PCRE_EXEC(3)

NAME
PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions

SYNOPSIS

#include <pcre.h>

int pcre_jit_exec(const pcre *code, const pcre_extra *extra,
     const char *subject, int length, int startoffset,
     int options, int *ovector, int ovecsize,
     pcre_jit_stack *jstack);

int pcre16_jit_exec(const pcre16 *code, const pcre16_extra *extra,
     PCRE_SPTR16 subject, int length, int startoffset,
     int options, int *ovector, int ovecsize,
     pcre_jit_stack *jstack);

int pcre32_jit_exec(const pcre32 *code, const pcre32_extra *extra,
     PCRE_SPTR32 subject, int length, int startoffset,
     int options, int *ovector, int ovecsize,
     pcre_jit_stack *jstack);

DESCRIPTION

This function matches a compiled regular expression that has been successfully studied with one of the JIT options against a given subject string, using a matching algorithm that is similar to Perl's. It is a "fast path" interface to JIT, and it bypasses some of the sanity checks that pcre_exec() applies. It returns offsets to captured substrings. Its arguments are:

  code Points to the compiled pattern
  extra Points to an associated pcre[16|32]_extra structure,
                 or is NULL
  subject Points to the subject string
  length Length of the subject string, in bytes
  startoffset Offset in bytes in the subject at which to
                 start matching
  options Option bits
  ovector Points to a vector of ints for result offsets
  ovecsize Number of elements in the vector (a multiple of 3)
  jstack Pointer to a JIT stack

The allowed options are:

  PCRE_NOTBOL Subject string is not the beginning of a line
  PCRE_NOTEOL Subject string is not the end of a line
  PCRE_NOTEMPTY An empty string is not a valid match
  PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART An empty string at the start of the subject
                        is not a valid match
  PCRE_NO_UTF16_CHECK Do not check the subject for UTF-16
                        validity (only relevant if PCRE_UTF16
                        was set at compile time)
  PCRE_NO_UTF32_CHECK Do not check the subject for UTF-32
                        validity (only relevant if PCRE_UTF32
                        was set at compile time)
  PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK Do not check the subject for UTF-8
                        validity (only relevant if PCRE_UTF8
                        was set at compile time)
  PCRE_PARTIAL ) Return PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL for a partial
  PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT ) match if no full matches are found
  PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD Return PCRE_ERROR_PARTIAL for a partial match
                        if that is found before a full match

However, the PCRE_NO_UTF[8|16|32]_CHECK options have no effect, as this check is never applied. For details of partial matching, see the pcrepartial page. A pcre_extra structure contains the following fields:

  flags Bits indicating which fields are set
  study_data Opaque data from pcre[16|32]_study()
  match_limit Limit on internal resource use
  match_limit_recursion Limit on internal recursion depth
  callout_data Opaque data passed back to callouts
  tables Points to character tables or is NULL
  mark For passing back a *MARK pointer
  executable_jit Opaque data from JIT compilation

The flag bits are PCRE_EXTRA_STUDY_DATA, PCRE_EXTRA_MATCH_LIMIT, PCRE_EXTRA_MATCH_LIMIT_RECURSION, PCRE_EXTRA_CALLOUT_DATA, PCRE_EXTRA_TABLES, PCRE_EXTRA_MARK and PCRE_EXTRA_EXECUTABLE_JIT.

There is a complete description of the PCRE native API in the pcreapi page and a description of the JIT API in the pcrejit page.