# pcre_exec man page

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SYNOPSIS

#include <pcre.h>

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

DESCRIPTION

This function matches a compiled regular expression against a given subject string, using a matching algorithm that is similar to Perl's. It returns offsets to captured substrings. Its arguments are:

      code         Points to the compiled pattern
      extra        Points to an associated pcre_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)

The options are:

      PCRE_ANCHORED      Match only at the first position
      PCRE_NEWLINE_CR    Set CR as the newline sequence
      PCRE_NEWLINE_CRLF  Set CRLF as the newline sequence
      PCRE_NEWLINE_LF    Set LF as the newline sequence
      PCRE_NOTBOL        Subject is not the beginning of a line
      PCRE_NOTEOL        Subject is not the end of a line
      PCRE_NOTEMPTY      An empty string is not a valid match
      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 match

There are restrictions on what may appear in a pattern when partial matching is requested.

A pcre_extra structure contains the following fields:

      flags        Bits indicating which fields are set
      study_data   Opaque data from pcre_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

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

There is a complete description of the PCRE native API in the pcreapi page and a description of the POSIX API in the pcreposix page.

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