NAME
re - Perl pragma to alter regular expression behaviour
SYNOPSIS
use re 'taint';
($x) = ($^X =~ /^(.*)$/s); # $x is tainted here
$pat = '(?{ $foo = 1 })';
use re 'eval';
/foo${pat}bar/; # won't fail (when not under -T switch)
{
no re 'taint'; # the default
($x) = ($^X =~ /^(.*)$/s); # $x is not tainted here
no re 'eval'; # the default
/foo${pat}bar/; # disallowed (with or without -T switch)
}
use re 'debug'; # NOT lexically scoped (as others are)
/^(.*)$/s; # output debugging info during
# compile and run time
use re 'debugcolor'; # same as 'debug', but with colored output
...
(We use $^X in these examples because it's tainted by default.)
DESCRIPTION
When use re 'taint' is in effect, and a tainted string is the target of a regex, the regex
memories (or values returned by the m// operator in list context) are
tainted. This feature is useful when regex operations on tainted data
aren't meant to extract safe substrings, but to perform other
transformations.
When use re 'eval' is in effect, a regex is allowed to contain
(?{ ... }) zero-width assertions even if regular expression contains variable
interpolation. That is normally disallowed, since it is a potential
security risk. Note that this pragma is ignored when the regular expression
is obtained from tainted data, i.e. evaluation is always disallowed with
tainted regular expresssions. See (?{ code }).
For the purpose of this pragma, interpolation of precompiled regular expressions (i.e., the result of qr//) is not considered variable interpolation. Thus:
/foo${pat}bar/
is allowed if $pat is a precompiled regular expression, even if
$pat contains (?{ ... }) assertions.
When use re 'debug' is in effect, perl emits debugging messages when compiling and using
regular expressions. The output is the same as that obtained by running a -DDEBUGGING-enabled perl interpreter with the
-Dr switch. It may be quite voluminous depending on the complexity of the
match. Using debugcolor instead of debug enables a form of output that can be used to get a colorful display on
terminals that understand termcap color sequences. Set $ENV{PERL_RE_TC} to a comma-separated list of termcap properties to use for highlighting strings on/off, pre-point part on/off.
See Debugging regular expressions for additional info.
The directive use re 'debug' is not lexically scoped, as the other directives are. It has both compile-time and run-time
effects.
See Pragmatic Modules.
DISCLAIMER
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- --Tom Christiansen, Perl Documentation Compiler and Editor
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