Matching POSIX Regexps - The GNU C Library

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#### 10.3.3 Matching a Compiled POSIX Regular Expression

Once you have compiled a regular expression, as described in POSIX Regexp Compilation, you can match it against strings using `regexec`. A match anywhere inside the string counts as success, unless the regular expression contains anchor characters (‘`^`’ or ‘`$`’).

— Function: int regexec (const regex_t *restrict compiled, const char *restrict string, size_t nmatch, regmatch_t matchptr[restrict], int eflags)

> This function tries to match the compiled regular expression `*`compiled against string.

> `regexec` returns `0` if the regular expression matches; otherwise, it returns a nonzero value. See the table below for what nonzero values mean. You can use `regerror` to produce an error message string describing the reason for a nonzero value; see Regexp Cleanup.

> The argument eflags is a word of bit flags that enable various options.

> If you want to get information about what part of string actually matched the regular expression or its subexpressions, use the arguments matchptr and nmatch. Otherwise, pass `0` for nmatch, and `NULL` for matchptr. See Regexp Subexpressions.

You must match the regular expression with the same set of current locales that were in effect when you compiled the regular expression.

The function `regexec` accepts the following flags in the eflags argument:

`REG_NOTBOL`
  Do not regard the beginning of the specified string as the beginning of a line; more generally, don't make any assumptions about what text might precede it.
`REG_NOTEOL`
  Do not regard the end of the specified string as the end of a line; more generally, don't make any assumptions about what text might follow it.

Here are the possible nonzero values that `regexec` can return:

`REG_NOMATCH`
  The pattern didn't match the string. This isn't really an error.
`REG_ESPACE`
  `regexec` ran out of memory.