# pcre2_compile man page

Return to the PCRE2 index page.

This page is part of the PCRE2 HTML documentation. It was generated automatically from the original man page. If there is any nonsense in it, please consult the man page, in case the conversion went wrong.
SYNOPSIS

#include <pcre2.h>

pcre2_code *pcre2_compile(PCRE2_SPTR pattern, PCRE2_SIZE length, uint32_t options, int *errorcode, PCRE2_SIZE *erroroffset, pcre2_compile_context *ccontext);

DESCRIPTION

This function compiles a regular expression pattern into an internal form. Its arguments are:

      pattern       A string containing expression to be compiled
      length        The length of the string or PCRE2_ZERO_TERMINATED
      options       Option bits
      errorcode     Where to put an error code
      erroffset     Where to put an error offset
      ccontext      Pointer to a compile context or NULL

The length of the string and any error offset that is returned are in code units, not characters. A compile context is needed only if you want to change

      What \R matches (Unicode newlines or CR, LF, CRLF only)
      PCRE2's character tables
      The newline character sequence
      The compile time nested parentheses limit

or provide an external function for stack size checking. The option bits are:

      PCRE2_ANCHORED           Force pattern anchoring
      PCRE2_ALT_BSUX           Alternative handling of \u, \U, and \x
      PCRE2_ALT_CIRCUMFLEX     Alternative handling of ^ in multiline mode
      PCRE2_AUTO_CALLOUT       Compile automatic callouts
      PCRE2_CASELESS           Do caseless matching
      PCRE2_DOLLAR_ENDONLY     $ not to match newline at end
      PCRE2_DOTALL             . matches anything including NL
      PCRE2_DUPNAMES           Allow duplicate names for subpatterns
      PCRE2_EXTENDED           Ignore white space and # comments
      PCRE2_FIRSTLINE          Force matching to be before newline
      PCRE2_MATCH_UNSET_BACKREF  Match unset back references
      PCRE2_MULTILINE          ^ and $ match newlines within data
      PCRE2_NEVER_BACKSLASH_C  Lock out the use of \C in patterns
      PCRE2_NEVER_UCP          Lock out PCRE2_UCP, e.g. via (*UCP)
      PCRE2_NEVER_UTF          Lock out PCRE2_UTF, e.g. via (*UTF)
      PCRE2_NO_AUTO_CAPTURE    Disable numbered capturing paren-
                                theses (named ones available)
      PCRE2_NO_AUTO_POSSESS    Disable auto-possessification
      PCRE2_NO_DOTSTAR_ANCHOR  Disable automatic anchoring for .*
      PCRE2_NO_START_OPTIMIZE  Disable match-time start optimizations
      PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK       Do not check the pattern for UTF validity
                                 (only relevant if PCRE2_UTF is set)
      PCRE2_UCP                Use Unicode properties for \d, \w, etc.
      PCRE2_UNGREEDY           Invert greediness of quantifiers
      PCRE2_UTF                Treat pattern and subjects as UTF strings

PCRE2 must be built with Unicode support in order to use PCRE2_UTF, PCRE2_UCP and related options.

The yield of the function is a pointer to a private data structure that contains the compiled pattern, or NULL if an error was detected.

There is a complete description of the PCRE2 native API in the pcre2api page and a description of the POSIX API in the pcre2posix page.

Return to the PCRE2 index page.