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author | Kirill Volinsky <mataes2007@gmail.com> | 2014-08-02 14:17:32 +0000 |
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committer | Kirill Volinsky <mataes2007@gmail.com> | 2014-08-02 14:17:32 +0000 |
commit | 844c971d8aeb2693bc01739963f5da675b989d03 (patch) | |
tree | e32898f45b61f668ad805fdb4e9c9c2ea50c43bd /plugins/Pcre16/docs/doc/pcregrep.txt | |
parent | ad8bc05808c6d1f45fb1d62500b4b30f0d654ed7 (diff) |
added pcre16 project
git-svn-id: http://svn.miranda-ng.org/main/trunk@10019 1316c22d-e87f-b044-9b9b-93d7a3e3ba9c
Diffstat (limited to 'plugins/Pcre16/docs/doc/pcregrep.txt')
-rw-r--r-- | plugins/Pcre16/docs/doc/pcregrep.txt | 741 |
1 files changed, 741 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/plugins/Pcre16/docs/doc/pcregrep.txt b/plugins/Pcre16/docs/doc/pcregrep.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..97d9a7bd37 --- /dev/null +++ b/plugins/Pcre16/docs/doc/pcregrep.txt @@ -0,0 +1,741 @@ +PCREGREP(1) General Commands Manual PCREGREP(1) + + + +NAME + pcregrep - a grep with Perl-compatible regular expressions. + +SYNOPSIS + pcregrep [options] [long options] [pattern] [path1 path2 ...] + + +DESCRIPTION + + pcregrep searches files for character patterns, in the same way as + other grep commands do, but it uses the PCRE regular expression library + to support patterns that are compatible with the regular expressions of + Perl 5. See pcresyntax(3) for a quick-reference summary of pattern syn- + tax, or pcrepattern(3) for a full description of the syntax and seman- + tics of the regular expressions that PCRE supports. + + Patterns, whether supplied on the command line or in a separate file, + are given without delimiters. For example: + + pcregrep Thursday /etc/motd + + If you attempt to use delimiters (for example, by surrounding a pattern + with slashes, as is common in Perl scripts), they are interpreted as + part of the pattern. Quotes can of course be used to delimit patterns + on the command line because they are interpreted by the shell, and + indeed quotes are required if a pattern contains white space or shell + metacharacters. + + The first argument that follows any option settings is treated as the + single pattern to be matched when neither -e nor -f is present. Con- + versely, when one or both of these options are used to specify pat- + terns, all arguments are treated as path names. At least one of -e, -f, + or an argument pattern must be provided. + + If no files are specified, pcregrep reads the standard input. The stan- + dard input can also be referenced by a name consisting of a single + hyphen. For example: + + pcregrep some-pattern /file1 - /file3 + + By default, each line that matches a pattern is copied to the standard + output, and if there is more than one file, the file name is output at + the start of each line, followed by a colon. However, there are options + that can change how pcregrep behaves. In particular, the -M option + makes it possible to search for patterns that span line boundaries. + What defines a line boundary is controlled by the -N (--newline) + option. + + The amount of memory used for buffering files that are being scanned is + controlled by a parameter that can be set by the --buffer-size option. + The default value for this parameter is specified when pcregrep is + built, with the default default being 20K. A block of memory three + times this size is used (to allow for buffering "before" and "after" + lines). An error occurs if a line overflows the buffer. + + Patterns can be no longer than 8K or BUFSIZ bytes, whichever is the + greater. BUFSIZ is defined in <stdio.h>. When there is more than one + pattern (specified by the use of -e and/or -f), each pattern is applied + to each line in the order in which they are defined, except that all + the -e patterns are tried before the -f patterns. + + By default, as soon as one pattern matches a line, no further patterns + are considered. However, if --colour (or --color) is used to colour the + matching substrings, or if --only-matching, --file-offsets, or --line- + offsets is used to output only the part of the line that matched + (either shown literally, or as an offset), scanning resumes immediately + following the match, so that further matches on the same line can be + found. If there are multiple patterns, they are all tried on the + remainder of the line, but patterns that follow the one that matched + are not tried on the earlier part of the line. + + This behaviour means that the order in which multiple patterns are + specified can affect the output when one of the above options is used. + This is no longer the same behaviour as GNU grep, which now manages to + display earlier matches for later patterns (as long as there is no + overlap). + + Patterns that can match an empty string are accepted, but empty string + matches are never recognized. An example is the pattern + "(super)?(man)?", in which all components are optional. This pattern + finds all occurrences of both "super" and "man"; the output differs + from matching with "super|man" when only the matching substrings are + being shown. + + If the LC_ALL or LC_CTYPE environment variable is set, pcregrep uses + the value to set a locale when calling the PCRE library. The --locale + option can be used to override this. + + +SUPPORT FOR COMPRESSED FILES + + It is possible to compile pcregrep so that it uses libz or libbz2 to + read files whose names end in .gz or .bz2, respectively. You can find + out whether your binary has support for one or both of these file types + by running it with the --help option. If the appropriate support is not + present, files are treated as plain text. The standard input is always + so treated. + + +BINARY FILES + + By default, a file that contains a binary zero byte within the first + 1024 bytes is identified as a binary file, and is processed specially. + (GNU grep also identifies binary files in this manner.) See the + --binary-files option for a means of changing the way binary files are + handled. + + +OPTIONS + + The order in which some of the options appear can affect the output. + For example, both the -h and -l options affect the printing of file + names. Whichever comes later in the command line will be the one that + takes effect. Similarly, except where noted below, if an option is + given twice, the later setting is used. Numerical values for options + may be followed by K or M, to signify multiplication by 1024 or + 1024*1024 respectively. + + -- This terminates the list of options. It is useful if the next + item on the command line starts with a hyphen but is not an + option. This allows for the processing of patterns and file- + names that start with hyphens. + + -A number, --after-context=number + Output number lines of context after each matching line. If + filenames and/or line numbers are being output, a hyphen sep- + arator is used instead of a colon for the context lines. A + line containing "--" is output between each group of lines, + unless they are in fact contiguous in the input file. The + value of number is expected to be relatively small. However, + pcregrep guarantees to have up to 8K of following text avail- + able for context output. + + -a, --text + Treat binary files as text. This is equivalent to --binary- + files=text. + + -B number, --before-context=number + Output number lines of context before each matching line. If + filenames and/or line numbers are being output, a hyphen sep- + arator is used instead of a colon for the context lines. A + line containing "--" is output between each group of lines, + unless they are in fact contiguous in the input file. The + value of number is expected to be relatively small. However, + pcregrep guarantees to have up to 8K of preceding text avail- + able for context output. + + --binary-files=word + Specify how binary files are to be processed. If the word is + "binary" (the default), pattern matching is performed on + binary files, but the only output is "Binary file <name> + matches" when a match succeeds. If the word is "text", which + is equivalent to the -a or --text option, binary files are + processed in the same way as any other file. In this case, + when a match succeeds, the output may be binary garbage, + which can have nasty effects if sent to a terminal. If the + word is "without-match", which is equivalent to the -I + option, binary files are not processed at all; they are + assumed not to be of interest. + + --buffer-size=number + Set the parameter that controls how much memory is used for + buffering files that are being scanned. + + -C number, --context=number + Output number lines of context both before and after each + matching line. This is equivalent to setting both -A and -B + to the same value. + + -c, --count + Do not output individual lines from the files that are being + scanned; instead output the number of lines that would other- + wise have been shown. If no lines are selected, the number + zero is output. If several files are are being scanned, a + count is output for each of them. However, if the --files- + with-matches option is also used, only those files whose + counts are greater than zero are listed. When -c is used, the + -A, -B, and -C options are ignored. + + --colour, --color + If this option is given without any data, it is equivalent to + "--colour=auto". If data is required, it must be given in + the same shell item, separated by an equals sign. + + --colour=value, --color=value + This option specifies under what circumstances the parts of a + line that matched a pattern should be coloured in the output. + By default, the output is not coloured. The value (which is + optional, see above) may be "never", "always", or "auto". In + the latter case, colouring happens only if the standard out- + put is connected to a terminal. More resources are used when + colouring is enabled, because pcregrep has to search for all + possible matches in a line, not just one, in order to colour + them all. + + The colour that is used can be specified by setting the envi- + ronment variable PCREGREP_COLOUR or PCREGREP_COLOR. The value + of this variable should be a string of two numbers, separated + by a semicolon. They are copied directly into the control + string for setting colour on a terminal, so it is your + responsibility to ensure that they make sense. If neither of + the environment variables is set, the default is "1;31", + which gives red. + + -D action, --devices=action + If an input path is not a regular file or a directory, + "action" specifies how it is to be processed. Valid values + are "read" (the default) or "skip" (silently skip the path). + + -d action, --directories=action + If an input path is a directory, "action" specifies how it is + to be processed. Valid values are "read" (the default in + non-Windows environments, for compatibility with GNU grep), + "recurse" (equivalent to the -r option), or "skip" (silently + skip the path, the default in Windows environments). In the + "read" case, directories are read as if they were ordinary + files. In some operating systems the effect of reading a + directory like this is an immediate end-of-file; in others it + may provoke an error. + + -e pattern, --regex=pattern, --regexp=pattern + Specify a pattern to be matched. This option can be used mul- + tiple times in order to specify several patterns. It can also + be used as a way of specifying a single pattern that starts + with a hyphen. When -e is used, no argument pattern is taken + from the command line; all arguments are treated as file + names. There is no limit to the number of patterns. They are + applied to each line in the order in which they are defined + until one matches. + + If -f is used with -e, the command line patterns are matched + first, followed by the patterns from the file(s), independent + of the order in which these options are specified. Note that + multiple use of -e is not the same as a single pattern with + alternatives. For example, X|Y finds the first character in a + line that is X or Y, whereas if the two patterns are given + separately, with X first, pcregrep finds X if it is present, + even if it follows Y in the line. It finds Y only if there is + no X in the line. This matters only if you are using -o or + --colo(u)r to show the part(s) of the line that matched. + + --exclude=pattern + Files (but not directories) whose names match the pattern are + skipped without being processed. This applies to all files, + whether listed on the command line, obtained from --file- + list, or by scanning a directory. The pattern is a PCRE regu- + lar expression, and is matched against the final component of + the file name, not the entire path. The -F, -w, and -x + options do not apply to this pattern. The option may be given + any number of times in order to specify multiple patterns. If + a file name matches both an --include and an --exclude pat- + tern, it is excluded. There is no short form for this option. + + --exclude-from=filename + Treat each non-empty line of the file as the data for an + --exclude option. What constitutes a newline when reading the + file is the operating system's default. The --newline option + has no effect on this option. This option may be given more + than once in order to specify a number of files to read. + + --exclude-dir=pattern + Directories whose names match the pattern are skipped without + being processed, whatever the setting of the --recursive + option. This applies to all directories, whether listed on + the command line, obtained from --file-list, or by scanning a + parent directory. The pattern is a PCRE regular expression, + and is matched against the final component of the directory + name, not the entire path. The -F, -w, and -x options do not + apply to this pattern. The option may be given any number of + times in order to specify more than one pattern. If a direc- + tory matches both --include-dir and --exclude-dir, it is + excluded. There is no short form for this option. + + -F, --fixed-strings + Interpret each data-matching pattern as a list of fixed + strings, separated by newlines, instead of as a regular + expression. What constitutes a newline for this purpose is + controlled by the --newline option. The -w (match as a word) + and -x (match whole line) options can be used with -F. They + apply to each of the fixed strings. A line is selected if any + of the fixed strings are found in it (subject to -w or -x, if + present). This option applies only to the patterns that are + matched against the contents of files; it does not apply to + patterns specified by any of the --include or --exclude + options. + + -f filename, --file=filename + Read patterns from the file, one per line, and match them + against each line of input. What constitutes a newline when + reading the file is the operating system's default. The + --newline option has no effect on this option. Trailing white + space is removed from each line, and blank lines are ignored. + An empty file contains no patterns and therefore matches + nothing. See also the comments about multiple patterns versus + a single pattern with alternatives in the description of -e + above. + + If this option is given more than once, all the specified + files are read. A data line is output if any of the patterns + match it. A filename can be given as "-" to refer to the + standard input. When -f is used, patterns specified on the + command line using -e may also be present; they are tested + before the file's patterns. However, no other pattern is + taken from the command line; all arguments are treated as the + names of paths to be searched. + + --file-list=filename + Read a list of files and/or directories that are to be + scanned from the given file, one per line. Trailing white + space is removed from each line, and blank lines are ignored. + These paths are processed before any that are listed on the + command line. The filename can be given as "-" to refer to + the standard input. If --file and --file-list are both spec- + ified as "-", patterns are read first. This is useful only + when the standard input is a terminal, from which further + lines (the list of files) can be read after an end-of-file + indication. If this option is given more than once, all the + specified files are read. + + --file-offsets + Instead of showing lines or parts of lines that match, show + each match as an offset from the start of the file and a + length, separated by a comma. In this mode, no context is + shown. That is, the -A, -B, and -C options are ignored. If + there is more than one match in a line, each of them is shown + separately. This option is mutually exclusive with --line- + offsets and --only-matching. + + -H, --with-filename + Force the inclusion of the filename at the start of output + lines when searching a single file. By default, the filename + is not shown in this case. For matching lines, the filename + is followed by a colon; for context lines, a hyphen separator + is used. If a line number is also being output, it follows + the file name. + + -h, --no-filename + Suppress the output filenames when searching multiple files. + By default, filenames are shown when multiple files are + searched. For matching lines, the filename is followed by a + colon; for context lines, a hyphen separator is used. If a + line number is also being output, it follows the file name. + + --help Output a help message, giving brief details of the command + options and file type support, and then exit. Anything else + on the command line is ignored. + + -I Treat binary files as never matching. This is equivalent to + --binary-files=without-match. + + -i, --ignore-case + Ignore upper/lower case distinctions during comparisons. + + --include=pattern + If any --include patterns are specified, the only files that + are processed are those that match one of the patterns (and + do not match an --exclude pattern). This option does not + affect directories, but it applies to all files, whether + listed on the command line, obtained from --file-list, or by + scanning a directory. The pattern is a PCRE regular expres- + sion, and is matched against the final component of the file + name, not the entire path. The -F, -w, and -x options do not + apply to this pattern. The option may be given any number of + times. If a file name matches both an --include and an + --exclude pattern, it is excluded. There is no short form + for this option. + + --include-from=filename + Treat each non-empty line of the file as the data for an + --include option. What constitutes a newline for this purpose + is the operating system's default. The --newline option has + no effect on this option. This option may be given any number + of times; all the files are read. + + --include-dir=pattern + If any --include-dir patterns are specified, the only direc- + tories that are processed are those that match one of the + patterns (and do not match an --exclude-dir pattern). This + applies to all directories, whether listed on the command + line, obtained from --file-list, or by scanning a parent + directory. The pattern is a PCRE regular expression, and is + matched against the final component of the directory name, + not the entire path. The -F, -w, and -x options do not apply + to this pattern. The option may be given any number of times. + If a directory matches both --include-dir and --exclude-dir, + it is excluded. There is no short form for this option. + + -L, --files-without-match + Instead of outputting lines from the files, just output the + names of the files that do not contain any lines that would + have been output. Each file name is output once, on a sepa- + rate line. + + -l, --files-with-matches + Instead of outputting lines from the files, just output the + names of the files containing lines that would have been out- + put. Each file name is output once, on a separate line. + Searching normally stops as soon as a matching line is found + in a file. However, if the -c (count) option is also used, + matching continues in order to obtain the correct count, and + those files that have at least one match are listed along + with their counts. Using this option with -c is a way of sup- + pressing the listing of files with no matches. + + --label=name + This option supplies a name to be used for the standard input + when file names are being output. If not supplied, "(standard + input)" is used. There is no short form for this option. + + --line-buffered + When this option is given, input is read and processed line + by line, and the output is flushed after each write. By + default, input is read in large chunks, unless pcregrep can + determine that it is reading from a terminal (which is cur- + rently possible only in Unix-like environments). Output to + terminal is normally automatically flushed by the operating + system. This option can be useful when the input or output is + attached to a pipe and you do not want pcregrep to buffer up + large amounts of data. However, its use will affect perfor- + mance, and the -M (multiline) option ceases to work. + + --line-offsets + Instead of showing lines or parts of lines that match, show + each match as a line number, the offset from the start of the + line, and a length. The line number is terminated by a colon + (as usual; see the -n option), and the offset and length are + separated by a comma. In this mode, no context is shown. + That is, the -A, -B, and -C options are ignored. If there is + more than one match in a line, each of them is shown sepa- + rately. This option is mutually exclusive with --file-offsets + and --only-matching. + + --locale=locale-name + This option specifies a locale to be used for pattern match- + ing. It overrides the value in the LC_ALL or LC_CTYPE envi- + ronment variables. If no locale is specified, the PCRE + library's default (usually the "C" locale) is used. There is + no short form for this option. + + --match-limit=number + Processing some regular expression patterns can require a + very large amount of memory, leading in some cases to a pro- + gram crash if not enough is available. Other patterns may + take a very long time to search for all possible matching + strings. The pcre_exec() function that is called by pcregrep + to do the matching has two parameters that can limit the + resources that it uses. + + The --match-limit option provides a means of limiting + resource usage when processing patterns that are not going to + match, but which have a very large number of possibilities in + their search trees. The classic example is a pattern that + uses nested unlimited repeats. Internally, PCRE uses a func- + tion called match() which it calls repeatedly (sometimes + recursively). The limit set by --match-limit is imposed on + the number of times this function is called during a match, + which has the effect of limiting the amount of backtracking + that can take place. + + The --recursion-limit option is similar to --match-limit, but + instead of limiting the total number of times that match() is + called, it limits the depth of recursive calls, which in turn + limits the amount of memory that can be used. The recursion + depth is a smaller number than the total number of calls, + because not all calls to match() are recursive. This limit is + of use only if it is set smaller than --match-limit. + + There are no short forms for these options. The default set- + tings are specified when the PCRE library is compiled, with + the default default being 10 million. + + -M, --multiline + Allow patterns to match more than one line. When this option + is given, patterns may usefully contain literal newline char- + acters and internal occurrences of ^ and $ characters. The + output for a successful match may consist of more than one + line, the last of which is the one in which the match ended. + If the matched string ends with a newline sequence the output + ends at the end of that line. + + When this option is set, the PCRE library is called in "mul- + tiline" mode. There is a limit to the number of lines that + can be matched, imposed by the way that pcregrep buffers the + input file as it scans it. However, pcregrep ensures that at + least 8K characters or the rest of the document (whichever is + the shorter) are available for forward matching, and simi- + larly the previous 8K characters (or all the previous charac- + ters, if fewer than 8K) are guaranteed to be available for + lookbehind assertions. This option does not work when input + is read line by line (see --line-buffered.) + + -N newline-type, --newline=newline-type + The PCRE library supports five different conventions for + indicating the ends of lines. They are the single-character + sequences CR (carriage return) and LF (linefeed), the two- + character sequence CRLF, an "anycrlf" convention, which rec- + ognizes any of the preceding three types, and an "any" con- + vention, in which any Unicode line ending sequence is assumed + to end a line. The Unicode sequences are the three just men- + tioned, plus VT (vertical tab, U+000B), FF (form feed, + U+000C), NEL (next line, U+0085), LS (line separator, + U+2028), and PS (paragraph separator, U+2029). + + When the PCRE library is built, a default line-ending + sequence is specified. This is normally the standard + sequence for the operating system. Unless otherwise specified + by this option, pcregrep uses the library's default. The + possible values for this option are CR, LF, CRLF, ANYCRLF, or + ANY. This makes it possible to use pcregrep to scan files + that have come from other environments without having to mod- + ify their line endings. If the data that is being scanned + does not agree with the convention set by this option, pcre- + grep may behave in strange ways. Note that this option does + not apply to files specified by the -f, --exclude-from, or + --include-from options, which are expected to use the operat- + ing system's standard newline sequence. + + -n, --line-number + Precede each output line by its line number in the file, fol- + lowed by a colon for matching lines or a hyphen for context + lines. If the filename is also being output, it precedes the + line number. This option is forced if --line-offsets is used. + + --no-jit If the PCRE library is built with support for just-in-time + compiling (which speeds up matching), pcregrep automatically + makes use of this, unless it was explicitly disabled at build + time. This option can be used to disable the use of JIT at + run time. It is provided for testing and working round prob- + lems. It should never be needed in normal use. + + -o, --only-matching + Show only the part of the line that matched a pattern instead + of the whole line. In this mode, no context is shown. That + is, the -A, -B, and -C options are ignored. If there is more + than one match in a line, each of them is shown separately. + If -o is combined with -v (invert the sense of the match to + find non-matching lines), no output is generated, but the + return code is set appropriately. If the matched portion of + the line is empty, nothing is output unless the file name or + line number are being printed, in which case they are shown + on an otherwise empty line. This option is mutually exclusive + with --file-offsets and --line-offsets. + + -onumber, --only-matching=number + Show only the part of the line that matched the capturing + parentheses of the given number. Up to 32 capturing parenthe- + ses are supported, and -o0 is equivalent to -o without a num- + ber. Because these options can be given without an argument + (see above), if an argument is present, it must be given in + the same shell item, for example, -o3 or --only-matching=2. + The comments given for the non-argument case above also apply + to this case. If the specified capturing parentheses do not + exist in the pattern, or were not set in the match, nothing + is output unless the file name or line number are being + printed. + + If this option is given multiple times, multiple substrings + are output, in the order the options are given. For example, + -o3 -o1 -o3 causes the substrings matched by capturing paren- + theses 3 and 1 and then 3 again to be output. By default, + there is no separator (but see the next option). + + --om-separator=text + Specify a separating string for multiple occurrences of -o. + The default is an empty string. Separating strings are never + coloured. + + -q, --quiet + Work quietly, that is, display nothing except error messages. + The exit status indicates whether or not any matches were + found. + + -r, --recursive + If any given path is a directory, recursively scan the files + it contains, taking note of any --include and --exclude set- + tings. By default, a directory is read as a normal file; in + some operating systems this gives an immediate end-of-file. + This option is a shorthand for setting the -d option to + "recurse". + + --recursion-limit=number + See --match-limit above. + + -s, --no-messages + Suppress error messages about non-existent or unreadable + files. Such files are quietly skipped. However, the return + code is still 2, even if matches were found in other files. + + -u, --utf-8 + Operate in UTF-8 mode. This option is available only if PCRE + has been compiled with UTF-8 support. All patterns (including + those for any --exclude and --include options) and all sub- + ject lines that are scanned must be valid strings of UTF-8 + characters. + + -V, --version + Write the version numbers of pcregrep and the PCRE library to + the standard output and then exit. Anything else on the com- + mand line is ignored. + + -v, --invert-match + Invert the sense of the match, so that lines which do not + match any of the patterns are the ones that are found. + + -w, --word-regex, --word-regexp + Force the patterns to match only whole words. This is equiva- + lent to having \b at the start and end of the pattern. This + option applies only to the patterns that are matched against + the contents of files; it does not apply to patterns speci- + fied by any of the --include or --exclude options. + + -x, --line-regex, --line-regexp + Force the patterns to be anchored (each must start matching + at the beginning of a line) and in addition, require them to + match entire lines. This is equivalent to having ^ and $ + characters at the start and end of each alternative branch in + every pattern. This option applies only to the patterns that + are matched against the contents of files; it does not apply + to patterns specified by any of the --include or --exclude + options. + + +ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES + + The environment variables LC_ALL and LC_CTYPE are examined, in that + order, for a locale. The first one that is set is used. This can be + overridden by the --locale option. If no locale is set, the PCRE + library's default (usually the "C" locale) is used. + + +NEWLINES + + The -N (--newline) option allows pcregrep to scan files with different + newline conventions from the default. Any parts of the input files that + are written to the standard output are copied identically, with what- + ever newline sequences they have in the input. However, the setting of + this option does not affect the interpretation of files specified by + the -f, --exclude-from, or --include-from options, which are assumed to + use the operating system's standard newline sequence, nor does it + affect the way in which pcregrep writes informational messages to the + standard error and output streams. For these it uses the string "\n" to + indicate newlines, relying on the C I/O library to convert this to an + appropriate sequence. + + +OPTIONS COMPATIBILITY + + Many of the short and long forms of pcregrep's options are the same as + in the GNU grep program. Any long option of the form --xxx-regexp (GNU + terminology) is also available as --xxx-regex (PCRE terminology). How- + ever, the --file-list, --file-offsets, --include-dir, --line-offsets, + --locale, --match-limit, -M, --multiline, -N, --newline, --om-separa- + tor, --recursion-limit, -u, and --utf-8 options are specific to pcre- + grep, as is the use of the --only-matching option with a capturing + parentheses number. + + Although most of the common options work the same way, a few are dif- + ferent in pcregrep. For example, the --include option's argument is a + glob for GNU grep, but a regular expression for pcregrep. If both the + -c and -l options are given, GNU grep lists only file names, without + counts, but pcregrep gives the counts. + + +OPTIONS WITH DATA + + There are four different ways in which an option with data can be spec- + ified. If a short form option is used, the data may follow immedi- + ately, or (with one exception) in the next command line item. For exam- + ple: + + -f/some/file + -f /some/file + + The exception is the -o option, which may appear with or without data. + Because of this, if data is present, it must follow immediately in the + same item, for example -o3. + + If a long form option is used, the data may appear in the same command + line item, separated by an equals character, or (with two exceptions) + it may appear in the next command line item. For example: + + --file=/some/file + --file /some/file + + Note, however, that if you want to supply a file name beginning with ~ + as data in a shell command, and have the shell expand ~ to a home + directory, you must separate the file name from the option, because the + shell does not treat ~ specially unless it is at the start of an item. + + The exceptions to the above are the --colour (or --color) and --only- + matching options, for which the data is optional. If one of these + options does have data, it must be given in the first form, using an + equals character. Otherwise pcregrep will assume that it has no data. + + +MATCHING ERRORS + + It is possible to supply a regular expression that takes a very long + time to fail to match certain lines. Such patterns normally involve + nested indefinite repeats, for example: (a+)*\d when matched against a + line of a's with no final digit. The PCRE matching function has a + resource limit that causes it to abort in these circumstances. If this + happens, pcregrep outputs an error message and the line that caused the + problem to the standard error stream. If there are more than 20 such + errors, pcregrep gives up. + + The --match-limit option of pcregrep can be used to set the overall + resource limit; there is a second option called --recursion-limit that + sets a limit on the amount of memory (usually stack) that is used (see + the discussion of these options above). + + +DIAGNOSTICS + + Exit status is 0 if any matches were found, 1 if no matches were found, + and 2 for syntax errors, overlong lines, non-existent or inaccessible + files (even if matches were found in other files) or too many matching + errors. Using the -s option to suppress error messages about inaccessi- + ble files does not affect the return code. + + +SEE ALSO + + pcrepattern(3), pcresyntax(3), pcretest(1). + + +AUTHOR + + Philip Hazel + University Computing Service + Cambridge CB2 3QH, England. + + +REVISION + + Last updated: 03 April 2014 + Copyright (c) 1997-2014 University of Cambridge. |