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2<head>
3<title>pcre2_match specification</title>
4</head>
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6<h1>pcre2_match man page</h1>
7<p>
8Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE2 index page</a>.
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10<p>
11This page is part of the PCRE2 HTML documentation. It was generated
12automatically from the original man page. If there is any nonsense in it,
13please consult the man page, in case the conversion went wrong.
14<br>
15<br><b>
16SYNOPSIS
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>
28DESCRIPTION
29</b><br>
30<P>
31This function matches a compiled regular expression against a given subject
32string, using a matching algorithm that is similar to Perl's. It returns
33offsets 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
35start with <b>pcre2_get_ovector_...()</b> or <b>pcre2_substring_...()</b>. The
36return from <b>pcre2_match()</b> is one more than the highest numbered capturing
37pair that has been set (for example, 1 if there are no captures), zero if the
38vector of offsets is too small, or a negative error code for no match and other
39errors. 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>
49A 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>
58The <i>length</i> and <i>startoffset</i> values are code
59units, not characters. The length may be given as PCRE2_ZERO_TERMINATE for a
60subject 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>
74For details of partial matching, see the
75<a href="pcre2partial.html"><b>pcre2partial</b></a>
76page. There is a complete description of the PCRE2 native API in the
77<a href="pcre2api.html"><b>pcre2api</b></a>
78page and a description of the POSIX API in the
79<a href="pcre2posix.html"><b>pcre2posix</b></a>
80page.
81<p>
82Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE2 index page</a>.
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84