96 lines
		
	
	
		
			3.2 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			HTML
		
	
	
	
			
		
		
	
	
			96 lines
		
	
	
		
			3.2 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			HTML
		
	
	
	
| <html>
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| <head>
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| <title>pcre2limits specification</title>
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| </head>
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| <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#00005A" link="#0066FF" alink="#3399FF" vlink="#2222BB">
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| <h1>pcre2limits man page</h1>
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| <p>
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| Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE2 index page</a>.
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| </p>
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| <p>
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| This page is part of the PCRE2 HTML documentation. It was generated
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| automatically from the original man page. If there is any nonsense in it,
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| please consult the man page, in case the conversion went wrong.
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| <br>
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| <br><b>
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| SIZE AND OTHER LIMITATIONS
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| </b><br>
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| <P>
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| There are some size limitations in PCRE2 but it is hoped that they will never
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| in practice be relevant.
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| </P>
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| <P>
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| The maximum size of a compiled pattern is approximately 64 thousand code units
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| for the 8-bit and 16-bit libraries if PCRE2 is compiled with the default
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| internal linkage size, which is 2 bytes for these libraries. If you want to
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| process regular expressions that are truly enormous, you can compile PCRE2 with
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| an internal linkage size of 3 or 4 (when building the 16-bit library, 3 is
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| rounded up to 4). See the <b>README</b> file in the source distribution and the
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| <a href="pcre2build.html"><b>pcre2build</b></a>
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| documentation for details. In these cases the limit is substantially larger.
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| However, the speed of execution is slower. In the 32-bit library, the internal
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| linkage size is always 4.
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| </P>
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| <P>
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| The maximum length of a source pattern string is essentially unlimited; it is
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| the largest number a PCRE2_SIZE variable can hold. However, the program that
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| calls <b>pcre2_compile()</b> can specify a smaller limit.
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| </P>
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| <P>
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| The maximum length (in code units) of a subject string is one less than the
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| largest number a PCRE2_SIZE variable can hold. PCRE2_SIZE is an unsigned
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| integer type, usually defined as size_t. Its maximum value (that is
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| ~(PCRE2_SIZE)0) is reserved as a special indicator for zero-terminated strings
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| and unset offsets.
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| </P>
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| <P>
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| All values in repeating quantifiers must be less than 65536.
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| </P>
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| <P>
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| The maximum length of a lookbehind assertion is 65535 characters.
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| </P>
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| <P>
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| There is no limit to the number of parenthesized groups, but there can be no
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| more than 65535 capture groups, and there is a limit to the depth of nesting of
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| parenthesized subpatterns of all kinds. This is imposed in order to limit the
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| amount of system stack used at compile time. The default limit can be specified
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| when PCRE2 is built; if not, the default is set to 250. An application can
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| change this limit by calling pcre2_set_parens_nest_limit() to set the limit in
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| a compile context.
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| </P>
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| <P>
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| The maximum length of name for a named capture group is 32 code units, and the
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| maximum number of such groups is 10000.
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| </P>
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| <P>
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| The maximum length of a name in a (*MARK), (*PRUNE), (*SKIP), or (*THEN) verb
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| is 255 code units for the 8-bit library and 65535 code units for the 16-bit and
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| 32-bit libraries.
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| </P>
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| <P>
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| The maximum length of a string argument to a callout is the largest number a
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| 32-bit unsigned integer can hold.
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| </P>
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| <br><b>
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| AUTHOR
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| </b><br>
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| <P>
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| Philip Hazel
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| <br>
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| University Computing Service
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| <br>
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| Cambridge, England.
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| <br>
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| </P>
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| <br><b>
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| REVISION
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| </b><br>
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| <P>
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| Last updated: 02 February 2019
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| <br>
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| Copyright © 1997-2019 University of Cambridge.
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| <br>
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| <p>
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| Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE2 index page</a>.
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| </p>
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