1<html> 2<head> 3<title>pcrebuild specification</title> 4</head> 5<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#00005A" link="#0066FF" alink="#3399FF" vlink="#2222BB"> 6<h1>pcrebuild man page</h1> 7<p> 8Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>. 9</p> 10<p> 11This page is part of the PCRE HTML documentation. It was generated automatically 12from the original man page. If there is any nonsense in it, please consult the 13man page, in case the conversion went wrong. 14<br> 15<ul> 16<li><a name="TOC1" href="#SEC1">BUILDING PCRE</a> 17<li><a name="TOC2" href="#SEC2">PCRE BUILD-TIME OPTIONS</a> 18<li><a name="TOC3" href="#SEC3">BUILDING 8-BIT, 16-BIT AND 32-BIT LIBRARIES</a> 19<li><a name="TOC4" href="#SEC4">BUILDING SHARED AND STATIC LIBRARIES</a> 20<li><a name="TOC5" href="#SEC5">C++ SUPPORT</a> 21<li><a name="TOC6" href="#SEC6">UTF-8, UTF-16 AND UTF-32 SUPPORT</a> 22<li><a name="TOC7" href="#SEC7">UNICODE CHARACTER PROPERTY SUPPORT</a> 23<li><a name="TOC8" href="#SEC8">JUST-IN-TIME COMPILER SUPPORT</a> 24<li><a name="TOC9" href="#SEC9">CODE VALUE OF NEWLINE</a> 25<li><a name="TOC10" href="#SEC10">WHAT \R MATCHES</a> 26<li><a name="TOC11" href="#SEC11">POSIX MALLOC USAGE</a> 27<li><a name="TOC12" href="#SEC12">HANDLING VERY LARGE PATTERNS</a> 28<li><a name="TOC13" href="#SEC13">AVOIDING EXCESSIVE STACK USAGE</a> 29<li><a name="TOC14" href="#SEC14">LIMITING PCRE RESOURCE USAGE</a> 30<li><a name="TOC15" href="#SEC15">CREATING CHARACTER TABLES AT BUILD TIME</a> 31<li><a name="TOC16" href="#SEC16">USING EBCDIC CODE</a> 32<li><a name="TOC17" href="#SEC17">PCREGREP OPTIONS FOR COMPRESSED FILE SUPPORT</a> 33<li><a name="TOC18" href="#SEC18">PCREGREP BUFFER SIZE</a> 34<li><a name="TOC19" href="#SEC19">PCRETEST OPTION FOR LIBREADLINE SUPPORT</a> 35<li><a name="TOC20" href="#SEC20">DEBUGGING WITH VALGRIND SUPPORT</a> 36<li><a name="TOC21" href="#SEC21">CODE COVERAGE REPORTING</a> 37<li><a name="TOC22" href="#SEC22">SEE ALSO</a> 38<li><a name="TOC23" href="#SEC23">AUTHOR</a> 39<li><a name="TOC24" href="#SEC24">REVISION</a> 40</ul> 41<br><a name="SEC1" href="#TOC1">BUILDING PCRE</a><br> 42<P> 43PCRE is distributed with a <b>configure</b> script that can be used to build the 44library in Unix-like environments using the applications known as Autotools. 45Also in the distribution are files to support building using <b>CMake</b> 46instead of <b>configure</b>. The text file 47<a href="README.txt"><b>README</b></a> 48contains general information about building with Autotools (some of which is 49repeated below), and also has some comments about building on various operating 50systems. There is a lot more information about building PCRE without using 51Autotools (including information about using <b>CMake</b> and building "by 52hand") in the text file called 53<a href="NON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD.txt"><b>NON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD</b>.</a> 54You should consult this file as well as the 55<a href="README.txt"><b>README</b></a> 56file if you are building in a non-Unix-like environment. 57</P> 58<br><a name="SEC2" href="#TOC1">PCRE BUILD-TIME OPTIONS</a><br> 59<P> 60The rest of this document describes the optional features of PCRE that can be 61selected when the library is compiled. It assumes use of the <b>configure</b> 62script, where the optional features are selected or deselected by providing 63options to <b>configure</b> before running the <b>make</b> command. However, the 64same options can be selected in both Unix-like and non-Unix-like environments 65using the GUI facility of <b>cmake-gui</b> if you are using <b>CMake</b> instead 66of <b>configure</b> to build PCRE. 67</P> 68<P> 69If you are not using Autotools or <b>CMake</b>, option selection can be done by 70editing the <b>config.h</b> file, or by passing parameter settings to the 71compiler, as described in 72<a href="NON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD.txt"><b>NON-AUTOTOOLS-BUILD</b>.</a> 73</P> 74<P> 75The complete list of options for <b>configure</b> (which includes the standard 76ones such as the selection of the installation directory) can be obtained by 77running 78<pre> 79 ./configure --help 80</pre> 81The following sections include descriptions of options whose names begin with 82--enable or --disable. These settings specify changes to the defaults for the 83<b>configure</b> command. Because of the way that <b>configure</b> works, 84--enable and --disable always come in pairs, so the complementary option always 85exists as well, but as it specifies the default, it is not described. 86</P> 87<br><a name="SEC3" href="#TOC1">BUILDING 8-BIT, 16-BIT AND 32-BIT LIBRARIES</a><br> 88<P> 89By default, a library called <b>libpcre</b> is built, containing functions that 90take string arguments contained in vectors of bytes, either as single-byte 91characters, or interpreted as UTF-8 strings. You can also build a separate 92library, called <b>libpcre16</b>, in which strings are contained in vectors of 9316-bit data units and interpreted either as single-unit characters or UTF-16 94strings, by adding 95<pre> 96 --enable-pcre16 97</pre> 98to the <b>configure</b> command. You can also build yet another separate 99library, called <b>libpcre32</b>, in which strings are contained in vectors of 10032-bit data units and interpreted either as single-unit characters or UTF-32 101strings, by adding 102<pre> 103 --enable-pcre32 104</pre> 105to the <b>configure</b> command. If you do not want the 8-bit library, add 106<pre> 107 --disable-pcre8 108</pre> 109as well. At least one of the three libraries must be built. Note that the C++ 110and POSIX wrappers are for the 8-bit library only, and that <b>pcregrep</b> is 111an 8-bit program. None of these are built if you select only the 16-bit or 11232-bit libraries. 113</P> 114<br><a name="SEC4" href="#TOC1">BUILDING SHARED AND STATIC LIBRARIES</a><br> 115<P> 116The Autotools PCRE building process uses <b>libtool</b> to build both shared and 117static libraries by default. You can suppress one of these by adding one of 118<pre> 119 --disable-shared 120 --disable-static 121</pre> 122to the <b>configure</b> command, as required. 123</P> 124<br><a name="SEC5" href="#TOC1">C++ SUPPORT</a><br> 125<P> 126By default, if the 8-bit library is being built, the <b>configure</b> script 127will search for a C++ compiler and C++ header files. If it finds them, it 128automatically builds the C++ wrapper library (which supports only 8-bit 129strings). You can disable this by adding 130<pre> 131 --disable-cpp 132</pre> 133to the <b>configure</b> command. 134</P> 135<br><a name="SEC6" href="#TOC1">UTF-8, UTF-16 AND UTF-32 SUPPORT</a><br> 136<P> 137To build PCRE with support for UTF Unicode character strings, add 138<pre> 139 --enable-utf 140</pre> 141to the <b>configure</b> command. This setting applies to all three libraries, 142adding support for UTF-8 to the 8-bit library, support for UTF-16 to the 16-bit 143library, and support for UTF-32 to the to the 32-bit library. There are no 144separate options for enabling UTF-8, UTF-16 and UTF-32 independently because 145that would allow ridiculous settings such as requesting UTF-16 support while 146building only the 8-bit library. It is not possible to build one library with 147UTF support and another without in the same configuration. (For backwards 148compatibility, --enable-utf8 is a synonym of --enable-utf.) 149</P> 150<P> 151Of itself, this setting does not make PCRE treat strings as UTF-8, UTF-16 or 152UTF-32. As well as compiling PCRE with this option, you also have have to set 153the PCRE_UTF8, PCRE_UTF16 or PCRE_UTF32 option (as appropriate) when you call 154one of the pattern compiling functions. 155</P> 156<P> 157If you set --enable-utf when compiling in an EBCDIC environment, PCRE expects 158its input to be either ASCII or UTF-8 (depending on the run-time option). It is 159not possible to support both EBCDIC and UTF-8 codes in the same version of the 160library. Consequently, --enable-utf and --enable-ebcdic are mutually 161exclusive. 162</P> 163<br><a name="SEC7" href="#TOC1">UNICODE CHARACTER PROPERTY SUPPORT</a><br> 164<P> 165UTF support allows the libraries to process character codepoints up to 0x10ffff 166in the strings that they handle. On its own, however, it does not provide any 167facilities for accessing the properties of such characters. If you want to be 168able to use the pattern escapes \P, \p, and \X, which refer to Unicode 169character properties, you must add 170<pre> 171 --enable-unicode-properties 172</pre> 173to the <b>configure</b> command. This implies UTF support, even if you have 174not explicitly requested it. 175</P> 176<P> 177Including Unicode property support adds around 30K of tables to the PCRE 178library. Only the general category properties such as <i>Lu</i> and <i>Nd</i> are 179supported. Details are given in the 180<a href="pcrepattern.html"><b>pcrepattern</b></a> 181documentation. 182</P> 183<br><a name="SEC8" href="#TOC1">JUST-IN-TIME COMPILER SUPPORT</a><br> 184<P> 185Just-in-time compiler support is included in the build by specifying 186<pre> 187 --enable-jit 188</pre> 189This support is available only for certain hardware architectures. If this 190option is set for an unsupported architecture, a compile time error occurs. 191See the 192<a href="pcrejit.html"><b>pcrejit</b></a> 193documentation for a discussion of JIT usage. When JIT support is enabled, 194pcregrep automatically makes use of it, unless you add 195<pre> 196 --disable-pcregrep-jit 197</pre> 198to the "configure" command. 199</P> 200<br><a name="SEC9" href="#TOC1">CODE VALUE OF NEWLINE</a><br> 201<P> 202By default, PCRE interprets the linefeed (LF) character as indicating the end 203of a line. This is the normal newline character on Unix-like systems. You can 204compile PCRE to use carriage return (CR) instead, by adding 205<pre> 206 --enable-newline-is-cr 207</pre> 208to the <b>configure</b> command. There is also a --enable-newline-is-lf option, 209which explicitly specifies linefeed as the newline character. 210<br> 211<br> 212Alternatively, you can specify that line endings are to be indicated by the two 213character sequence CRLF. If you want this, add 214<pre> 215 --enable-newline-is-crlf 216</pre> 217to the <b>configure</b> command. There is a fourth option, specified by 218<pre> 219 --enable-newline-is-anycrlf 220</pre> 221which causes PCRE to recognize any of the three sequences CR, LF, or CRLF as 222indicating a line ending. Finally, a fifth option, specified by 223<pre> 224 --enable-newline-is-any 225</pre> 226causes PCRE to recognize any Unicode newline sequence. 227</P> 228<P> 229Whatever line ending convention is selected when PCRE is built can be 230overridden when the library functions are called. At build time it is 231conventional to use the standard for your operating system. 232</P> 233<br><a name="SEC10" href="#TOC1">WHAT \R MATCHES</a><br> 234<P> 235By default, the sequence \R in a pattern matches any Unicode newline sequence, 236whatever has been selected as the line ending sequence. If you specify 237<pre> 238 --enable-bsr-anycrlf 239</pre> 240the default is changed so that \R matches only CR, LF, or CRLF. Whatever is 241selected when PCRE is built can be overridden when the library functions are 242called. 243</P> 244<br><a name="SEC11" href="#TOC1">POSIX MALLOC USAGE</a><br> 245<P> 246When the 8-bit library is called through the POSIX interface (see the 247<a href="pcreposix.html"><b>pcreposix</b></a> 248documentation), additional working storage is required for holding the pointers 249to capturing substrings, because PCRE requires three integers per substring, 250whereas the POSIX interface provides only two. If the number of expected 251substrings is small, the wrapper function uses space on the stack, because this 252is faster than using <b>malloc()</b> for each call. The default threshold above 253which the stack is no longer used is 10; it can be changed by adding a setting 254such as 255<pre> 256 --with-posix-malloc-threshold=20 257</pre> 258to the <b>configure</b> command. 259</P> 260<br><a name="SEC12" href="#TOC1">HANDLING VERY LARGE PATTERNS</a><br> 261<P> 262Within a compiled pattern, offset values are used to point from one part to 263another (for example, from an opening parenthesis to an alternation 264metacharacter). By default, in the 8-bit and 16-bit libraries, two-byte values 265are used for these offsets, leading to a maximum size for a compiled pattern of 266around 64K. This is sufficient to handle all but the most gigantic patterns. 267Nevertheless, some people do want to process truly enormous patterns, so it is 268possible to compile PCRE to use three-byte or four-byte offsets by adding a 269setting such as 270<pre> 271 --with-link-size=3 272</pre> 273to the <b>configure</b> command. The value given must be 2, 3, or 4. For the 27416-bit library, a value of 3 is rounded up to 4. In these libraries, using 275longer offsets slows down the operation of PCRE because it has to load 276additional data when handling them. For the 32-bit library the value is always 2774 and cannot be overridden; the value of --with-link-size is ignored. 278</P> 279<br><a name="SEC13" href="#TOC1">AVOIDING EXCESSIVE STACK USAGE</a><br> 280<P> 281When matching with the <b>pcre_exec()</b> function, PCRE implements backtracking 282by making recursive calls to an internal function called <b>match()</b>. In 283environments where the size of the stack is limited, this can severely limit 284PCRE's operation. (The Unix environment does not usually suffer from this 285problem, but it may sometimes be necessary to increase the maximum stack size. 286There is a discussion in the 287<a href="pcrestack.html"><b>pcrestack</b></a> 288documentation.) An alternative approach to recursion that uses memory from the 289heap to remember data, instead of using recursive function calls, has been 290implemented to work round the problem of limited stack size. If you want to 291build a version of PCRE that works this way, add 292<pre> 293 --disable-stack-for-recursion 294</pre> 295to the <b>configure</b> command. With this configuration, PCRE will use the 296<b>pcre_stack_malloc</b> and <b>pcre_stack_free</b> variables to call memory 297management functions. By default these point to <b>malloc()</b> and 298<b>free()</b>, but you can replace the pointers so that your own functions are 299used instead. 300</P> 301<P> 302Separate functions are provided rather than using <b>pcre_malloc</b> and 303<b>pcre_free</b> because the usage is very predictable: the block sizes 304requested are always the same, and the blocks are always freed in reverse 305order. A calling program might be able to implement optimized functions that 306perform better than <b>malloc()</b> and <b>free()</b>. PCRE runs noticeably more 307slowly when built in this way. This option affects only the <b>pcre_exec()</b> 308function; it is not relevant for <b>pcre_dfa_exec()</b>. 309</P> 310<br><a name="SEC14" href="#TOC1">LIMITING PCRE RESOURCE USAGE</a><br> 311<P> 312Internally, PCRE has a function called <b>match()</b>, which it calls repeatedly 313(sometimes recursively) when matching a pattern with the <b>pcre_exec()</b> 314function. By controlling the maximum number of times this function may be 315called during a single matching operation, a limit can be placed on the 316resources used by a single call to <b>pcre_exec()</b>. The limit can be changed 317at run time, as described in the 318<a href="pcreapi.html"><b>pcreapi</b></a> 319documentation. The default is 10 million, but this can be changed by adding a 320setting such as 321<pre> 322 --with-match-limit=500000 323</pre> 324to the <b>configure</b> command. This setting has no effect on the 325<b>pcre_dfa_exec()</b> matching function. 326</P> 327<P> 328In some environments it is desirable to limit the depth of recursive calls of 329<b>match()</b> more strictly than the total number of calls, in order to 330restrict the maximum amount of stack (or heap, if --disable-stack-for-recursion 331is specified) that is used. A second limit controls this; it defaults to the 332value that is set for --with-match-limit, which imposes no additional 333constraints. However, you can set a lower limit by adding, for example, 334<pre> 335 --with-match-limit-recursion=10000 336</pre> 337to the <b>configure</b> command. This value can also be overridden at run time. 338</P> 339<br><a name="SEC15" href="#TOC1">CREATING CHARACTER TABLES AT BUILD TIME</a><br> 340<P> 341PCRE uses fixed tables for processing characters whose code values are less 342than 256. By default, PCRE is built with a set of tables that are distributed 343in the file <i>pcre_chartables.c.dist</i>. These tables are for ASCII codes 344only. If you add 345<pre> 346 --enable-rebuild-chartables 347</pre> 348to the <b>configure</b> command, the distributed tables are no longer used. 349Instead, a program called <b>dftables</b> is compiled and run. This outputs the 350source for new set of tables, created in the default locale of your C run-time 351system. (This method of replacing the tables does not work if you are cross 352compiling, because <b>dftables</b> is run on the local host. If you need to 353create alternative tables when cross compiling, you will have to do so "by 354hand".) 355</P> 356<br><a name="SEC16" href="#TOC1">USING EBCDIC CODE</a><br> 357<P> 358PCRE assumes by default that it will run in an environment where the character 359code is ASCII (or Unicode, which is a superset of ASCII). This is the case for 360most computer operating systems. PCRE can, however, be compiled to run in an 361EBCDIC environment by adding 362<pre> 363 --enable-ebcdic 364</pre> 365to the <b>configure</b> command. This setting implies 366--enable-rebuild-chartables. You should only use it if you know that you are in 367an EBCDIC environment (for example, an IBM mainframe operating system). The 368--enable-ebcdic option is incompatible with --enable-utf. 369</P> 370<P> 371The EBCDIC character that corresponds to an ASCII LF is assumed to have the 372value 0x15 by default. However, in some EBCDIC environments, 0x25 is used. In 373such an environment you should use 374<pre> 375 --enable-ebcdic-nl25 376</pre> 377as well as, or instead of, --enable-ebcdic. The EBCDIC character for CR has the 378same value as in ASCII, namely, 0x0d. Whichever of 0x15 and 0x25 is <i>not</i> 379chosen as LF is made to correspond to the Unicode NEL character (which, in 380Unicode, is 0x85). 381</P> 382<P> 383The options that select newline behaviour, such as --enable-newline-is-cr, 384and equivalent run-time options, refer to these character values in an EBCDIC 385environment. 386</P> 387<br><a name="SEC17" href="#TOC1">PCREGREP OPTIONS FOR COMPRESSED FILE SUPPORT</a><br> 388<P> 389By default, <b>pcregrep</b> reads all files as plain text. You can build it so 390that it recognizes files whose names end in <b>.gz</b> or <b>.bz2</b>, and reads 391them with <b>libz</b> or <b>libbz2</b>, respectively, by adding one or both of 392<pre> 393 --enable-pcregrep-libz 394 --enable-pcregrep-libbz2 395</pre> 396to the <b>configure</b> command. These options naturally require that the 397relevant libraries are installed on your system. Configuration will fail if 398they are not. 399</P> 400<br><a name="SEC18" href="#TOC1">PCREGREP BUFFER SIZE</a><br> 401<P> 402<b>pcregrep</b> uses an internal buffer to hold a "window" on the file it is 403scanning, in order to be able to output "before" and "after" lines when it 404finds a match. The size of the buffer is controlled by a parameter whose 405default value is 20K. The buffer itself is three times this size, but because 406of the way it is used for holding "before" lines, the longest line that is 407guaranteed to be processable is the parameter size. You can change the default 408parameter value by adding, for example, 409<pre> 410 --with-pcregrep-bufsize=50K 411</pre> 412to the <b>configure</b> command. The caller of \fPpcregrep\fP can, however, 413override this value by specifying a run-time option. 414</P> 415<br><a name="SEC19" href="#TOC1">PCRETEST OPTION FOR LIBREADLINE SUPPORT</a><br> 416<P> 417If you add 418<pre> 419 --enable-pcretest-libreadline 420</pre> 421to the <b>configure</b> command, <b>pcretest</b> is linked with the 422<b>libreadline</b> library, and when its input is from a terminal, it reads it 423using the <b>readline()</b> function. This provides line-editing and history 424facilities. Note that <b>libreadline</b> is GPL-licensed, so if you distribute a 425binary of <b>pcretest</b> linked in this way, there may be licensing issues. 426</P> 427<P> 428Setting this option causes the <b>-lreadline</b> option to be added to the 429<b>pcretest</b> build. In many operating environments with a sytem-installed 430<b>libreadline</b> this is sufficient. However, in some environments (e.g. 431if an unmodified distribution version of readline is in use), some extra 432configuration may be necessary. The INSTALL file for <b>libreadline</b> says 433this: 434<pre> 435 "Readline uses the termcap functions, but does not link with the 436 termcap or curses library itself, allowing applications which link 437 with readline the to choose an appropriate library." 438</pre> 439If your environment has not been set up so that an appropriate library is 440automatically included, you may need to add something like 441<pre> 442 LIBS="-ncurses" 443</pre> 444immediately before the <b>configure</b> command. 445</P> 446<br><a name="SEC20" href="#TOC1">DEBUGGING WITH VALGRIND SUPPORT</a><br> 447<P> 448By adding the 449<pre> 450 --enable-valgrind 451</pre> 452option to to the <b>configure</b> command, PCRE will use valgrind annotations 453to mark certain memory regions as unaddressable. This allows it to detect 454invalid memory accesses, and is mostly useful for debugging PCRE itself. 455</P> 456<br><a name="SEC21" href="#TOC1">CODE COVERAGE REPORTING</a><br> 457<P> 458If your C compiler is gcc, you can build a version of PCRE that can generate a 459code coverage report for its test suite. To enable this, you must install 460<b>lcov</b> version 1.6 or above. Then specify 461<pre> 462 --enable-coverage 463</pre> 464to the <b>configure</b> command and build PCRE in the usual way. 465</P> 466<P> 467Note that using <b>ccache</b> (a caching C compiler) is incompatible with code 468coverage reporting. If you have configured <b>ccache</b> to run automatically 469on your system, you must set the environment variable 470<pre> 471 CCACHE_DISABLE=1 472</pre> 473before running <b>make</b> to build PCRE, so that <b>ccache</b> is not used. 474</P> 475<P> 476When --enable-coverage is used, the following addition targets are added to the 477<i>Makefile</i>: 478<pre> 479 make coverage 480</pre> 481This creates a fresh coverage report for the PCRE test suite. It is equivalent 482to running "make coverage-reset", "make coverage-baseline", "make check", and 483then "make coverage-report". 484<pre> 485 make coverage-reset 486</pre> 487This zeroes the coverage counters, but does nothing else. 488<pre> 489 make coverage-baseline 490</pre> 491This captures baseline coverage information. 492<pre> 493 make coverage-report 494</pre> 495This creates the coverage report. 496<pre> 497 make coverage-clean-report 498</pre> 499This removes the generated coverage report without cleaning the coverage data 500itself. 501<pre> 502 make coverage-clean-data 503</pre> 504This removes the captured coverage data without removing the coverage files 505created at compile time (*.gcno). 506<pre> 507 make coverage-clean 508</pre> 509This cleans all coverage data including the generated coverage report. For more 510information about code coverage, see the <b>gcov</b> and <b>lcov</b> 511documentation. 512</P> 513<br><a name="SEC22" href="#TOC1">SEE ALSO</a><br> 514<P> 515<b>pcreapi</b>(3), <b>pcre16</b>, <b>pcre32</b>, <b>pcre_config</b>(3). 516</P> 517<br><a name="SEC23" href="#TOC1">AUTHOR</a><br> 518<P> 519Philip Hazel 520<br> 521University Computing Service 522<br> 523Cambridge CB2 3QH, England. 524<br> 525</P> 526<br><a name="SEC24" href="#TOC1">REVISION</a><br> 527<P> 528Last updated: 12 May 2013 529<br> 530Copyright © 1997-2013 University of Cambridge. 531<br> 532<p> 533Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>. 534</p> 535