V8/usr/man/man3/regex.3

.TH REGEX 3 deprecated
.SH NAME
re_comp, re_exec \- regular expression handler
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B char *re_comp(s)
.B char *s;
.PP
.B re_exec(s)
.B char *s;
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Re_comp
compiles a regular expression into an internal form suitable for 
pattern matching. 
.I Re_exec 
checks the argument string against the last string passed to
.I re_comp.
.PP
.I Re_comp
returns 0 if the string
.I s
was compiled successfully; otherwise a string containing an
error message is returned. If 
.I re_comp
is passed 0 or a null string, it returns without changing the currently
compiled regular expression.
.PP
.I Re_exec
returns 1 if the string
.I s
matches the last compiled regular expression, 0 if the string
.I s
failed to match the last compiled regular expression, and
\-1 if the compiled regular expression was invalid (indicating an
internal error).
.PP
The strings passed to both
.I re_comp
and
.I re_exec
may have trailing or embedded newline characters; 
they are terminated by nulls.
The regular expressions are otherwise as described for
.IR ed (1).
.SH "SEE ALSO"
ed(1), expr(1), regexp(3)
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
.I Re_exec
returns \-1 for an internal error.
.SH BUGS
These routines have been superseded by
the more general routines of
.IR regexp (3).
They have been retained only for compatibility.