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- .TH PCREBUILD 3 "12 May 2013" "PCRE 8.33"
- .SH NAME
- PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions
- .
- .
- .SH "BUILDING PCRE"
- .rs
- .sp
- PCRE is distributed with a \fBconfigure\fP script that can be used to build the
- library in Unix-like environments using the applications known as Autotools.
- Also in the distribution are files to support building using \fBCMake\fP
- instead of \fBconfigure\fP. The text file
- .\" HTML <a href="README.txt">
- .\" </a>
- \fBREADME\fP
- .\"
- contains general information about building with Autotools (some of which is
- repeated below), and also has some comments about building on various operating
- systems. There is a lot more information about building PCRE without using
- Autotools (including information about using \fBCMake\fP and building "by
- hand") in the text file called
- .\" HTML <a href="NON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD.txt">
- .\" </a>
- \fBNON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD\fP.
- .\"
- You should consult this file as well as the
- .\" HTML <a href="README.txt">
- .\" </a>
- \fBREADME\fP
- .\"
- file if you are building in a non-Unix-like environment.
- .
- .
- .SH "PCRE BUILD-TIME OPTIONS"
- .rs
- .sp
- The rest of this document describes the optional features of PCRE that can be
- selected when the library is compiled. It assumes use of the \fBconfigure\fP
- script, where the optional features are selected or deselected by providing
- options to \fBconfigure\fP before running the \fBmake\fP command. However, the
- same options can be selected in both Unix-like and non-Unix-like environments
- using the GUI facility of \fBcmake-gui\fP if you are using \fBCMake\fP instead
- of \fBconfigure\fP to build PCRE.
- .P
- If you are not using Autotools or \fBCMake\fP, option selection can be done by
- editing the \fBconfig.h\fP file, or by passing parameter settings to the
- compiler, as described in
- .\" HTML <a href="NON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD.txt">
- .\" </a>
- \fBNON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD\fP.
- .\"
- .P
- The complete list of options for \fBconfigure\fP (which includes the standard
- ones such as the selection of the installation directory) can be obtained by
- running
- .sp
- ./configure --help
- .sp
- The following sections include descriptions of options whose names begin with
- --enable or --disable. These settings specify changes to the defaults for the
- \fBconfigure\fP command. Because of the way that \fBconfigure\fP works,
- --enable and --disable always come in pairs, so the complementary option always
- exists as well, but as it specifies the default, it is not described.
- .
- .
- .SH "BUILDING 8-BIT, 16-BIT AND 32-BIT LIBRARIES"
- .rs
- .sp
- By default, a library called \fBlibpcre\fP 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 \fBlibpcre16\fP, in which strings are contained in vectors of
- 16-bit data units and interpreted either as single-unit characters or UTF-16
- strings, by adding
- .sp
- --enable-pcre16
- .sp
- to the \fBconfigure\fP command. You can also build yet another separate
- library, called \fBlibpcre32\fP, in which strings are contained in vectors of
- 32-bit data units and interpreted either as single-unit characters or UTF-32
- strings, by adding
- .sp
- --enable-pcre32
- .sp
- to the \fBconfigure\fP command. If you do not want the 8-bit library, add
- .sp
- --disable-pcre8
- .sp
- as well. At least one of the three libraries must be built. Note that the C++
- and POSIX wrappers are for the 8-bit library only, and that \fBpcregrep\fP is
- an 8-bit program. None of these are built if you select only the 16-bit or
- 32-bit libraries.
- .
- .
- .SH "BUILDING SHARED AND STATIC LIBRARIES"
- .rs
- .sp
- The Autotools PCRE building process uses \fBlibtool\fP to build both shared and
- static libraries by default. You can suppress one of these by adding one of
- .sp
- --disable-shared
- --disable-static
- .sp
- to the \fBconfigure\fP command, as required.
- .
- .
- .SH "C++ SUPPORT"
- .rs
- .sp
- By default, if the 8-bit library is being built, the \fBconfigure\fP 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
- .sp
- --disable-cpp
- .sp
- to the \fBconfigure\fP command.
- .
- .
- .SH "UTF-8, UTF-16 AND UTF-32 SUPPORT"
- .rs
- .sp
- To build PCRE with support for UTF Unicode character strings, add
- .sp
- --enable-utf
- .sp
- to the \fBconfigure\fP command. This setting applies to all three libraries,
- adding support for UTF-8 to the 8-bit library, support for UTF-16 to the 16-bit
- library, and support for UTF-32 to the to the 32-bit library. There are no
- separate options for enabling UTF-8, UTF-16 and UTF-32 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 another without in the same configuration. (For backwards
- compatibility, --enable-utf8 is a synonym of --enable-utf.)
- .P
- Of itself, this setting does not make PCRE treat strings as UTF-8, UTF-16 or
- UTF-32. As well as compiling PCRE with this option, you also have have to set
- the PCRE_UTF8, PCRE_UTF16 or PCRE_UTF32 option (as appropriate) when you call
- one of the pattern compiling functions.
- .P
- 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.
- .
- .
- .SH "UNICODE CHARACTER PROPERTY SUPPORT"
- .rs
- .sp
- 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 \eP, \ep, and \eX, which refer to Unicode
- character properties, you must add
- .sp
- --enable-unicode-properties
- .sp
- to the \fBconfigure\fP command. This implies UTF support, even if you have
- not explicitly requested it.
- .P
- Including Unicode property support adds around 30K of tables to the PCRE
- library. Only the general category properties such as \fILu\fP and \fINd\fP are
- supported. Details are given in the
- .\" HREF
- \fBpcrepattern\fP
- .\"
- documentation.
- .
- .
- .SH "JUST-IN-TIME COMPILER SUPPORT"
- .rs
- .sp
- Just-in-time compiler support is included in the build by specifying
- .sp
- --enable-jit
- .sp
- 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
- .\" HREF
- \fBpcrejit\fP
- .\"
- documentation for a discussion of JIT usage. When JIT support is enabled,
- pcregrep automatically makes use of it, unless you add
- .sp
- --disable-pcregrep-jit
- .sp
- to the "configure" command.
- .
- .
- .SH "CODE VALUE OF NEWLINE"
- .rs
- .sp
- 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
- .sp
- --enable-newline-is-cr
- .sp
- to the \fBconfigure\fP command. There is also a --enable-newline-is-lf option,
- which explicitly specifies linefeed as the newline character.
- .sp
- Alternatively, you can specify that line endings are to be indicated by the two
- character sequence CRLF. If you want this, add
- .sp
- --enable-newline-is-crlf
- .sp
- to the \fBconfigure\fP command. There is a fourth option, specified by
- .sp
- --enable-newline-is-anycrlf
- .sp
- 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
- .sp
- --enable-newline-is-any
- .sp
- causes PCRE to recognize any Unicode newline sequence.
- .P
- 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.
- .
- .
- .SH "WHAT \eR MATCHES"
- .rs
- .sp
- By default, the sequence \eR in a pattern matches any Unicode newline sequence,
- whatever has been selected as the line ending sequence. If you specify
- .sp
- --enable-bsr-anycrlf
- .sp
- the default is changed so that \eR matches only CR, LF, or CRLF. Whatever is
- selected when PCRE is built can be overridden when the library functions are
- called.
- .
- .
- .SH "POSIX MALLOC USAGE"
- .rs
- .sp
- When the 8-bit library is called through the POSIX interface (see the
- .\" HREF
- \fBpcreposix\fP
- .\"
- 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 \fBmalloc()\fP 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
- .sp
- --with-posix-malloc-threshold=20
- .sp
- to the \fBconfigure\fP command.
- .
- .
- .SH "HANDLING VERY LARGE PATTERNS"
- .rs
- .sp
- Within a compiled pattern, offset values are used to point from one part to
- another (for example, from an opening parenthesis to an alternation
- metacharacter). By default, in the 8-bit and 16-bit libraries, 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
- .sp
- --with-link-size=3
- .sp
- to the \fBconfigure\fP command. The value given must be 2, 3, or 4. For the
- 16-bit library, a value of 3 is rounded up to 4. In these libraries, using
- longer offsets slows down the operation of PCRE because it has to load
- additional data when handling them. For the 32-bit library the value is always
- 4 and cannot be overridden; the value of --with-link-size is ignored.
- .
- .
- .SH "AVOIDING EXCESSIVE STACK USAGE"
- .rs
- .sp
- When matching with the \fBpcre_exec()\fP function, PCRE implements backtracking
- by making recursive calls to an internal function called \fBmatch()\fP. 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
- .\" HREF
- \fBpcrestack\fP
- .\"
- 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
- .sp
- --disable-stack-for-recursion
- .sp
- to the \fBconfigure\fP command. With this configuration, PCRE will use the
- \fBpcre_stack_malloc\fP and \fBpcre_stack_free\fP variables to call memory
- management functions. By default these point to \fBmalloc()\fP and
- \fBfree()\fP, but you can replace the pointers so that your own functions are
- used instead.
- .P
- Separate functions are provided rather than using \fBpcre_malloc\fP and
- \fBpcre_free\fP 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 \fBmalloc()\fP and \fBfree()\fP. PCRE runs noticeably more
- slowly when built in this way. This option affects only the \fBpcre_exec()\fP
- function; it is not relevant for \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP.
- .
- .
- .SH "LIMITING PCRE RESOURCE USAGE"
- .rs
- .sp
- Internally, PCRE has a function called \fBmatch()\fP, which it calls repeatedly
- (sometimes recursively) when matching a pattern with the \fBpcre_exec()\fP
- 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 \fBpcre_exec()\fP. The limit can be changed
- at run time, as described in the
- .\" HREF
- \fBpcreapi\fP
- .\"
- documentation. The default is 10 million, but this can be changed by adding a
- setting such as
- .sp
- --with-match-limit=500000
- .sp
- to the \fBconfigure\fP command. This setting has no effect on the
- \fBpcre_dfa_exec()\fP matching function.
- .P
- In some environments it is desirable to limit the depth of recursive calls of
- \fBmatch()\fP 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 controls 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,
- .sp
- --with-match-limit-recursion=10000
- .sp
- to the \fBconfigure\fP command. This value can also be overridden at run time.
- .
- .
- .SH "CREATING CHARACTER TABLES AT BUILD TIME"
- .rs
- .sp
- 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 \fIpcre_chartables.c.dist\fP. These tables are for ASCII codes
- only. If you add
- .sp
- --enable-rebuild-chartables
- .sp
- to the \fBconfigure\fP command, the distributed tables are no longer used.
- Instead, a program called \fBdftables\fP is compiled and run. This outputs the
- source for new set of tables, created in the default locale of your C run-time
- system. (This method of replacing the tables does not work if you are cross
- compiling, because \fBdftables\fP is run on the local host. If you need to
- create alternative tables when cross compiling, you will have to do so "by
- hand".)
- .
- .
- .SH "USING EBCDIC CODE"
- .rs
- .sp
- 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
- .sp
- --enable-ebcdic
- .sp
- to the \fBconfigure\fP 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.
- .P
- The EBCDIC character that corresponds to an ASCII LF is assumed to have the
- value 0x15 by default. However, in some EBCDIC environments, 0x25 is used. In
- such an environment you should use
- .sp
- --enable-ebcdic-nl25
- .sp
- as well as, or instead of, --enable-ebcdic. The EBCDIC character for CR has the
- same value as in ASCII, namely, 0x0d. Whichever of 0x15 and 0x25 is \fInot\fP
- chosen as LF is made to correspond to the Unicode NEL character (which, in
- Unicode, is 0x85).
- .P
- The options that select newline behaviour, such as --enable-newline-is-cr,
- and equivalent run-time options, refer to these character values in an EBCDIC
- environment.
- .
- .
- .SH "PCREGREP OPTIONS FOR COMPRESSED FILE SUPPORT"
- .rs
- .sp
- By default, \fBpcregrep\fP reads all files as plain text. You can build it so
- that it recognizes files whose names end in \fB.gz\fP or \fB.bz2\fP, and reads
- them with \fBlibz\fP or \fBlibbz2\fP, respectively, by adding one or both of
- .sp
- --enable-pcregrep-libz
- --enable-pcregrep-libbz2
- .sp
- to the \fBconfigure\fP command. These options naturally require that the
- relevant libraries are installed on your system. Configuration will fail if
- they are not.
- .
- .
- .SH "PCREGREP BUFFER SIZE"
- .rs
- .sp
- \fBpcregrep\fP 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,
- .sp
- --with-pcregrep-bufsize=50K
- .sp
- to the \fBconfigure\fP command. The caller of \fPpcregrep\fP can, however,
- override this value by specifying a run-time option.
- .
- .
- .SH "PCRETEST OPTION FOR LIBREADLINE SUPPORT"
- .rs
- .sp
- If you add
- .sp
- --enable-pcretest-libreadline
- .sp
- to the \fBconfigure\fP command, \fBpcretest\fP is linked with the
- \fBlibreadline\fP library, and when its input is from a terminal, it reads it
- using the \fBreadline()\fP function. This provides line-editing and history
- facilities. Note that \fBlibreadline\fP is GPL-licensed, so if you distribute a
- binary of \fBpcretest\fP linked in this way, there may be licensing issues.
- .P
- Setting this option causes the \fB-lreadline\fP option to be added to the
- \fBpcretest\fP build. In many operating environments with a sytem-installed
- \fBlibreadline\fP 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 \fBlibreadline\fP says
- this:
- .sp
- "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."
- .sp
- If your environment has not been set up so that an appropriate library is
- automatically included, you may need to add something like
- .sp
- LIBS="-ncurses"
- .sp
- immediately before the \fBconfigure\fP command.
- .
- .
- .SH "DEBUGGING WITH VALGRIND SUPPORT"
- .rs
- .sp
- By adding the
- .sp
- --enable-valgrind
- .sp
- option to to the \fBconfigure\fP command, PCRE will use valgrind annotations
- to mark certain memory regions as unaddressable. This allows it to detect
- invalid memory accesses, and is mostly useful for debugging PCRE itself.
- .
- .
- .SH "CODE COVERAGE REPORTING"
- .rs
- .sp
- If your C compiler is gcc, you can build a version of PCRE that can generate a
- code coverage report for its test suite. To enable this, you must install
- \fBlcov\fP version 1.6 or above. Then specify
- .sp
- --enable-coverage
- .sp
- to the \fBconfigure\fP command and build PCRE in the usual way.
- .P
- Note that using \fBccache\fP (a caching C compiler) is incompatible with code
- coverage reporting. If you have configured \fBccache\fP to run automatically
- on your system, you must set the environment variable
- .sp
- CCACHE_DISABLE=1
- .sp
- before running \fBmake\fP to build PCRE, so that \fBccache\fP is not used.
- .P
- When --enable-coverage is used, the following addition targets are added to the
- \fIMakefile\fP:
- .sp
- make coverage
- .sp
- This creates a fresh coverage report for the PCRE test suite. It is equivalent
- to running "make coverage-reset", "make coverage-baseline", "make check", and
- then "make coverage-report".
- .sp
- make coverage-reset
- .sp
- This zeroes the coverage counters, but does nothing else.
- .sp
- make coverage-baseline
- .sp
- This captures baseline coverage information.
- .sp
- make coverage-report
- .sp
- This creates the coverage report.
- .sp
- make coverage-clean-report
- .sp
- This removes the generated coverage report without cleaning the coverage data
- itself.
- .sp
- make coverage-clean-data
- .sp
- This removes the captured coverage data without removing the coverage files
- created at compile time (*.gcno).
- .sp
- make coverage-clean
- .sp
- This cleans all coverage data including the generated coverage report. For more
- information about code coverage, see the \fBgcov\fP and \fBlcov\fP
- documentation.
- .
- .
- .SH "SEE ALSO"
- .rs
- .sp
- \fBpcreapi\fP(3), \fBpcre16\fP, \fBpcre32\fP, \fBpcre_config\fP(3).
- .
- .
- .SH AUTHOR
- .rs
- .sp
- .nf
- Philip Hazel
- University Computing Service
- Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
- .fi
- .
- .
- .SH REVISION
- .rs
- .sp
- .nf
- Last updated: 12 May 2013
- Copyright (c) 1997-2013 University of Cambridge.
- .fi
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