Manual - Section 3pm: re

NAME

re - Perl pragma to alter regular expression behaviour

SYNOPSIS


    use re taint;
    ($x) = ($^X =~ /^(.*)$/s);     # $x is tainted here

    $pat = (?{ $foo = 1 });
    use re eval;
    /foo${pat}bar/;                # wont fail (when not under -T switch)

    {
        no re taint;             # the default
        ($x) = ($^X =~ /^(.*)$/s); # $x is not tainted here

        no re eval;              # the default
        /foo${pat}bar/;            # disallowed (with or without -T switch)
    }

    use re debug;                # output debugging info during
    /^(.*)$/s;                     #     compile and run time


    use re debugcolor;           # same as debug, but with colored output
    ...

    use re qw(Debug All);          # Finer tuned debugging options.
    use re qw(Debug More);
    no re qw(Debug ALL);           # Turn of all re debugging in this scope

    use re qw(is_regexp regexp_pattern); # import utility functions
    my ($pat,$mods)=regexp_pattern(qr/foo/i);
    if (is_regexp($obj)) {
        print "Got regexp: ",
            scalar regexp_pattern($obj); # just as perl would stringify it
    }                                    # but no hassle with blessed res.

(We use $^X in these examples because it’s tainted by default.)

DESCRIPTION

'taint' mode

When

use re taint

is in effect, and a tainted string is the target of a regex, the regex memories (or values returned by the m// operator in list context) are tainted. This feature is useful when regex operations on tainted data aren’t meant to extract safe substrings, but to perform other transformations.

'eval' mode

When

use re eval

is in effect, a regex is allowed to contain

(?{ ... })

zero-width assertions even if regular expression contains variable interpolation. That is normally disallowed, since it is a potential security risk. Note that this pragma is ignored when the regular expression is obtained from tainted data, i.e. evaluation is always disallowed with tainted regular expressions. See (?{ code }) in perlre.

For the purpose of this pragma, interpolation of precompiled regular expressions (i.e., the result of

qr//

) is not considered variable interpolation. Thus:


    /foo${pat}bar/

is allowed if

$pat

is a precompiled regular expression, even if

$pat

contains

(?{ ... })

assertions.

'debug' mode

When

use re debug

is in effect, perl emits debugging messages when compiling and using regular expressions. The output is the same as that obtained by running a

-DDEBUGGING

-enabled perl interpreter with the -Dr switch. It may be quite voluminous depending on the complexity of the match. Using

debugcolor

instead of

debug

enables a form of output that can be used to get a colorful display on terminals that understand termcap color sequences. Set

$ENV{PERL_RE_TC}

to a comma-separated list of

termcap

properties to use for highlighting strings on/off, pre-point part on/off. See Debugging regular expressions in perldebug for additional info.

As of 5.9.5 the directive

use re debug

and its equivalents are lexically scoped, as the other directives are. However they have both compile-time and run-time effects.

See Pragmatic Modules in perlmodlib.

'Debug' mode

Similarly

use re Debug

produces debugging output, the difference being that it allows the fine tuning of what debugging output will be emitted. Options are divided into three groups, those related to compilation, those related to execution and those related to special purposes. The options are as follows:

Compile related options

COMPILE	Turns on all compile related debug options.
PARSE	Turns on debug output related to the process of parsing the pattern.
OPTIMISE	Enables output related to the optimisation phase of compilation.
TRIEC	Detailed info about trie compilation.
DUMP	Dump the final program out after it is compiled and optimised.

Execute related options

EXECUTE	Turns on all execute related debug options.
MATCH	Turns on debugging of the main matching loop.
TRIEE	Extra debugging of how tries execute.
INTUIT	Enable debugging of start point optimisations.

Extra debugging options

EXTRA	Turns on all extra debugging options.
BUFFERS	Enable debugging the capture buffer storage during match. Warning, this can potentially produce extremely large output.
TRIEM	Enable enhanced TRIE debugging. Enhances both TRIEE and TRIEC.
STATE	Enable debugging of states in the engine.
STACK	Enable debugging of the recursion stack in the engine. Enabling or disabling this option automatically does the same for debugging states as well. This output from this can be quite large.
OPTIMISEM	Enable enhanced optimisation debugging and start point optimisations. Probably not useful except when debugging the regex engine itself.
OFFSETS	Dump offset information. This can be used to see how regops correlate to the pattern. Output format is NODENUM:POSITION[LENGTH] Where 1 is the position of the first char in the string. Note that position can be 0, or larger than the actual length of the pattern, likewise length can be zero.
OFFSETSDBG	Enable debugging of offsets information. This emits copious amounts of trace information and doesn’t mesh well with other debug options. Almost definitely only useful to people hacking on the offsets part of the debug engine.

Other useful flags

These are useful shortcuts to save on the typing.

ALL	Enable all options at once except OFFSETS, OFFSETSDBG and BUFFERS
All	Enable DUMP and all execute options. Equivalent to: use re debug;
MORE
More	Enable TRIEM and all execute compile and execute options.

As of 5.9.5 the directive

use re debug

and its equivalents are lexically scoped, as the other directives are. However they have both compile-time and run-time effects.

Exportable Functions

As of perl 5.9.5 ’re’ debug contains a number of utility functions that may be optionally exported into the caller’s namespace. They are listed below.

is_regexp($ref) Returns true if the argument is a compiled regular expression as returned by
qr//
, false if it is not.
This function will not be confused by overloading or blessing. In internals terms, this extracts the regexp pointer out of the PERL_MAGIC_qr structure so it it cannot be fooled.

regexp_pattern($ref) If the argument is a compiled regular expression as returned by
qr//
, then this function returns the pattern.
In list context it returns a two element list, the first element containing the pattern and the second containing the modifiers used when the pattern was compiled.

my ($pat, $mods) = regexp_pattern($ref);

In scalar context it returns the same as perl would when strigifying a raw
qr//
with the same pattern inside. If the argument is not a compiled reference then this routine returns false but defined in scalar context, and the empty list in list context. Thus the following

if (regexp_pattern($ref) eq (?i-xsm:foo))

will be warning free regardless of what
$ref
actually is.
Like
is_regexp
this function will not be confused by overloading or blessing of the object.

regmust($ref) If the argument is a compiled regular expression as returned by
qr//
, then this function returns what the optimiser consiers to be the longest anchored fixed string and longest floating fixed string in the pattern.
A fixed string is defined as being a substring that must appear for the pattern to match. An anchored fixed string is a fixed string that must appear at a particular offset from the beginning of the match. A floating fixed string is defined as a fixed string that can appear at any point in a range of positions relative to the start of the match. For example,

my $qr = qr/here .* there/x; my ($anchored, $floating) = regmust($qr); print "anchored:$anchored\nfloating:$floating\n";

results in

anchored:here floating:there

Because the
here
is before the
.*
in the pattern, its position can be determined exactly. That’s not true, however, for the
there
; it could appear at any point after where the anchored string appeared. Perl uses both for its optimisations, prefering the longer, or, if they are equal, the floating.
NOTE: This may not necessarily be the definitive longest anchored and floating string. This will be what the optimiser of the Perl that you are using thinks is the longest. If you believe that the result is wrong please report it via the perlbug utility.

regname($name,$all) Returns the contents of a named buffer of the last successful match. If
$all
is true, then returns an array ref containing one entry per buffer, otherwise returns the first defined buffer.

regnames($all) Returns a list of all of the named buffers defined in the last successful match. If
$all
is true, then it returns all names defined, if not it returns only names which were involved in the match.

regnames_count() Returns the number of distinct names defined in the pattern used for the last successful match.
Note: this result is always the actual number of distinct named buffers defined, it may not actually match that which is returned by
regnames()
and related routines when those routines have not been called with the
$all
parameter set.

Manual - Section 3pm: re

Linux Online Man Pages for openSUSE 11.2 "Emerald"

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

'taint' mode

'eval' mode

'debug' mode

'Debug' mode

Exportable Functions

SEE ALSO

Contents

is_regexp($ref)	Returns true if the argument is a compiled regular expression as returned by qr// , false if it is not. This function will not be confused by overloading or blessing. In internals terms, this extracts the regexp pointer out of the PERL_MAGIC_qr structure so it it cannot be fooled.
regexp_pattern($ref)	If the argument is a compiled regular expression as returned by qr// , then this function returns the pattern. In list context it returns a two element list, the first element containing the pattern and the second containing the modifiers used when the pattern was compiled. my ($pat, $mods) = regexp_pattern($ref); In scalar context it returns the same as perl would when strigifying a raw qr// with the same pattern inside. If the argument is not a compiled reference then this routine returns false but defined in scalar context, and the empty list in list context. Thus the following if (regexp_pattern($ref) eq (?i-xsm:foo)) will be warning free regardless of what $ref actually is. Like is_regexp this function will not be confused by overloading or blessing of the object.
regmust($ref)	If the argument is a compiled regular expression as returned by qr// , then this function returns what the optimiser consiers to be the longest anchored fixed string and longest floating fixed string in the pattern. A fixed string is defined as being a substring that must appear for the pattern to match. An anchored fixed string is a fixed string that must appear at a particular offset from the beginning of the match. A floating fixed string is defined as a fixed string that can appear at any point in a range of positions relative to the start of the match. For example, my $qr = qr/here .* there/x; my ($anchored, $floating) = regmust($qr); print "anchored:$anchored\nfloating:$floating\n"; results in anchored:here floating:there Because the here is before the .* in the pattern, its position can be determined exactly. That’s not true, however, for the there ; it could appear at any point after where the anchored string appeared. Perl uses both for its optimisations, prefering the longer, or, if they are equal, the floating. NOTE: This may not necessarily be the definitive longest anchored and floating string. This will be what the optimiser of the Perl that you are using thinks is the longest. If you believe that the result is wrong please report it via the perlbug utility.
regname($name,$all)	Returns the contents of a named buffer of the last successful match. If $all is true, then returns an array ref containing one entry per buffer, otherwise returns the first defined buffer.
regnames($all)	Returns a list of all of the named buffers defined in the last successful match. If $all is true, then it returns all names defined, if not it returns only names which were involved in the match.
regnames_count()	Returns the number of distinct names defined in the pattern used for the last successful match. Note: this result is always the actual number of distinct named buffers defined, it may not actually match that which is returned by regnames() and related routines when those routines have not been called with the $all parameter set.