regex(3C)                     4 BSD                     regex(3C)



NAME
     recomp, reexec - regular expression handler

SYNOPSIS
     char *recomp (s)
     char *s;

     int reexec (s)
     char *s;

DESCRIPTION
     Recomp compiles a string into an internal form suitable for
     pattern matching. Reexec checks the argument string against
     the last string passed to recomp.

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

     Reexec 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 recomp and reexec may have
     trailing or embedded newline characters; they are terminated
     by nulls.  The regular expressions recognized are described
     in the manual entry for ed(1), given the above difference.

SEE ALSO
     ed(1), ex(1), egrep(1), fgrep(1), grep(1)

DIAGNOSTICS
     Reexec returns -1 for an internal error.

     Recomp returns one of the following strings if an error
     occurs:

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









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