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+<div class="refentry" title="Regular expression syntax">
+<a name="glib-regex-syntax"></a><div class="titlepage"></div>
+<div class="refnamediv"><table width="100%"><tr>
+<td valign="top">
+<h2><span class="refentrytitle">Regular expression syntax</span></h2>
+<p>Regular expression syntax —
+Syntax and semantics of the regular expressions supported by GRegex
+</p>
+</td>
+<td valign="top" align="right"></td>
+</tr></table></div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="GRegex regular expression details">
+<a name="id539370"></a><h2>GRegex regular expression details</h2>
+<p>
+A regular expression is a pattern that is matched against a
+string from left to right. Most characters stand for themselves in a
+pattern, and match the corresponding characters in the string. As a
+trivial example, the pattern
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+The quick brown fox
+</pre>
+<p>
+matches a portion of a string that is identical to itself. When
+caseless matching is specified (the <code class="varname">G_REGEX_CASELESS</code> flag), letters are
+matched independently of case.
+</p>
+<p>
+The power of regular expressions comes from the ability to include
+alternatives and repetitions in the pattern. These are encoded in the
+pattern by the use of metacharacters, which do not stand for themselves
+but instead are interpreted in some special way.
+</p>
+<p>
+There are two different sets of metacharacters: those that are recognized
+anywhere in the pattern except within square brackets, and those
+that are recognized in square brackets. Outside square brackets, the
+metacharacters are as follows:
+</p>
+<div class="table">
+<a name="id520990"></a><p class="title"><b>Table 1. Metacharacters outside square brackets</b></p>
+<div class="table-contents"><table summary="Metacharacters outside square brackets" border="1">
+<colgroup>
+<col align="center">
+<col>
+</colgroup>
+<thead><tr>
+<th align="center">Character</th>
+<th>Meaning</th>
+</tr></thead>
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\</td>
+<td>general escape character with several uses</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">^</td>
+<td>assert start of string (or line, in multiline mode)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">$</td>
+<td>assert end of string (or line, in multiline mode)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">.</td>
+<td>match any character except newline (by default)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">[</td>
+<td>start character class definition</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">|</td>
+<td>start of alternative branch</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">(</td>
+<td>start subpattern</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">)</td>
+<td>end subpattern</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">?</td>
+<td>extends the meaning of (, or 0/1 quantifier, or quantifier minimizer</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">*</td>
+<td>0 or more quantifier</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">+</td>
+<td>1 or more quantifier, also "possessive quantifier"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">{</td>
+<td>start min/max quantifier</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table></div>
+</div>
+<br class="table-break"><p>
+Part of a pattern that is in square brackets is called a "character
+class". In a character class the only metacharacters are:
+</p>
+<div class="table">
+<a name="id509847"></a><p class="title"><b>Table 2. Metacharacters inside square brackets</b></p>
+<div class="table-contents"><table summary="Metacharacters inside square brackets" border="1">
+<colgroup>
+<col align="center">
+<col>
+</colgroup>
+<thead><tr>
+<th align="center">Character</th>
+<th>Meaning</th>
+</tr></thead>
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\</td>
+<td>general escape character</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">^</td>
+<td>negate the class, but only if the first character</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">-</td>
+<td>indicates character range</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">[</td>
+<td>POSIX character class (only if followed by POSIX syntax)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">]</td>
+<td>terminates the character class</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table></div>
+</div>
+<br class="table-break">
+</div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="Backslash">
+<a name="id554614"></a><h2>Backslash</h2>
+<p>
+The backslash character has several uses. Firstly, if it is followed by
+a non-alphanumeric character, it takes away any special meaning that
+character may have. This use of backslash as an escape character
+applies both inside and outside character classes.
+</p>
+<p>
+For example, if you want to match a * character, you write \* in the
+pattern. This escaping action applies whether or not the following
+character would otherwise be interpreted as a metacharacter, so it is
+always safe to precede a non-alphanumeric with backslash to specify
+that it stands for itself. In particular, if you want to match a
+backslash, you write \\.
+</p>
+<p>
+If a pattern is compiled with the <code class="varname">G_REGEX_EXTENDED</code>
+option, whitespace in the pattern (other than in a character class) and
+characters between a # outside a character class and the next newline
+are ignored.
+An escaping backslash can be used to include a whitespace or # character
+as part of the pattern.
+</p>
+<p>
+If you want to remove the special meaning from a sequence of characters,
+you can do so by putting them between \Q and \E.
+The \Q...\E sequence is recognized both inside and outside character
+classes.
+</p>
+<div class="refsect2" title="Non-printing characters">
+<a name="id554647"></a><h3>Non-printing characters</h3>
+<p>
+A second use of backslash provides a way of encoding non-printing
+characters in patterns in a visible manner. There is no restriction on the
+appearance of non-printing characters, apart from the binary zero that
+terminates a pattern, but when a pattern is being prepared by text
+editing, it is usually easier to use one of the following escape
+sequences than the binary character it represents:
+</p>
+<div class="table">
+<a name="id511381"></a><p class="title"><b>Table 3. Non-printing characters</b></p>
+<div class="table-contents"><table summary="Non-printing characters" border="1">
+<colgroup>
+<col align="center">
+<col>
+</colgroup>
+<thead><tr>
+<th align="center">Escape</th>
+<th>Meaning</th>
+</tr></thead>
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\a</td>
+<td>alarm, that is, the BEL character (hex 07)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\cx</td>
+<td>"control-x", where x is any character</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\e</td>
+<td>escape (hex 1B)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\f</td>
+<td>formfeed (hex 0C)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\n</td>
+<td>newline (hex 0A)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\r</td>
+<td>carriage return (hex 0D)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\t</td>
+<td>tab (hex 09)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\ddd</td>
+<td>character with octal code ddd, or backreference</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\xhh</td>
+<td>character with hex code hh</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\x{hhh..}</td>
+<td>character with hex code hhh..</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table></div>
+</div>
+<br class="table-break"><p>
+The precise effect of \cx is as follows: if x is a lower case letter,
+it is converted to upper case. Then bit 6 of the character (hex 40) is
+inverted. Thus \cz becomes hex 1A, but \c{ becomes hex 3B, while \c;
+becomes hex 7B.
+</p>
+<p>
+After \x, from zero to two hexadecimal digits are read (letters can be
+in upper or lower case). Any number of hexadecimal digits may appear
+between \x{ and }, but the value of the character code
+must be less than 2**31 (that is, the maximum hexadecimal value is
+7FFFFFFF). If characters other than hexadecimal digits appear between
+\x{ and }, or if there is no terminating }, this form of escape is not
+recognized. Instead, the initial \x will be interpreted as a basic hexadecimal
+escape, with no following digits, giving a character whose
+value is zero.
+</p>
+<p>
+Characters whose value is less than 256 can be defined by either of the
+two syntaxes for \x. There is no difference
+in the way they are handled. For example, \xdc is exactly the same as
+\x{dc}.
+</p>
+<p>
+After \0 up to two further octal digits are read. If there are fewer
+than two digits, just those that are present are used.
+Thus the sequence \0\x\07 specifies two binary zeros followed by a BEL
+character (code value 7). Make sure you supply two digits after the
+initial zero if the pattern character that follows is itself an octal
+digit.
+</p>
+<p>
+The handling of a backslash followed by a digit other than 0 is complicated.
+Outside a character class, GRegex reads it and any following digits as a
+decimal number. If the number is less than 10, or if there
+have been at least that many previous capturing left parentheses in the
+expression, the entire sequence is taken as a back reference. A
+description of how this works is given later, following the discussion
+of parenthesized subpatterns.
+</p>
+<p>
+Inside a character class, or if the decimal number is greater than 9
+and there have not been that many capturing subpatterns, GRegex re-reads
+up to three octal digits following the backslash, and uses them to generate
+a data character. Any subsequent digits stand for themselves. For example:
+</p>
+<div class="table">
+<a name="id555026"></a><p class="title"><b>Table 4. Non-printing characters</b></p>
+<div class="table-contents"><table summary="Non-printing characters" border="1">
+<colgroup>
+<col align="center">
+<col>
+</colgroup>
+<thead><tr>
+<th align="center">Escape</th>
+<th>Meaning</th>
+</tr></thead>
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\040</td>
+<td>is another way of writing a space</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\40</td>
+<td>is the same, provided there are fewer than 40 previous capturing subpatterns</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\7</td>
+<td>is always a back reference</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\11</td>
+<td>might be a back reference, or another way of writing a tab</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\011</td>
+<td>is always a tab</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\0113</td>
+<td>is a tab followed by the character "3"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\113</td>
+<td>might be a back reference, otherwise the character with octal code 113</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\377</td>
+<td>might be a back reference, otherwise the byte consisting entirely of 1 bits</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\81</td>
+<td>is either a back reference, or a binary zero followed by the two characters "8" and "1"</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table></div>
+</div>
+<br class="table-break"><p>
+Note that octal values of 100 or greater must not be introduced by a
+leading zero, because no more than three octal digits are ever read.
+</p>
+<p>
+All the sequences that define a single character can be used both inside
+and outside character classes. In addition, inside a character class, the
+sequence \b is interpreted as the backspace character (hex 08), and the
+sequences \R and \X are interpreted as the characters "R" and "X", respectively.
+Outside a character class, these sequences have different meanings (see below).
+</p>
+</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="refsect2" title="Absolute and relative back references">
+<a name="id555185"></a><h3>Absolute and relative back references</h3>
+<p>
+The sequence \g followed by a positive or negative number, optionally enclosed
+in braces, is an absolute or relative back reference. Back references are
+discussed later, following the discussion of parenthesized subpatterns.
+</p>
+</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="refsect2" title="Generic character types">
+<a name="id555198"></a><h3>Generic character types</h3>
+<p>
+Another use of backslash is for specifying generic character types.
+The following are always recognized:
+</p>
+<div class="table">
+<a name="id555209"></a><p class="title"><b>Table 5. Generic characters</b></p>
+<div class="table-contents"><table summary="Generic characters" border="1">
+<colgroup>
+<col align="center">
+<col>
+</colgroup>
+<thead><tr>
+<th align="center">Escape</th>
+<th>Meaning</th>
+</tr></thead>
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\d</td>
+<td>any decimal digit</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\D</td>
+<td>any character that is not a decimal digit</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\s</td>
+<td>any whitespace character</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\S</td>
+<td>any character that is not a whitespace character</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\w</td>
+<td>any "word" character</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\W</td>
+<td>any "non-word" character</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table></div>
+</div>
+<br class="table-break"><p>
+Each pair of escape sequences partitions the complete set of characters
+into two disjoint sets. Any given character matches one, and only one,
+of each pair.
+</p>
+<p>
+These character type sequences can appear both inside and outside character
+classes. They each match one character of the appropriate type.
+If the current matching point is at the end of the passed string, all
+of them fail, since there is no character to match.
+</p>
+<p>
+For compatibility with Perl, \s does not match the VT character (code
+11). This makes it different from the the POSIX "space" class. The \s
+characters are HT (9), LF (10), FF (12), CR (13), and space (32).
+</p>
+<p>
+A "word" character is an underscore or any character less than 256 that
+is a letter or digit.</p>
+<p>
+Characters with values greater than 128 never match \d,
+\s, or \w, and always match \D, \S, and \W.
+</p>
+</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="refsect2" title="Newline sequences">
+<a name="id555348"></a><h3>Newline sequences</h3>
+<p>Outside a character class, the escape sequence \R matches any Unicode
+newline sequence.
+This particular group matches either the two-character sequence CR followed by
+LF, or one of the single characters LF (linefeed, U+000A), VT (vertical tab,
+U+000B), FF (formfeed, U+000C), CR (carriage return, U+000D), NEL (next
+line, U+0085), LS (line separator, U+2028), or PS (paragraph separator, U+2029).
+The two-character sequence is treated as a single unit that
+cannot be split. Inside a character class, \R matches the letter "R".</p>
+</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="refsect2" title="Unicode character properties">
+<a name="id555363"></a><h3>Unicode character properties</h3>
+<p>
+To support generic character types there are three additional escape
+sequences, they are:
+</p>
+<div class="table">
+<a name="id555374"></a><p class="title"><b>Table 6. Generic character types</b></p>
+<div class="table-contents"><table summary="Generic character types" border="1">
+<colgroup>
+<col align="center">
+<col>
+</colgroup>
+<thead><tr>
+<th align="center">Escape</th>
+<th>Meaning</th>
+</tr></thead>
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\p{xx}</td>
+<td>a character with the xx property</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\P{xx}</td>
+<td>a character without the xx property</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\X</td>
+<td>an extended Unicode sequence</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table></div>
+</div>
+<br class="table-break"><p>
+The property names represented by xx above are limited to the Unicode
+script names, the general category properties, and "Any", which matches
+any character (including newline). Other properties such as "InMusicalSymbols"
+are not currently supported. Note that \P{Any} does not match any characters,
+so always causes a match failure.
+</p>
+<p>
+Sets of Unicode characters are defined as belonging to certain scripts. A
+character from one of these sets can be matched using a script name. For
+example, \p{Greek} or \P{Han}.
+</p>
+<p>
+Those that are not part of an identified script are lumped together as
+"Common". The current list of scripts is:
+</p>
+<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" type="disc">
+<li class="listitem"><p>Arabic</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Armenian</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Balinese</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Bengali</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Bopomofo</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Braille</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Buginese</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Buhid</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Canadian_Aboriginal</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Cherokee</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Common</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Coptic</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Cuneiform</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Cypriot</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Cyrillic</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Deseret</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Devanagari</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Ethiopic</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Georgian</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Glagolitic</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Gothic</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Greek</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Gujarati</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Gurmukhi</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Han</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Hangul</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Hanunoo</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Hebrew</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Hiragana</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Inherited</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Kannada</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Katakana</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Kharoshthi</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Khmer</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Lao</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Latin</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Limbu</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Linear_B</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Malayalam</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Mongolian</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Myanmar</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>New_Tai_Lue</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Nko</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Ogham</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Old_Italic</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Old_Persian</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Oriya</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Osmanya</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Phags_Pa</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Phoenician</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Runic</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Shavian</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Sinhala</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Syloti_Nagri</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Syriac</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Tagalog</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Tagbanwa</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Tai_Le</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Tamil</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Telugu</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Thaana</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Thai</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Tibetan</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Tifinagh</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Ugaritic</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>Yi</p></li>
+</ul></div>
+<p>
+Each character has exactly one general category property, specified by a
+two-letter abbreviation. For compatibility with Perl, negation can be specified
+by including a circumflex between the opening brace and the property name. For
+example, \p{^Lu} is the same as \P{Lu}.
+</p>
+<p>
+If only one letter is specified with \p or \P, it includes all the general
+category properties that start with that letter. In this case, in the absence
+of negation, the curly brackets in the escape sequence are optional; these two
+examples have the same effect:
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+\p{L}
+\pL
+</pre>
+<p>
+The following general category property codes are supported:
+</p>
+<div class="table">
+<a name="id555812"></a><p class="title"><b>Table 7. Property codes</b></p>
+<div class="table-contents"><table summary="Property codes" border="1">
+<colgroup>
+<col align="center">
+<col>
+</colgroup>
+<thead><tr>
+<th align="center">Code</th>
+<th>Meaning</th>
+</tr></thead>
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">C</td>
+<td>Other</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Cc</td>
+<td>Control</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Cf</td>
+<td>Format</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Cn</td>
+<td>Unassigned</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Co</td>
+<td>Private use</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Cs</td>
+<td>Surrogate</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">L</td>
+<td>Letter</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Ll</td>
+<td>Lower case letter</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Lm</td>
+<td>Modifier letter</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Lo</td>
+<td>Other letter</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Lt</td>
+<td>Title case letter</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Lu</td>
+<td>Upper case letter</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">M</td>
+<td>Mark</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Mc</td>
+<td>Spacing mark</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Me</td>
+<td>Enclosing mark</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Mn</td>
+<td>Non-spacing mark</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">N</td>
+<td>Number</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Nd</td>
+<td>Decimal number</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Nl</td>
+<td>Letter number</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">No</td>
+<td>Other number</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">P</td>
+<td>Punctuation</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Pc</td>
+<td>Connector punctuation</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Pd</td>
+<td>Dash punctuation</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Pe</td>
+<td>Close punctuation</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Pf</td>
+<td>Final punctuation</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Pi</td>
+<td>Initial punctuation</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Po</td>
+<td>Other punctuation</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Ps</td>
+<td>Open punctuation</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">S</td>
+<td>Symbol</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Sc</td>
+<td>Currency symbol</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Sk</td>
+<td>Modifier symbol</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Sm</td>
+<td>Mathematical symbol</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">So</td>
+<td>Other symbol</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Z</td>
+<td>Separator</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Zl</td>
+<td>Line separator</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Zp</td>
+<td>Paragraph separator</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">Zs</td>
+<td>Space separator</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table></div>
+</div>
+<br class="table-break"><p>
+The special property L&amp; is also supported: it matches a character that has
+the Lu, Ll, or Lt property, in other words, a letter that is not classified as
+a modifier or "other".
+</p>
+<p>
+The long synonyms for these properties that Perl supports (such as \ep{Letter})
+are not supported by GRegex, nor is it permitted to prefix any of these
+properties with "Is".
+</p>
+<p>
+No character that is in the Unicode table has the Cn (unassigned) property.
+Instead, this property is assumed for any code point that is not in the
+Unicode table.
+</p>
+<p>
+Specifying caseless matching does not affect these escape sequences.
+For example, \p{Lu} always matches only upper case letters.
+</p>
+<p>
+The \X escape matches any number of Unicode characters that form an
+extended Unicode sequence. \X is equivalent to
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?&gt;\PM\pM*)
+</pre>
+<p>
+That is, it matches a character without the "mark" property, followed
+by zero or more characters with the "mark" property, and treats the
+sequence as an atomic group (see below). Characters with the "mark"
+property are typically accents that affect the preceding character.
+</p>
+<p>
+Matching characters by Unicode property is not fast, because GRegex has
+to search a structure that contains data for over fifteen thousand
+characters. That is why the traditional escape sequences such as \d and
+\w do not use Unicode properties.
+</p>
+</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="refsect2" title="Simple assertions">
+<a name="id556316"></a><h3>Simple assertions</h3>
+<p>
+The final use of backslash is for certain simple assertions. An
+assertion specifies a condition that has to be met at a particular point in
+a match, without consuming any characters from the string. The
+use of subpatterns for more complicated assertions is described below.
+The backslashed assertions are:
+</p>
+<div class="table">
+<a name="id556328"></a><p class="title"><b>Table 8. Simple assertions</b></p>
+<div class="table-contents"><table summary="Simple assertions" border="1">
+<colgroup>
+<col align="center">
+<col>
+</colgroup>
+<thead><tr>
+<th align="center">Escape</th>
+<th>Meaning</th>
+</tr></thead>
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\b</td>
+<td>matches at a word boundary</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\B</td>
+<td>matches when not at a word boundary</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\A</td>
+<td>matches at the start of the string</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\Z</td>
+<td>matches at the end of the string or before a newline at the end of the string</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\z</td>
+<td>matches only at the end of the string</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">\G</td>
+<td>matches at first matching position in the string</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table></div>
+</div>
+<br class="table-break"><p>
+These assertions may not appear in character classes (but note that \b
+has a different meaning, namely the backspace character, inside a
+character class).
+</p>
+<p>
+A word boundary is a position in the string where the current
+character and the previous character do not both match \w or \W (i.e.
+one matches \w and the other matches \W), or the start or end of the
+string if the first or last character matches \w, respectively.
+</p>
+<p>
+The \A, \Z, and \z assertions differ from the traditional circumflex
+and dollar (described in the next section) in that they only ever match
+at the very start and end of the string, whatever options are
+set. Thus, they are independent of multiline mode. These three assertions
+are not affected by the <code class="varname">G_REGEX_MATCH_NOTBOL</code> or <code class="varname">G_REGEX_MATCH_NOTEOL</code> options,
+which affect only the behaviour of the circumflex and dollar metacharacters.
+However, if the start_position argument of a matching function is non-zero,
+indicating that matching is to start at a point other than the beginning of
+the string, \A can never match. The difference between \Z and \z is
+that \Z matches before a newline at the end of the string as well at the
+very end, whereas \z matches only at the end.
+</p>
+<p>
+The \G assertion is true only when the current matching position is at
+the start point of the match, as specified by the start_position argument
+to the matching functions. It differs from \A when the value of startoffset is
+non-zero.
+</p>
+<p>
+Note, however, that the interpretation of \G, as the start of the
+current match, is subtly different from Perl’s, which defines it as the
+end of the previous match. In Perl, these can be different when the
+previously matched string was empty.
+</p>
+<p>
+If all the alternatives of a pattern begin with \G, the expression is
+anchored to the starting match position, and the "anchored" flag is set
+in the compiled regular expression.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="Circumflex and dollar">
+<a name="id550608"></a><h2>Circumflex and dollar</h2>
+<p>
+Outside a character class, in the default matching mode, the circumflex
+character is an assertion that is true only if the current matching
+point is at the start of the string. If the start_position argument to
+the matching functions is non-zero, circumflex can never match if the
+<code class="varname">G_REGEX_MULTILINE</code> option is unset. Inside a character class, circumflex
+has an entirely different meaning (see below).
+</p>
+<p>
+Circumflex need not be the first character of the pattern if a number
+of alternatives are involved, but it should be the first thing in each
+alternative in which it appears if the pattern is ever to match that
+branch. If all possible alternatives start with a circumflex, that is,
+if the pattern is constrained to match only at the start of the string,
+it is said to be an "anchored" pattern. (There are also other
+constructs that can cause a pattern to be anchored.)
+</p>
+<p>
+A dollar character is an assertion that is true only if the current
+matching point is at the end of the string, or immediately
+before a newline at the end of the string (by default). Dollar need not
+be the last character of the pattern if a number of alternatives are
+involved, but it should be the last item in any branch in which it
+appears. Dollar has no special meaning in a character class.
+</p>
+<p>
+The meaning of dollar can be changed so that it matches only at the
+very end of the string, by setting the <code class="varname">G_REGEX_DOLLAR_ENDONLY</code> option at
+compile time. This does not affect the \Z assertion.
+</p>
+<p>
+The meanings of the circumflex and dollar characters are changed if the
+<code class="varname">G_REGEX_MULTILINE</code> option is set. When this is the case,
+a circumflex matches immediately after internal newlines as well as at the
+start of the string. It does not match after a newline that ends the string.
+A dollar matches before any newlines in the string, as well as at the very
+end, when <code class="varname">G_REGEX_MULTILINE</code> is set. When newline is
+specified as the two-character sequence CRLF, isolated CR and LF characters
+do not indicate newlines.
+</p>
+<p>
+For example, the pattern /^abc$/ matches the string "def\nabc" (where
+\n represents a newline) in multiline mode, but not otherwise. Consequently,
+patterns that are anchored in single line mode because all branches start with
+^ are not anchored in multiline mode, and a match for circumflex is possible
+when the <code class="varname">start_position</code> argument of a matching function
+is non-zero. The <code class="varname">G_REGEX_DOLLAR_ENDONLY</code> option is ignored
+if <code class="varname">G_REGEX_MULTILINE</code> is set.
+</p>
+<p>
+Note that the sequences \A, \Z, and \z can be used to match the start and
+end of the string in both modes, and if all branches of a pattern start with
+\A it is always anchored, whether or not <code class="varname">G_REGEX_MULTILINE</code>
+is set.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="Full stop (period, dot)">
+<a name="id550689"></a><h2>Full stop (period, dot)</h2>
+<p>
+Outside a character class, a dot in the pattern matches any one character
+in the string, including a non-printing character, but not (by
+default) newline. In UTF-8 a character might be more than one byte long.
+</p>
+<p>
+When a line ending is defined as a single character, dot never matches that
+character; when the two-character sequence CRLF is used, dot does not match CR
+if it is immediately followed by LF, but otherwise it matches all characters
+(including isolated CRs and LFs). When any Unicode line endings are being
+recognized, dot does not match CR or LF or any of the other line ending
+characters.
+</p>
+<p>
+If the <code class="varname">G_REGEX_DOTALL</code> flag is set, dots match newlines
+as well. The handling of dot is entirely independent of the handling of circumflex
+and dollar, the only relationship being that they both involve newline
+characters. Dot has no special meaning in a character class.
+</p>
+<p>
+The behaviour of dot with regard to newlines can be changed. If the
+<code class="varname">G_REGEX_DOTALL</code> option is set, a dot matches any one
+character, without exception. If newline is defined as the two-character
+sequence CRLF, it takes two dots to match it.
+</p>
+<p>
+The handling of dot is entirely independent of the handling of circumflex and
+dollar, the only relationship being that they both involve newlines. Dot has no
+special meaning in a character class.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="Matching a single byte">
+<a name="id550732"></a><h2>Matching a single byte</h2>
+<p>
+Outside a character class, the escape sequence \C matches any one byte,
+both in and out of UTF-8 mode. Unlike a dot, it always matches any line
+ending characters.
+The feature is provided in Perl in order to match individual bytes in
+UTF-8 mode. Because it breaks up UTF-8 characters into individual
+bytes, what remains in the string may be a malformed UTF-8 string. For
+this reason, the \C escape sequence is best avoided.
+</p>
+<p>
+GRegex does not allow \C to appear in lookbehind assertions (described
+below), because in UTF-8 mode this would make it impossible to calculate
+the length of the lookbehind.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="Square brackets and character classes">
+<a name="id550752"></a><h2>Square brackets and character classes</h2>
+<p>
+An opening square bracket introduces a character class, terminated by a
+closing square bracket. A closing square bracket on its own is not special. If a closing square bracket is required as a member of the class,
+it should be the first data character in the class (after an initial
+circumflex, if present) or escaped with a backslash.
+</p>
+<p>
+A character class matches a single character in the string.  A matched character
+must be in the set of characters defined by the class, unless the first
+character in the class definition is a circumflex, in which case the
+string character must not be in the set defined by the class. If a
+circumflex is actually required as a member of the class, ensure it is
+not the first character, or escape it with a backslash.
+</p>
+<p>
+For example, the character class [aeiou] matches any lower case vowel,
+while [^aeiou] matches any character that is not a lower case vowel.
+Note that a circumflex is just a convenient notation for specifying the
+characters that are in the class by enumerating those that are not. A
+class that starts with a circumflex is not an assertion: it still consumes
+a character from the string, and therefore it fails if the current pointer
+is at the end of the string.
+</p>
+<p>
+In UTF-8 mode, characters with values greater than 255 can be included
+in a class as a literal string of bytes, or by using the \x{ escaping
+mechanism.
+</p>
+<p>
+When caseless matching is set, any letters in a class represent both
+their upper case and lower case versions, so for example, a caseless
+[aeiou] matches "A" as well as "a", and a caseless [^aeiou] does not
+match "A", whereas a caseful version would.
+</p>
+<p>
+Characters that might indicate line breaks are never treated
+in any special way when matching character classes, whatever line-ending
+sequence is in use, and whatever setting of the <code class="varname">G_REGEX_DOTALL</code>
+and <code class="varname">G_REGEX_MULTILINE</code> options is used. A class such as [^a]
+always matches one of these characters.
+</p>
+<p>
+The minus (hyphen) character can be used to specify a range of characters in
+a character class. For example, [d-m] matches any letter
+between d and m, inclusive. If a minus character is required in a
+class, it must be escaped with a backslash or appear in a position
+where it cannot be interpreted as indicating a range, typically as the
+first or last character in the class.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is not possible to have the literal character "]" as the end character
+of a range. A pattern such as [W-]46] is interpreted as a class of
+two characters ("W" and "-") followed by a literal string "46]", so it
+would match "W46]" or "-46]". However, if the "]" is escaped with a
+backslash it is interpreted as the end of range, so [W-\]46] is interpreted
+as a class containing a range followed by two other characters.
+The octal or hexadecimal representation of "]" can also be used to end
+a range.
+</p>
+<p>
+Ranges operate in the collating sequence of character values. They can
+also be used for characters specified numerically, for example
+[\000-\037]. In UTF-8 mode, ranges can include characters whose values
+are greater than 255, for example [\x{100}-\x{2ff}].
+</p>
+<p>
+The character types \d, \D, \p, \P, \s, \S, \w, and \W may also appear
+in a character class, and add the characters that they match to the
+class. For example, [\dABCDEF] matches any hexadecimal digit. A
+circumflex can conveniently be used with the upper case character types to
+specify a more restricted set of characters than the matching lower
+case type. For example, the class [^\W_] matches any letter or digit,
+but not underscore.
+</p>
+<p>
+The only metacharacters that are recognized in character classes are
+backslash, hyphen (only where it can be interpreted as specifying a
+range), circumflex (only at the start), opening square bracket (only
+when it can be interpreted as introducing a POSIX class name - see the
+next section), and the terminating closing square bracket. However,
+escaping other non-alphanumeric characters does no harm.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="Posix character classes">
+<a name="id550838"></a><h2>Posix character classes</h2>
+<p>
+GRegex supports the POSIX notation for character classes. This uses names
+enclosed by [: and :] within the enclosing square brackets. For example,
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+[01[:alpha:]%]
+</pre>
+<p>
+matches "0", "1", any alphabetic character, or "%". The supported class
+names are
+</p>
+<div class="table">
+<a name="id550858"></a><p class="title"><b>Table 9. Posix classes</b></p>
+<div class="table-contents"><table summary="Posix classes" border="1">
+<colgroup>
+<col align="center">
+<col>
+</colgroup>
+<thead><tr>
+<th align="center">Name</th>
+<th>Meaning</th>
+</tr></thead>
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">alnum</td>
+<td>letters and digits</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">alpha</td>
+<td>letters</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">ascii</td>
+<td>character codes 0 - 127</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">blank</td>
+<td>space or tab only</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">cntrl</td>
+<td>control characters</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">digit</td>
+<td>decimal digits (same as \d)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">graph</td>
+<td>printing characters, excluding space</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">lower</td>
+<td>lower case letters</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">print</td>
+<td>printing characters, including space</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">punct</td>
+<td>printing characters, excluding letters and digits</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">space</td>
+<td>white space (not quite the same as \s)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">upper</td>
+<td>upper case letters</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">word</td>
+<td>"word" characters (same as \w)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">xdigit</td>
+<td>hexadecimal digits</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table></div>
+</div>
+<br class="table-break"><p>
+The "space" characters are HT (9), LF (10), VT (11), FF (12), CR (13),
+and space (32). Notice that this list includes the VT character (code
+11). This makes "space" different to \s, which does not include VT (for
+Perl compatibility).
+</p>
+<p>
+The name "word" is a Perl extension, and "blank" is a GNU extension.
+Another Perl extension is negation, which is indicated by a ^ character
+after the colon. For example,
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+[12[:^digit:]]
+</pre>
+<p>
+matches "1", "2", or any non-digit. GRegex also recognize the
+POSIX syntax [.ch.] and [=ch=] where "ch" is a "collating element", but
+these are not supported, and an error is given if they are encountered.
+</p>
+<p>
+In UTF-8 mode, characters with values greater than 128 do not match any
+of the POSIX character classes.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="Vertical bar">
+<a name="id551089"></a><h2>Vertical bar</h2>
+<p>
+Vertical bar characters are used to separate alternative patterns. For
+example, the pattern
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+ gilbert|sullivan
+</pre>
+<p>
+matches either "gilbert" or "sullivan". Any number of alternatives may
+appear, and an empty alternative is permitted (matching the empty
+string). The matching process tries each alternative in turn, from
+left to right, and the first one that succeeds is used. If the alternatives are within a subpattern (defined below), "succeeds" means matching the rest of the main pattern as well as the alternative in the subpattern.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="Internal option setting">
+<a name="id551114"></a><h2>Internal option setting</h2>
+<p>
+The settings of the <code class="varname">G_REGEX_CASELESS</code>, <code class="varname">G_REGEX_MULTILINE</code>, <code class="varname">G_REGEX_MULTILINE</code>,
+and <code class="varname">G_REGEX_EXTENDED</code> options can be changed from within the pattern by a
+sequence of Perl-style option letters enclosed between "(?" and ")". The
+option letters are
+</p>
+<div class="table">
+<a name="id551140"></a><p class="title"><b>Table 10. Option settings</b></p>
+<div class="table-contents"><table summary="Option settings" border="1">
+<colgroup>
+<col align="center">
+<col>
+</colgroup>
+<thead><tr>
+<th align="center">Option</th>
+<th>Flag</th>
+</tr></thead>
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">i</td>
+<td><code class="varname">G_REGEX_CASELESS</code></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">m</td>
+<td><code class="varname">G_REGEX_MULTILINE</code></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">s</td>
+<td><code class="varname">G_REGEX_DOTALL</code></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">x</td>
+<td><code class="varname">G_REGEX_EXTENDED</code></td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table></div>
+</div>
+<br class="table-break"><p>
+For example, (?im) sets caseless, multiline matching. It is also
+possible to unset these options by preceding the letter with a hyphen, and a
+combined setting and unsetting such as (?im-sx), which sets <code class="varname">G_REGEX_CASELESS</code>
+and <code class="varname">G_REGEX_MULTILINE</code> while unsetting <code class="varname">G_REGEX_DOTALL</code> and <code class="varname">G_REGEX_EXTENDED</code>,
+is also permitted. If a letter appears both before and after the
+hyphen, the option is unset.
+</p>
+<p>
+When an option change occurs at top level (that is, not inside subpattern
+parentheses), the change applies to the remainder of the pattern
+that follows.
+</p>
+<p>
+An option change within a subpattern (see below for a description of subpatterns)
+affects only that part of the current pattern that follows it, so
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(a(?i)b)c
+</pre>
+<p>
+matches abc and aBc and no other strings (assuming <code class="varname">G_REGEX_CASELESS</code> is not
+used). By this means, options can be made to have different settings
+in different parts of the pattern. Any changes made in one alternative
+do carry on into subsequent branches within the same subpattern. For
+example,
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(a(?i)b|c)
+</pre>
+<p>
+matches "ab", "aB", "c", and "C", even though when matching "C" the
+first branch is abandoned before the option setting. This is because
+the effects of option settings happen at compile time. There would be
+some very weird behaviour otherwise.
+</p>
+<p>
+The options <code class="varname">G_REGEX_UNGREEDY</code> and
+<code class="varname">G_REGEX_EXTRA</code> and <code class="varname">G_REGEX_DUPNAMES</code>
+can be changed in the same way as the Perl-compatible options by using
+the characters U, X and J respectively.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="Subpatterns">
+<a name="id551309"></a><h2>Subpatterns</h2>
+<p>
+Subpatterns are delimited by parentheses (round brackets), which can be
+nested. Turning part of a pattern into a subpattern does two things:
+</p>
+<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" type="disc">
+<li class="listitem"><p>
+It localizes a set of alternatives. For example, the pattern
+cat(aract|erpillar|) matches one of the words "cat", "cataract", or
+"caterpillar". Without the parentheses, it would match "cataract",
+"erpillar" or an empty string.
+</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>
+It sets up the subpattern as a capturing subpattern. This means
+that, when the whole pattern matches, that portion of the
+string that matched the subpattern can be obtained using <code class="function">g_regex_fetch()</code>.
+Opening parentheses are counted from left to right (starting from 1, as
+subpattern 0 is the whole matched string) to obtain numbers for the
+capturing subpatterns.
+</p></li>
+</ul></div>
+<p>
+For example, if the string "the red king" is matched against the pattern
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+the ((red|white) (king|queen))
+</pre>
+<p>
+the captured substrings are "red king", "red", and "king", and are numbered 1, 2, and 3, respectively.
+</p>
+<p>
+The fact that plain parentheses fulfil two functions is not always
+helpful. There are often times when a grouping subpattern is required
+without a capturing requirement. If an opening parenthesis is followed
+by a question mark and a colon, the subpattern does not do any capturing,
+and is not counted when computing the number of any subsequent
+capturing subpatterns. For example, if the string "the white queen" is
+matched against the pattern
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+the ((?:red|white) (king|queen))
+</pre>
+<p>
+the captured substrings are "white queen" and "queen", and are numbered
+1 and 2. The maximum number of capturing subpatterns is 65535.
+</p>
+<p>
+As a convenient shorthand, if any option settings are required at the
+start of a non-capturing subpattern, the option letters may appear
+between the "?" and the ":". Thus the two patterns
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?i:saturday|sunday)
+(?:(?i)saturday|sunday)
+</pre>
+<p>
+match exactly the same set of strings. Because alternative branches are
+tried from left to right, and options are not reset until the end of
+the subpattern is reached, an option setting in one branch does affect
+subsequent branches, so the above patterns match "SUNDAY" as well as
+"Saturday".
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="Named subpatterns">
+<a name="id551394"></a><h2>Named subpatterns</h2>
+<p>
+Identifying capturing parentheses by number is simple, but it can be
+very hard to keep track of the numbers in complicated regular expressions.
+Furthermore, if an expression is modified, the numbers may
+change. To help with this difficulty, GRegex supports the naming of
+subpatterns.  A subpattern can be named in one of three ways: (?&lt;name&gt;...) or
+(?'name'...) as in Perl, or (?P&lt;name&gt;...) as in Python.
+References to capturing parentheses from other
+parts of the pattern, such as backreferences, recursion, and conditions,
+can be made by name as well as by number.
+</p>
+<p>
+Names consist of up to 32 alphanumeric characters and underscores. Named
+capturing parentheses are still allocated numbers as well as names, exactly as
+if the names were not present.
+By default, a name must be unique within a pattern, but it is possible to relax
+this constraint by setting the <code class="varname">G_REGEX_DUPNAMES</code> option at
+compile time. This can be useful for patterns where only one instance of the
+named parentheses can match. Suppose you want to match the name of a weekday,
+either as a 3-letter abbreviation or as the full name, and in both cases you
+want to extract the abbreviation. This pattern (ignoring the line breaks) does
+the job:
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?&lt;DN&gt;Mon|Fri|Sun)(?:day)?|
+(?&lt;DN&gt;Tue)(?:sday)?|
+(?&lt;DN&gt;Wed)(?:nesday)?|
+(?&lt;DN&gt;Thu)(?:rsday)?|
+(?&lt;DN&gt;Sat)(?:urday)?
+</pre>
+<p>
+There are five capturing substrings, but only one is ever set after a match.
+The function for extracting the data by name returns the substring
+for the first (and in this example, the only) subpattern of that name that
+matched. This saves searching to find which numbered subpattern it was. If you
+make a reference to a non-unique named subpattern from elsewhere in the
+pattern, the one that corresponds to the lowest number is used.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="Repetition">
+<a name="id551437"></a><h2>Repetition</h2>
+<p>
+Repetition is specified by quantifiers, which can follow any of the
+following items:
+</p>
+<div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" type="disc">
+<li class="listitem"><p>a literal data character</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>the dot metacharacter</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>the \C escape sequence</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>the \X escape sequence (in UTF-8 mode)</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>the \R escape sequence</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>an escape such as \d that matches a single character</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>a character class</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>a back reference (see next section)</p></li>
+<li class="listitem"><p>a parenthesized subpattern (unless it is an assertion)</p></li>
+</ul></div>
+<p>
+The general repetition quantifier specifies a minimum and maximum number
+of permitted matches, by giving the two numbers in curly brackets
+(braces), separated by a comma. The numbers must be less than 65536,
+and the first must be less than or equal to the second. For example:
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+z{2,4}
+</pre>
+<p>
+matches "zz", "zzz", or "zzzz". A closing brace on its own is not a
+special character. If the second number is omitted, but the comma is
+present, there is no upper limit; if the second number and the comma
+are both omitted, the quantifier specifies an exact number of required
+matches. Thus
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+[aeiou]{3,}
+</pre>
+<p>
+matches at least 3 successive vowels, but may match many more, while
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+\d{8}
+</pre>
+<p>
+matches exactly 8 digits. An opening curly bracket that appears in a
+position where a quantifier is not allowed, or one that does not match
+the syntax of a quantifier, is taken as a literal character. For example,
+{,6} is not a quantifier, but a literal string of four characters.
+</p>
+<p>
+In UTF-8 mode, quantifiers apply to UTF-8 characters rather than to
+individual bytes. Thus, for example, \x{100}{2} matches two UTF-8
+characters, each of which is represented by a two-byte sequence. Similarly,
+\X{3} matches three Unicode extended sequences, each of which may be
+several bytes long (and they may be of different lengths).
+</p>
+<p>
+The quantifier {0} is permitted, causing the expression to behave as if
+the previous item and the quantifier were not present.
+</p>
+<p>
+For convenience, the three most common quantifiers have single-character
+abbreviations:
+</p>
+<div class="table">
+<a name="id551549"></a><p class="title"><b>Table 11. Abbreviations for quantifiers</b></p>
+<div class="table-contents"><table summary="Abbreviations for quantifiers" border="1">
+<colgroup>
+<col align="center">
+<col>
+</colgroup>
+<thead><tr>
+<th align="center">Abbreviation</th>
+<th>Meaning</th>
+</tr></thead>
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">*</td>
+<td>is equivalent to {0,}</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">+</td>
+<td>is equivalent to {1,}</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">?</td>
+<td>is equivalent to {0,1}</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table></div>
+</div>
+<br class="table-break"><p>
+It is possible to construct infinite loops by following a subpattern
+that can match no characters with a quantifier that has no upper limit,
+for example:
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(a?)*
+</pre>
+<p>
+Because there are cases where this can be useful, such patterns are
+accepted, but if any repetition of the subpattern does in fact match
+no characters, the loop is forcibly broken.
+</p>
+<p>
+By default, the quantifiers are "greedy", that is, they match as much
+as possible (up to the maximum number of permitted times), without
+causing the rest of the pattern to fail. The classic example of where
+this gives problems is in trying to match comments in C programs. These
+appear between /* and */ and within the comment, individual * and /
+characters may appear. An attempt to match C comments by applying the
+pattern
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+/\*.*\*/
+</pre>
+<p>
+to the string
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+/* first comment */  not comment  /* second comment */
+</pre>
+<p>
+fails, because it matches the entire string owing to the greediness of
+the .* item.
+</p>
+<p>
+However, if a quantifier is followed by a question mark, it ceases to
+be greedy, and instead matches the minimum number of times possible, so
+the pattern
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+/\*.*?\*/
+</pre>
+<p>
+does the right thing with the C comments. The meaning of the various
+quantifiers is not otherwise changed, just the preferred number of
+matches. Do not confuse this use of question mark with its use as a
+quantifier in its own right. Because it has two uses, it can sometimes
+appear doubled, as in
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+\d??\d
+</pre>
+<p>
+which matches one digit by preference, but can match two if that is the
+only way the rest of the pattern matches.
+</p>
+<p>
+If the <code class="varname">G_REGEX_UNGREEDY</code> flag is set, the quantifiers are not greedy
+by default, but individual ones can be made greedy by following them with
+a question mark. In other words, it inverts the default behaviour.
+</p>
+<p>
+When a parenthesized subpattern is quantified with a minimum repeat
+count that is greater than 1 or with a limited maximum, more memory is
+required for the compiled pattern, in proportion to the size of the
+minimum or maximum.
+</p>
+<p>
+If a pattern starts with .* or .{0,} and the <code class="varname">G_REGEX_DOTALL</code> flag
+is set, thus allowing the dot to match newlines, the
+pattern is implicitly anchored, because whatever follows will be tried
+against every character position in the string, so there is no
+point in retrying the overall match at any position after the first.
+GRegex normally treats such a pattern as though it were preceded by \A.
+</p>
+<p>
+In cases where it is known that the string contains no newlines, it
+is worth setting <code class="varname">G_REGEX_DOTALL</code> in order to obtain this optimization,
+or alternatively using ^ to indicate anchoring explicitly.
+</p>
+<p>
+However, there is one situation where the optimization cannot be used.
+When .* is inside capturing parentheses that are the subject of a
+backreference elsewhere in the pattern, a match at the start may fail
+where a later one succeeds. Consider, for example:
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(.*)abc\1
+</pre>
+<p>
+If the string is "xyz123abc123" the match point is the fourth character.
+For this reason, such a pattern is not implicitly anchored.
+</p>
+<p>
+When a capturing subpattern is repeated, the value captured is the
+substring that matched the final iteration. For example, after
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(tweedle[dume]{3}\s*)+
+</pre>
+<p>
+has matched "tweedledum tweedledee" the value of the captured substring
+is "tweedledee". However, if there are nested capturing subpatterns,
+the corresponding captured values may have been set in previous iterations.
+For example, after
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+/(a|(b))+/
+</pre>
+<p>
+matches "aba" the value of the second captured substring is "b".
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="Atomic grouping and possessive quantifiers">
+<a name="id551776"></a><h2>Atomic grouping and possessive quantifiers</h2>
+<p>
+With both maximizing ("greedy") and minimizing ("ungreedy" or "lazy")
+repetition, failure of what follows normally causes the repeated
+item to be re-evaluated to see if a different number
+of repeats allows the rest of the pattern to match. Sometimes it
+is useful to prevent this, either to change the nature of the
+match, or to cause it fail earlier than it otherwise might, when the
+author of the pattern knows there is no point in carrying on.
+</p>
+<p>
+Consider, for example, the pattern \d+foo when applied to the string
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+123456bar
+</pre>
+<p>
+After matching all 6 digits and then failing to match "foo", the normal
+action of the matcher is to try again with only 5 digits matching the
+\d+ item, and then with 4, and so on, before ultimately failing.
+"Atomic grouping" (a term taken from Jeffrey Friedl’s book) provides
+the means for specifying that once a subpattern has matched, it is not
+to be re-evaluated in this way.
+</p>
+<p>
+If we use atomic grouping for the previous example, the matcher
+give up immediately on failing to match "foo" the first time. The notation
+is a kind of special parenthesis, starting with (?&gt; as in this
+example:
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?&gt;\d+)foo
+</pre>
+<p>
+This kind of parenthesis "locks up" the part of the pattern it contains
+once it has matched, and a failure further into the pattern is
+prevented from backtracking into it. Backtracking past it to previous
+items, however, works as normal.
+</p>
+<p>
+An alternative description is that a subpattern of this type matches
+the string of characters that an identical standalone pattern would
+match, if anchored at the current point in the string.
+</p>
+<p>
+Atomic grouping subpatterns are not capturing subpatterns. Simple cases
+such as the above example can be thought of as a maximizing repeat that
+must swallow everything it can. So, while both \d+ and \d+? are prepared
+to adjust the number of digits they match in order to make the
+rest of the pattern match, (?&gt;\d+) can only match an entire sequence of
+digits.
+</p>
+<p>
+Atomic groups in general can of course contain arbitrarily complicated
+subpatterns, and can be nested. However, when the subpattern for an
+atomic group is just a single repeated item, as in the example above, a
+simpler notation, called a "possessive quantifier" can be used. This
+consists of an additional + character following a quantifier. Using
+this notation, the previous example can be rewritten as
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+\d++foo
+</pre>
+<p>
+Possessive quantifiers are always greedy; the setting of the
+<code class="varname">G_REGEX_UNGREEDY</code> option is ignored. They are a convenient notation for the
+simpler forms of atomic group. However, there is no difference in the
+meaning of a possessive quantifier and the equivalent
+atomic group, though there may be a performance difference;
+possessive quantifiers should be slightly faster.
+</p>
+<p>
+The possessive quantifier syntax is an extension to the Perl syntax.
+It was invented by Jeffrey Friedl in the first edition of his book and
+then implemented by Mike McCloskey in Sun's Java package.
+It ultimately found its way into Perl at release 5.10.
+</p>
+<p>
+GRegex has an optimization that automatically "possessifies" certain simple
+pattern constructs. For example, the sequence A+B is treated as A++B because
+there is no point in backtracking into a sequence of A's when B must follow.
+</p>
+<p>
+When a pattern contains an unlimited repeat inside a subpattern that
+can itself be repeated an unlimited number of times, the use of an
+atomic group is the only way to avoid some failing matches taking a
+very long time indeed. The pattern
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(\D+|&lt;\d+&gt;)*[!?]
+</pre>
+<p>
+matches an unlimited number of substrings that either consist of non-
+digits, or digits enclosed in &lt;&gt;, followed by either ! or ?. When it
+matches, it runs quickly. However, if it is applied to
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
+</pre>
+<p>
+it takes a long time before reporting failure. This is because the
+string can be divided between the internal \D+ repeat and the external
+* repeat in a large number of ways, and all have to be tried. (The
+example uses [!?] rather than a single character at the end, because
+GRegex has an optimization that allows for fast failure
+when a single character is used. It remember the last single character
+that is required for a match, and fail early if it is not present
+in the string.) If the pattern is changed so that it uses an atomic
+group, like this:
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+((?&gt;\D+)|&lt;\d+&gt;)*[!?]
+</pre>
+<p>
+sequences of non-digits cannot be broken, and failure happens quickly.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="Back references">
+<a name="id551911"></a><h2>Back references</h2>
+<p>
+Outside a character class, a backslash followed by a digit greater than
+0 (and possibly further digits) is a back reference to a capturing subpattern
+earlier (that is, to its left) in the pattern, provided there have been that
+many previous capturing left parentheses.
+</p>
+<p>
+However, if the decimal number following the backslash is less than 10,
+it is always taken as a back reference, and causes an error only if
+there are not that many capturing left parentheses in the entire pattern.
+In other words, the parentheses that are referenced need not be
+to the left of the reference for numbers less than 10. A "forward back
+reference" of this type can make sense when a repetition is involved and
+the subpattern to the right has participated in an earlier iteration.
+</p>
+<p>
+It is not possible to have a numerical "forward back reference" to subpattern
+whose number is 10 or more using this syntax because a sequence such as \e50 is
+interpreted as a character defined in octal. See the subsection entitled
+"Non-printing characters" above for further details of the handling of digits
+following a backslash. There is no such problem when named parentheses are used.
+A back reference to any subpattern is possible using named parentheses (see below).
+</p>
+<p>
+Another way of avoiding the ambiguity inherent in the use of digits following a
+backslash is to use the \g escape sequence (introduced in Perl 5.10.)
+This escape must be followed by a positive or a negative number,
+optionally enclosed in braces.
+</p>
+<p>
+A positive number specifies an absolute reference without the ambiguity that is
+present in the older syntax. It is also useful when literal digits follow the
+reference. A negative number is a relative reference. Consider "(abc(def)ghi)\g{-1}",
+the sequence \g{-1} is a reference to the most recently started capturing
+subpattern before \g, that is, is it equivalent to \2. Similarly, \g{-2}
+would be equivalent to \1. The use of relative references can be helpful in
+long patterns, and also in patterns that are created by joining together
+fragments that contain references within themselves.
+</p>
+<p>
+A back reference matches whatever actually matched the capturing subpattern
+in the current string, rather than anything matching
+the subpattern itself (see "Subpatterns as subroutines" below for a way
+of doing that). So the pattern
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(sens|respons)e and \1ibility
+</pre>
+<p>
+matches "sense and sensibility" and "response and responsibility", but
+not "sense and responsibility". If caseful matching is in force at the
+time of the back reference, the case of letters is relevant. For example,
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+((?i)rah)\s+\1
+</pre>
+<p>
+matches "rah rah" and "RAH RAH", but not "RAH rah", even though the
+original capturing subpattern is matched caselessly.
+</p>
+<p>
+Back references to named subpatterns use the Perl syntax \k&lt;name&gt; or \k'name'
+or the Python syntax (?P=name). We could rewrite the above example in either of
+the following ways:
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?&lt;p1&gt;(?i)rah)\s+\k&lt;p1&gt;
+(?P&lt;p1&gt;(?i)rah)\s+(?P=p1)
+</pre>
+<p>
+A subpattern that is referenced by name may appear in the pattern before or
+after the reference.
+</p>
+<p>
+There may be more than one back reference to the same subpattern. If a
+subpattern has not actually been used in a particular match, any back
+references to it always fail. For example, the pattern
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(a|(bc))\2
+</pre>
+<p>
+always fails if it starts to match "a" rather than "bc". Because there
+may be many capturing parentheses in a pattern, all digits following
+the backslash are taken as part of a potential back reference number.
+If the pattern continues with a digit character, some delimiter must be
+used to terminate the back reference. If the <code class="varname">G_REGEX_EXTENDED</code> flag is
+set, this can be whitespace. Otherwise an empty comment (see "Comments" below) can be used.
+</p>
+<p>
+A back reference that occurs inside the parentheses to which it refers
+fails when the subpattern is first used, so, for example, (a\1) never
+matches. However, such references can be useful inside repeated subpatterns.
+For example, the pattern
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(a|b\1)+
+</pre>
+<p>
+matches any number of "a"s and also "aba", "ababbaa" etc. At each iteration
+of the subpattern, the back reference matches the character
+string corresponding to the previous iteration. In order for this to
+work, the pattern must be such that the first iteration does not need
+to match the back reference. This can be done using alternation, as in
+the example above, or by a quantifier with a minimum of zero.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="Assertions">
+<a name="id552038"></a><h2>Assertions</h2>
+<p>
+An assertion is a test on the characters following or preceding the
+current matching point that does not actually consume any characters.
+The simple assertions coded as \b, \B, \A, \G, \Z, \z, ^ and $ are
+described above.
+</p>
+<p>
+More complicated assertions are coded as subpatterns. There are two
+kinds: those that look ahead of the current position in the
+string, and those that look behind it. An assertion subpattern is
+matched in the normal way, except that it does not cause the current
+matching position to be changed.
+</p>
+<p>
+Assertion subpatterns are not capturing subpatterns, and may not be
+repeated, because it makes no sense to assert the same thing several
+times. If any kind of assertion contains capturing subpatterns within
+it, these are counted for the purposes of numbering the capturing
+subpatterns in the whole pattern. However, substring capturing is carried
+out only for positive assertions, because it does not make sense for
+negative assertions.
+</p>
+<div class="refsect2" title="Lookahead assertions">
+<a name="id552063"></a><h3>Lookahead assertions</h3>
+<p>
+Lookahead assertions start with (?= for positive assertions and (?! for
+negative assertions. For example,
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+\w+(?=;)
+</pre>
+<p>
+matches a word followed by a semicolon, but does not include the semicolon
+in the match, and
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+foo(?!bar)
+</pre>
+<p>
+matches any occurrence of "foo" that is not followed by "bar". Note
+that the apparently similar pattern
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?!foo)bar
+</pre>
+<p>
+does not find an occurrence of "bar" that is preceded by something
+other than "foo"; it finds any occurrence of "bar" whatsoever, because
+the assertion (?!foo) is always true when the next three characters are
+"bar". A lookbehind assertion is needed to achieve the other effect.
+</p>
+<p>
+If you want to force a matching failure at some point in a pattern, the
+most convenient way to do it is with (?!) because an empty string
+always matches, so an assertion that requires there not to be an empty
+string must always fail.
+</p>
+</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="refsect2" title="Lookbehind assertions">
+<a name="id552113"></a><h3>Lookbehind assertions</h3>
+<p>
+Lookbehind assertions start with (?&lt;= for positive assertions and (?&lt;!
+for negative assertions. For example,
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?&lt;!foo)bar
+</pre>
+<p>
+does find an occurrence of "bar" that is not preceded by "foo". The
+contents of a lookbehind assertion are restricted such that all the
+strings it matches must have a fixed length. However, if there are
+several top-level alternatives, they do not all have to have the same
+fixed length. Thus
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?&lt;=bullock|donkey)
+</pre>
+<p>
+is permitted, but
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?&lt;!dogs?|cats?)
+</pre>
+<p>
+causes an error at compile time. Branches that match different length
+strings are permitted only at the top level of a lookbehind assertion.
+An assertion such as
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?&lt;=ab(c|de))
+</pre>
+<p>
+is not permitted, because its single top-level branch can match two
+different lengths, but it is acceptable if rewritten to use two top-
+level branches:
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?&lt;=abc|abde)
+</pre>
+<p>
+The implementation of lookbehind assertions is, for each alternative,
+to temporarily move the current position back by the fixed length and
+then try to match. If there are insufficient characters before the
+current position, the assertion fails.
+</p>
+<p>
+GRegex does not allow the \C escape (which matches a single byte in UTF-8
+mode) to appear in lookbehind assertions, because it makes it impossible
+to calculate the length of the lookbehind. The \X and \R escapes, which can
+match different numbers of bytes, are also not permitted.
+</p>
+<p>
+Possessive quantifiers can be used in conjunction with lookbehind assertions to
+specify efficient matching at the end of the subject string. Consider a simple
+pattern such as
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+abcd$
+</pre>
+<p>
+when applied to a long string that does not match. Because matching
+proceeds from left to right, GRegex will look for each "a" in the string
+and then see if what follows matches the rest of the pattern. If the
+pattern is specified as
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+^.*abcd$
+</pre>
+<p>
+the initial .* matches the entire string at first, but when this fails
+(because there is no following "a"), it backtracks to match all but the
+last character, then all but the last two characters, and so on. Once
+again the search for "a" covers the entire string, from right to left,
+so we are no better off. However, if the pattern is written as
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+^.*+(?&lt;=abcd)
+</pre>
+<p>
+there can be no backtracking for the .*+ item; it can match only the
+entire string. The subsequent lookbehind assertion does a single test
+on the last four characters. If it fails, the match fails immediately.
+For long strings, this approach makes a significant difference to the
+processing time.
+</p>
+</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="refsect2" title="Using multiple assertions">
+<a name="id552228"></a><h3>Using multiple assertions</h3>
+<p>
+Several assertions (of any sort) may occur in succession. For example,
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?&lt;=\d{3})(?&lt;!999)foo
+</pre>
+<p>
+matches "foo" preceded by three digits that are not "999". Notice that
+each of the assertions is applied independently at the same point in
+the string. First there is a check that the previous three
+characters are all digits, and then there is a check that the same
+three characters are not "999". This pattern does not match "foo" preceded
+by six characters, the first of which are digits and the last
+three of which are not "999". For example, it doesn’t match "123abcfoo".
+A pattern to do that is
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?&lt;=\d{3}...)(?&lt;!999)foo
+</pre>
+<p>
+This time the first assertion looks at the preceding six characters,
+checking that the first three are digits, and then the second assertion
+checks that the preceding three characters are not "999".
+</p>
+<p>
+Assertions can be nested in any combination. For example,
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?&lt;=(?&lt;!foo)bar)baz
+</pre>
+<p>
+matches an occurrence of "baz" that is preceded by "bar" which in turn
+is not preceded by "foo", while
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?&lt;=\d{3}(?!999)...)foo
+</pre>
+<p>
+is another pattern that matches "foo" preceded by three digits and any
+three characters that are not "999".
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="Conditional subpatterns">
+<a name="id552292"></a><h2>Conditional subpatterns</h2>
+<p>
+It is possible to cause the matching process to obey a subpattern
+conditionally or to choose between two alternative subpatterns, depending
+on the result of an assertion, or whether a previous capturing subpattern
+matched or not. The two possible forms of conditional subpattern are
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?(condition)yes-pattern)
+(?(condition)yes-pattern|no-pattern)
+</pre>
+<p>
+If the condition is satisfied, the yes-pattern is used; otherwise the
+no-pattern (if present) is used. If there are more than two alternatives
+in the subpattern, a compile-time error occurs.
+</p>
+<p>
+There are four kinds of condition: references to subpatterns, references to
+recursion, a pseudo-condition called DEFINE, and assertions.
+</p>
+<div class="refsect2" title="Checking for a used subpattern by number">
+<a name="id552320"></a><h3>Checking for a used subpattern by number</h3>
+<p>
+If the text between the parentheses consists of a sequence of digits, the
+condition is true if the capturing subpattern of that number has previously
+matched.
+</p>
+<p>
+Consider the following pattern, which contains non-significant white space
+to make it more readable (assume the <code class="varname">G_REGEX_EXTENDED</code>)
+and to divide it into three parts for ease of discussion:
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+( \( )?    [^()]+    (?(1) \) )
+</pre>
+<p>
+The first part matches an optional opening parenthesis, and if that
+character is present, sets it as the first captured substring. The second
+part matches one or more characters that are not parentheses. The
+third part is a conditional subpattern that tests whether the first set
+of parentheses matched or not. If they did, that is, if string started
+with an opening parenthesis, the condition is true, and so the yes-pattern
+is executed and a closing parenthesis is required. Otherwise,
+since no-pattern is not present, the subpattern matches nothing. In
+other words, this pattern matches a sequence of non-parentheses,
+optionally enclosed in parentheses.
+</p>
+</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="refsect2" title="Checking for a used subpattern by name">
+<a name="id552356"></a><h3>Checking for a used subpattern by name</h3>
+<p>
+Perl uses the syntax (?(&lt;name&gt;)...) or (?('name')...) to test for a used
+subpattern by name, the Python syntax (?(name)...) is also recognized. However,
+there is a possible ambiguity with this syntax, because subpattern names may
+consist entirely of digits. GRegex looks first for a named subpattern; if it
+cannot find one and the name consists entirely of digits, GRegex looks for a
+subpattern of that number, which must be greater than zero. Using subpattern
+names that consist entirely of digits is not recommended.
+</p>
+<p>
+Rewriting the above example to use a named subpattern gives this:
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?&lt;OPEN&gt; \( )?    [^()]+    (?(&lt;OPEN&gt;) \) )
+</pre>
+</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="refsect2" title="Checking for pattern recursion">
+<a name="id552382"></a><h3>Checking for pattern recursion</h3>
+<p>
+If the condition is the string (R), and there is no subpattern with the name R,
+the condition is true if a recursive call to the whole pattern or any
+subpattern has been made. If digits or a name preceded by ampersand follow the
+letter R, for example:
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?(R3)...)
+(?(R&amp;name)...)
+</pre>
+<p>
+the condition is true if the most recent recursion is into the subpattern whose
+number or name is given. This condition does not check the entire recursion
+stack.
+</p>
+<p>
+At "top level", all these recursion test conditions are false. Recursive
+patterns are described below.
+</p>
+</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="refsect2" title="Defining subpatterns for use by reference only">
+<a name="id552411"></a><h3>Defining subpatterns for use by reference only</h3>
+<p>
+If the condition is the string (DEFINE), and there is no subpattern with the
+name DEFINE, the condition is always false. In this case, there may be only one
+alternative in the subpattern. It is always skipped if control reaches this
+point in the pattern; the idea of DEFINE is that it can be used to define
+"subroutines" that can be referenced from elsewhere. (The use of "subroutines"
+is described below.) For example, a pattern to match an IPv4 address could be
+written like this (ignore whitespace and line breaks):
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?(DEFINE) (?&lt;byte&gt; 2[0-4]\d | 25[0-5] | 1\d\d | [1-9]?\d) )
+\b (?&amp;byte) (\.(?&amp;byte)){3} \b
+</pre>
+<p>
+The first part of the pattern is a DEFINE group inside which a another group
+named "byte" is defined. This matches an individual component of an IPv4
+address (a number less than 256). When matching takes place, this part of the
+pattern is skipped because DEFINE acts like a false condition.
+</p>
+<p>
+The rest of the pattern uses references to the named group to match the four
+dot-separated components of an IPv4 address, insisting on a word boundary at
+each end.
+</p>
+</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="refsect2" title="Assertion conditions">
+<a name="id552443"></a><h3>Assertion conditions</h3>
+<p>
+If the condition is not in any of the above formats, it must be an
+assertion. This may be a positive or negative lookahead or lookbehind
+assertion. Consider this pattern, again containing non-significant
+white space, and with the two alternatives on the second line:
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?(?=[^a-z]*[a-z])
+\d{2}-[a-z]{3}-\d{2}  |  \d{2}-\d{2}-\d{2} )
+</pre>
+<p>
+The condition is a positive lookahead assertion that matches an
+optional sequence of non-letters followed by a letter. In other words,
+it tests for the presence of at least one letter in the string. If a
+letter is found, the string is matched against the first alternative;
+otherwise it is matched against the second. This pattern matches
+strings in one of the two forms dd-aaa-dd or dd-dd-dd, where aaa are
+letters and dd are digits.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="Comments">
+<a name="id552472"></a><h2>Comments</h2>
+<p>
+The sequence (?# marks the start of a comment that continues up to the
+next closing parenthesis. Nested parentheses are not permitted. The
+characters that make up a comment play no part in the pattern matching
+at all.
+</p>
+<p>
+If the <code class="varname">G_REGEX_EXTENDED</code> option is set, an unescaped #
+character outside a character class introduces a comment that continues to
+immediately after the next newline in the pattern.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="Recursive patterns">
+<a name="id552493"></a><h2>Recursive patterns</h2>
+<p>
+Consider the problem of matching a string in parentheses, allowing for
+unlimited nested parentheses. Without the use of recursion, the best
+that can be done is to use a pattern that matches up to some fixed
+depth of nesting. It is not possible to handle an arbitrary nesting
+depth.
+</p>
+<p>
+For some time, Perl has provided a facility that allows regular expressions to
+recurse (amongst other things). It does this by interpolating Perl code in the
+expression at run time, and the code can refer to the expression itself. A Perl
+pattern using code interpolation to solve the parentheses problem can be
+created like this:
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+$re = qr{\( (?: (?&gt;[^()]+) | (?p{$re}) )* \)}x;
+</pre>
+<p>
+The (?p{...}) item interpolates Perl code at run time, and in this case refers
+recursively to the pattern in which it appears.
+</p>
+<p>
+Obviously, GRegex cannot support the interpolation of Perl code. Instead, it
+supports special syntax for recursion of the entire pattern, and also for
+individual subpattern recursion. This kind of recursion was introduced into
+Perl at release 5.10.
+</p>
+<p>
+A special item that consists of (? followed by a number greater than zero and a
+closing parenthesis is a recursive call of the subpattern of the given number,
+provided that it occurs inside that subpattern. (If not, it is a "subroutine"
+call, which is described in the next section.) The special item (?R) or (?0) is
+a recursive call of the entire regular expression.
+</p>
+<p>
+In GRegex (like Python, but unlike Perl), a recursive subpattern call is always
+treated as an atomic group. That is, once it has matched some of the subject
+string, it is never re-entered, even if it contains untried alternatives and
+there is a subsequent matching failure.
+</p>
+<p>
+This pattern solves the nested parentheses problem (assume the
+<code class="varname">G_REGEX_EXTENDED</code> option is set so that white space is
+ignored):
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+\( ( (?&gt;[^()]+) | (?R) )* \)
+</pre>
+<p>
+First it matches an opening parenthesis. Then it matches any number of
+substrings which can either be a sequence of non-parentheses, or a
+recursive match of the pattern itself (that is, a correctly parenthesized
+substring). Finally there is a closing parenthesis.
+</p>
+<p>
+If this were part of a larger pattern, you would not want to recurse
+the entire pattern, so instead you could use this:
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+( \( ( (?&gt;[^()]+) | (?1) )* \) )
+</pre>
+<p>
+We have put the pattern into parentheses, and caused the recursion to
+refer to them instead of the whole pattern. In a larger pattern, keeping
+track of parenthesis numbers can be tricky. It may be more convenient to
+use named parentheses instead.
+The Perl syntax for this is (?&amp;name); GRegex also supports the(?P&gt;name)
+syntac. We could rewrite the above example as follows:
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(?&lt;pn&gt; \( ( (?&gt;[^()]+) | (?&amp;pn) )* \) )
+</pre>
+<p>
+If there is more than one subpattern with the same name, the earliest one is
+used. This particular example pattern contains nested unlimited repeats, and so
+the use of atomic grouping for matching strings of non-parentheses is important
+when applying the pattern to strings that do not match.
+For example, when this pattern is applied to
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa()
+</pre>
+<p>
+it yields "no match" quickly. However, if atomic grouping is not used,
+the match runs for a very long time indeed because there are so many
+different ways the + and * repeats can carve up the string, and all
+have to be tested before failure can be reported.
+</p>
+<p>
+At the end of a match, the values set for any capturing subpatterns are
+those from the outermost level of the recursion at which the subpattern
+value is set.
+If the pattern above is matched against
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(ab(cd)ef)
+</pre>
+<p>
+the value for the capturing parentheses is "ef", which is the last
+value taken on at the top level. If additional parentheses are added,
+giving
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+\( ( ( (?&gt;[^()]+) | (?R) )* ) \)
+   ^                        ^
+   ^                        ^
+</pre>
+<p>
+the string they capture is "ab(cd)ef", the contents of the top level
+parentheses.
+</p>
+<p>
+Do not confuse the (?R) item with the condition (R), which tests for
+recursion. Consider this pattern, which matches text in angle brackets,
+allowing for arbitrary nesting. Only digits are allowed in nested
+brackets (that is, when recursing), whereas any characters are permitted
+at the outer level.
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+&lt; (?: (?(R) \d++ | [^&lt;&gt;]*+) | (?R)) * &gt;
+</pre>
+<p>
+In this pattern, (?(R) is the start of a conditional subpattern, with
+two different alternatives for the recursive and non-recursive cases.
+The (?R) item is the actual recursive call.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="Subpatterns as subroutines">
+<a name="id563035"></a><h2>Subpatterns as subroutines</h2>
+<p>
+If the syntax for a recursive subpattern reference (either by number or
+by name) is used outside the parentheses to which it refers, it operates
+like a subroutine in a programming language. The "called" subpattern may
+be defined before or after the reference. An earlier example pointed out
+that the pattern
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(sens|respons)e and \1ibility
+</pre>
+<p>
+matches "sense and sensibility" and "response and responsibility", but
+not "sense and responsibility". If instead the pattern
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(sens|respons)e and (?1)ibility
+</pre>
+<p>
+is used, it does match "sense and responsibility" as well as the other
+two strings. Another example is given in the discussion of DEFINE above.
+</p>
+<p>
+Like recursive subpatterns, a "subroutine" call is always treated as an atomic
+group. That is, once it has matched some of the string, it is never
+re-entered, even if it contains untried alternatives and there is a subsequent
+matching failure.
+</p>
+<p>
+When a subpattern is used as a subroutine, processing options such as
+case-independence are fixed when the subpattern is defined. They cannot be
+changed for different calls. For example, consider this pattern:
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+(abc)(?i:(?1))
+</pre>
+<p>
+It matches "abcabc". It does not match "abcABC" because the change of
+processing option does not affect the called subpattern.
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="refsect1" title="Copyright">
+<a name="id563103"></a><h2>Copyright</h2>
+<p>
+This document was copied and adapted from the PCRE documentation,
+specifically from the man page for pcrepattern.
+The original copyright note is:
+</p>
+<pre class="programlisting">
+Copyright (c) 1997-2006 University of Cambridge.
+Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
+modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
+    * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
+      this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
+    * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
+      notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
+      documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
+    * Neither the name of the University of Cambridge nor the name of Google
+      Inc. nor the names of their contributors may be used to endorse or
+      promote products derived from this software without specific prior
+      written permission.
+THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS"
+AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
+IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
+ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE
+LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
+CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
+SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
+INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN
+CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
+ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
+</pre>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="footer">
+<hr>
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