1Technical Notes about PCRE 2-------------------------- 3 4These are very rough technical notes that record potentially useful information 5about PCRE internals. For information about testing PCRE, see the pcretest 6documentation and the comment at the head of the RunTest file. 7 8 9Historical note 1 10----------------- 11 12Many years ago I implemented some regular expression functions to an algorithm 13suggested by Martin Richards. These were not Unix-like in form, and were quite 14restricted in what they could do by comparison with Perl. The interesting part 15about the algorithm was that the amount of space required to hold the compiled 16form of an expression was known in advance. The code to apply an expression did 17not operate by backtracking, as the original Henry Spencer code and current 18Perl code does, but instead checked all possibilities simultaneously by keeping 19a list of current states and checking all of them as it advanced through the 20subject string. In the terminology of Jeffrey Friedl's book, it was a "DFA 21algorithm", though it was not a traditional Finite State Machine (FSM). When 22the pattern was all used up, all remaining states were possible matches, and 23the one matching the longest subset of the subject string was chosen. This did 24not necessarily maximize the individual wild portions of the pattern, as is 25expected in Unix and Perl-style regular expressions. 26 27 28Historical note 2 29----------------- 30 31By contrast, the code originally written by Henry Spencer (which was 32subsequently heavily modified for Perl) compiles the expression twice: once in 33a dummy mode in order to find out how much store will be needed, and then for 34real. (The Perl version probably doesn't do this any more; I'm talking about 35the original library.) The execution function operates by backtracking and 36maximizing (or, optionally, minimizing in Perl) the amount of the subject that 37matches individual wild portions of the pattern. This is an "NFA algorithm" in 38Friedl's terminology. 39 40 41OK, here's the real stuff 42------------------------- 43 44For the set of functions that form the "basic" PCRE library (which are 45unrelated to those mentioned above), I tried at first to invent an algorithm 46that used an amount of store bounded by a multiple of the number of characters 47in the pattern, to save on compiling time. However, because of the greater 48complexity in Perl regular expressions, I couldn't do this. In any case, a 49first pass through the pattern is helpful for other reasons. 50 51 52Support for 16-bit and 32-bit data strings 53------------------------------------------- 54 55From release 8.30, PCRE supports 16-bit as well as 8-bit data strings; and from 56release 8.32, PCRE supports 32-bit data strings. The library can be compiled 57in any combination of 8-bit, 16-bit or 32-bit modes, creating up to three 58different libraries. In the description that follows, the word "short" is used 59for a 16-bit data quantity, and the word "unit" is used for a quantity that is 60a byte in 8-bit mode, a short in 16-bit mode and a 32-bit word in 32-bit mode. 61However, so as not to over-complicate the text, the names of PCRE functions are 62given in 8-bit form only. 63 64 65Computing the memory requirement: how it was 66-------------------------------------------- 67 68Up to and including release 6.7, PCRE worked by running a very degenerate first 69pass to calculate a maximum store size, and then a second pass to do the real 70compile - which might use a bit less than the predicted amount of memory. The 71idea was that this would turn out faster than the Henry Spencer code because 72the first pass is degenerate and the second pass can just store stuff straight 73into the vector, which it knows is big enough. 74 75 76Computing the memory requirement: how it is 77------------------------------------------- 78 79By the time I was working on a potential 6.8 release, the degenerate first pass 80had become very complicated and hard to maintain. Indeed one of the early 81things I did for 6.8 was to fix Yet Another Bug in the memory computation. Then 82I had a flash of inspiration as to how I could run the real compile function in 83a "fake" mode that enables it to compute how much memory it would need, while 84actually only ever using a few hundred bytes of working memory, and without too 85many tests of the mode that might slow it down. So I refactored the compiling 86functions to work this way. This got rid of about 600 lines of source. It 87should make future maintenance and development easier. As this was such a major 88change, I never released 6.8, instead upping the number to 7.0 (other quite 89major changes were also present in the 7.0 release). 90 91A side effect of this work was that the previous limit of 200 on the nesting 92depth of parentheses was removed. However, there is a downside: pcre_compile() 93runs more slowly than before (30% or more, depending on the pattern) because it 94is doing a full analysis of the pattern. My hope was that this would not be a 95big issue, and in the event, nobody has commented on it. 96 97At release 8.34, a limit on the nesting depth of parentheses was re-introduced 98(default 250, settable at build time) so as to put a limit on the amount of 99system stack used by pcre_compile(). This is a safety feature for environments 100with small stacks where the patterns are provided by users. 101 102 103Traditional matching function 104----------------------------- 105 106The "traditional", and original, matching function is called pcre_exec(), and 107it implements an NFA algorithm, similar to the original Henry Spencer algorithm 108and the way that Perl works. This is not surprising, since it is intended to be 109as compatible with Perl as possible. This is the function most users of PCRE 110will use most of the time. From release 8.20, if PCRE is compiled with 111just-in-time (JIT) support, and studying a compiled pattern with JIT is 112successful, the JIT code is run instead of the normal pcre_exec() code, but the 113result is the same. 114 115 116Supplementary matching function 117------------------------------- 118 119From PCRE 6.0, there is also a supplementary matching function called 120pcre_dfa_exec(). This implements a DFA matching algorithm that searches 121simultaneously for all possible matches that start at one point in the subject 122string. (Going back to my roots: see Historical Note 1 above.) This function 123intreprets the same compiled pattern data as pcre_exec(); however, not all the 124facilities are available, and those that are do not always work in quite the 125same way. See the user documentation for details. 126 127The algorithm that is used for pcre_dfa_exec() is not a traditional FSM, 128because it may have a number of states active at one time. More work would be 129needed at compile time to produce a traditional FSM where only one state is 130ever active at once. I believe some other regex matchers work this way. JIT 131support is not available for this kind of matching. 132 133 134Changeable options 135------------------ 136 137The /i, /m, or /s options (PCRE_CASELESS, PCRE_MULTILINE, PCRE_DOTALL, and some 138others) may change in the middle of patterns. From PCRE 8.13, their processing 139is handled entirely at compile time by generating different opcodes for the 140different settings. The runtime functions do not need to keep track of an 141options state any more. 142 143 144Format of compiled patterns 145--------------------------- 146 147The compiled form of a pattern is a vector of unsigned units (bytes in 8-bit 148mode, shorts in 16-bit mode, 32-bit words in 32-bit mode), containing items of 149variable length. The first unit in an item contains an opcode, and the length 150of the item is either implicit in the opcode or contained in the data that 151follows it. 152 153In many cases listed below, LINK_SIZE data values are specified for offsets 154within the compiled pattern. LINK_SIZE always specifies a number of bytes. The 155default value for LINK_SIZE is 2, but PCRE can be compiled to use 3-byte or 1564-byte values for these offsets, although this impairs the performance. (3-byte 157LINK_SIZE values are available only in 8-bit mode.) Specifing a LINK_SIZE 158larger than 2 is necessary only when patterns whose compiled length is greater 159than 64K are going to be processed. In this description, we assume the "normal" 160compilation options. Data values that are counts (e.g. quantifiers) are two 161bytes long in 8-bit mode (most significant byte first), or one unit in 16-bit 162and 32-bit modes. 163 164 165Opcodes with no following data 166------------------------------ 167 168These items are all just one unit long 169 170 OP_END end of pattern 171 OP_ANY match any one character other than newline 172 OP_ALLANY match any one character, including newline 173 OP_ANYBYTE match any single unit, even in UTF-8/16 mode 174 OP_SOD match start of data: \A 175 OP_SOM, start of match (subject + offset): \G 176 OP_SET_SOM, set start of match (\K) 177 OP_CIRC ^ (start of data) 178 OP_CIRCM ^ multiline mode (start of data or after newline) 179 OP_NOT_WORD_BOUNDARY \W 180 OP_WORD_BOUNDARY \w 181 OP_NOT_DIGIT \D 182 OP_DIGIT \d 183 OP_NOT_HSPACE \H 184 OP_HSPACE \h 185 OP_NOT_WHITESPACE \S 186 OP_WHITESPACE \s 187 OP_NOT_VSPACE \V 188 OP_VSPACE \v 189 OP_NOT_WORDCHAR \W 190 OP_WORDCHAR \w 191 OP_EODN match end of data or newline at end: \Z 192 OP_EOD match end of data: \z 193 OP_DOLL $ (end of data, or before final newline) 194 OP_DOLLM $ multiline mode (end of data or before newline) 195 OP_EXTUNI match an extended Unicode grapheme cluster 196 OP_ANYNL match any Unicode newline sequence 197 198 OP_ASSERT_ACCEPT ) 199 OP_ACCEPT ) These are Perl 5.10's "backtracking control 200 OP_COMMIT ) verbs". If OP_ACCEPT is inside capturing 201 OP_FAIL ) parentheses, it may be preceded by one or more 202 OP_PRUNE ) OP_CLOSE, each followed by a count that 203 OP_SKIP ) indicates which parentheses must be closed. 204 OP_THEN ) 205 206OP_ASSERT_ACCEPT is used when (*ACCEPT) is encountered within an assertion. 207This ends the assertion, not the entire pattern match. 208 209 210Backtracking control verbs with optional data 211--------------------------------------------- 212 213(*THEN) without an argument generates the opcode OP_THEN and no following data. 214OP_MARK is followed by the mark name, preceded by a one-unit length, and 215followed by a binary zero. For (*PRUNE), (*SKIP), and (*THEN) with arguments, 216the opcodes OP_PRUNE_ARG, OP_SKIP_ARG, and OP_THEN_ARG are used, with the name 217following in the same format as OP_MARK. 218 219 220Matching literal characters 221--------------------------- 222 223The OP_CHAR opcode is followed by a single character that is to be matched 224casefully. For caseless matching, OP_CHARI is used. In UTF-8 or UTF-16 modes, 225the character may be more than one unit long. In UTF-32 mode, characters 226are always exactly one unit long. 227 228If there is only one character in a character class, OP_CHAR or OP_CHARI is 229used for a positive class, and OP_NOT or OP_NOTI for a negative one (that is, 230for something like [^a]). 231 232 233Repeating single characters 234--------------------------- 235 236The common repeats (*, +, ?), when applied to a single character, use the 237following opcodes, which come in caseful and caseless versions: 238 239 Caseful Caseless 240 OP_STAR OP_STARI 241 OP_MINSTAR OP_MINSTARI 242 OP_POSSTAR OP_POSSTARI 243 OP_PLUS OP_PLUSI 244 OP_MINPLUS OP_MINPLUSI 245 OP_POSPLUS OP_POSPLUSI 246 OP_QUERY OP_QUERYI 247 OP_MINQUERY OP_MINQUERYI 248 OP_POSQUERY OP_POSQUERYI 249 250Each opcode is followed by the character that is to be repeated. In ASCII mode, 251these are two-unit items; in UTF-8 or UTF-16 modes, the length is variable; in 252UTF-32 mode these are one-unit items. Those with "MIN" in their names are the 253minimizing versions. Those with "POS" in their names are possessive versions. 254Other repeats make use of these opcodes: 255 256 Caseful Caseless 257 OP_UPTO OP_UPTOI 258 OP_MINUPTO OP_MINUPTOI 259 OP_POSUPTO OP_POSUPTOI 260 OP_EXACT OP_EXACTI 261 262Each of these is followed by a count and then the repeated character. OP_UPTO 263matches from 0 to the given number. A repeat with a non-zero minimum and a 264fixed maximum is coded as an OP_EXACT followed by an OP_UPTO (or OP_MINUPTO or 265OPT_POSUPTO). 266 267Another set of matching repeating opcodes (called OP_NOTSTAR, OP_NOTSTARI, 268etc.) are used for repeated, negated, single-character classes such as [^a]*. 269The normal single-character opcodes (OP_STAR, etc.) are used for repeated 270positive single-character classes. 271 272 273Repeating character types 274------------------------- 275 276Repeats of things like \d are done exactly as for single characters, except 277that instead of a character, the opcode for the type is stored in the data 278unit. The opcodes are: 279 280 OP_TYPESTAR 281 OP_TYPEMINSTAR 282 OP_TYPEPOSSTAR 283 OP_TYPEPLUS 284 OP_TYPEMINPLUS 285 OP_TYPEPOSPLUS 286 OP_TYPEQUERY 287 OP_TYPEMINQUERY 288 OP_TYPEPOSQUERY 289 OP_TYPEUPTO 290 OP_TYPEMINUPTO 291 OP_TYPEPOSUPTO 292 OP_TYPEEXACT 293 294 295Match by Unicode property 296------------------------- 297 298OP_PROP and OP_NOTPROP are used for positive and negative matches of a 299character by testing its Unicode property (the \p and \P escape sequences). 300Each is followed by two units that encode the desired property as a type and a 301value. The types are a set of #defines of the form PT_xxx, and the values are 302enumerations of the form ucp_xx, defined in the ucp.h source file. The value is 303relevant only for PT_GC (General Category), PT_PC (Particular Category), and 304PT_SC (Script). 305 306Repeats of these items use the OP_TYPESTAR etc. set of opcodes, followed by 307three units: OP_PROP or OP_NOTPROP, and then the desired property type and 308value. 309 310 311Character classes 312----------------- 313 314If there is only one character in a class, OP_CHAR or OP_CHARI is used for a 315positive class, and OP_NOT or OP_NOTI for a negative one (that is, for 316something like [^a]). 317 318A set of repeating opcodes (called OP_NOTSTAR etc.) are used for repeated, 319negated, single-character classes. The normal single-character opcodes 320(OP_STAR, etc.) are used for repeated positive single-character classes. 321 322When there is more than one character in a class, and all the code points are 323less than 256, OP_CLASS is used for a positive class, and OP_NCLASS for a 324negative one. In either case, the opcode is followed by a 32-byte (16-short, 3258-word) bit map containing a 1 bit for every character that is acceptable. The 326bits are counted from the least significant end of each unit. In caseless mode, 327bits for both cases are set. 328 329The reason for having both OP_CLASS and OP_NCLASS is so that, in UTF-8/16/32 330mode, subject characters with values greater than 255 can be handled correctly. 331For OP_CLASS they do not match, whereas for OP_NCLASS they do. 332 333For classes containing characters with values greater than 255 or that contain 334\p or \P, OP_XCLASS is used. It optionally uses a bit map if any code points 335are less than 256, followed by a list of pairs (for a range) and single 336characters. In caseless mode, both cases are explicitly listed. 337 338OP_XCLASS is followed by a unit containing flag bits: XCL_NOT indicates that 339this is a negative class, and XCL_MAP indicates that a bit map is present. 340There follows the bit map, if XCL_MAP is set, and then a sequence of items 341coded as follows: 342 343 XCL_END marks the end of the list 344 XCL_SINGLE one character follows 345 XCL_RANGE two characters follow 346 XCL_PROP a Unicode property (type, value) follows 347 XCL_NOTPROP a Unicode property (type, value) follows 348 349If a range starts with a code point less than 256 and ends with one greater 350than 256, an XCL_RANGE item is used, without setting any bits in the bit map. 351This means that if no other items in the class set bits in the map, a map is 352not needed. 353 354 355Back references 356--------------- 357 358OP_REF (caseful) or OP_REFI (caseless) is followed by a count containing the 359reference number if the reference is to a unique capturing group (either by 360number or by name). When named groups are used, there may be more than one 361group with the same name. In this case, a reference by name generates OP_DNREF 362or OP_DNREFI. These are followed by two counts: the index (not the byte offset) 363in the group name table of the first entry for the required name, followed by 364the number of groups with the same name. 365 366 367Repeating character classes and back references 368----------------------------------------------- 369 370Single-character classes are handled specially (see above). This section 371applies to other classes and also to back references. In both cases, the repeat 372information follows the base item. The matching code looks at the following 373opcode to see if it is one of 374 375 OP_CRSTAR 376 OP_CRMINSTAR 377 OP_CRPOSSTAR 378 OP_CRPLUS 379 OP_CRMINPLUS 380 OP_CRPOSPLUS 381 OP_CRQUERY 382 OP_CRMINQUERY 383 OP_CRPOSQUERY 384 OP_CRRANGE 385 OP_CRMINRANGE 386 OP_CRPOSRANGE 387 388All but the last three are single-unit items, with no data. The others are 389followed by the minimum and maximum repeat counts. 390 391 392Brackets and alternation 393------------------------ 394 395A pair of non-capturing round brackets is wrapped round each expression at 396compile time, so alternation always happens in the context of brackets. 397 398[Note for North Americans: "bracket" to some English speakers, including 399myself, can be round, square, curly, or pointy. Hence this usage rather than 400"parentheses".] 401 402Non-capturing brackets use the opcode OP_BRA. Originally PCRE was limited to 99 403capturing brackets and it used a different opcode for each one. From release 4043.5, the limit was removed by putting the bracket number into the data for 405higher-numbered brackets. From release 7.0 all capturing brackets are handled 406this way, using the single opcode OP_CBRA. 407 408A bracket opcode is followed by LINK_SIZE bytes which give the offset to the 409next alternative OP_ALT or, if there aren't any branches, to the matching 410OP_KET opcode. Each OP_ALT is followed by LINK_SIZE bytes giving the offset to 411the next one, or to the OP_KET opcode. For capturing brackets, the bracket 412number is a count that immediately follows the offset. 413 414OP_KET is used for subpatterns that do not repeat indefinitely, and OP_KETRMIN 415and OP_KETRMAX are used for indefinite repetitions, minimally or maximally 416respectively (see below for possessive repetitions). All three are followed by 417LINK_SIZE bytes giving (as a positive number) the offset back to the matching 418bracket opcode. 419 420If a subpattern is quantified such that it is permitted to match zero times, it 421is preceded by one of OP_BRAZERO, OP_BRAMINZERO, or OP_SKIPZERO. These are 422single-unit opcodes that tell the matcher that skipping the following 423subpattern entirely is a valid branch. In the case of the first two, not 424skipping the pattern is also valid (greedy and non-greedy). The third is used 425when a pattern has the quantifier {0,0}. It cannot be entirely discarded, 426because it may be called as a subroutine from elsewhere in the regex. 427 428A subpattern with an indefinite maximum repetition is replicated in the 429compiled data its minimum number of times (or once with OP_BRAZERO if the 430minimum is zero), with the final copy terminating with OP_KETRMIN or OP_KETRMAX 431as appropriate. 432 433A subpattern with a bounded maximum repetition is replicated in a nested 434fashion up to the maximum number of times, with OP_BRAZERO or OP_BRAMINZERO 435before each replication after the minimum, so that, for example, (abc){2,5} is 436compiled as (abc)(abc)((abc)((abc)(abc)?)?)?, except that each bracketed group 437has the same number. 438 439When a repeated subpattern has an unbounded upper limit, it is checked to see 440whether it could match an empty string. If this is the case, the opcode in the 441final replication is changed to OP_SBRA or OP_SCBRA. This tells the matcher 442that it needs to check for matching an empty string when it hits OP_KETRMIN or 443OP_KETRMAX, and if so, to break the loop. 444 445 446Possessive brackets 447------------------- 448 449When a repeated group (capturing or non-capturing) is marked as possessive by 450the "+" notation, e.g. (abc)++, different opcodes are used. Their names all 451have POS on the end, e.g. OP_BRAPOS instead of OP_BRA and OP_SCPBRPOS instead 452of OP_SCBRA. The end of such a group is marked by OP_KETRPOS. If the minimum 453repetition is zero, the group is preceded by OP_BRAPOSZERO. 454 455 456Once-only (atomic) groups 457------------------------- 458 459These are just like other subpatterns, but they start with the opcode 460OP_ONCE or OP_ONCE_NC. The former is used when there are no capturing brackets 461within the atomic group; the latter when there are. The distinction is needed 462for when there is a backtrack to before the group - any captures within the 463group must be reset, so it is necessary to retain backtracking points inside 464the group even after it is complete in order to do this. When there are no 465captures in an atomic group, all the backtracking can be discarded when it is 466complete. This is more efficient, and also uses less stack. 467 468The check for matching an empty string in an unbounded repeat is handled 469entirely at runtime, so there are just these two opcodes for atomic groups. 470 471 472Assertions 473---------- 474 475Forward assertions are also just like other subpatterns, but starting with one 476of the opcodes OP_ASSERT or OP_ASSERT_NOT. Backward assertions use the opcodes 477OP_ASSERTBACK and OP_ASSERTBACK_NOT, and the first opcode inside the assertion 478is OP_REVERSE, followed by a count of the number of characters to move back the 479pointer in the subject string. In ASCII mode, the count is a number of units, 480but in UTF-8/16 mode each character may occupy more than one unit; in UTF-32 481mode each character occupies exactly one unit. A separate count is present in 482each alternative of a lookbehind assertion, allowing them to have different 483fixed lengths. 484 485 486Conditional subpatterns 487----------------------- 488 489These are like other subpatterns, but they start with the opcode OP_COND, or 490OP_SCOND for one that might match an empty string in an unbounded repeat. If 491the condition is a back reference, this is stored at the start of the 492subpattern using the opcode OP_CREF followed by a count containing the 493reference number, provided that the reference is to a unique capturing group. 494If the reference was by name and there is more than one group with that name, 495OP_DNCREF is used instead. It is followed by two counts: the index in the group 496names table, and the number of groups with the same name. 497 498If the condition is "in recursion" (coded as "(?(R)"), or "in recursion of 499group x" (coded as "(?(Rx)"), the group number is stored at the start of the 500subpattern using the opcode OP_RREF (with a value of zero for "the whole 501pattern") or OP_DNRREF (with data as for OP_DNCREF). For a DEFINE condition, 502just the single unit OP_DEF is used (it has no associated data). Otherwise, a 503conditional subpattern always starts with one of the assertions. 504 505 506Recursion 507--------- 508 509Recursion either matches the current regex, or some subexpression. The opcode 510OP_RECURSE is followed by aLINK_SIZE value that is the offset to the starting 511bracket from the start of the whole pattern. From release 6.5, OP_RECURSE is 512automatically wrapped inside OP_ONCE brackets, because otherwise some patterns 513broke it. OP_RECURSE is also used for "subroutine" calls, even though they are 514not strictly a recursion. 515 516 517Callout 518------- 519 520OP_CALLOUT is followed by one unit of data that holds a callout number in the 521range 0 to 254 for manual callouts, or 255 for an automatic callout. In both 522cases there follows a count giving the offset in the pattern string to the 523start of the following item, and another count giving the length of this item. 524These values make is possible for pcretest to output useful tracing information 525using automatic callouts. 526 527Philip Hazel 528November 2013 529
