1<html>
2<head>
3<title>pcre2syntax specification</title>
4</head>
5<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#00005A" link="#0066FF" alink="#3399FF" vlink="#2222BB">
6<h1>pcre2syntax man page</h1>
7<p>
8Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE2 index page</a>.
9</p>
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<ul>
16<li><a name="TOC1" href="#SEC1">PCRE2 REGULAR EXPRESSION SYNTAX SUMMARY</a>
17<li><a name="TOC2" href="#SEC2">QUOTING</a>
18<li><a name="TOC3" href="#SEC3">ESCAPED CHARACTERS</a>
19<li><a name="TOC4" href="#SEC4">CHARACTER TYPES</a>
20<li><a name="TOC5" href="#SEC5">GENERAL CATEGORY PROPERTIES FOR \p and \P</a>
21<li><a name="TOC6" href="#SEC6">PCRE2 SPECIAL CATEGORY PROPERTIES FOR \p and \P</a>
22<li><a name="TOC7" href="#SEC7">SCRIPT NAMES FOR \p AND \P</a>
23<li><a name="TOC8" href="#SEC8">CHARACTER CLASSES</a>
24<li><a name="TOC9" href="#SEC9">QUANTIFIERS</a>
25<li><a name="TOC10" href="#SEC10">ANCHORS AND SIMPLE ASSERTIONS</a>
26<li><a name="TOC11" href="#SEC11">REPORTED MATCH POINT SETTING</a>
27<li><a name="TOC12" href="#SEC12">ALTERNATION</a>
28<li><a name="TOC13" href="#SEC13">CAPTURING</a>
29<li><a name="TOC14" href="#SEC14">ATOMIC GROUPS</a>
30<li><a name="TOC15" href="#SEC15">COMMENT</a>
31<li><a name="TOC16" href="#SEC16">OPTION SETTING</a>
32<li><a name="TOC17" href="#SEC17">NEWLINE CONVENTION</a>
33<li><a name="TOC18" href="#SEC18">WHAT \R MATCHES</a>
34<li><a name="TOC19" href="#SEC19">LOOKAHEAD AND LOOKBEHIND ASSERTIONS</a>
35<li><a name="TOC20" href="#SEC20">NON-ATOMIC LOOKAROUND ASSERTIONS</a>
36<li><a name="TOC21" href="#SEC21">SCRIPT RUNS</a>
37<li><a name="TOC22" href="#SEC22">BACKREFERENCES</a>
38<li><a name="TOC23" href="#SEC23">SUBROUTINE REFERENCES (POSSIBLY RECURSIVE)</a>
39<li><a name="TOC24" href="#SEC24">CONDITIONAL PATTERNS</a>
40<li><a name="TOC25" href="#SEC25">BACKTRACKING CONTROL</a>
41<li><a name="TOC26" href="#SEC26">CALLOUTS</a>
42<li><a name="TOC27" href="#SEC27">SEE ALSO</a>
43<li><a name="TOC28" href="#SEC28">AUTHOR</a>
44<li><a name="TOC29" href="#SEC29">REVISION</a>
45</ul>
46<br><a name="SEC1" href="#TOC1">PCRE2 REGULAR EXPRESSION SYNTAX SUMMARY</a><br>
47<P>
48The full syntax and semantics of the regular expressions that are supported by
49PCRE2 are described in the
50<a href="pcre2pattern.html"><b>pcre2pattern</b></a>
51documentation. This document contains a quick-reference summary of the syntax.
52</P>
53<br><a name="SEC2" href="#TOC1">QUOTING</a><br>
54<P>
55<pre>
56  \x         where x is non-alphanumeric is a literal x
57  \Q...\E    treat enclosed characters as literal
58</PRE>
59</P>
60<br><a name="SEC3" href="#TOC1">ESCAPED CHARACTERS</a><br>
61<P>
62This table applies to ASCII and Unicode environments. An unrecognized escape
63sequence causes an error.
64<pre>
65  \a         alarm, that is, the BEL character (hex 07)
66  \cx        "control-x", where x is any ASCII printing character
67  \e         escape (hex 1B)
68  \f         form feed (hex 0C)
69  \n         newline (hex 0A)
70  \r         carriage return (hex 0D)
71  \t         tab (hex 09)
72  \0dd       character with octal code 0dd
73  \ddd       character with octal code ddd, or backreference
74  \o{ddd..}  character with octal code ddd..
75  \N{U+hh..} character with Unicode code point hh.. (Unicode mode only)
76  \xhh       character with hex code hh
77  \x{hh..}   character with hex code hh..
78</pre>
79If PCRE2_ALT_BSUX or PCRE2_EXTRA_ALT_BSUX is set ("ALT_BSUX mode"), the
80following are also recognized:
81<pre>
82  \U         the character "U"
83  \uhhhh     character with hex code hhhh
84  \u{hh..}   character with hex code hh.. but only for EXTRA_ALT_BSUX
85</pre>
86When \x is not followed by {, from zero to two hexadecimal digits are read,
87but in ALT_BSUX mode \x must be followed by two hexadecimal digits to be
88recognized as a hexadecimal escape; otherwise it matches a literal "x".
89Likewise, if \u (in ALT_BSUX mode) is not followed by four hexadecimal digits
90or (in EXTRA_ALT_BSUX mode) a sequence of hex digits in curly brackets, it
91matches a literal "u".
92</P>
93<P>
94Note that \0dd is always an octal code. The treatment of backslash followed by
95a non-zero digit is complicated; for details see the section
96<a href="pcre2pattern.html#digitsafterbackslash">"Non-printing characters"</a>
97in the
98<a href="pcre2pattern.html"><b>pcre2pattern</b></a>
99documentation, where details of escape processing in EBCDIC environments are
100also given. \N{U+hh..} is synonymous with \x{hh..} in PCRE2 but is not
101supported in EBCDIC environments. Note that \N not followed by an opening
102curly bracket has a different meaning (see below).
103</P>
104<br><a name="SEC4" href="#TOC1">CHARACTER TYPES</a><br>
105<P>
106<pre>
107  .          any character except newline;
108               in dotall mode, any character whatsoever
109  \C         one code unit, even in UTF mode (best avoided)
110  \d         a decimal digit
111  \D         a character that is not a decimal digit
112  \h         a horizontal white space character
113  \H         a character that is not a horizontal white space character
114  \N         a character that is not a newline
115  \p{<i>xx</i>}     a character with the <i>xx</i> property
116  \P{<i>xx</i>}     a character without the <i>xx</i> property
117  \R         a newline sequence
118  \s         a white space character
119  \S         a character that is not a white space character
120  \v         a vertical white space character
121  \V         a character that is not a vertical white space character
122  \w         a "word" character
123  \W         a "non-word" character
124  \X         a Unicode extended grapheme cluster
125</pre>
126\C is dangerous because it may leave the current matching point in the middle
127of a UTF-8 or UTF-16 character. The application can lock out the use of \C by
128setting the PCRE2_NEVER_BACKSLASH_C option. It is also possible to build PCRE2
129with the use of \C permanently disabled.
130</P>
131<P>
132By default, \d, \s, and \w match only ASCII characters, even in UTF-8 mode
133or in the 16-bit and 32-bit libraries. However, if locale-specific matching is
134happening, \s and \w may also match characters with code points in the range
135128-255. If the PCRE2_UCP option is set, the behaviour of these escape
136sequences is changed to use Unicode properties and they match many more
137characters.
138</P>
139<br><a name="SEC5" href="#TOC1">GENERAL CATEGORY PROPERTIES FOR \p and \P</a><br>
140<P>
141<pre>
142  C          Other
143  Cc         Control
144  Cf         Format
145  Cn         Unassigned
146  Co         Private use
147  Cs         Surrogate
148
149  L          Letter
150  Ll         Lower case letter
151  Lm         Modifier letter
152  Lo         Other letter
153  Lt         Title case letter
154  Lu         Upper case letter
155  L&         Ll, Lu, or Lt
156
157  M          Mark
158  Mc         Spacing mark
159  Me         Enclosing mark
160  Mn         Non-spacing mark
161
162  N          Number
163  Nd         Decimal number
164  Nl         Letter number
165  No         Other number
166
167  P          Punctuation
168  Pc         Connector punctuation
169  Pd         Dash punctuation
170  Pe         Close punctuation
171  Pf         Final punctuation
172  Pi         Initial punctuation
173  Po         Other punctuation
174  Ps         Open punctuation
175
176  S          Symbol
177  Sc         Currency symbol
178  Sk         Modifier symbol
179  Sm         Mathematical symbol
180  So         Other symbol
181
182  Z          Separator
183  Zl         Line separator
184  Zp         Paragraph separator
185  Zs         Space separator
186</PRE>
187</P>
188<br><a name="SEC6" href="#TOC1">PCRE2 SPECIAL CATEGORY PROPERTIES FOR \p and \P</a><br>
189<P>
190<pre>
191  Xan        Alphanumeric: union of properties L and N
192  Xps        POSIX space: property Z or tab, NL, VT, FF, CR
193  Xsp        Perl space: property Z or tab, NL, VT, FF, CR
194  Xuc        Univerally-named character: one that can be
195               represented by a Universal Character Name
196  Xwd        Perl word: property Xan or underscore
197</pre>
198Perl and POSIX space are now the same. Perl added VT to its space character set
199at release 5.18.
200</P>
201<br><a name="SEC7" href="#TOC1">SCRIPT NAMES FOR \p AND \P</a><br>
202<P>
203Adlam,
204Ahom,
205Anatolian_Hieroglyphs,
206Arabic,
207Armenian,
208Avestan,
209Balinese,
210Bamum,
211Bassa_Vah,
212Batak,
213Bengali,
214Bhaiksuki,
215Bopomofo,
216Brahmi,
217Braille,
218Buginese,
219Buhid,
220Canadian_Aboriginal,
221Carian,
222Caucasian_Albanian,
223Chakma,
224Cham,
225Cherokee,
226Chorasmian,
227Common,
228Coptic,
229Cuneiform,
230Cypriot,
231Cyrillic,
232Deseret,
233Devanagari,
234Dives_Akuru,
235Dogra,
236Duployan,
237Egyptian_Hieroglyphs,
238Elbasan,
239Elymaic,
240Ethiopic,
241Georgian,
242Glagolitic,
243Gothic,
244Grantha,
245Greek,
246Gujarati,
247Gunjala_Gondi,
248Gurmukhi,
249Han,
250Hangul,
251Hanifi_Rohingya,
252Hanunoo,
253Hatran,
254Hebrew,
255Hiragana,
256Imperial_Aramaic,
257Inherited,
258Inscriptional_Pahlavi,
259Inscriptional_Parthian,
260Javanese,
261Kaithi,
262Kannada,
263Katakana,
264Kayah_Li,
265Kharoshthi,
266Khitan_Small_Script,
267Khmer,
268Khojki,
269Khudawadi,
270Lao,
271Latin,
272Lepcha,
273Limbu,
274Linear_A,
275Linear_B,
276Lisu,
277Lycian,
278Lydian,
279Mahajani,
280Makasar,
281Malayalam,
282Mandaic,
283Manichaean,
284Marchen,
285Masaram_Gondi,
286Medefaidrin,
287Meetei_Mayek,
288Mende_Kikakui,
289Meroitic_Cursive,
290Meroitic_Hieroglyphs,
291Miao,
292Modi,
293Mongolian,
294Mro,
295Multani,
296Myanmar,
297Nabataean,
298Nandinagari,
299New_Tai_Lue,
300Newa,
301Nko,
302Nushu,
303Nyakeng_Puachue_Hmong,
304Ogham,
305Ol_Chiki,
306Old_Hungarian,
307Old_Italic,
308Old_North_Arabian,
309Old_Permic,
310Old_Persian,
311Old_Sogdian,
312Old_South_Arabian,
313Old_Turkic,
314Oriya,
315Osage,
316Osmanya,
317Pahawh_Hmong,
318Palmyrene,
319Pau_Cin_Hau,
320Phags_Pa,
321Phoenician,
322Psalter_Pahlavi,
323Rejang,
324Runic,
325Samaritan,
326Saurashtra,
327Sharada,
328Shavian,
329Siddham,
330SignWriting,
331Sinhala,
332Sogdian,
333Sora_Sompeng,
334Soyombo,
335Sundanese,
336Syloti_Nagri,
337Syriac,
338Tagalog,
339Tagbanwa,
340Tai_Le,
341Tai_Tham,
342Tai_Viet,
343Takri,
344Tamil,
345Tangut,
346Telugu,
347Thaana,
348Thai,
349Tibetan,
350Tifinagh,
351Tirhuta,
352Ugaritic,
353Vai,
354Wancho,
355Warang_Citi,
356Yezidi,
357Yi,
358Zanabazar_Square.
359</P>
360<br><a name="SEC8" href="#TOC1">CHARACTER CLASSES</a><br>
361<P>
362<pre>
363  [...]       positive character class
364  [^...]      negative character class
365  [x-y]       range (can be used for hex characters)
366  [[:xxx:]]   positive POSIX named set
367  [[:^xxx:]]  negative POSIX named set
368
369  alnum       alphanumeric
370  alpha       alphabetic
371  ascii       0-127
372  blank       space or tab
373  cntrl       control character
374  digit       decimal digit
375  graph       printing, excluding space
376  lower       lower case letter
377  print       printing, including space
378  punct       printing, excluding alphanumeric
379  space       white space
380  upper       upper case letter
381  word        same as \w
382  xdigit      hexadecimal digit
383</pre>
384In PCRE2, POSIX character set names recognize only ASCII characters by default,
385but some of them use Unicode properties if PCRE2_UCP is set. You can use
386\Q...\E inside a character class.
387</P>
388<br><a name="SEC9" href="#TOC1">QUANTIFIERS</a><br>
389<P>
390<pre>
391  ?           0 or 1, greedy
392  ?+          0 or 1, possessive
393  ??          0 or 1, lazy
394  *           0 or more, greedy
395  *+          0 or more, possessive
396  *?          0 or more, lazy
397  +           1 or more, greedy
398  ++          1 or more, possessive
399  +?          1 or more, lazy
400  {n}         exactly n
401  {n,m}       at least n, no more than m, greedy
402  {n,m}+      at least n, no more than m, possessive
403  {n,m}?      at least n, no more than m, lazy
404  {n,}        n or more, greedy
405  {n,}+       n or more, possessive
406  {n,}?       n or more, lazy
407</PRE>
408</P>
409<br><a name="SEC10" href="#TOC1">ANCHORS AND SIMPLE ASSERTIONS</a><br>
410<P>
411<pre>
412  \b          word boundary
413  \B          not a word boundary
414  ^           start of subject
415                also after an internal newline in multiline mode
416                (after any newline if PCRE2_ALT_CIRCUMFLEX is set)
417  \A          start of subject
418  $           end of subject
419                also before newline at end of subject
420                also before internal newline in multiline mode
421  \Z          end of subject
422                also before newline at end of subject
423  \z          end of subject
424  \G          first matching position in subject
425</PRE>
426</P>
427<br><a name="SEC11" href="#TOC1">REPORTED MATCH POINT SETTING</a><br>
428<P>
429<pre>
430  \K          set reported start of match
431</pre>
432\K is honoured in positive assertions, but ignored in negative ones.
433</P>
434<br><a name="SEC12" href="#TOC1">ALTERNATION</a><br>
435<P>
436<pre>
437  expr|expr|expr...
438</PRE>
439</P>
440<br><a name="SEC13" href="#TOC1">CAPTURING</a><br>
441<P>
442<pre>
443  (...)           capture group
444  (?&#60;name&#62;...)    named capture group (Perl)
445  (?'name'...)    named capture group (Perl)
446  (?P&#60;name&#62;...)   named capture group (Python)
447  (?:...)         non-capture group
448  (?|...)         non-capture group; reset group numbers for
449                   capture groups in each alternative
450</pre>
451In non-UTF modes, names may contain underscores and ASCII letters and digits;
452in UTF modes, any Unicode letters and Unicode decimal digits are permitted. In
453both cases, a name must not start with a digit.
454</P>
455<br><a name="SEC14" href="#TOC1">ATOMIC GROUPS</a><br>
456<P>
457<pre>
458  (?&#62;...)         atomic non-capture group
459  (*atomic:...)   atomic non-capture group
460</PRE>
461</P>
462<br><a name="SEC15" href="#TOC1">COMMENT</a><br>
463<P>
464<pre>
465  (?#....)        comment (not nestable)
466</PRE>
467</P>
468<br><a name="SEC16" href="#TOC1">OPTION SETTING</a><br>
469<P>
470Changes of these options within a group are automatically cancelled at the end
471of the group.
472<pre>
473  (?i)            caseless
474  (?J)            allow duplicate named groups
475  (?m)            multiline
476  (?n)            no auto capture
477  (?s)            single line (dotall)
478  (?U)            default ungreedy (lazy)
479  (?x)            extended: ignore white space except in classes
480  (?xx)           as (?x) but also ignore space and tab in classes
481  (?-...)         unset option(s)
482  (?^)            unset imnsx options
483</pre>
484Unsetting x or xx unsets both. Several options may be set at once, and a
485mixture of setting and unsetting such as (?i-x) is allowed, but there may be
486only one hyphen. Setting (but no unsetting) is allowed after (?^ for example
487(?^in). An option setting may appear at the start of a non-capture group, for
488example (?i:...).
489</P>
490<P>
491The following are recognized only at the very start of a pattern or after one
492of the newline or \R options with similar syntax. More than one of them may
493appear. For the first three, d is a decimal number.
494<pre>
495  (*LIMIT_DEPTH=d) set the backtracking limit to d
496  (*LIMIT_HEAP=d)  set the heap size limit to d * 1024 bytes
497  (*LIMIT_MATCH=d) set the match limit to d
498  (*NOTEMPTY)      set PCRE2_NOTEMPTY when matching
499  (*NOTEMPTY_ATSTART) set PCRE2_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART when matching
500  (*NO_AUTO_POSSESS) no auto-possessification (PCRE2_NO_AUTO_POSSESS)
501  (*NO_DOTSTAR_ANCHOR) no .* anchoring (PCRE2_NO_DOTSTAR_ANCHOR)
502  (*NO_JIT)       disable JIT optimization
503  (*NO_START_OPT) no start-match optimization (PCRE2_NO_START_OPTIMIZE)
504  (*UTF)          set appropriate UTF mode for the library in use
505  (*UCP)          set PCRE2_UCP (use Unicode properties for \d etc)
506</pre>
507Note that LIMIT_DEPTH, LIMIT_HEAP, and LIMIT_MATCH can only reduce the value of
508the limits set by the caller of <b>pcre2_match()</b> or <b>pcre2_dfa_match()</b>,
509not increase them. LIMIT_RECURSION is an obsolete synonym for LIMIT_DEPTH. The
510application can lock out the use of (*UTF) and (*UCP) by setting the
511PCRE2_NEVER_UTF or PCRE2_NEVER_UCP options, respectively, at compile time.
512</P>
513<br><a name="SEC17" href="#TOC1">NEWLINE CONVENTION</a><br>
514<P>
515These are recognized only at the very start of the pattern or after option
516settings with a similar syntax.
517<pre>
518  (*CR)           carriage return only
519  (*LF)           linefeed only
520  (*CRLF)         carriage return followed by linefeed
521  (*ANYCRLF)      all three of the above
522  (*ANY)          any Unicode newline sequence
523  (*NUL)          the NUL character (binary zero)
524</PRE>
525</P>
526<br><a name="SEC18" href="#TOC1">WHAT \R MATCHES</a><br>
527<P>
528These are recognized only at the very start of the pattern or after option
529setting with a similar syntax.
530<pre>
531  (*BSR_ANYCRLF)  CR, LF, or CRLF
532  (*BSR_UNICODE)  any Unicode newline sequence
533</PRE>
534</P>
535<br><a name="SEC19" href="#TOC1">LOOKAHEAD AND LOOKBEHIND ASSERTIONS</a><br>
536<P>
537<pre>
538  (?=...)                     )
539  (*pla:...)                  ) positive lookahead
540  (*positive_lookahead:...)   )
541
542  (?!...)                     )
543  (*nla:...)                  ) negative lookahead
544  (*negative_lookahead:...)   )
545
546  (?&#60;=...)                    )
547  (*plb:...)                  ) positive lookbehind
548  (*positive_lookbehind:...)  )
549
550  (?&#60;!...)                    )
551  (*nlb:...)                  ) negative lookbehind
552  (*negative_lookbehind:...)  )
553</pre>
554Each top-level branch of a lookbehind must be of a fixed length.
555</P>
556<br><a name="SEC20" href="#TOC1">NON-ATOMIC LOOKAROUND ASSERTIONS</a><br>
557<P>
558These assertions are specific to PCRE2 and are not Perl-compatible.
559<pre>
560  (?*...)                                )
561  (*napla:...)                           ) synonyms
562  (*non_atomic_positive_lookahead:...)   )
563
564  (?&#60;*...)                               )
565  (*naplb:...)                           ) synonyms
566  (*non_atomic_positive_lookbehind:...)  )
567</PRE>
568</P>
569<br><a name="SEC21" href="#TOC1">SCRIPT RUNS</a><br>
570<P>
571<pre>
572  (*script_run:...)           ) script run, can be backtracked into
573  (*sr:...)                   )
574
575  (*atomic_script_run:...)    ) atomic script run
576  (*asr:...)                  )
577</PRE>
578</P>
579<br><a name="SEC22" href="#TOC1">BACKREFERENCES</a><br>
580<P>
581<pre>
582  \n              reference by number (can be ambiguous)
583  \gn             reference by number
584  \g{n}           reference by number
585  \g+n            relative reference by number (PCRE2 extension)
586  \g-n            relative reference by number
587  \g{+n}          relative reference by number (PCRE2 extension)
588  \g{-n}          relative reference by number
589  \k&#60;name&#62;        reference by name (Perl)
590  \k'name'        reference by name (Perl)
591  \g{name}        reference by name (Perl)
592  \k{name}        reference by name (.NET)
593  (?P=name)       reference by name (Python)
594</PRE>
595</P>
596<br><a name="SEC23" href="#TOC1">SUBROUTINE REFERENCES (POSSIBLY RECURSIVE)</a><br>
597<P>
598<pre>
599  (?R)            recurse whole pattern
600  (?n)            call subroutine by absolute number
601  (?+n)           call subroutine by relative number
602  (?-n)           call subroutine by relative number
603  (?&name)        call subroutine by name (Perl)
604  (?P&#62;name)       call subroutine by name (Python)
605  \g&#60;name&#62;        call subroutine by name (Oniguruma)
606  \g'name'        call subroutine by name (Oniguruma)
607  \g&#60;n&#62;           call subroutine by absolute number (Oniguruma)
608  \g'n'           call subroutine by absolute number (Oniguruma)
609  \g&#60;+n&#62;          call subroutine by relative number (PCRE2 extension)
610  \g'+n'          call subroutine by relative number (PCRE2 extension)
611  \g&#60;-n&#62;          call subroutine by relative number (PCRE2 extension)
612  \g'-n'          call subroutine by relative number (PCRE2 extension)
613</PRE>
614</P>
615<br><a name="SEC24" href="#TOC1">CONDITIONAL PATTERNS</a><br>
616<P>
617<pre>
618  (?(condition)yes-pattern)
619  (?(condition)yes-pattern|no-pattern)
620
621  (?(n)               absolute reference condition
622  (?(+n)              relative reference condition
623  (?(-n)              relative reference condition
624  (?(&#60;name&#62;)          named reference condition (Perl)
625  (?('name')          named reference condition (Perl)
626  (?(name)            named reference condition (PCRE2, deprecated)
627  (?(R)               overall recursion condition
628  (?(Rn)              specific numbered group recursion condition
629  (?(R&name)          specific named group recursion condition
630  (?(DEFINE)          define groups for reference
631  (?(VERSION[&#62;]=n.m)  test PCRE2 version
632  (?(assert)          assertion condition
633</pre>
634Note the ambiguity of (?(R) and (?(Rn) which might be named reference
635conditions or recursion tests. Such a condition is interpreted as a reference
636condition if the relevant named group exists.
637</P>
638<br><a name="SEC25" href="#TOC1">BACKTRACKING CONTROL</a><br>
639<P>
640All backtracking control verbs may be in the form (*VERB:NAME). For (*MARK) the
641name is mandatory, for the others it is optional. (*SKIP) changes its behaviour
642if :NAME is present. The others just set a name for passing back to the caller,
643but this is not a name that (*SKIP) can see. The following act immediately they
644are reached:
645<pre>
646  (*ACCEPT)       force successful match
647  (*FAIL)         force backtrack; synonym (*F)
648  (*MARK:NAME)    set name to be passed back; synonym (*:NAME)
649</pre>
650The following act only when a subsequent match failure causes a backtrack to
651reach them. They all force a match failure, but they differ in what happens
652afterwards. Those that advance the start-of-match point do so only if the
653pattern is not anchored.
654<pre>
655  (*COMMIT)       overall failure, no advance of starting point
656  (*PRUNE)        advance to next starting character
657  (*SKIP)         advance to current matching position
658  (*SKIP:NAME)    advance to position corresponding to an earlier
659                  (*MARK:NAME); if not found, the (*SKIP) is ignored
660  (*THEN)         local failure, backtrack to next alternation
661</pre>
662The effect of one of these verbs in a group called as a subroutine is confined
663to the subroutine call.
664</P>
665<br><a name="SEC26" href="#TOC1">CALLOUTS</a><br>
666<P>
667<pre>
668  (?C)            callout (assumed number 0)
669  (?Cn)           callout with numerical data n
670  (?C"text")      callout with string data
671</pre>
672The allowed string delimiters are ` ' " ^ % # $ (which are the same for the
673start and the end), and the starting delimiter { matched with the ending
674delimiter }. To encode the ending delimiter within the string, double it.
675</P>
676<br><a name="SEC27" href="#TOC1">SEE ALSO</a><br>
677<P>
678<b>pcre2pattern</b>(3), <b>pcre2api</b>(3), <b>pcre2callout</b>(3),
679<b>pcre2matching</b>(3), <b>pcre2</b>(3).
680</P>
681<br><a name="SEC28" href="#TOC1">AUTHOR</a><br>
682<P>
683Philip Hazel
684<br>
685University Computing Service
686<br>
687Cambridge, England.
688<br>
689</P>
690<br><a name="SEC29" href="#TOC1">REVISION</a><br>
691<P>
692Last updated: 28 December 2019
693<br>
694Copyright &copy; 1997-2019 University of Cambridge.
695<br>
696<p>
697Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE2 index page</a>.
698</p>
699