Perl-compatible regular expressions matches strings against regular expressions The g_regex_*() functions implement regular expression pattern matching using syntax and semantics similar to Perl regular expression. Some functions accept a start_position argument, setting it differs from just passing over a shortened string and setting #G_REGEX_MATCH_NOTBOL in the case of a pattern that begins with any kind of lookbehind assertion. For example, consider the pattern "\Biss\B" which finds occurrences of "iss" in the middle of words. ("\B" matches only if the current position in the subject is not a word boundary.) When applied to the string "Mississipi" from the fourth byte, namely "issipi", it does not match, because "\B" is always false at the start of the subject, which is deemed to be a word boundary. However, if the entire string is passed , but with start_position set to 4, it finds the second occurrence of "iss" because it is able to look behind the starting point to discover that it is preceded by a letter. Note that, unless you set the #G_REGEX_RAW flag, all the strings passed to these functions must be encoded in UTF-8. The lengths and the positions inside the strings are in bytes and not in characters, so, for instance, "\xc3\xa0" (i.e. "à") is two bytes long but it is treated as a single character. If you set #G_REGEX_RAW the strings can be non-valid UTF-8 strings and a byte is treated as a character, so "\xc3\xa0" is two bytes and two characters long. When matching a pattern, "\n" matches only against a "\n" character in the string, and "\r" matches only a "\r" character. To match any newline sequence use "\R". This particular group matches either the two-character sequence CR + LF ("\r\n"), or one of the single characters LF (linefeed, U+000A, "\n"), VT (vertical tab, U+000B, "\v"), FF (formfeed, U+000C, "\f"), CR (carriage return, U+000D, "\r"), NEL (next line, U+0085), LS (line separator, U+2028), or PS (paragraph separator, U+2029). The behaviour of the dot, circumflex, and dollar metacharacters are affected by newline characters, the default is to recognize any newline character (the same characters recognized by "\R"). This can be changed with #G_REGEX_NEWLINE_CR, #G_REGEX_NEWLINE_LF and #G_REGEX_NEWLINE_CRLF compile options, and with #G_REGEX_MATCH_NEWLINE_ANY, #G_REGEX_MATCH_NEWLINE_CR, #G_REGEX_MATCH_NEWLINE_LF and #G_REGEX_MATCH_NEWLINE_CRLF match options. These settings are also relevant when compiling a pattern if #G_REGEX_EXTENDED is set, and an unescaped "#" outside a character class is encountered. This indicates a comment that lasts until after the next newline. Creating and manipulating the same #GRegex structure from different threads is not a problem as #GRegex does not modify its internal state between creation and destruction, on the other hand #GMatchInfo is not threadsafe. The regular expressions low level functionalities are obtained through the excellent PCRE library written by Philip Hazel. Error codes returned by regular expressions functions. @G_REGEX_ERROR_COMPILE: Compilation of the regular expression failed. @G_REGEX_ERROR_OPTIMIZE: Optimization of the regular expression failed. @G_REGEX_ERROR_REPLACE: Replacement failed due to an ill-formed replacement string. @G_REGEX_ERROR_MATCH: The match process failed. @G_REGEX_ERROR_INTERNAL: Internal error of the regular expression engine. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_STRAY_BACKSLASH: "\\" at end of pattern. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_MISSING_CONTROL_CHAR: "\\c" at end of pattern. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_UNRECOGNIZED_ESCAPE: Unrecognized character follows "\\". Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_QUANTIFIERS_OUT_OF_ORDER: Numbers out of order in "{}" quantifier. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_QUANTIFIER_TOO_BIG: Number too big in "{}" quantifier. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_UNTERMINATED_CHARACTER_CLASS: Missing terminating "]" for character class. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_INVALID_ESCAPE_IN_CHARACTER_CLASS: Invalid escape sequence in character class. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_RANGE_OUT_OF_ORDER: Range out of order in character class. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_NOTHING_TO_REPEAT: Nothing to repeat. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_UNRECOGNIZED_CHARACTER: Unrecognized character after "(?", "(?<" or "(?P". Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_POSIX_NAMED_CLASS_OUTSIDE_CLASS: POSIX named classes are supported only within a class. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_UNMATCHED_PARENTHESIS: Missing terminating ")" or ")" without opening "(". Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_INEXISTENT_SUBPATTERN_REFERENCE: Reference to non-existent subpattern. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_UNTERMINATED_COMMENT: Missing terminating ")" after comment. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_EXPRESSION_TOO_LARGE: Regular expression too large. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_MEMORY_ERROR: Failed to get memory. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_VARIABLE_LENGTH_LOOKBEHIND: Lookbehind assertion is not fixed length. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_MALFORMED_CONDITION: Malformed number or name after "(?(". Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_TOO_MANY_CONDITIONAL_BRANCHES: Conditional group contains more than two branches. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_ASSERTION_EXPECTED: Assertion expected after "(?(". Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_UNKNOWN_POSIX_CLASS_NAME: Unknown POSIX class name. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_POSIX_COLLATING_ELEMENTS_NOT_SUPPORTED: POSIX collating elements are not supported. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_HEX_CODE_TOO_LARGE: Character value in "\\x{...}" sequence is too large. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_INVALID_CONDITION: Invalid condition "(?(0)". Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_SINGLE_BYTE_MATCH_IN_LOOKBEHIND: \\C not allowed in lookbehind assertion. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_INFINITE_LOOP: Recursive call could loop indefinitely. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_MISSING_SUBPATTERN_NAME_TERMINATOR: Missing terminator in subpattern name. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_DUPLICATE_SUBPATTERN_NAME: Two named subpatterns have the same name. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_MALFORMED_PROPERTY: Malformed "\\P" or "\\p" sequence. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_UNKNOWN_PROPERTY: Unknown property name after "\\P" or "\\p". Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_SUBPATTERN_NAME_TOO_LONG: Subpattern name is too long (maximum 32 characters). Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_TOO_MANY_SUBPATTERNS: Too many named subpatterns (maximum 10,000). Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_INVALID_OCTAL_VALUE: Octal value is greater than "\\377". Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_TOO_MANY_BRANCHES_IN_DEFINE: "DEFINE" group contains more than one branch. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_DEFINE_REPETION: Repeating a "DEFINE" group is not allowed. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_INCONSISTENT_NEWLINE_OPTIONS: Inconsistent newline options. Since 2.16 @G_REGEX_ERROR_MISSING_BACK_REFERENCE: "\\g" is not followed by a braced name or an optionally braced non-zero number. Since 2.16 @Since: 2.14 Error domain for regular expressions. Errors in this domain will be from the #GRegexError enumeration. See #GError for information on error domains. @Since: 2.14 Flags specifying compile-time options. @G_REGEX_CASELESS: Letters in the pattern match both upper and lower case letters. This option can be changed within a pattern by a "(?i)" option setting. @G_REGEX_MULTILINE: By default, GRegex treats the strings as consisting of a single line of characters (even if it actually contains newlines). The "start of line" metacharacter ("^") matches only at the start of the string, while the "end of line" metacharacter ("$") matches only at the end of the string, or before a terminating newline (unless #G_REGEX_DOLLAR_ENDONLY is set). When #G_REGEX_MULTILINE is set, the "start of line" and "end of line" constructs match immediately following or immediately before any newline in the string, respectively, as well as at the very start and end. This can be changed within a pattern by a "(?m)" option setting. @G_REGEX_DOTALL: A dot metacharater (".") in the pattern matches all characters, including newlines. Without it, newlines are excluded. This option can be changed within a pattern by a ("?s") option setting. @G_REGEX_EXTENDED: Whitespace data characters in the pattern are totally ignored except when escaped or inside a character class. Whitespace does not include the VT character (code 11). In addition, characters between an unescaped "#" outside a character class and the next newline character, inclusive, are also ignored. This can be changed within a pattern by a "(?x)" option setting. @G_REGEX_ANCHORED: The pattern is forced to be "anchored", that is, it is constrained to match only at the first matching point in the string that is being searched. This effect can also be achieved by appropriate constructs in the pattern itself such as the "^" metacharater. @G_REGEX_DOLLAR_ENDONLY: A dollar metacharacter ("$") in the pattern matches only at the end of the string. Without this option, a dollar also matches immediately before the final character if it is a newline (but not before any other newlines). This option is ignored if #G_REGEX_MULTILINE is set. @G_REGEX_UNGREEDY: Inverts the "greediness" of the quantifiers so that they are not greedy by default, but become greedy if followed by "?". It can also be set by a "(?U)" option setting within the pattern. @G_REGEX_RAW: Usually strings must be valid UTF-8 strings, using this flag they are considered as a raw sequence of bytes. @G_REGEX_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE: Disables the use of numbered capturing parentheses in the pattern. Any opening parenthesis that is not followed by "?" behaves as if it were followed by "?:" but named parentheses can still be used for capturing (and they acquire numbers in the usual way). @G_REGEX_OPTIMIZE: Optimize the regular expression. If the pattern will be used many times, then it may be worth the effort to optimize it to improve the speed of matches. @G_REGEX_DUPNAMES: Names used to identify capturing subpatterns need not be unique. This can be helpful for certain types of pattern when it is known that only one instance of the named subpattern can ever be matched. @G_REGEX_NEWLINE_CR: Usually any newline character is recognized, if this option is set, the only recognized newline character is '\r'. @G_REGEX_NEWLINE_LF: Usually any newline character is recognized, if this option is set, the only recognized newline character is '\n'. @G_REGEX_NEWLINE_CRLF: Usually any newline character is recognized, if this option is set, the only recognized newline character sequence is '\r\n'. @Since: 2.14 Flags specifying match-time options. @G_REGEX_MATCH_ANCHORED: The pattern is forced to be "anchored", that is, it is constrained to match only at the first matching point in the string that is being searched. This effect can also be achieved by appropriate constructs in the pattern itself such as the "^" metacharater. @G_REGEX_MATCH_NOTBOL: Specifies that first character of the string is not the beginning of a line, so the circumflex metacharacter should not match before it. Setting this without G_REGEX_MULTILINE (at compile time) causes circumflex never to match. This option affects only the behaviour of the circumflex metacharacter, it does not affect "\A". @G_REGEX_MATCH_NOTEOL: Specifies that the end of the subject string is not the end of a line, so the dollar metacharacter should not match it nor (except in multiline mode) a newline immediately before it. Setting this without G_REGEX_MULTILINE (at compile time) causes dollar never to match. This option affects only the behaviour of the dollar metacharacter, it does not affect "\Z" or "\z". @G_REGEX_MATCH_NOTEMPTY: An empty string is not considered to be a valid match if this option is set. If there are alternatives in the pattern, they are tried. If all the alternatives match the empty string, the entire match fails. For example, if the pattern "a?b?" is applied to a string not beginning with "a" or "b", it matches the empty string at the start of the string. With this flag set, this match is not valid, so GRegex searches further into the string for occurrences of "a" or "b". @G_REGEX_MATCH_PARTIAL: Turns on the partial matching feature, for more documentation on partial matching see g_match_info_is_partial_match(). @G_REGEX_MATCH_NEWLINE_CR: Overrides the newline definition set when creating a new #GRegex, setting the '\r' character as line terminator. @G_REGEX_MATCH_NEWLINE_LF: Overrides the newline definition set when creating a new #GRegex, setting the '\n' character as line terminator. @G_REGEX_MATCH_NEWLINE_CRLF: Overrides the newline definition set when creating a new #GRegex, setting the '\r\n' characters as line terminator. @G_REGEX_MATCH_NEWLINE_ANY: Overrides the newline definition set when creating a new #GRegex, any newline character or character sequence is recognized. @Since: 2.14 A GRegex is the "compiled" form of a regular expression pattern. This structure is opaque and its fields cannot be accessed directly. @Since: 2.14 Specifies the type of the function passed to g_regex_replace_eval(). It is called for each occurance of the pattern in the string passed to g_regex_replace_eval(), and it should append the replacement to @result. @match_info: the #GMatchInfo generated by the match. Use g_match_info_get_regex() and g_match_info_get_string() if you need the #GRegex or the matched string. @result: a #GString containing the new string @user_data: user data passed to g_regex_replace_eval() @Returns: %FALSE to continue the replacement process, %TRUE to stop it @Since: 2.14 @pattern: @compile_options: @match_options: @error: @Returns: @regex: @Returns: @regex: @regex: @Returns: @regex: @Returns: @regex: @Returns: @regex: @name: @Returns: @string: @length: @Returns: @pattern: @string: @compile_options: @match_options: @Returns: @regex: @string: @match_options: @match_info: @Returns: @regex: @string: @string_len: @start_position: @match_options: @match_info: @error: @Returns: @regex: @string: @match_options: @match_info: @Returns: @regex: @string: @string_len: @start_position: @match_options: @match_info: @error: @Returns: @pattern: @string: @compile_options: @match_options: @Returns: @regex: @string: @match_options: @Returns: @regex: @string: @string_len: @start_position: @match_options: @max_tokens: @error: @Returns: @regex: @string: @string_len: @start_position: @replacement: @match_options: @error: @Returns: @regex: @string: @string_len: @start_position: @replacement: @match_options: @error: @Returns: @regex: @string: @string_len: @start_position: @match_options: @eval: @user_data: @error: @Returns: @replacement: @has_references: @error: @Returns: #GMatchInfo is used to retrieve information about the regular expression match which created it. This structure is opaque and its fields cannot be accessed directly. @Since: 2.14 @match_info: @Returns: @match_info: @Returns: @match_info: @match_info: @Returns: @match_info: @error: @Returns: @match_info: @Returns: @match_info: @Returns: @match_info: @string_to_expand: @error: @Returns: @match_info: @match_num: @Returns: @match_info: @match_num: @start_pos: @end_pos: @Returns: @match_info: @name: @Returns: @match_info: @name: @start_pos: @end_pos: @Returns: @match_info: @Returns: