NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     re_comp, re_exec - regular expression handler

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     #include <unistd.h>

     char *
     re_comp(const char *s);

     int
     re_exec(const char *s);

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     This  interface  is  made  obsolete  by  regex(3).   It   is
available from the
     compatibility library, libcompat.

     The  re_comp()  function  compiles a string into an internal
form suitable
     for pattern matching.  The re_exec() function checks the argument string
     against the last string passed to re_comp().

     The  re_comp()  function  returns 0 if the string s was compiled successfully;
 otherwise a string containing an error  message  is  returned.  If
     re_comp()  is  passed 0 or a null string, it returns without
changing the
     currently compiled regular expression.

     The re_exec() function returns 1 if the string s matches the
last compiled
  regular expression, 0 if the string s failed to match
the last compiled
 regular expression, and -1 if the compiled regular expression was
     invalid (indicating an internal error).

     The  strings passed to both re_comp() and re_exec() may have
trailing or
     embedded newline characters; they are  terminated  by  NULs.
The regular
     expressions recognized are described in the manual entry for
ed(1), given
     the above difference.

DIAGNOSTICS    [Toc]    [Back]

     The re_exec() function returns -1 for an internal error.

     The re_comp() function returns one of the following  strings
if an error
     occurs:

           No previous regular expression,
           Regular expression too long,
           unmatched
           missing ],
           too many  pairs,
           unmatched .

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     ed(1), egrep(1), ex(1), fgrep(1), grep(1), regex(3)

HISTORY    [Toc]    [Back]

     The re_comp() and re_exec() functions appeared in 4.0BSD.

OpenBSD      3.6                           June      4,      1993