.\" Copyright (c) 1980 Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved. The Berkeley software License Agreement
.\" specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
.\" @(#)regex.3 6.1 (Berkeley) 5/15/85
.TH REGEX 3 "May 15, 1985"
re_comp, re_exec \- regular expression handler
compiles a string into an internal form suitable for pattern matching.
checks the argument string against the last string passed to
was compiled successfully; otherwise a string containing an
error message is returned. If
is passed 0 or a null string, it returns without changing the currently
compiled regular expression.
matches the last compiled regular expression, 0 if the string
failed to match the last compiled regular expression, and \-1 if the compiled
regular expression was invalid (indicating an internal error).
The strings passed to both
may have trailing or embedded newline characters;
they are terminated by nulls.
The regular expressions recognized are described in the manual entry for
given the above difference.
ed(1), ex(1), egrep(1), fgrep(1), grep(1)
returns \-1 for an internal error.
returns one of the following strings if an error occurs:
\fINo previous regular expression,
Regular expression too long,