pcre2_config - Man Page

Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)

Synopsis

#include <pcre2.h>

int pcre2_config(uint32_t what, void *where);

Description

This function makes it possible for a client program to find out which optional features are available in the version of the PCRE2 library it is using. The arguments are as follows:

 what     A code specifying what information is required
 where    Points to where to put the information

If where is NULL, the function returns the amount of memory needed for the requested information. When the information is a string, the value is in code units; for other types of data it is in bytes.

If where is not NULL, for PCRE2_CONFIG_JITTARGET, PCRE2_CONFIG_UNICODE_VERSION, and PCRE2_CONFIG_VERSION it must point to a buffer that is large enough to hold the string. For all other codes it must point to a uint32_t integer variable. The available codes are:

 PCRE2_CONFIG_BSR                Indicates what \R matches by default:
                                   PCRE2_BSR_UNICODE
                                   PCRE2_BSR_ANYCRLF
 PCRE2_CONFIG_COMPILED_WIDTHS    Which of 8/16/32 support was compiled
 PCRE2_CONFIG_DEPTHLIMIT         Default backtracking depth limit
 PCRE2_CONFIG_EFFECTIVE_LINKSIZE How many bytes are used for link size
 PCRE2_CONFIG_HEAPLIMIT          Default heap memory limit
 PCRE2_CONFIG_JIT                Availability of just-in-time compiler
                                  support (1=yes 0=no)
 PCRE2_CONFIG_JITTARGET          Information (a string) about the target
                                  architecture for the JIT compiler
 PCRE2_CONFIG_LINKSIZE           Configured internal link size (2, 3, 4)
 PCRE2_CONFIG_MATCHLIMIT         Default internal resource limit
 PCRE2_CONFIG_NEVER_BACKSLASH_C  Whether or not \C is disabled
 PCRE2_CONFIG_NEWLINE            Code for the default newline sequence:
                                   PCRE2_NEWLINE_CR
                                   PCRE2_NEWLINE_LF
                                   PCRE2_NEWLINE_CRLF
                                   PCRE2_NEWLINE_ANY
                                   PCRE2_NEWLINE_ANYCRLF
                                   PCRE2_NEWLINE_NUL
 PCRE2_CONFIG_PARENSLIMIT        Default parentheses nesting limit
 PCRE2_CONFIG_RECURSIONLIMIT     Obsolete: use PCRE2_CONFIG_DEPTHLIMIT
 PCRE2_CONFIG_STACKRECURSE       Obsolete: always returns 0
 PCRE2_CONFIG_UNICODE            Availability of Unicode support
                                  (1=yes 0=no)
 PCRE2_CONFIG_UNICODE_VERSION    The Unicode version (a string)
 PCRE2_CONFIG_VERSION            The PCRE2 version (a string)

The function yields a non-negative value on success or the negative value PCRE2_ERROR_BADOPTION otherwise. This is also the result for the PCRE2_CONFIG_JITTARGET code if JIT support is not available. When a string is requested, the function returns the number of code units used, including the terminating zero.

There is a complete description of the PCRE2 native API in the pcre2api page and a description of the POSIX API in the pcre2posix page.

Info

03 September 2025 PCRE2 10.47