From 8829bb13649bd4e2828c72907d081f4057075ede Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Fabian Homborg Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2016 13:20:22 +0200 Subject: Expand string documentation Explain that globs need to match the entire string and a bit about our regular expressions. --- doc_src/string.txt | 7 ++++++- 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) (limited to 'doc_src') diff --git a/doc_src/string.txt b/doc_src/string.txt index 2306678a..2996b456 100644 --- a/doc_src/string.txt +++ b/doc_src/string.txt @@ -44,10 +44,15 @@ The following subcommands are available: - `escape` escapes each STRING such that it can be passed back to `eval` to produce the original argument again. By default, all special characters are escaped, and quotes are used to simplify the output when possible. If `-n` or `--no-quote` is given, the simplifying quoted format is not used. Exit status: 0 if at least one string was escaped, or 1 otherwise. -- `match` tests each STRING against PATTERN and prints matching substrings. Only the first match for each STRING is reported unless `-a` or `--all` is given, in which case all matches are reported. Matching can be made case-insensitive with `-i` or `--ignore-case`. If `-n` or `--index` is given, each match is reported as a 1-based start position and a length. By default, PATTERN is interpreted as a glob pattern matched against each entire STRING argument. If `-r` or `--regex` is given, PATTERN is interpreted as a Perl-compatible regular expression. For a regular expression containing capturing groups, multiple items will be reported for each match, one for the entire match and one for each capturing group. If --invert or -v is used the selected lines will be only those which do not match the given glob pattern or regular expression. Exit status: 0 if at least one match was found, or 1 otherwise. +- `match` tests each STRING against PATTERN and prints matching substrings. Only the first match for each STRING is reported unless `-a` or `--all` is given, in which case all matches are reported. Matching can be made case-insensitive with `-i` or `--ignore-case`. If `-n` or `--index` is given, each match is reported as a 1-based start position and a length. By default, PATTERN is interpreted as a glob pattern matched against each entire STRING argument. A glob pattern is only considered a valid match if it matches the entire STRING. If `-r` or `--regex` is given, PATTERN is interpreted as a Perl-compatible regular expression, which does not have to match the entire STRING. For a regular expression containing capturing groups, multiple items will be reported for each match, one for the entire match and one for each capturing group. If --invert or -v is used the selected lines will be only those which do not match the given glob pattern or regular expression. Exit status: 0 if at least one match was found, or 1 otherwise. - `replace` is similar to `match` but replaces non-overlapping matching substrings with a replacement string and prints the result. By default, PATTERN is treated as a literal substring to be matched. If `-r` or `--regex` is given, PATTERN is interpreted as a Perl-compatible regular expression, and REPLACEMENT can contain C-style escape sequences like `\t` as well as references to capturing groups by number or name as `$n` or `${n}`. Exit status: 0 if at least one replacement was performed, or 1 otherwise. +\subsection regular-expressions Regular Expressions + +Both the `match` and `replace` subcommand support regular expressions when used with the `-r` or `--regex` option. The dialect is that of PCRE2. + +In general, special characters are special by default, so `a+` matches one or more "a"s, while `a\+` matches an "a" and then a "+". `(a+)` matches one or more "a"s in a capturing group (`(?:XXXX)` denotes a non-capturing group). For the replacement parameter of `replace`, `$n` refers to the n-th group of the match. In the match parameter, `\n` (e.g. `\1`) refers back to groups. \subsection string-example Examples -- cgit v1.2.3