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Technical Notes about PCRE
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--------------------------
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Many years ago I implemented some regular expression functions to an algorithm
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suggested by Martin Richards. These were not Unix-like in form, and were quite
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restricted in what they could do by comparison with Perl. The interesting part
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about the algorithm was that the amount of space required to hold the compiled
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form of an expression was known in advance. The code to apply an expression did
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not operate by backtracking, as the original Henry Spencer code and current
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Perl code does, but instead checked all possibilities simultaneously by keeping
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a list of current states and checking all of them as it advanced through the
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subject string. In the terminology of Jeffrey Friedl's book, it was a "DFA
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algorithm". When the pattern was all used up, all remaining states were
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possible matches, and the one matching the longest subset of the subject string
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was chosen. This did not necessarily maximize the individual wild portions of
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the pattern, as is expected in Unix and Perl-style regular expressions.
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By contrast, the code originally written by Henry Spencer and subsequently
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heavily modified for Perl actually compiles the expression twice: once in a
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dummy mode in order to find out how much store will be needed, and then for
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real. The execution function operates by backtracking and maximizing (or,
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optionally, minimizing in Perl) the amount of the subject that matches
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individual wild portions of the pattern. This is an "NFA algorithm" in Friedl's
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OK, here's the real stuff
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-------------------------
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For the set of functions that form the "basic" PCRE library (which are
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unrelated to those mentioned above), I tried at first to invent an algorithm
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that used an amount of store bounded by a multiple of the number of characters
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in the pattern, to save on compiling time. However, because of the greater
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complexity in Perl regular expressions, I couldn't do this. In any case, a
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first pass through the pattern is needed, for a number of reasons. PCRE works
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by running a very degenerate first pass to calculate a maximum store size, and
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then a second pass to do the real compile - which may use a bit less than the
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predicted amount of store. The idea is that this is going to turn out faster
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because the first pass is degenerate and the second pass can just store stuff
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straight into the vector, which it knows is big enough. It does make the
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compiling functions bigger, of course, but they have got quite big anyway to
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handle all the Perl stuff.
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Traditional matching function
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-----------------------------
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The "traditional", and original, matching function is called pcre_exec(), and
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it implements an NFA algorithm, similar to the original Henry Spencer algorithm
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and the way that Perl works. Not surprising, since it is intended to be as
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compatible with Perl as possible. This is the function most users of PCRE will
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Supplementary matching function
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-------------------------------
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From PCRE 6.0, there is also a supplementary matching function called
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pcre_dfa_exec(). This implements a DFA matching algorithm that searches
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simultaneously for all possible matches that start at one point in the subject
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string. (Going back to my roots: see Historical Note 1 above.) This function
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intreprets the same compiled pattern data as pcre_exec(); however, not all the
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facilities are available, and those that are don't always work in quite the
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same way. See the user documentation for details.
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Format of compiled patterns
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---------------------------
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The compiled form of a pattern is a vector of bytes, containing items of
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variable length. The first byte in an item is an opcode, and the length of the
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item is either implicit in the opcode or contained in the data bytes that
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In many cases below "two-byte" data values are specified. This is in fact just
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a default. PCRE can be compiled to use 3-byte or 4-byte values (impairing the
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performance). This is necessary only when patterns whose compiled length is
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greater than 64K are going to be processed. In this description, we assume the
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"normal" compilation options.
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A list of all the opcodes follows:
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Opcodes with no following data
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------------------------------
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These items are all just one byte long
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OP_ANY match any character
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OP_ANYBYTE match any single byte, even in UTF-8 mode
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OP_SOD match start of data: \A
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OP_SOM, start of match (subject + offset): \G
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OP_CIRC ^ (start of data, or after \n in multiline)
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OP_NOT_WORD_BOUNDARY \W
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OP_EODN match end of data or \n at end: \Z
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OP_EOD match end of data: \z
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OP_DOLL $ (end of data, or before \n in multiline)
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OP_EXTUNI match an extended Unicode character
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Repeating single characters
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---------------------------
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The common repeats (*, +, ?) when applied to a single character use the
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In ASCII mode, these are two-byte items; in UTF-8 mode, the length is variable.
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Those with "MIN" in their name are the minimizing versions. Each is followed by
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the character that is to be repeated. Other repeats make use of
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which are followed by a two-byte count (most significant first) and the
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repeated character. OP_UPTO matches from 0 to the given number. A repeat with a
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non-zero minimum and a fixed maximum is coded as an OP_EXACT followed by an
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OP_UPTO (or OP_MINUPTO).
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Repeating character types
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-------------------------
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Repeats of things like \d are done exactly as for single characters, except
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that instead of a character, the opcode for the type is stored in the data
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byte. The opcodes are:
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Match by Unicode property
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-------------------------
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OP_PROP and OP_NOTPROP are used for positive and negative matches of a
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character by testing its Unicode property (the \p and \P escape sequences).
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Each is followed by a single byte that encodes the desired property value.
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Repeats of these items use the OP_TYPESTAR etc. set of opcodes, followed by two
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bytes: OP_PROP or OP_NOTPROP and then the desired property value.
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Matching literal characters
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---------------------------
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The OP_CHAR opcode is followed by a single character that is to be matched
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casefully. For caseless matching, OP_CHARNC is used. In UTF-8 mode, the
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character may be more than one byte long. (Earlier versions of PCRE used
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multi-character strings, but this was changed to allow some new features to be
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If there is only one character, OP_CHAR or OP_CHARNC is used for a positive
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class, and OP_NOT for a negative one (that is, for something like [^a]).
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However, in UTF-8 mode, the use of OP_NOT applies only to characters with
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values < 128, because OP_NOT is confined to single bytes.
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Another set of repeating opcodes (OP_NOTSTAR etc.) are used for a repeated,
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negated, single-character class. The normal ones (OP_STAR etc.) are used for a
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repeated positive single-character class.
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When there's more than one character in a class and all the characters are less
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than 256, OP_CLASS is used for a positive class, and OP_NCLASS for a negative
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one. In either case, the opcode is followed by a 32-byte bit map containing a 1
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bit for every character that is acceptable. The bits are counted from the least
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significant end of each byte.
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The reason for having both OP_CLASS and OP_NCLASS is so that, in UTF-8 mode,
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subject characters with values greater than 256 can be handled correctly. For
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OP_CLASS they don't match, whereas for OP_NCLASS they do.
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For classes containing characters with values > 255, OP_XCLASS is used. It
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optionally uses a bit map (if any characters lie within it), followed by a list
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of pairs and single characters. There is a flag character than indicates
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whether it's a positive or a negative class.
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OP_REF is followed by two bytes containing the reference number.
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Repeating character classes and back references
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-----------------------------------------------
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Single-character classes are handled specially (see above). This applies to
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OP_CLASS and OP_REF. In both cases, the repeat information follows the base
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item. The matching code looks at the following opcode to see if it is one of
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All but the last two are just single-byte items. The others are followed by
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four bytes of data, comprising the minimum and maximum repeat counts.
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Brackets and alternation
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------------------------
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A pair of non-capturing (round) brackets is wrapped round each expression at
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compile time, so alternation always happens in the context of brackets.
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Non-capturing brackets use the opcode OP_BRA, while capturing brackets use
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OP_BRA+1, OP_BRA+2, etc. [Note for North Americans: "bracket" to some English
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speakers, including myself, can be round, square, curly, or pointy. Hence this
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Originally PCRE was limited to 99 capturing brackets (so as not to use up all
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the opcodes). From release 3.5, there is no limit. What happens is that the
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first ones, up to EXTRACT_BASIC_MAX are handled with separate opcodes, as
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above. If there are more, the opcode is set to EXTRACT_BASIC_MAX+1, and the
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first operation in the bracket is OP_BRANUMBER, followed by a 2-byte bracket
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number. This opcode is ignored while matching, but is fished out when handling
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the bracket itself. (They could have all been done like this, but I was making
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A bracket opcode is followed by LINK_SIZE bytes which give the offset to the
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next alternative OP_ALT or, if there aren't any branches, to the matching
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OP_KET opcode. Each OP_ALT is followed by LINK_SIZE bytes giving the offset to
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the next one, or to the OP_KET opcode.
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OP_KET is used for subpatterns that do not repeat indefinitely, while
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OP_KETRMIN and OP_KETRMAX are used for indefinite repetitions, minimally or
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maximally respectively. All three are followed by LINK_SIZE bytes giving (as a
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positive number) the offset back to the matching OP_BRA opcode.
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If a subpattern is quantified such that it is permitted to match zero times, it
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is preceded by one of OP_BRAZERO or OP_BRAMINZERO. These are single-byte
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opcodes which tell the matcher that skipping this subpattern entirely is a
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A subpattern with an indefinite maximum repetition is replicated in the
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compiled data its minimum number of times (or once with OP_BRAZERO if the
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minimum is zero), with the final copy terminating with OP_KETRMIN or OP_KETRMAX
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A subpattern with a bounded maximum repetition is replicated in a nested
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fashion up to the maximum number of times, with OP_BRAZERO or OP_BRAMINZERO
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before each replication after the minimum, so that, for example, (abc){2,5} is
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compiled as (abc)(abc)((abc)((abc)(abc)?)?)?.
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Forward assertions are just like other subpatterns, but starting with one of
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the opcodes OP_ASSERT or OP_ASSERT_NOT. Backward assertions use the opcodes
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OP_ASSERTBACK and OP_ASSERTBACK_NOT, and the first opcode inside the assertion
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is OP_REVERSE, followed by a two byte count of the number of characters to move
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back the pointer in the subject string. When operating in UTF-8 mode, the count
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is a character count rather than a byte count. A separate count is present in
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each alternative of a lookbehind assertion, allowing them to have different
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Once-only subpatterns
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---------------------
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These are also just like other subpatterns, but they start with the opcode
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Conditional subpatterns
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-----------------------
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These are like other subpatterns, but they start with the opcode OP_COND. If
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the condition is a back reference, this is stored at the start of the
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subpattern using the opcode OP_CREF followed by two bytes containing the
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reference number. If the condition is "in recursion" (coded as "(?(R)"), the
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same scheme is used, with a "reference number" of 0xffff. Otherwise, a
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conditional subpattern always starts with one of the assertions.
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Recursion either matches the current regex, or some subexpression. The opcode
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OP_RECURSE is followed by an value which is the offset to the starting bracket
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from the start of the whole pattern.
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OP_CALLOUT is followed by one byte of data that holds a callout number in the
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range 0 to 254 for manual callouts, or 255 for an automatic callout. In both
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cases there follows a two-byte value giving the offset in the pattern to the
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start of the following item, and another two-byte item giving the length of the
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If any of the /i, /m, or /s options are changed within a pattern, an OP_OPT
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opcode is compiled, followed by one byte containing the new settings of these
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flags. If there are several alternatives, there is an occurrence of OP_OPT at
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the start of all those following the first options change, to set appropriate
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options for the start of the alternative. Immediately after the end of the
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group there is another such item to reset the flags to their previous values. A
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change of flag right at the very start of the pattern can be handled entirely
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at compile time, and so does not cause anything to be put into the compiled
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ext/pcre/pcrelib/doc/Tech.Notes
