PCRE - Perl Compatible Regular Expressions

The PCRE library is a set of functions that implement regular expression pattern matching using the same syntax and semantics as Perl 5. PCRE has its own native API, as well as a set of wrapper functions that correspond to the POSIX regular expression API. The PCRE library is free, even for building proprietary software.

PCRE was originally written for the Exim MTA, but is now used by many high-profile open source projects, including Apache, PHP, KDE, Postfix, Analog, and Nmap. PCRE has also found its way into some well known commercial products, like Apple Safari. Some other interesting projects using PCRE includeChicken, Ferite, Onyx, Hypermail, Leafnode, Askemos, and Wenlin.

Download

The latest release of the PCRE library is 8.36. You can download it from its official home via anonymous FTP:

• ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/

You can also download via HTTP from the mirror at SourceForge:

• https://sourceforge.net/projects/pcre/files/pcre/

You can check out the PCRE source code via Subversion:

svn co svn://vcs.exim.org/pcre/code/trunk pcre

You can also browse the PCRE source code and revision history on-line.

A precompiled Windows port of PCRE, which may be a few versions behind, is available courtesy the GnuWin32 project.

• http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/pcre.htm

If you just need the command-line PCRE tools on Windows, more up to date precompiled binary versions are available here:

• http://www.rexegg.com/pcregrep-pcretest.html

Documentation

You can read the text version of the PCRE man pages. For Perl 5 regular expression syntax, read the Perl regular expressions man page.

The distribution itself also contains a README and the BSD LICENCE. If you are upgrading, read the NEWS and ChangeLog files.

Details on PCRE, and, in particular, comparisons to Perl's regular expression semantics, can also be found in the community authored Wikipedia entry on PCRE.

You can find a curated summary of changes with each PCRE release, copies of documentation from older releases, and other useful information from the third party authored RexEgg PCRE Documentation and Change Log page.

Contact

To report a problem with the PCRE library, or to make a feature request, please file a bug in the PCRE bug repository. You may want to browse currently open PCRE bugs first. Please don't use the SourceForge bug tracking system, as it is not normally monitored.

There is a mailing list for active PCRE developers at pcre-dev@exim.org, and you can browse the mailing list archives on-line.

The PCRE library was written by Philip Hazel:

Please note that neither this website nor the SourceForge download repositories are maintained by Philip. Please report website or SourceForge PCRE project problems to webmaster@pcre.org.

Last modified October 1, 2014 - webmaster@pcre.org