xref: /openbsd-src/gnu/usr.bin/perl/ext/re/re.pm (revision 3d61058aa5c692477b6d18acfbbdb653a9930ff9)
1package re;
2
3# pragma for controlling the regexp engine
4use strict;
5use warnings;
6
7our $VERSION     = "0.47";
8our @ISA         = qw(Exporter);
9our @EXPORT_OK   = qw{
10	is_regexp regexp_pattern
11	regname regnames regnames_count
12	regmust optimization
13};
14our %EXPORT_OK = map { $_ => 1 } @EXPORT_OK;
15
16my %bitmask = (
17    taint   => 0x00100000, # HINT_RE_TAINT
18    eval    => 0x00200000, # HINT_RE_EVAL
19);
20
21my $flags_hint = 0x02000000; # HINT_RE_FLAGS
22my $PMMOD_SHIFT = 0;
23my %reflags = (
24    m => 1 << ($PMMOD_SHIFT + 0),
25    s => 1 << ($PMMOD_SHIFT + 1),
26    i => 1 << ($PMMOD_SHIFT + 2),
27    x => 1 << ($PMMOD_SHIFT + 3),
28   xx => 1 << ($PMMOD_SHIFT + 4),
29    n => 1 << ($PMMOD_SHIFT + 5),
30    p => 1 << ($PMMOD_SHIFT + 6),
31    strict => 1 << ($PMMOD_SHIFT + 10),
32# special cases:
33    d => 0,
34    l => 1,
35    u => 2,
36    a => 3,
37    aa => 4,
38);
39
40sub setcolor {
41 eval {				# Ignore errors
42  require Term::Cap;
43
44  my $terminal = Tgetent Term::Cap ({OSPEED => 9600}); # Avoid warning.
45  my $props = $ENV{PERL_RE_TC} || 'md,me,so,se,us,ue';
46  my @props = split /,/, $props;
47  my $colors = join "\t", map {$terminal->Tputs($_,1)} @props;
48
49  $colors =~ s/\0//g;
50  $ENV{PERL_RE_COLORS} = $colors;
51 };
52 if ($@) {
53    $ENV{PERL_RE_COLORS} ||= qq'\t\t> <\t> <\t\t';
54 }
55
56}
57
58my %flags = (
59    COMPILE           => 0x0000FF,
60    PARSE             => 0x000001,
61    OPTIMISE          => 0x000002,
62    TRIEC             => 0x000004,
63    DUMP              => 0x000008,
64    FLAGS             => 0x000010,
65    TEST              => 0x000020,
66
67    EXECUTE           => 0x00FF00,
68    INTUIT            => 0x000100,
69    MATCH             => 0x000200,
70    TRIEE             => 0x000400,
71
72    EXTRA             => 0x3FF0000,
73    TRIEM             => 0x0010000,
74    STATE             => 0x0080000,
75    OPTIMISEM         => 0x0100000,
76    STACK             => 0x0280000,
77    BUFFERS           => 0x0400000,
78    GPOS              => 0x0800000,
79    DUMP_PRE_OPTIMIZE => 0x1000000,
80    WILDCARD          => 0x2000000,
81);
82$flags{ALL} = -1 & ~($flags{BUFFERS}
83                    |$flags{DUMP_PRE_OPTIMIZE}
84                    |$flags{WILDCARD}
85                    );
86$flags{All} = $flags{all} = $flags{DUMP} | $flags{EXECUTE};
87$flags{Extra} = $flags{EXECUTE} | $flags{COMPILE} | $flags{GPOS};
88$flags{More} = $flags{MORE} =
89                    $flags{All} | $flags{TRIEC} | $flags{TRIEM} | $flags{STATE};
90$flags{State} = $flags{DUMP} | $flags{EXECUTE} | $flags{STATE};
91$flags{TRIE} = $flags{DUMP} | $flags{EXECUTE} | $flags{TRIEC};
92
93if (defined &DynaLoader::boot_DynaLoader) {
94    require XSLoader;
95    XSLoader::load();
96}
97# else we're miniperl
98# We need to work for miniperl, because the XS toolchain uses Text::Wrap, which
99# uses re 'taint'.
100
101sub _load_unload {
102    my ($on)= @_;
103    if ($on) {
104	# We call install() every time, as if we didn't, we wouldn't
105	# "see" any changes to the color environment var since
106	# the last time it was called.
107
108	# install() returns an integer, which if casted properly
109	# in C resolves to a structure containing the regexp
110	# hooks. Setting it to a random integer will guarantee
111	# segfaults.
112	$^H{regcomp} = install();
113    } else {
114        delete $^H{regcomp};
115    }
116}
117
118sub bits {
119    my $on = shift;
120    my $bits = 0;
121    my $turning_all_off = ! @_ && ! $on;
122    my $seen_Debug = 0;
123    my $seen_debug = 0;
124    if ($turning_all_off) {
125
126        # Pretend were called with certain parameters, which are best dealt
127        # with that way.
128        push @_, keys %bitmask; # taint and eval
129        push @_, 'strict';
130    }
131
132    # Process each subpragma parameter
133   ARG:
134    foreach my $idx (0..$#_){
135        my $s=$_[$idx];
136        if ($s eq 'Debug' or $s eq 'Debugcolor') {
137            if (! $seen_Debug) {
138                $seen_Debug = 1;
139
140                # Reset to nothing, and then add what follows.  $seen_Debug
141                # allows, though unlikely someone would do it, more than one
142                # Debug and flags in the arguments
143                ${^RE_DEBUG_FLAGS} = 0;
144            }
145            setcolor() if $s =~/color/i;
146            for my $idx ($idx+1..$#_) {
147                if ($flags{$_[$idx]}) {
148                    if ($on) {
149                        ${^RE_DEBUG_FLAGS} |= $flags{$_[$idx]};
150                    } else {
151                        ${^RE_DEBUG_FLAGS} &= ~ $flags{$_[$idx]};
152                    }
153                } else {
154                    require Carp;
155                    Carp::carp("Unknown \"re\" Debug flag '$_[$idx]', possible flags: ",
156                               join(", ",sort keys %flags ) );
157                }
158            }
159            _load_unload($on ? 1 : ${^RE_DEBUG_FLAGS});
160            last;
161        } elsif ($s eq 'debug' or $s eq 'debugcolor') {
162
163            # These default flags should be kept in sync with the same values
164            # in regcomp.h
165            ${^RE_DEBUG_FLAGS} = $flags{'EXECUTE'} | $flags{'DUMP'};
166	    setcolor() if $s =~/color/i;
167	    _load_unload($on);
168            $seen_debug = 1;
169        } elsif (exists $bitmask{$s}) {
170	    $bits |= $bitmask{$s};
171	} elsif ($EXPORT_OK{$s}) {
172	    require Exporter;
173	    re->export_to_level(2, 're', $s);
174        } elsif ($s eq 'strict') {
175            if ($on) {
176                $^H{reflags} |= $reflags{$s};
177                warnings::warnif('experimental::re_strict',
178                                 "\"use re 'strict'\" is experimental");
179
180                # Turn on warnings if not already done.
181                if (! warnings::enabled('regexp')) {
182                    require warnings;
183                    warnings->import('regexp');
184                    $^H{re_strict} = 1;
185                }
186            }
187            else {
188                $^H{reflags} &= ~$reflags{$s} if $^H{reflags};
189
190                # Turn off warnings if we turned them on.
191                warnings->unimport('regexp') if $^H{re_strict};
192            }
193	    if ($^H{reflags}) {
194                $^H |= $flags_hint;
195            }
196            else {
197                $^H &= ~$flags_hint;
198            }
199	} elsif ($s =~ s/^\///) {
200	    my $reflags = $^H{reflags} || 0;
201	    my $seen_charset;
202            my $x_count = 0;
203	    while ($s =~ m/( . )/gx) {
204                local $_ = $1;
205		if (/[adul]/) {
206                    # The 'a' may be repeated; hide this from the rest of the
207                    # code by counting and getting rid of all of them, then
208                    # changing to 'aa' if there is a repeat.
209                    if ($_ eq 'a') {
210                        my $sav_pos = pos $s;
211                        my $a_count = $s =~ s/a//g;
212                        pos $s = $sav_pos - 1;  # -1 because got rid of the 'a'
213                        if ($a_count > 2) {
214			    require Carp;
215                            Carp::carp(
216                            qq 'The "a" flag may only appear a maximum of twice'
217                            );
218                        }
219                        elsif ($a_count == 2) {
220                            $_ = 'aa';
221                        }
222                    }
223		    if ($on) {
224			if ($seen_charset) {
225			    require Carp;
226                            if ($seen_charset ne $_) {
227                                Carp::carp(
228                                qq 'The "$seen_charset" and "$_" flags '
229                                .qq 'are exclusive'
230                                );
231                            }
232                            else {
233                                Carp::carp(
234                                qq 'The "$seen_charset" flag may not appear '
235                                .qq 'twice'
236                                );
237                            }
238			}
239			$^H{reflags_charset} = $reflags{$_};
240			$seen_charset = $_;
241		    }
242		    else {
243			delete $^H{reflags_charset}
244                                     if defined $^H{reflags_charset}
245                                        && $^H{reflags_charset} == $reflags{$_};
246		    }
247		} elsif (exists $reflags{$_}) {
248                    if ($_ eq 'x') {
249                        $x_count++;
250                        if ($x_count > 2) {
251			    require Carp;
252                            Carp::carp(
253                            qq 'The "x" flag may only appear a maximum of twice'
254                            );
255                        }
256                        elsif ($x_count == 2) {
257                            $_ = 'xx';  # First time through got the /x
258                        }
259                    }
260
261                    $on
262		      ? $reflags |= $reflags{$_}
263		      : ($reflags &= ~$reflags{$_});
264		} else {
265		    require Carp;
266		    Carp::carp(
267		     qq'Unknown regular expression flag "$_"'
268		    );
269		    next ARG;
270		}
271	    }
272	    ($^H{reflags} = $reflags or defined $^H{reflags_charset})
273	                    ? $^H |= $flags_hint
274	                    : ($^H &= ~$flags_hint);
275	} else {
276	    require Carp;
277            if ($seen_debug && defined $flags{$s}) {
278                Carp::carp("Use \"Debug\" not \"debug\", to list debug types"
279                         . " in \"re\".  \"$s\" ignored");
280            }
281            else {
282                Carp::carp("Unknown \"re\" subpragma '$s' (known ones are: ",
283                       join(', ', map {qq('$_')} 'debug', 'debugcolor', sort keys %bitmask),
284                       ")");
285            }
286	}
287    }
288
289    if ($turning_all_off) {
290        _load_unload(0);
291        $^H{reflags} = 0;
292        $^H{reflags_charset} = 0;
293        $^H &= ~$flags_hint;
294    }
295
296    $bits;
297}
298
299sub import {
300    shift;
301    $^H |= bits(1, @_);
302}
303
304sub unimport {
305    shift;
306    $^H &= ~ bits(0, @_);
307}
308
3091;
310
311__END__
312
313=head1 NAME
314
315re - Perl pragma to alter regular expression behaviour
316
317=head1 SYNOPSIS
318
319    use re 'taint';
320    ($x) = ($^X =~ /^(.*)$/s);     # $x is tainted here
321
322    $pat = '(?{ $foo = 1 })';
323    use re 'eval';
324    /foo${pat}bar/;		   # won't fail (when not under -T
325                                   # switch)
326
327    {
328	no re 'taint';		   # the default
329	($x) = ($^X =~ /^(.*)$/s); # $x is not tainted here
330
331	no re 'eval';		   # the default
332	/foo${pat}bar/;		   # disallowed (with or without -T
333                                   # switch)
334    }
335
336    use re 'strict';               # Raise warnings for more conditions
337
338    use re '/ix';
339    "FOO" =~ / foo /; # /ix implied
340    no re '/x';
341    "FOO" =~ /foo/; # just /i implied
342
343    use re 'debug';		   # output debugging info during
344    /^(.*)$/s;			   # compile and run time
345
346
347    use re 'debugcolor';	   # same as 'debug', but with colored
348                                   # output
349    ...
350
351    use re qw(Debug All);          # Same as "use re 'debug'", but you
352                                   # can use "Debug" with things other
353                                   # than 'All'
354    use re qw(Debug More);         # 'All' plus output more details
355    no re qw(Debug ALL);           # Turn on (almost) all re debugging
356                                   # in this scope
357
358    use re qw(is_regexp regexp_pattern); # import utility functions
359    my ($pat,$mods)=regexp_pattern(qr/foo/i);
360    if (is_regexp($obj)) {
361        print "Got regexp: ",
362            scalar regexp_pattern($obj); # just as perl would stringify
363    }                                    # it but no hassle with blessed
364                                         # re's.
365
366(We use $^X in these examples because it's tainted by default.)
367
368=head1 DESCRIPTION
369
370=head2 'taint' mode
371
372When C<use re 'taint'> is in effect, and a tainted string is the target
373of a regexp, the regexp memories (or values returned by the m// operator
374in list context) are tainted.  This feature is useful when regexp operations
375on tainted data aren't meant to extract safe substrings, but to perform
376other transformations.
377
378=head2 'eval' mode
379
380When C<use re 'eval'> is in effect, a regexp is allowed to contain
381C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertions and C<(??{ ... })> postponed
382subexpressions that are derived from variable interpolation, rather than
383appearing literally within the regexp.  That is normally disallowed, since
384it is a
385potential security risk.  Note that this pragma is ignored when the regular
386expression is obtained from tainted data, i.e.  evaluation is always
387disallowed with tainted regular expressions.  See L<perlre/(?{ code })>
388and L<perlre/(??{ code })>.
389
390For the purpose of this pragma, interpolation of precompiled regular
391expressions (i.e., the result of C<qr//>) is I<not> considered variable
392interpolation.  Thus:
393
394    /foo${pat}bar/
395
396I<is> allowed if $pat is a precompiled regular expression, even
397if $pat contains C<(?{ ... })> assertions or C<(??{ ... })> subexpressions.
398
399=head2 'strict' mode
400
401Note that this is an experimental feature which may be changed or removed in a
402future Perl release.
403
404When C<use re 'strict'> is in effect, stricter checks are applied than
405otherwise when compiling regular expressions patterns.  These may cause more
406warnings to be raised than otherwise, and more things to be fatal instead of
407just warnings.  The purpose of this is to find and report at compile time some
408things, which may be legal, but have a reasonable possibility of not being the
409programmer's actual intent.  This automatically turns on the C<"regexp">
410warnings category (if not already on) within its scope.
411
412As an example of something that is caught under C<"strict'>, but not
413otherwise, is the pattern
414
415 qr/\xABC/
416
417The C<"\x"> construct without curly braces should be followed by exactly two
418hex digits; this one is followed by three.  This currently evaluates as
419equivalent to
420
421 qr/\x{AB}C/
422
423that is, the character whose code point value is C<0xAB>, followed by the
424letter C<C>.  But since C<C> is a hex digit, there is a reasonable chance
425that the intent was
426
427 qr/\x{ABC}/
428
429that is the single character at C<0xABC>.  Under C<'strict'> it is an error to
430not follow C<\x> with exactly two hex digits.  When not under C<'strict'> a
431warning is generated if there is only one hex digit, and no warning is raised
432if there are more than two.
433
434It is expected that what exactly C<'strict'> does will evolve over time as we
435gain experience with it.  This means that programs that compile under it in
436today's Perl may not compile, or may have more or fewer warnings, in future
437Perls.  There is no backwards compatibility promises with regards to it.  Also
438there are already proposals for an alternate syntax for enabling it.  For
439these reasons, using it will raise a C<experimental::re_strict> class warning,
440unless that category is turned off.
441
442Note that if a pattern compiled within C<'strict'> is recompiled, say by
443interpolating into another pattern, outside of C<'strict'>, it is not checked
444again for strictness.  This is because if it works under strict it must work
445under non-strict.
446
447=head2 '/flags' mode
448
449When C<use re '/I<flags>'> is specified, the given I<flags> are automatically
450added to every regular expression till the end of the lexical scope.
451I<flags> can be any combination of
452C<'a'>,
453C<'aa'>,
454C<'d'>,
455C<'i'>,
456C<'l'>,
457C<'m'>,
458C<'n'>,
459C<'p'>,
460C<'s'>,
461C<'u'>,
462C<'x'>,
463and/or
464C<'xx'>.
465
466C<no re '/I<flags>'> will turn off the effect of C<use re '/I<flags>'> for the
467given flags.
468
469For example, if you want all your regular expressions to have /msxx on by
470default, simply put
471
472    use re '/msxx';
473
474at the top of your code.
475
476The character set C</adul> flags cancel each other out. So, in this example,
477
478    use re "/u";
479    "ss" =~ /\xdf/;
480    use re "/d";
481    "ss" =~ /\xdf/;
482
483the second C<use re> does an implicit C<no re '/u'>.
484
485Similarly,
486
487    use re "/xx";   # Doubled-x
488    ...
489    use re "/x";    # Single x from here on
490    ...
491
492Turning on one of the character set flags with C<use re> takes precedence over the
493C<locale> pragma and the 'unicode_strings' C<feature>, for regular
494expressions. Turning off one of these flags when it is active reverts to
495the behaviour specified by whatever other pragmata are in scope. For
496example:
497
498    use feature "unicode_strings";
499    no re "/u"; # does nothing
500    use re "/l";
501    no re "/l"; # reverts to unicode_strings behaviour
502
503Default flags are applied to wherever a pattern is compiled with the exception
504of the C</x> flag, which is not applied to patterns compiled from string arguments
505to C<split>. Thus `use re "/x";` does not affect the behaviour of C<split " "> but
506B<does> affect the behavior of C<split / />.
507
508=head2 'debug' mode
509
510When C<use re 'debug'> is in effect, perl emits debugging messages when
511compiling and using regular expressions.  The output is the same as that
512obtained by running a C<-DDEBUGGING>-enabled perl interpreter with the
513B<-Dr> switch. It may be quite voluminous depending on the complexity
514of the match.  Using C<debugcolor> instead of C<debug> enables a
515form of output that can be used to get a colorful display on terminals
516that understand termcap color sequences.  Set C<$ENV{PERL_RE_TC}> to a
517comma-separated list of C<termcap> properties to use for highlighting
518strings on/off, pre-point part on/off.
519See L<perldebug/"Debugging Regular Expressions"> for additional info.
520
521B<NOTE> that the exact format of the C<debug> mode is B<NOT> considered
522to be an officially supported API of Perl. It is intended for debugging
523only and may change as the core development team deems appropriate
524without notice or deprecation in any release of Perl, major or minor.
525Any documentation of the output is purely advisory.
526
527As of 5.9.5 the directive C<use re 'debug'> and its equivalents are
528lexically scoped, as the other directives are.  However they have both
529compile-time and run-time effects.
530
531See L<perlmodlib/Pragmatic Modules>.
532
533=head2 'Debug' mode
534
535Similarly C<use re 'Debug'> produces debugging output, the difference
536being that it allows the fine tuning of what debugging output will be
537emitted. Options are divided into three groups, those related to
538compilation, those related to execution and those related to special
539purposes.
540
541B<NOTE> that the options provided under the C<Debug> mode and the exact
542format of the output they create is B<NOT> considered to be an
543officially supported API of Perl. It is intended for debugging only and
544may change as the core development team deems appropriate without notice
545or deprecation in any release of Perl, major or minor. Any documentation
546of the format or options available is advisory only and is subject to
547change without notice.
548
549The options are as follows:
550
551=over 4
552
553=item Compile related options
554
555=over 4
556
557=item COMPILE
558
559Turns on all non-extra compile related debug options.
560
561=item PARSE
562
563Turns on debug output related to the process of parsing the pattern.
564
565=item OPTIMISE
566
567Enables output related to the optimisation phase of compilation.
568
569=item TRIEC
570
571Detailed info about trie compilation.
572
573=item DUMP
574
575Dump the final program out after it is compiled and optimised.
576
577=item FLAGS
578
579Dump the flags associated with the program
580
581=item TEST
582
583Print output intended for testing the internals of the compile process
584
585=back
586
587=item Execute related options
588
589=over 4
590
591=item EXECUTE
592
593Turns on all non-extra execute related debug options.
594
595=item MATCH
596
597Turns on debugging of the main matching loop.
598
599=item TRIEE
600
601Extra debugging of how tries execute.
602
603=item INTUIT
604
605Enable debugging of start-point optimisations.
606
607=back
608
609=item Extra debugging options
610
611=over 4
612
613=item EXTRA
614
615Turns on all "extra" debugging options.
616
617=item BUFFERS
618
619Enable debugging the capture group storage during match. Warning,
620this can potentially produce extremely large output.
621
622=item TRIEM
623
624Enable enhanced TRIE debugging. Enhances both TRIEE
625and TRIEC.
626
627=item STATE
628
629Enable debugging of states in the engine.
630
631=item STACK
632
633Enable debugging of the recursion stack in the engine. Enabling
634or disabling this option automatically does the same for debugging
635states as well. This output from this can be quite large.
636
637=item GPOS
638
639Enable debugging of the \G modifier.
640
641=item OPTIMISEM
642
643Enable enhanced optimisation debugging and start-point optimisations.
644Probably not useful except when debugging the regexp engine itself.
645
646=item DUMP_PRE_OPTIMIZE
647
648Enable the dumping of the compiled pattern before the optimization phase.
649
650=item WILDCARD
651
652When Perl encounters a wildcard subpattern, (see L<perlunicode/Wildcards in
653Property Values>), it suspends compilation of the main pattern, compiles the
654subpattern, and then matches that against all legal possibilities to determine
655the actual code points the subpattern matches.  After that it adds these to
656the main pattern, and continues its compilation.
657
658You may very well want to see how your subpattern gets compiled, but it is
659likely of less use to you to see how Perl matches that against all the legal
660possibilities, as that is under control of Perl, not you.   Therefore, the
661debugging information of the compilation portion is as specified by the other
662options, but the debugging output of the matching portion is normally
663suppressed.
664
665You can use the WILDCARD option to enable the debugging output of this
666subpattern matching.  Careful!  This can lead to voluminous outputs, and it
667may not make much sense to you what and why Perl is doing what it is.
668But it may be helpful to you to see why things aren't going the way you
669expect.
670
671Note that this option alone doesn't cause any debugging information to be
672output.  What it does is stop the normal suppression of execution-related
673debugging information during the matching portion of the compilation of
674wildcards.  You also have to specify which execution debugging information you
675want, such as by also including the EXECUTE option.
676
677=back
678
679=item Other useful flags
680
681These are useful shortcuts to save on the typing.
682
683=over 4
684
685=item ALL
686
687Enable all options at once except BUFFERS, WILDCARD, and DUMP_PRE_OPTIMIZE.
688(To get every single option without exception, use both ALL and EXTRA, or
689starting in 5.30 on a C<-DDEBUGGING>-enabled perl interpreter, use
690the B<-Drv> command-line switches.)
691
692=item All
693
694Enable DUMP and all non-extra execute options. Equivalent to:
695
696  use re 'debug';
697
698=item MORE
699
700=item More
701
702Enable the options enabled by "All", plus STATE, TRIEC, and TRIEM.
703
704=back
705
706=back
707
708As of 5.9.5 the directive C<use re 'debug'> and its equivalents are
709lexically scoped, as are the other directives.  However they have both
710compile-time and run-time effects.
711
712=head2 Exportable Functions
713
714As of perl 5.9.5, the C<re> module contains a number of utility functions that
715may be optionally exported into the caller's namespace. They are listed below.
716
717=over 4
718
719=item is_regexp($ref)
720
721Returns true if the argument is a compiled regular expression as returned
722by C<qr//>, false if it is not.
723
724This function will not be confused by overloading or blessing. In
725internals terms, this extracts the regexp pointer out of the
726PERL_MAGIC_qr structure so it cannot be fooled.
727
728=item regexp_pattern($ref)
729
730If the argument is a compiled regular expression as returned by C<qr//>,
731then this function returns the pattern.
732
733In list context it returns a two element list, the first element
734containing the pattern and the second containing the modifiers used when
735the pattern was compiled.
736
737  my ($pat, $mods) = regexp_pattern($ref);
738
739In scalar context it returns the same as perl would when stringifying a raw
740C<qr//> with the same pattern inside.  If the argument is not a compiled
741reference then this routine returns false but defined in scalar context,
742and the empty list in list context. Thus the following
743
744    if (regexp_pattern($ref) eq '(?^i:foo)')
745
746will be warning free regardless of what $ref actually is.
747
748Like C<is_regexp> this function will not be confused by overloading
749or blessing of the object.
750
751=item regname($name,$all)
752
753Returns the contents of a named buffer of the last successful match. If
754$all is true, then returns an array ref containing one entry per buffer,
755otherwise returns the first defined buffer.
756
757=item regnames($all)
758
759Returns a list of all of the named buffers defined in the last successful
760match. If $all is true, then it returns all names defined, if not it returns
761only names which were involved in the match.
762
763=item regnames_count()
764
765Returns the number of distinct names defined in the pattern used
766for the last successful match.
767
768B<Note:> this result is always the actual number of distinct
769named buffers defined, it may not actually match that which is
770returned by C<regnames()> and related routines when those routines
771have not been called with the $all parameter set.
772
773=item regmust($ref)
774
775If the argument is a compiled regular expression as returned by C<qr//>,
776then this function returns what the optimiser considers to be the longest
777anchored fixed string and longest floating fixed string in the pattern.
778
779A I<fixed string> is defined as being a substring that must appear for the
780pattern to match. An I<anchored fixed string> is a fixed string that must
781appear at a particular offset from the beginning of the match. A I<floating
782fixed string> is defined as a fixed string that can appear at any point in
783a range of positions relative to the start of the match. For example,
784
785    my $qr = qr/here .* there/x;
786    my ($anchored, $floating) = regmust($qr);
787    print "anchored:'$anchored'\nfloating:'$floating'\n";
788
789results in
790
791    anchored:'here'
792    floating:'there'
793
794Because the C<here> is before the C<.*> in the pattern, its position
795can be determined exactly. That's not true, however, for the C<there>;
796it could appear at any point after where the anchored string appeared.
797Perl uses both for its optimisations, preferring the longer, or, if they are
798equal, the floating.
799
800B<NOTE:> This may not necessarily be the definitive longest anchored and
801floating string. This will be what the optimiser of the Perl that you
802are using thinks is the longest. If you believe that the result is wrong
803please report it via the L<perlbug> utility.
804
805=item optimization($ref)
806
807If the argument is a compiled regular expression as returned by C<qr//>,
808then this function returns a hashref of the optimization information
809discovered at compile time, so we can write tests around it. If any
810other argument is given, returns C<undef>.
811
812The hash contents are expected to change from time to time as we develop
813new ways to optimize - no assumption of stability should be made, not
814even between minor versions of perl.
815
816For the current version, the hash will have the following contents:
817
818=over 4
819
820=item minlen
821
822An integer, the least number of characters in any string that can match.
823
824=item minlenret
825
826An integer, the least number of characters that can be in C<$&> after a
827match. (Consider eg C< /ns(?=\d)/ >.)
828
829=item gofs
830
831An integer, the number of characters before C<pos()> to start match at.
832
833=item noscan
834
835A boolean, C<TRUE> to indicate that any anchored/floating substrings
836found should not be used. (CHECKME: apparently this is set for an
837anchored pattern with no floating substring, but never used.)
838
839=item isall
840
841A boolean, C<TRUE> to indicate that the optimizer information is all
842that the regular expression contains, and thus one does not need to
843enter the regexp runtime engine at all.
844
845=item anchor SBOL
846
847A boolean, C<TRUE> if the pattern is anchored to start of string.
848
849=item anchor MBOL
850
851A boolean, C<TRUE> if the pattern is anchored to any start of line
852within the string.
853
854=item anchor GPOS
855
856A boolean, C<TRUE> if the pattern is anchored to the end of the previous
857match.
858
859=item skip
860
861A boolean, C<TRUE> if the start class can match only the first of a run.
862
863=item implicit
864
865A boolean, C<TRUE> if a C</.*/> has been turned implicitly into a C</^.*/>.
866
867=item anchored/floating
868
869A byte string representing an anchored or floating substring respectively
870that any match must contain, or undef if no such substring was found, or
871if the substring would require utf8 to represent.
872
873=item anchored utf8/floating utf8
874
875A utf8 string representing an anchored or floating substring respectively
876that any match must contain, or undef if no such substring was found, or
877if the substring contains only 7-bit ASCII characters.
878
879=item anchored min offset/floating min offset
880
881An integer, the first offset in characters from a match location at which
882we should look for the corresponding substring.
883
884=item anchored max offset/floating max offset
885
886An integer, the last offset in characters from a match location at which
887we should look for the corresponding substring.
888
889Ignored for anchored, so may be 0 or same as min.
890
891=item anchored end shift/floating end shift
892
893FIXME: not sure what this is, something to do with lookbehind. regcomp.c
894says:
895    When the final pattern is compiled and the data is moved from the
896    scan_data_t structure into the regexp structure the information
897    about lookbehind is factored in, with the information that would
898    have been lost precalculated in the end_shift field for the
899    associated string.
900
901=item checking
902
903A constant string, one of "anchored", "floating" or "none" to indicate
904which substring (if any) should be checked for first.
905
906=item stclass
907
908A string representation of a character class ("start class") that must
909be the first character of any match.
910
911TODO: explain the representations.
912
913=back
914
915=back
916
917=head1 SEE ALSO
918
919L<perlmodlib/Pragmatic Modules>.
920
921=cut
922