PCRE2BUILD(3) Introduction to Library Functions PCRE2BUILD(3)

NAME

PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

BUILDING PCRE2
PCRE2 is distributed with a configure script that can be used to
build the library in Unix-like environments using the applications
known as Autotools. Also in the distribution are files to support
building using CMake instead of configure. The text file README
contains general information about building with Autotools (some of
which is repeated below), and also has some comments about building
on various operating systems. The files in the vms directory support
building under OpenVMS. There is a lot more information about
building PCRE2 without using Autotools (including information about
using CMake and building "by hand") in the text file called NON-
AUTOTOOLS-BUILD. You should consult this file as well as the README
file if you are building in a non-Unix-like environment.

PCRE2 BUILD-TIME OPTIONS
The rest of this document describes the optional features of PCRE2
that can be selected when the library is compiled. It assumes use of
the configure script, where the optional features are selected or
deselected by providing options to configure before running the make
command. However, the same options can be selected in both Unix-like
and non-Unix-like environments if you are using CMake instead of
configure to build PCRE2.

If you are not using Autotools or CMake, option selection can be done
by editing the config.h file, or by passing parameter settings to the
compiler, as described in NON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD.

The complete list of options for configure (which includes the
standard ones such as the selection of the installation directory)
can be obtained by running

./configure --help

The following sections include descriptions of "on/off" options whose
names begin with --enable or --disable. Because of the way that
configure works, --enable and --disable always come in pairs, so the
complementary option always exists as well, but as it specifies the
default, it is not described. Options that specify values have names
that start with --with. At the end of a configure run, a summary of
the configuration is output.

BUILDING 8-BIT, 16-BIT AND 32-BIT LIBRARIES
By default, a library called libpcre2-8 is built, containing
functions that take string arguments contained in arrays of bytes,
interpreted either as single-byte characters, or UTF-8 strings. You
can also build two other libraries, called libpcre2-16 and
libpcre2-32, which process strings that are contained in arrays of
16-bit and 32-bit code units, respectively. These can be interpreted
either as single-unit characters or UTF-16/UTF-32 strings. To build
these additional libraries, add one or both of the following to the
configure command:

--enable-pcre2-16
--enable-pcre2-32

If you do not want the 8-bit library, add

--disable-pcre2-8

as well. At least one of the three libraries must be built. Note that
the POSIX wrapper is for the 8-bit library only, and that pcre2grep
is an 8-bit program. Neither of these are built if you select only
the 16-bit or 32-bit libraries.

BUILDING SHARED AND STATIC LIBRARIES

The Autotools PCRE2 building process uses libtool to build both
shared and static libraries by default. You can suppress an unwanted
library by adding one of

--disable-shared
--disable-static

to the configure command. Setting --disable-shared ensures that PCRE2
libraries are built as static libraries. The binaries that are then
created as part of the build process (for example, pcre2test and
pcre2grep) are linked statically with one or more PCRE2 libraries,
but may also be dynamically linked with other libraries such as libc.
If you want these binaries to be fully statically linked, you can set
LDFLAGS like this:

LDFLAGS=--static ./configure --disable-shared

Note the two hyphens in --static. Of course, this works only if
static versions of all the relevant libraries are available for
linking.

UNICODE AND UTF SUPPORT

By default, PCRE2 is built with support for Unicode and UTF character
strings. To build it without Unicode support, add

--disable-unicode

to the configure command. This setting applies to all three
libraries. It is not possible to build one library with Unicode
support and another without in the same configuration.

Of itself, Unicode support does not make PCRE2 treat strings as
UTF-8, UTF-16 or UTF-32. To do that, applications that use the
library can set the PCRE2_UTF option when they call pcre2_compile()
to compile a pattern. Alternatively, patterns may be started with
(*UTF) unless the application has locked this out by setting
PCRE2_NEVER_UTF.

UTF support allows the libraries to process character code points up
to 0x10ffff in the strings that they handle. Unicode support also
gives access to the Unicode properties of characters, using pattern
escapes such as \P, \p, and \X. Only the general category properties
such as Lu and Nd, script names, and some bi-directional properties
are supported. Details are given in the pcre2pattern documentation.

Pattern escapes such as \d and \w do not by default make use of
Unicode properties. The application can request that they do by
setting the PCRE2_UCP option. Unless the application has set
PCRE2_NEVER_UCP, a pattern may also request this by starting with
(*UCP).

DISABLING THE USE OF \C
The \C escape sequence, which matches a single code unit, even in a
UTF mode, can cause unpredictable behaviour because it may leave the
current matching point in the middle of a multi-code-unit character.
The application can lock it out by setting the
PCRE2_NEVER_BACKSLASH_C option when calling pcre2_compile(). There is
also a build-time option

--enable-never-backslash-C

(note the upper case C) which locks out the use of \C entirely.

JUST-IN-TIME COMPILER SUPPORT
Just-in-time (JIT) compiler support is included in the build by
specifying

--enable-jit

This support is available only for certain hardware architectures. If
this option is set for an unsupported architecture, a building error
occurs. If in doubt, use

--enable-jit=auto

which enables JIT only if the current hardware is supported. You can
check if JIT is enabled in the configuration summary that is output
at the end of a configure run. If you are enabling JIT under SELinux
you may also want to add

--enable-jit-sealloc

which enables the use of an execmem allocator in JIT that is
compatible with SELinux. This has no effect if JIT is not enabled.
See the pcre2jit documentation for a discussion of JIT usage. When
JIT support is enabled, pcre2grep automatically makes use of it,
unless you add

--disable-pcre2grep-jit

to the configure command.

NEWLINE RECOGNITION

By default, PCRE2 interprets the linefeed (LF) character as
indicating the end of a line. This is the normal newline character on
Unix-like systems. You can compile PCRE2 to use carriage return (CR)
instead, by adding

--enable-newline-is-cr

to the configure command. There is also an --enable-newline-is-lf
option, which explicitly specifies linefeed as the newline character.

Alternatively, you can specify that line endings are to be indicated
by the two-character sequence CRLF (CR immediately followed by LF).
If you want this, add

--enable-newline-is-crlf

to the configure command. There is a fourth option, specified by

--enable-newline-is-anycrlf

which causes PCRE2 to recognize any of the three sequences CR, LF, or
CRLF as indicating a line ending. A fifth option, specified by

--enable-newline-is-any

causes PCRE2 to recognize any Unicode newline sequence. The Unicode
newline sequences are the three just mentioned, plus the single
characters VT (vertical tab, U+000B), FF (form feed, U+000C), NEL
(next line, U+0085), LS (line separator, U+2028), and PS (paragraph
separator, U+2029). The final option is

--enable-newline-is-nul

which causes NUL (binary zero) to be set as the default line-ending
character.

Whatever default line ending convention is selected when PCRE2 is
built can be overridden by applications that use the library. At
build time it is recommended to use the standard for your operating
system.

WHAT \R MATCHES
By default, the sequence \R in a pattern matches any Unicode newline
sequence, independently of what has been selected as the line ending
sequence. If you specify

--enable-bsr-anycrlf

the default is changed so that \R matches only CR, LF, or CRLF.
Whatever is selected when PCRE2 is built can be overridden by
applications that use the library.

HANDLING VERY LARGE PATTERNS

Within a compiled pattern, offset values are used to point from one
part to another (for example, from an opening parenthesis to an
alternation metacharacter). By default, in the 8-bit and 16-bit
libraries, two-byte values are used for these offsets, leading to a
maximum size for a compiled pattern of around 64 thousand code units.
This is sufficient to handle all but the most gigantic patterns.
Nevertheless, some people do want to process truly enormous patterns,
so it is possible to compile PCRE2 to use three-byte or four-byte
offsets by adding a setting such as

--with-link-size=3

to the configure command. The value given must be 2, 3, or 4. For the
16-bit library, a value of 3 is rounded up to 4. In these libraries,
using longer offsets slows down the operation of PCRE2 because it has
to load additional data when handling them. For the 32-bit library
the value is always 4 and cannot be overridden; the value of --with-
link-size is ignored.

LIMITING PCRE2 RESOURCE USAGE
The pcre2_match() function increments a counter each time it goes
round its main loop. Putting a limit on this counter controls the
amount of computing resource used by a single call to pcre2_match().
The limit can be changed at run time, as described in the pcre2api
documentation. The default is 10 million, but this can be changed by
adding a setting such as

--with-match-limit=500000

to the configure command. This setting also applies to the
pcre2_dfa_match() matching function, and to JIT matching (though the
counting is done differently).

The pcre2_match() function uses heap memory to record backtracking
points. The more nested backtracking points there are (that is, the
deeper the search tree), the more memory is needed. There is an upper
limit, specified in kibibytes (units of 1024 bytes). This limit can
be changed at run time, as described in the pcre2api documentation.
The default limit (in effect unlimited) is 20 million. You can change
this by a setting such as

--with-heap-limit=500

which limits the amount of heap to 500 KiB. This limit applies only
to interpretive matching in pcre2_match() and pcre2_dfa_match(),
which may also use the heap for internal workspace when processing
complicated patterns. This limit does not apply when JIT (which has
its own memory arrangements) is used.

You can also explicitly limit the depth of nested backtracking in the
pcre2_match() interpreter. This limit defaults to the value that is
set for --with-match-limit. You can set a lower default limit by
adding, for example,

--with-match-limit-depth=10000

to the configure command. This value can be overridden at run time.
This depth limit indirectly limits the amount of heap memory that is
used, but because the size of each backtracking "frame" depends on
the number of capturing parentheses in a pattern, the amount of heap
that is used before the limit is reached varies from pattern to
pattern. This limit was more useful in versions before 10.30, where
function recursion was used for backtracking.

As well as applying to pcre2_match(), the depth limit also controls
the depth of recursive function calls in pcre2_dfa_match(). These are
used for lookaround assertions, atomic groups, and recursion within
patterns. The limit does not apply to JIT matching.

LIMITING VARIABLE-LENGTH LOOKBEHIND ASSERTIONS
Lookbehind assertions in which one or more branches can match a
variable number of characters are supported only if there is a
maximum matching length for each top-level branch. There is a limit
to this maximum that defaults to 255 characters. You can alter this
default by a setting such as

--with-max-varlookbehind=100

The limit can be changed at runtime by calling
pcre2_set_max_varlookbehind(). Lookbehind assertions in which every
branch matches a fixed number of characters (not necessarily all the
same) are not constrained by this limit.

CREATING CHARACTER TABLES AT BUILD TIME

PCRE2 uses fixed tables for processing characters whose code points
are less than 256. By default, PCRE2 is built with a set of tables
that are distributed in the file src/pcre2_chartables.c.dist. These
tables are for ASCII codes only. If you add

--enable-rebuild-chartables

to the configure command, the distributed tables are no longer used.
Instead, a program called pcre2_dftables is compiled and run. This
outputs the source for new set of tables, created in the default
locale of your C run-time system. This method of replacing the tables
does not work if you are cross compiling, because pcre2_dftables
needs to be run on the local host and therefore not compiled with the
cross compiler.

If you need to create alternative tables when cross compiling, you
will have to do so "by hand". There may also be other reasons for
creating tables manually. To cause pcre2_dftables to be built on the
local host, run a normal compiling command, and then run the program
with the output file as its argument, for example:

cc src/pcre2_dftables.c -o pcre2_dftables
./pcre2_dftables src/pcre2_chartables.c

This builds the tables in the default locale of the local host. If
you want to specify a locale, you must use the -L option:

LC_ALL=fr_FR ./pcre2_dftables -L src/pcre2_chartables.c

You can also specify -b (with or without -L). This causes the tables
to be written in binary instead of as source code. A set of binary
tables can be loaded into memory by an application and passed to
pcre2_compile() in the same way as tables created by calling
pcre2_maketables(). The tables are just a string of bytes,
independent of hardware characteristics such as endianness. This
means they can be bundled with an application that runs in different
environments, to ensure consistent behaviour.

USING EBCDIC CODE

PCRE2 assumes by default that it will run in an environment where the
character code is ASCII or Unicode, which is a superset of ASCII.
This is the case for most computer operating systems. PCRE2 can,
however, be compiled to run in an 8-bit EBCDIC environment by adding

--enable-ebcdic --disable-unicode

to the configure command. This setting implies --enable-rebuild-
chartables. You should only use it if you know that you are in an
EBCDIC environment (for example, an IBM mainframe operating system).

It is not possible to support both EBCDIC and UTF-8 codes in the same
version of the library. Consequently, --enable-unicode and --enable-
ebcdic are mutually exclusive.

The EBCDIC character that corresponds to an ASCII LF is assumed to
have the value 0x15 by default. However, in some EBCDIC environments,
0x25 is used. In such an environment you should use

--enable-ebcdic-nl25

as well as, or instead of, --enable-ebcdic. The EBCDIC character for
CR has the same value as in ASCII, namely, 0x0d. Whichever of 0x15
and 0x25 is not chosen as LF is made to correspond to the Unicode NEL
character (which, in Unicode, is 0x85).

The options that select newline behaviour, such as --enable-newline-
is-cr, and equivalent run-time options, refer to these character
values in an EBCDIC environment.

PCRE2GREP SUPPORT FOR EXTERNAL SCRIPTS
By default pcre2grep supports the use of callouts with string
arguments within the patterns it is matching. There are two kinds:
one that generates output using local code, and another that calls an
external program or script. If --disable-pcre2grep-callout-fork is
added to the configure command, only the first kind of callout is
supported; if --disable-pcre2grep-callout is used, all callouts are
completely ignored. For more details of pcre2grep callouts, see the
pcre2grep documentation.

PCRE2GREP OPTIONS FOR COMPRESSED FILE SUPPORT
By default, pcre2grep reads all files as plain text. You can build it
so that it recognizes files whose names end in .gz or .bz2, and reads
them with libz or libbz2, respectively, by adding one or both of

--enable-pcre2grep-libz
--enable-pcre2grep-libbz2

to the configure command. These options naturally require that the
relevant libraries are installed on your system. Configuration will
fail if they are not.

PCRE2GREP BUFFER SIZE
pcre2grep uses an internal buffer to hold a "window" on the file it
is scanning, in order to be able to output "before" and "after" lines
when it finds a match. The default starting size of the buffer is
20KiB. The buffer itself is three times this size, but because of the
way it is used for holding "before" lines, the longest line that is
guaranteed to be processable is the notional buffer size. If a longer
line is encountered, pcre2grep automatically expands the buffer, up
to a specified maximum size, whose default is 1MiB or the starting
size, whichever is the larger. You can change the default parameter
values by adding, for example,

--with-pcre2grep-bufsize=51200
--with-pcre2grep-max-bufsize=2097152

to the configure command. The caller of pcre2grep can override these
values by using --buffer-size and --max-buffer-size on the command
line.

PCRE2TEST OPTION FOR LIBREADLINE SUPPORT
If you add one of

--enable-pcre2test-libreadline
--enable-pcre2test-libedit

to the configure command, pcre2test is linked with the libreadline
orlibedit library, respectively, and when its input is from a
terminal, it reads it using the readline() function. This provides
line-editing and history facilities. Note that libreadline is GPL-
licensed, so if you distribute a binary of pcre2test linked in this
way, there may be licensing issues. These can be avoided by linking
instead with libedit, which has a BSD licence.

Setting --enable-pcre2test-libreadline causes the -lreadline option
to be added to the pcre2test build. In many operating environments
with a system-installed readline library this is sufficient. However,
in some environments (e.g. if an unmodified distribution version of
readline is in use), some extra configuration may be necessary. The
INSTALL file for libreadline says this:

"Readline uses the termcap functions, but does not link with
the termcap or curses library itself, allowing applications
which link with readline the to choose an appropriate library."

If your environment has not been set up so that an appropriate
library is automatically included, you may need to add something like

LIBS="-ncurses"

immediately before the configure command.

INCLUDING DEBUGGING CODE

If you add

--enable-debug

to the configure command, additional debugging code is included in
the build. This feature is intended for use by the PCRE2 maintainers.

DEBUGGING WITH VALGRIND SUPPORT

If you add

--enable-valgrind

to the configure command, PCRE2 will use valgrind annotations to mark
certain memory regions as unaddressable. This allows it to detect
invalid memory accesses, and is mostly useful for debugging PCRE2
itself.

CODE COVERAGE REPORTING

If your C compiler is gcc, you can build a version of PCRE2 that can
generate a code coverage report for its test suite. To enable this,
you must install lcov version 1.6 or above. Then specify

--enable-coverage

to the configure command and build PCRE2 in the usual way.

Note that using ccache (a caching C compiler) is incompatible with
code coverage reporting. If you have configured ccache to run
automatically on your system, you must set the environment variable

CCACHE_DISABLE=1

before running make to build PCRE2, so that ccache is not used.

When --enable-coverage is used, the following addition targets are
added to the Makefile:

make coverage

This creates a fresh coverage report for the PCRE2 test suite. It is
equivalent to running "make coverage-reset", "make coverage-
baseline", "make check", and then "make coverage-report".

make coverage-reset

This zeroes the coverage counters, but does nothing else.

make coverage-baseline

This captures baseline coverage information.

make coverage-report

This creates the coverage report.

make coverage-clean-report

This removes the generated coverage report without cleaning the
coverage data itself.

make coverage-clean-data

This removes the captured coverage data without removing the coverage
files created at compile time (*.gcno).

make coverage-clean

This cleans all coverage data including the generated coverage
report. For more information about code coverage, see the gcov and
lcov documentation.

DISABLING THE Z AND T FORMATTING MODIFIERS

The C99 standard defines formatting modifiers z and t for size_t and
ptrdiff_t values, respectively. By default, PCRE2 uses these
modifiers in environments other than old versions of Microsoft Visual
Studio when __STDC_VERSION__ is defined and has a value greater than
or equal to 199901L (indicating support for C99). However, there is
at least one environment that claims to be C99 but does not support
these modifiers. If

--disable-percent-zt

is specified, no use is made of the z or t modifiers. Instead of %td
or %zu, a suitable format is used depending in the size of long for
the platform.

SUPPORT FOR FUZZERS

There is a special option for use by people who want to run fuzzing
tests on PCRE2:

--enable-fuzz-support

At present this applies only to the 8-bit library. If set, it causes
an extra library called libpcre2-fuzzsupport.a to be built, but not
installed. This contains a single function called
LLVMFuzzerTestOneInput() whose arguments are a pointer to a string
and the length of the string. When called, this function tries to
compile the string as a pattern, and if that succeeds, to match it.
This is done both with no options and with some random options bits
that are generated from the string.

Setting --enable-fuzz-support also causes a binary called
pcre2fuzzcheck to be created. This is normally run under valgrind or
used when PCRE2 is compiled with address sanitizing enabled. It calls
the fuzzing function and outputs information about what it is doing.
The input strings are specified by arguments: if an argument starts
with "=" the rest of it is a literal input string. Otherwise, it is
assumed to be a file name, and the contents of the file are the test
string.

OBSOLETE OPTION

In versions of PCRE2 prior to 10.30, there were two ways of handling
backtracking in the pcre2_match() function. The default was to use
the system stack, but if

--disable-stack-for-recursion

was set, memory on the heap was used. From release 10.30 onwards this
has changed (the stack is no longer used) and this option now does
nothing except give a warning.

SEE ALSO

pcre2api(3), pcre2-config(3).

AUTHOR

Philip Hazel
Retired from University Computing Service
Cambridge, England.

REVISION

Last updated: 16 April 2024
Copyright (c) 1997-2024 University of Cambridge.

PCRE2 10.45 16 April 2024 PCRE2BUILD(3)