RE_COMP(3)             FreeBSD Library Functions Manual             RE_COMP(3)

NAME
     re_comp, re_exec - regular expression handler

LIBRARY
     Compatibility Library (libcompat, -lcompat)

SYNOPSIS
     #include <unistd.h>

     char *
     re_comp(const char *s);

     int
     re_exec(const char *s);

DESCRIPTION
     This interface is made obsolete by regex(3).

     The re_comp() function compiles a string into an internal form suitable
     for pattern matching.  The re_exec() function checks the argument string
     against the last string passed to re_comp().

     The re_comp() function returns 0 if the string s was compiled
     successfully; otherwise a string containing an error message is returned.
     If re_comp() is passed 0 or a null string, it returns without changing
     the currently compiled regular expression.

     The re_exec() function returns 1 if the string s matches the last
     compiled regular expression, 0 if the string s 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 re_comp() and re_exec() may have trailing or
     embedded newline characters; they are terminated by NULs.  The regular
     expressions recognized are described in the manual entry for ed(1), given
     the above difference.

DIAGNOSTICS
     The re_exec() function returns -1 for an internal error.

     The re_comp() function returns "no previous regular expression" or one of
     the strings generated by regerror(3).

SEE ALSO
     ed(1), egrep(1), ex(1), fgrep(1), grep(1), regex(3)

HISTORY
     The re_comp() and re_exec() functions appeared in 4.0BSD.

FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6          June 4, 1993          FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6