1*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi# PCRE2 - Perl-Compatible Regular Expressions 2*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi 3*22dc650dSSadaf EbrahimiThe PCRE2 library is a set of C functions that implement regular expression 4*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimipattern matching using the same syntax and semantics as Perl 5. PCRE2 has its 5*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimiown native API, as well as a set of wrapper functions that correspond to the 6*22dc650dSSadaf EbrahimiPOSIX regular expression API. The PCRE2 library is free, even for building 7*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimiproprietary software. It comes in three forms, for processing 8-bit, 16-bit, 8*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimior 32-bit code units, in either literal or UTF encoding. 9*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi 10*22dc650dSSadaf EbrahimiPCRE2 was first released in 2015 to replace the API in the original PCRE 11*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimilibrary, which is now obsolete and no longer maintained. As well as a more 12*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimiflexible API, the code of PCRE2 has been much improved since the fork. 13*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi 14*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi## Download 15*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi 16*22dc650dSSadaf EbrahimiAs well as downloading from the 17*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi[GitHub site](https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2), you can download PCRE2 18*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimior the older, unmaintained PCRE1 library from an 19*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi[*unofficial* mirror](https://sourceforge.net/projects/pcre/files/) at SourceForge. 20*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi 21*22dc650dSSadaf EbrahimiYou can check out the PCRE2 source code via Git or Subversion: 22*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi 23*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi git clone https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2.git 24*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi svn co https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2.git 25*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi 26*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi## Contributed Ports 27*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi 28*22dc650dSSadaf EbrahimiIf you just need the command-line PCRE2 tools on Windows, precompiled binary 29*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimiversions are available at this 30*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi[Rexegg page](http://www.rexegg.com/pcregrep-pcretest.html). 31*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi 32*22dc650dSSadaf EbrahimiA PCRE2 port for z/OS, a mainframe operating system which uses EBCDIC as its 33*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimidefault character encoding, can be found at 34*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi[http://www.cbttape.org](http://www.cbttape.org/) (File 939). 35*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi 36*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi## Documentation 37*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi 38*22dc650dSSadaf EbrahimiYou can read the PCRE2 documentation 39*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi[here](https://PCRE2Project.github.io/pcre2/doc/html/index.html). 40*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi 41*22dc650dSSadaf EbrahimiComparisons to Perl's regular expression semantics can be found in the 42*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimicommunity authored Wikipedia entry for PCRE. 43*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi 44*22dc650dSSadaf EbrahimiThere is a curated summary of changes for each PCRE release, copies of 45*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimidocumentation from older releases, and other useful information from the third 46*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimiparty authored 47*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi[RexEgg PCRE Documentation and Change Log page](http://www.rexegg.com/pcre-documentation.html). 48*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi 49*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi## Contact 50*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi 51*22dc650dSSadaf EbrahimiTo report a problem with the PCRE2 library, or to make a feature request, please 52*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimiuse the PCRE2 GitHub issues tracker. There is a mailing list for discussion of 53*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi PCRE2 issues and development at [email protected], which is where any 54*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimiannouncements will be made. You can browse the 55*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi[list archives](https://groups.google.com/g/pcre2-dev). 56*22dc650dSSadaf Ebrahimi 57