regex(3BSD)          (BSD System Compatibility)          regex(3BSD)


       NAME
             regex: re_comp, re_exec - (BSD) regular expression handler

       SYNOPSIS
             /usr/ucb/cc [flag . . . ] file . . .
             char *re_comp(char *s);
             re_exec(char *s);

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

             re_comp returns a null pointer 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.

             re_exec 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 null characters.  The regular expressions recognized are
             described in the manual page entry for ed(1), given the above
             difference.

       RETURN VALUES
             re_exec returns -1 for an internal error.

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

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

       REFERENCES
             ed(1), ex(1), grep(1), regcmp(1), regcmp(3G), regexp(5),
             regexpr(3G)


                           Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc.               Page 1