re

Section: Perl Programmers Reference Guide (3pm)
Updated: 2010-10-12
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NAME

re - Perl pragma to alter regular expression behaviour

SYNOPSIS

    use re 'taint';
    ($x) = ($^X =~ /^(.*)$/s);     # $x is tainted here

    $pat = '(?{ $foo = 1 })';
    use re 'eval';
    /foo${pat}bar/;                # won't fail (when not under -T switch)

    {
        no re 'taint';             # the default
        ($x) = ($^X =~ /^(.*)$/s); # $x is not tainted here

        no re 'eval';              # the default
        /foo${pat}bar/;            # disallowed (with or without -T switch)
    }

    use re 'debug';                # output debugging info during
    /^(.*)$/s;                     #     compile and run time


    use re 'debugcolor';           # same as 'debug', but with colored output
    ...

    use re qw(Debug All);          # Finer tuned debugging options.
    use re qw(Debug More);
    no re qw(Debug ALL);           # Turn of all re debugging in this scope

    use re qw(is_regexp regexp_pattern); # import utility functions
    my ($pat,$mods)=regexp_pattern(qr/foo/i);
    if (is_regexp($obj)) { 
        print "Got regexp: ",
            scalar regexp_pattern($obj); # just as perl would stringify it
    }                                    # but no hassle with blessed re's.

(We use $^X in these examples because it's tainted by default.)

DESCRIPTION

'taint' mode

When "use re 'taint'" is in effect, and a tainted string is the target of a regex, the regex memories (or values returned by the m// operator in list context) are tainted. This feature is useful when regex operations on tainted data aren't meant to extract safe substrings, but to perform other transformations.

'eval' mode

When "use re 'eval'" is in effect, a regex is allowed to contain "(?{ ... })" zero-width assertions even if regular expression contains variable interpolation. That is normally disallowed, since it is a potential security risk. Note that this pragma is ignored when the regular expression is obtained from tainted data, i.e. evaluation is always disallowed with tainted regular expressions. See ``(?{ code })'' in perlre.

For the purpose of this pragma, interpolation of precompiled regular expressions (i.e., the result of "qr//") is not considered variable interpolation. Thus:

    /foo${pat}bar/

is allowed if $pat is a precompiled regular expression, even if $pat contains "(?{ ... })" assertions.

'debug' mode

When "use re 'debug'" is in effect, perl emits debugging messages when compiling and using regular expressions. The output is the same as that obtained by running a "-DDEBUGGING"-enabled perl interpreter with the -Dr switch. It may be quite voluminous depending on the complexity of the match. Using "debugcolor" instead of "debug" enables a form of output that can be used to get a colorful display on terminals that understand termcap color sequences. Set $ENV{PERL_RE_TC} to a comma-separated list of "termcap" properties to use for highlighting strings on/off, pre-point part on/off. See ``Debugging regular expressions'' in perldebug for additional info.

As of 5.9.5 the directive "use re 'debug'" and its equivalents are lexically scoped, as the other directives are. However they have both compile-time and run-time effects.

See ``Pragmatic Modules'' in perlmodlib.

'Debug' mode

Similarly "use re 'Debug'" produces debugging output, the difference being that it allows the fine tuning of what debugging output will be emitted. Options are divided into three groups, those related to compilation, those related to execution and those related to special purposes. The options are as follows:

Compile related options

COMPILE: Turns on all compile related debug options.
PARSE: Turns on debug output related to the process of parsing the pattern.
OPTIMISE: Enables output related to the optimisation phase of compilation.
TRIEC: Detailed info about trie compilation.
DUMP: Dump the final program out after it is compiled and optimised.

Execute related options

EXECUTE: Turns on all execute related debug options.
MATCH: Turns on debugging of the main matching loop.
TRIEE: Extra debugging of how tries execute.
INTUIT: Enable debugging of start point optimisations.

Extra debugging options

EXTRA

Turns on all ``extra'' debugging options.

BUFFERS

Enable debugging the capture buffer storage during match. Warning, this can potentially produce extremely large output.

TRIEM

Enable enhanced TRIE debugging. Enhances both TRIEE and TRIEC.

STATE

Enable debugging of states in the engine.

STACK

Enable debugging of the recursion stack in the engine. Enabling or disabling this option automatically does the same for debugging states as well. This output from this can be quite large.

OPTIMISEM

Enable enhanced optimisation debugging and start point optimisations. Probably not useful except when debugging the regex engine itself.

OFFSETS

Dump offset information. This can be used to see how regops correlate to the pattern. Output format is

   NODENUM:POSITION[LENGTH]

Where 1 is the position of the first char in the string. Note that position can be 0, or larger than the actual length of the pattern, likewise length can be zero.

OFFSETSDBG

Enable debugging of offsets information. This emits copious amounts of trace information and doesn't mesh well with other debug options.

Almost definitely only useful to people hacking on the offsets part of the debug engine.

Other useful flags

These are useful shortcuts to save on the typing.

ALL

Enable all options at once except OFFSETS, OFFSETSDBG and BUFFERS

All

Enable DUMP and all execute options. Equivalent to:

  use re 'debug';

MORE

More

Enable TRIEM and all execute compile and execute options.

As of 5.9.5 the directive "use re 'debug'" and its equivalents are lexically scoped, as the other directives are. However they have both compile-time and run-time effects.

Exportable Functions

As of perl 5.9.5 're' debug contains a number of utility functions that may be optionally exported into the caller's namespace. They are listed below.

is_regexp($ref)

Returns true if the argument is a compiled regular expression as returned by "qr//", false if it is not.

This function will not be confused by overloading or blessing. In internals terms, this extracts the regexp pointer out of the PERL_MAGIC_qr structure so it it cannot be fooled.

regexp_pattern($ref)

If the argument is a compiled regular expression as returned by "qr//", then this function returns the pattern.

In list context it returns a two element list, the first element containing the pattern and the second containing the modifiers used when the pattern was compiled.

  my ($pat, $mods) = regexp_pattern($ref);

In scalar context it returns the same as perl would when strigifying a raw "qr//" with the same pattern inside. If the argument is not a compiled reference then this routine returns false but defined in scalar context, and the empty list in list context. Thus the following

    if (regexp_pattern($ref) eq '(?i-xsm:foo)')

will be warning free regardless of what $ref actually is.

Like "is_regexp" this function will not be confused by overloading or blessing of the object.

regmust($ref)

If the argument is a compiled regular expression as returned by "qr//", then this function returns what the optimiser consiers to be the longest anchored fixed string and longest floating fixed string in the pattern.

A fixed string is defined as being a substring that must appear for the pattern to match. An anchored fixed string is a fixed string that must appear at a particular offset from the beginning of the match. A floating fixed string is defined as a fixed string that can appear at any point in a range of positions relative to the start of the match. For example,

    my $qr = qr/here .* there/x;
    my ($anchored, $floating) = regmust($qr);
    print "anchored:'$anchored'\nfloating:'$floating'\n";

results in

    anchored:'here'
    floating:'there'

Because the "here" is before the ".*" in the pattern, its position can be determined exactly. That's not true, however, for the "there"; it could appear at any point after where the anchored string appeared. Perl uses both for its optimisations, prefering the longer, or, if they are equal, the floating.

NOTE: This may not necessarily be the definitive longest anchored and floating string. This will be what the optimiser of the Perl that you are using thinks is the longest. If you believe that the result is wrong please report it via the perlbug utility.

regname($name,$all)

Returns the contents of a named buffer of the last successful match. If $all is true, then returns an array ref containing one entry per buffer, otherwise returns the first defined buffer.

regnames($all)

Returns a list of all of the named buffers defined in the last successful match. If $all is true, then it returns all names defined, if not it returns only names which were involved in the match.

regnames_count()

Returns the number of distinct names defined in the pattern used for the last successful match.

Note: this result is always the actual number of distinct named buffers defined, it may not actually match that which is returned by "regnames()" and related routines when those routines have not been called with the $all parameter set.

re