xref: /freebsd/lib/libcompat/4.3/re_comp.3 (revision 1669d8afc64812c8d2d1d147ae1fd42ff441e1b1)
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28.\"     @(#)re_comp.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd June 4, 1993
32.Dt RE_COMP 3
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm re_comp ,
36.Nm re_exec
37.Nd regular expression handler
38.Sh LIBRARY
39.Lb libcompat
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.In unistd.h
42.Ft char *
43.Fn re_comp "const char *s"
44.Ft int
45.Fn re_exec "const char *s"
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47.Bf -symbolic
48This interface is made obsolete by
49.Xr regex 3 .
50.Ef
51.Pp
52The
53.Fn re_comp
54function
55compiles a string into an internal form suitable for pattern matching.
56The
57.Fn re_exec
58function
59checks the argument string against the last string passed to
60.Fn re_comp .
61.Pp
62The
63.Fn re_comp
64function
65returns 0 if the string
66.Fa s
67was compiled successfully; otherwise a string containing an
68error message is returned.
69If
70.Fn re_comp
71is passed 0 or a null string, it returns without changing the currently
72compiled regular expression.
73.Pp
74The
75.Fn re_exec
76function
77returns 1 if the string
78.Fa s
79matches the last compiled regular expression, 0 if the string
80.Fa s
81failed to match the last compiled regular expression, and \-1 if the compiled
82regular expression was invalid (indicating an internal error).
83.Pp
84The strings passed to both
85.Fn re_comp
86and
87.Fn re_exec
88may have trailing or embedded newline characters;
89they are terminated by
90.Dv NUL Ns s .
91The regular expressions recognized are described in the manual entry for
92.Xr ed 1 ,
93given the above difference.
94.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
95The
96.Fn re_exec
97function
98returns \-1 for an internal error.
99.Pp
100The
101.Fn re_comp
102function
103returns one of the following strings if an error occurs:
104.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
105No previous regular expression,
106Regular expression too long,
107unmatched \e(,
108missing ],
109too many \e(\e) pairs,
110unmatched \e).
111.Ed
112.Sh SEE ALSO
113.Xr ed 1 ,
114.Xr egrep 1 ,
115.Xr ex 1 ,
116.Xr fgrep 1 ,
117.Xr grep 1 ,
118.Xr regex 3
119.Sh HISTORY
120The
121.Fn re_comp
122and
123.Fn re_exec
124functions appeared in
125.Bx 4.0 .
126