PCREBUILD(3)						     Library Functions Manual						      PCREBUILD(3)

NAME

       PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions

PCRE BUILD-TIME OPTIONS

       This  document  describes  the optional features of PCRE that can be selected when the library is compiled. It assumes use of the configure
       script, where the optional features are selected or deselected by providing options to configure before running the make command.  However,
       the  same  options  can	be  selected in both Unix-like and non-Unix-like environments using the GUI facility of cmake-gui if you are using
       CMake instead of configure to build PCRE.

       There is a lot more information about building PCRE in non-Unix-like environments in the file called NON_UNIX_USE, which  is  part  of  the
       PCRE distribution. You should consult this file as well as the README file if you are building in a non-Unix-like environment.

       The  complete  list  of options for configure (which includes the standard ones such as the selection of the installation directory) can be
       obtained by running

	 ./configure --help

       The following sections include descriptions of options whose names begin with --enable or --disable. These settings specify changes to  the
       defaults for the configure command. Because of the way that configure works, --enable and --disable always come in pairs, so the complemen-
       tary option always exists as well, but as it specifies the default, it is not described.

BUILDING 8-BIT and 16-BIT LIBRARIES

       By default, a library called libpcre is built, containing functions that take string arguments contained in vectors  of	bytes,	either	as
       single-byte characters, or interpreted as UTF-8 strings. You can also build a separate library, called libpcre16, in which strings are con-
       tained in vectors of 16-bit data units and interpreted either as single-unit characters or UTF-16 strings, by adding

	 --enable-pcre16

       to the configure command. If you do not want the 8-bit library, add

	 --disable-pcre8

       as well. At least one of the two libraries must be built. Note that the C++ and POSIX wrappers are for the 8-bit  library  only,  and  that
       pcregrep is an 8-bit program. None of these are built if you select only the 16-bit library.

BUILDING SHARED AND STATIC LIBRARIES


       The  PCRE  building process uses libtool to build both shared and static Unix libraries by default. You can suppress one of these by adding
       one of

	 --disable-shared
	 --disable-static

       to the configure command, as required.

C++ SUPPORT

       By default, if the 8-bit library is being built, the configure script will search for a C++ compiler and C++  header  files.  If  it  finds
       them, it automatically builds the C++ wrapper library (which supports only 8-bit strings). You can disable this by adding

	 --disable-cpp

       to the configure command.

UTF-8 and UTF-16 SUPPORT

       To build PCRE with support for UTF Unicode character strings, add

	 --enable-utf

       to  the	configure command. This setting applies to both libraries, adding support for UTF-8 to the 8-bit library and support for UTF-16 to
       the 16-bit library. There are no separate options for enabling UTF-8 and UTF-16 independently because that would allow ridiculous  settings
       such  as  requesting UTF-16 support while building only the 8-bit library. It is not possible to build one library with UTF support and the
       other without in the same configuration. (For backwards compatibility, --enable-utf8 is a synonym of --enable-utf.)

       Of itself, this setting does not make PCRE treat strings as UTF-8 or UTF-16. As well as compiling PCRE with this option, you also have have
       to set the PCRE_UTF8 or PCRE_UTF16 option when you call one of the pattern compiling functions.

       If  you set --enable-utf when compiling in an EBCDIC environment, PCRE expects its input to be either ASCII or UTF-8 (depending on the run-
       time option). It is not possible to support both EBCDIC and UTF-8 codes in the same version of the library. Consequently, --enable-utf  and
       --enable-ebcdic are mutually exclusive.

UNICODE CHARACTER PROPERTY SUPPORT


       UTF  support  allows  the libraries to process character codepoints up to 0x10ffff in the strings that they handle. On its own, however, it
       does not provide any facilities for accessing the properties of such characters. If you want to be able to use the pattern escapes P,  p,
       and X, which refer to Unicode character properties, you must add

	 --enable-unicode-properties

       to the configure command. This implies UTF support, even if you have not explicitly requested it.

       Including  Unicode  property  support adds around 30K of tables to the PCRE library. Only the general category properties such as Lu and Nd
       are supported. Details are given in the pcrepattern documentation.

JUST-IN-TIME COMPILER SUPPORT

       Just-in-time compiler support is included in the build by specifying

	 --enable-jit

       This support is available only for certain hardware architectures. If this option is set for an unsupported architecture,  a  compile  time
       error  occurs.	See the pcrejit documentation for a discussion of JIT usage. When JIT support is enabled, pcregrep automatically makes use
       of it, unless you add

	 --disable-pcregrep-jit

       to the "configure" command.

CODE VALUE OF NEWLINE


       By default, PCRE interprets the linefeed (LF) character as indicating the end of a line. This is the normal newline character on  Unix-like
       systems. You can compile PCRE to use carriage return (CR) instead, by adding

	 --enable-newline-is-cr

       to the configure command. There is also a --enable-newline-is-lf option, which explicitly specifies linefeed as the newline character.

       Alternatively, you can specify that line endings are to be indicated by the two character sequence CRLF. If you want this, add

	 --enable-newline-is-crlf

       to the configure command. There is a fourth option, specified by

	 --enable-newline-is-anycrlf

       which  causes  PCRE to recognize any of the three sequences CR, LF, or CRLF as indicating a line ending. Finally, a fifth option, specified
       by

	 --enable-newline-is-any

       causes PCRE to recognize any Unicode newline sequence.

       Whatever line ending convention is selected when PCRE is built can be overridden when the library functions are called. At build time it is
       conventional to use the standard for your operating system.

WHAT 
R MATCHES

       By  default,  the sequence R in a pattern matches any Unicode newline sequence, whatever has been selected as the line ending sequence. If
       you specify

	 --enable-bsr-anycrlf

       the default is changed so that R matches only CR, LF, or CRLF. Whatever is selected when PCRE is built can be overridden when the  library
       functions are called.

POSIX MALLOC USAGE


       When  the 8-bit library is called through the POSIX interface (see the pcreposix documentation), additional working storage is required for
       holding the pointers to capturing substrings, because PCRE requires three integers per substring, whereas the POSIX interface provides only
       two.  If  the  number of expected substrings is small, the wrapper function uses space on the stack, because this is faster than using mal-
       loc() for each call. The default threshold above which the stack is no longer used is 10; it can be changed by adding a setting such as

	 --with-posix-malloc-threshold=20

       to the configure command.

HANDLING VERY LARGE PATTERNS


       Within a compiled pattern, offset values are used to point from one part to another (for example, from an opening parenthesis to an  alter-
       nation  metacharacter).	By default, two-byte values are used for these offsets, leading to a maximum size for a compiled pattern of around
       64K. This is sufficient to handle all but the most gigantic patterns. Nevertheless, some people do want to process truly enormous patterns,
       so it is possible to compile PCRE to use three-byte or four-byte offsets by adding a setting such as

	 --with-link-size=3

       to the configure command. The value given must be 2, 3, or 4. For the 16-bit library, a value of 3 is rounded up to 4. Using longer offsets
       slows down the operation of PCRE because it has to load additional data when handling them.

AVOIDING EXCESSIVE STACK USAGE


       When matching with the pcre_exec() function, PCRE implements backtracking by making recursive calls to an internal function called match().
       In  environments  where	the size of the stack is limited, this can severely limit PCRE's operation. (The Unix environment does not usually
       suffer from this problem, but it may sometimes be necessary to increase the maximum stack size.	There is a  discussion	in  the  pcrestack
       documentation.)	An  alternative approach to recursion that uses memory from the heap to remember data, instead of using recursive function
       calls, has been implemented to work round the problem of limited stack size. If you want to build a version of PCRE that  works	this  way,
       add

	 --disable-stack-for-recursion

       to the configure command. With this configuration, PCRE will use the pcre_stack_malloc and pcre_stack_free variables to call memory manage-
       ment functions. By default these point to malloc() and free(), but you can replace the  pointers  so  that  your  own  functions  are  used
       instead.

       Separate  functions  are  provided  rather  than  using	pcre_malloc  and  pcre_free because the usage is very predictable: the block sizes
       requested are always the same, and the blocks are always freed in reverse order. A calling program might be  able  to  implement  optimized
       functions  that	perform better than malloc() and free(). PCRE runs noticeably more slowly when built in this way. This option affects only
       the pcre_exec() function; it is not relevant for pcre_dfa_exec().

LIMITING PCRE RESOURCE USAGE


       Internally, PCRE has a function called match(), which it calls  repeatedly  (sometimes  recursively)  when  matching  a	pattern  with  the
       pcre_exec()  function.  By  controlling the maximum number of times this function may be called during a single matching operation, a limit
       can be placed on the resources used by a single call to pcre_exec(). The limit can be changed at run time, as described in the pcreapi doc-
       umentation. The default is 10 million, but this can be changed by adding a setting such as

	 --with-match-limit=500000

       to the configure command. This setting has no effect on the pcre_dfa_exec() matching function.

       In  some  environments  it  is  desirable to limit the depth of recursive calls of match() more strictly than the total number of calls, in
       order to restrict the maximum amount of stack (or heap, if --disable-stack-for-recursion is specified) that is used. A  second  limit  con-
       trols  this;  it  defaults to the value that is set for --with-match-limit, which imposes no additional constraints. However, you can set a
       lower limit by adding, for example,

	 --with-match-limit-recursion=10000

       to the configure command. This value can also be overridden at run time.

CREATING CHARACTER TABLES AT BUILD TIME


       PCRE uses fixed tables for processing characters whose code values are less than 256. By default, PCRE is built with a set of  tables  that
       are distributed in the file pcre_chartables.c.dist. These tables are for ASCII codes only. If you add

	 --enable-rebuild-chartables

       to  the configure command, the distributed tables are no longer used.  Instead, a program called dftables is compiled and run. This outputs
       the source for new set of tables, created in the default locale of your C runtime system. (This method of replacing  the  tables  does  not
       work  if you are cross compiling, because dftables is run on the local host. If you need to create alternative tables when cross compiling,
       you will have to do so "by hand".)

USING EBCDIC CODE


       PCRE assumes by default that it will run in an environment where the character code is ASCII (or Unicode, which is a  superset  of  ASCII).
       This is the case for most computer operating systems. PCRE can, however, be compiled to run in an EBCDIC environment by adding

	 --enable-ebcdic

       to  the	configure  command. This setting implies --enable-rebuild-chartables. You should only use it if you know that you are in an EBCDIC
       environment (for example, an IBM mainframe operating system). The --enable-ebcdic option is incompatible with --enable-utf.

PCREGREP OPTIONS FOR COMPRESSED FILE SUPPORT


       By default, pcregrep reads all files as plain text. You can build it so that it recognizes files whose names end in .gz or .bz2, and  reads
       them with libz or libbz2, respectively, by adding one or both of

	 --enable-pcregrep-libz
	 --enable-pcregrep-libbz2

       to the configure command. These options naturally require that the relevant libraries are installed on your system. Configuration will fail
       if they are not.

PCREGREP BUFFER SIZE


       pcregrep uses an internal buffer to hold a "window" on the file it is scanning, in order to be able to output "before"  and  "after"  lines
       when  it  finds	a  match. The size of the buffer is controlled by a parameter whose default value is 20K. The buffer itself is three times
       this size, but because of the way it is used for holding "before" lines, the longest line that is  guaranteed  to  be  processable  is  the
       parameter size. You can change the default parameter value by adding, for example,

	 --with-pcregrep-bufsize=50K

       to the configure command. The caller of pcregrep can, however, override this value by specifying a run-time option.

PCRETEST OPTION FOR LIBREADLINE SUPPORT


       If you add

	 --enable-pcretest-libreadline

       to  the	configure  command,  pcretest is linked with the libreadline library, and when its input is from a terminal, it reads it using the
       readline() function. This provides line-editing and history facilities. Note that libreadline is  GPL-licensed,	so  if	you  distribute  a
       binary of pcretest linked in this way, there may be licensing issues.

       Setting	this  option causes the -lreadline option to be added to the pcretest build. In many operating environments with a sytem-installed
       libreadline this is sufficient. However, in some environments (e.g.  if an unmodified distribution version of readline  is  in  use),  some
       extra configuration may be necessary. The INSTALL file for libreadline says this:

	 "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 your environment has not been set up so that an appropriate library is automatically included, you may need to add something like

	 LIBS="-ncurses"

       immediately before the configure command.

SEE ALSO


       pcreapi(3), pcre16, pcre_config(3).

AUTHOR


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

REVISION


       Last updated: 07 January 2012
       Copyright (c) 1997-2012 University of Cambridge.

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