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re_comp(3)

NAME

     re_comp, re_exec -- regular expression handler

LIBRARY

     Compatibility Library (libcompat, -lcompat)

SYNOPSIS

     #include <unistd.h>

     char *
     re_comp(const char *s);

     int
     re_exec(const char *s);

DESCRIPTION

     This interface is made obsolete by regex(3).

     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 success-
     fully; 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 com-
     piled regular expression, 0 if the string s failed to match the last com-
     piled 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

     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

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

HISTORY

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

FreeBSD 5.4			 June 4, 1993			   FreeBSD 5.4

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