore, be escaped with a  (backslash)	to be used as themselves.

EXAMPLES

       Example 1 Example matching a leading newline in the subject string.

       The following example matches a leading newline in the subject string pointed at by cursor.

	 char *cursor, *newcursor, *ptr;
	      ...
	 newcursor = regex((ptr = regcmp("^
", (char *)0)), cursor);
	 free(ptr);

       The following example matches through the string Testing3 and returns the address of the character after the last matched  character   (the
       ``4''). The string Testing3 is copied to the character array ret0.

	 char ret0[9];
	 char *newcursor, *name;
	      ...
	 name = regcmp("([A-Za-z][A-za-z0-9]{0,7})$0", (char *)0);
	 newcursor = regex(name, "012Testing345", ret0);

       The following example applies a precompiled regular expression in file.i (see regcmp(1)) against string.

	 #include "file.i"
	 char *string, *newcursor;
	      ...
	 newcursor = regex(name, string);

ATTRIBUTES

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

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

SEE ALSO

       ed(1), regcmp(1), malloc(3C), attributes(5), regexp(5)

NOTES

       The user program may run out of memory if regcmp() is called iteratively without freeing the vectors no longer required.

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

SunOS 5.11							    14 Nov 2002 							regcmp(3C)