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      3 <title>pcre2_match specification</title>
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      6 <h1>pcre2_match man page</h1>
      7 <p>
      8 Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE2 index page</a>.
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     10 <p>
     11 This page is part of the PCRE2 HTML documentation. It was generated
     12 automatically from the original man page. If there is any nonsense in it,
     13 please consult the man page, in case the conversion went wrong.
     14 <br>
     15 <br><b>
     16 SYNOPSIS
     17 </b><br>
     18 <P>
     19 <b>#include &#60;pcre2.h&#62;</b>
     20 </P>
     21 <P>
     22 <b>int pcre2_match(const pcre2_code *<i>code</i>, PCRE2_SPTR <i>subject</i>,</b>
     23 <b>  PCRE2_SIZE <i>length</i>, PCRE2_SIZE <i>startoffset</i>,</b>
     24 <b>  uint32_t <i>options</i>, pcre2_match_data *<i>match_data</i>,</b>
     25 <b>  pcre2_match_context *<i>mcontext</i>);</b>
     26 </P>
     27 <br><b>
     28 DESCRIPTION
     29 </b><br>
     30 <P>
     31 This function matches a compiled regular expression against a given subject
     32 string, using a matching algorithm that is similar to Perl's. It returns
     33 offsets to what it has matched and to captured substrings via the
     34 <b>match_data</b> block, which can be processed by functions with names that
     35 start with <b>pcre2_get_ovector_...()</b> or <b>pcre2_substring_...()</b>. The
     36 return from <b>pcre2_match()</b> is one more than the highest numbered capturing
     37 pair that has been set (for example, 1 if there are no captures), zero if the
     38 vector of offsets is too small, or a negative error code for no match and other
     39 errors. The function arguments are:
     40 <pre>
     41   <i>code</i>         Points to the compiled pattern
     42   <i>subject</i>      Points to the subject string
     43   <i>length</i>       Length of the subject string
     44   <i>startoffset</i>  Offset in the subject at which to start matching
     45   <i>options</i>      Option bits
     46   <i>match_data</i>   Points to a match data block, for results
     47   <i>mcontext</i>     Points to a match context, or is NULL
     48 </pre>
     49 A match context is needed only if you want to:
     50 <pre>
     51   Set up a callout function
     52   Set a matching offset limit
     53   Change the heap memory limit
     54   Change the backtracking match limit
     55   Change the backtracking depth limit
     56   Set custom memory management specifically for the match
     57 </pre>
     58 The <i>length</i> and <i>startoffset</i> values are code
     59 units, not characters. The length may be given as PCRE2_ZERO_TERMINATE for a
     60 subject that is terminated by a binary zero code unit. The options are:
     61 <pre>
     62   PCRE2_ANCHORED          Match only at the first position
     63   PCRE2_ENDANCHORED       Pattern can match only at end of subject
     64   PCRE2_NOTBOL            Subject string is not the beginning of a line
     65   PCRE2_NOTEOL            Subject string is not the end of a line
     66   PCRE2_NOTEMPTY          An empty string is not a valid match
     67   PCRE2_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART  An empty string at the start of the subject is not a valid match
     68   PCRE2_NO_JIT            Do not use JIT matching
     69   PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK      Do not check the subject for UTF validity (only relevant if PCRE2_UTF
     70                            was set at compile time)
     71   PCRE2_PARTIAL_HARD      Return PCRE2_ERROR_PARTIAL for a partial match even if there is a full match
     72   PCRE2_PARTIAL_SOFT      Return PCRE2_ERROR_PARTIAL for a partial match if no full matches are found
     73 </pre>
     74 For details of partial matching, see the
     75 <a href="pcre2partial.html"><b>pcre2partial</b></a>
     76 page. There is a complete description of the PCRE2 native API in the
     77 <a href="pcre2api.html"><b>pcre2api</b></a>
     78 page and a description of the POSIX API in the
     79 <a href="pcre2posix.html"><b>pcre2posix</b></a>
     80 page.
     81 <p>
     82 Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE2 index page</a>.
     83 </p>
     84