pcre2_substitute(3) — Linux manual page

NAME \| SYNOPSIS \| DESCRIPTION \| COLOPHON

PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE(3)     Library Functions Manual     PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE(3)

NAME top

       PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

SYNOPSIS top


       #include <pcre2.h>

       int pcre2_substitute(const pcre2_code *code, PCRE2_SPTR subject,
         PCRE2_SIZE length, PCRE2_SIZE startoffset,
         uint32_t options, pcre2_match_data *match_data,
         pcre2_match_context *mcontext, PCRE2_SPTR replacement,
         PCRE2_SIZE rlength, PCRE2_UCHAR *outputbuffer,
         PCRE2_SIZE *outlengthptr);

DESCRIPTION top


       This function matches a compiled regular expression against a
       given subject string, using a matching algorithm that is similar
       to Perl's. It then makes a copy of the subject, substituting a
       replacement string for what was matched.  Its arguments are:

         code          Points to the compiled pattern
         subject       Points to the subject string
         length        Length of the subject string
         startoffset   Offset in the subject at which to start matching
         options       Option bits
         match_data    Points to a match data block, or is NULL
         mcontext      Points to a match context, or is NULL
         replacement   Points to the replacement string
         rlength       Length of the replacement string
         outputbuffer  Points to the output buffer
         outlengthptr  Points to the length of the output buffer

       A match data block is needed only if you want to inspect the data
       from the final match that is returned in that block or if
       PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_MATCHED is set. A match context is needed only
       if you want to:

         Set up a callout function
         Set a matching offset limit
         Change the backtracking match limit
         Change the backtracking depth limit
         Set custom memory management in the match context

       The length, startoffset and rlength values are code units, not
       characters, as is the contents of the variable pointed at by
       outlengthptr. This variable must contain the length of the output
       buffer when the function is called. If the function is
       successful, the value is changed to the length of the new string,
       excluding the trailing zero that is automatically added.

       The subject and replacement lengths can be given as
       PCRE2_ZERO_TERMINATED for zero-terminated strings. The options
       are:

         PCRE2_ANCHORED                     Match only at the first
       position
         PCRE2_ENDANCHORED                  Match only at end of subject
         PCRE2_NOTBOL                       Subject is not the beginning
       of a
                                             line
         PCRE2_NOTEOL                       Subject is not the end of a
       line
         PCRE2_NOTEMPTY                     An empty string is not a
                                             valid match
         PCRE2_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART             An empty string at the start
       of
                                             the subject is not a valid
       match
         PCRE2_NO_JIT                       Do not use JIT matching
         PCRE2_NO_UTF_CHECK                 Do not check for UTF
       validity in
                                             the subject or replacement
                                             (only relevant if PCRE2_UTF
       was
                                             set at compile time)
         PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_EXTENDED          Do extended replacement
       processing
         PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_GLOBAL            Replace all occurrences in
       the
                                             subject
         PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_LITERAL           The replacement string is
       literal
         PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_MATCHED           Use pre-existing match data
       for
                                             first match
         PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_OVERFLOW_LENGTH   If overflow, compute needed
       length
         PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_REPLACEMENT_ONLY  Return only replacement
       string(s)
         PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_UNKNOWN_UNSET     Treat unknown group as unset
         PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_UNSET_EMPTY       Simple unset insert = empty
       string

       If PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_LITERAL is set, PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_EXTENDED,
       PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_UNKNOWN_UNSET, and PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_UNSET_EMPTY
       are ignored.

       If PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_MATCHED is set, match_data must be non-NULL;
       its contents must be the result of a call to pcre2_match() using
       the same pattern and subject.

       The function returns the number of substitutions, which may be
       zero if there are no matches. The result may be greater than one
       only when PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE_GLOBAL is set. In the event of an
       error, a negative error code is returned.

       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.

COLOPHON top

       This page is part of the PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular
       Expressions) project.  Information about the project can be found
       at ⟨http://www.pcre.org/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this
       manual page, see
       ⟨http://bugs.exim.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=PCRE⟩.  This page was
       obtained from the tarball fetched from
       ⟨https://github.com/PhilipHazel/pcre2.git⟩ on 2024-06-14.  If you
       discover any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page,
       or you believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for
       the page, or you have corrections or improvements to the
       information in this COLOPHON (which is not part of the original
       manual page), send a mail to man-pages@man7.org

PCRE2 10.35                  22 January 2020         PCRE2_SUBSTITUTE(3)