RE2C(1)

NAME
re2c - convert regular expressions to C/C++ code

SYNOPSIS

re2c [OPTIONS] INPUT_FILE [-o OUTPUT_FILE]

DESCRIPTION

Re2c is a lexer generator for C/C++. It finds regular expression specifications inside of C/C++ comments and compiles them to a deterministic finite state machine. The user should write some interface code in order to bind the generated lexer to the program environment. Sections EOF handling and buffer refilling explain how the generated lexer checks for the end of input and (if necessary) asks for more input. Various re2c features are described in sections include files, header files, submatch extraction, storable state, reusable blocks, encoding support, start conditions, skeleton programs and visualization and debug. Re2c provides a lot of options, configurations and directives that allow to customize the generated code.

OPTIONS

-? -h --help
    Show help message.

-1 --single-pass
    Deprecated. Does nothing (single pass is the default now).

-8 --utf-8
    Generate a lexer that reads input in UTF-8 encoding. re2c assumes that character range is 0 -- 0x10FFFF and character size is 1 byte.

-b --bit-vectors
    Optimize conditional jumps using bit masks. Implies -s.

-c --conditions --start-conditions
    Enable support of Flex-like "conditions": multiple interrelated lexers within one block. Option --start-conditions is a legacy alias; use --conditions instead.

--case-insensitive
    Treat single-quoted and double-quoted strings as case-insensitive.

--case-inverted
    Invert the meaning of single-quoted and double-quoted strings: treat single-quoted strings as case-sensitive and double-quoted strings as case-insensitive.

-D --emit-dot
    Instead of normal output generate lexer graph in .dot format. The output can be converted to an image with the help of Graphviz (e.g. something like dot -Tpng -odfa.png dfa.dot).

-d --debug-output
    Emit YYDEBUG in the generated code. YYDEBUG should be defined by the user in the form of a void function with two parameters: state (lexer state or -1) and symbol (current input symbol of type YYCTYPE).

--dfa-minimization <moore | table>
    The internal algorithm used by re2c to minimize the DFA: moore (the default) is Moore algorithm, and table is the "table filling" algorithm. Both algorithms should produce the same DFA up to states relabeling; table filling is simpler and much slower and serves as a reference implementation.

--dump-adfa
    Debug option: output DFA after tunneling (in .dot format).

--dump-cfg
    Debug option: output control flow graph of tag variables (in .dot format).

--dump-closure-stats
    Debug option: output statistics on the number of states in closure.

--dump-dfa-det
    Debug option: output DFA immediately after determinization (in .dot format).

--dump-dfa-min
    Debug option: output DFA after minimization (in .dot format).

--dump-dfa-tagopt
    Debug option: output DFA after tag optimizations (in .dot format).

--dump-dfa-raw
    Debug option: output DFA under construction with expanded state-sets (in .dot format).

--dump-interf
    Debug option: output interference table produced by liveness analysis of tag variables.

--dump-nfa
    Debug option: output NFA (in .dot format).

-e --ecb
    Generate a lexer that reads input in EBCDIC encoding. re2c assumes that character range is 0 -- 0xFF an character size is 1 byte.

--eager-skip
    Make the generated lexer advance the input position "eagerly": immediately after reading input symbol. By default this happens after transition to the next state. Implied by --no-lookahead.

--empty-class <match-empty | match-none | error>
    Define the way re2c treats empty character classes. With match-empty (the default) empty class matches empty input (which is illogical, but backwards-compatible). With``match-none`` empty class always fails to match. With error empty class raises a compilation error.

--encoding-policy <fail | substitute | ignore>
    Define the way re2c treats Unicode surrogates. With fail re2c aborts with an error when a surrogate is encountered. With substitute re2c silently replaces surrogates with the error code point 0xFFFD. With ignore (the default) re2c treats surrogates as normal code points. The Unicode standard says that standalone surrogates are invalid, but real-world libraries and programs behave in different ways.

-f --storable-state
    Generate a lexer which can store its inner state. This is useful in push-model lexers which are stopped by an outer program when there is not enough input, and then resumed when more input becomes available. In this mode users should additionally define YYGETSTATE() and YYSETSTATE(state) macros and variables yych, yyaccept and state as part of the lexer state.

-F --flex-syntax
    Partial support for Flex syntax: in this mode named definitions don't need the equal sign and the terminating semicolon, and when used they must be surrounded by curly braces. Names without curly braces are treated as double-quoted strings.

-g --computed-gotos
    Optimize conditional jumps using non-standard "computed goto" extension (which must be supported by the C/C++ compiler). re2c generates jump tables only in complex cases with a lot of conditional branches. Complexity threshold can be configured with cgoto:threshold configuration. This option implies -b.

-I PATH
    Add PATH to the list of locations which are used when searching for include files. This option is useful in combination with /*!include:re2c ... */ directive. Re2c looks for FILE in the directory of including file and in the list of include paths specified by -I option.

-i --no-debug-info
    Do not output #line information. This is useful when the generated code is tracked by some version control system or IDE.

--input <default | custom>
    Specify re2c input API. Option default is the default API composed of pointer-like primitives YYCURSOR, YYMARKER, YYLIMIT etc. Option custom is the generic API composed of function-like primitives YYPEEK(), YYSKIP(), YYBACKUP(), YYRESTORE() etc.

--input-encoding <ascii | utf8>
    Specify the way re2c parses regular expressions. With ascii (the default) re2c handles input as ASCII-encoded: any sequence of code units is a sequence of standalone 1-byte characters. With utf8 re2c handles input as UTF8-encoded and recognizes multibyte characters.

--location-format <gnu | msvc>
    Specify location format in messages. With gnu locations are printed as 'filename:line:column: ...'. With msvc locations are printed as 'filename(line,column) ...'. Default is gnu.

--no-generation-date
    Suppress date output in the generated file.

--no-lookahead
    Use TDFA(0) instead of TDFA(1). This option has effect only with --tags or --posix-captures options.

--no-optimize-tags
    Suppress optimization of tag variables (useful for debugging).

--no-version
    Suppress version output in the generated file.

-o OUTPUT --output=OUTPUT
    Specify the OUTPUT file.

-P --posix-captures
    Enable submatch extraction with POSIX-style capturing groups.

--posix-closure <gor1 | gtop>
    Specify shortest-path algorithm used for construction of epsilon-closure with POSIX disambiguation semantics: gor1 (the default) stands for Goldberg-Radzik algorithm, and gtop stands for "global topological order" algorithm.

-r --reusable
    Allows reuse of re2c rules with /*!rules:re2c */ and /*!use:re2c */ blocks. Exactly one rules-block must be present. The rules are saved and used by every use-block that follows, which may add its own rules and configurations.

-S --skeleton
    Ignore user-defined interface code and generate a self-contained "skeleton" program. Additionally, generate input files with strings derived from the regular grammar and compressed match results that are used to verify "skeleton" behavior on all inputs. This option is useful for finding bugs in optimizations and code generation.

-s --nested-ifs
    Use nested if statements instead of switch statements in conditional jumps. This usually results in more efficient code with non-optimizing C/C++ compilers.

-T --tags
    Enable submatch extraction with tags.

-t HEADER --type-header=HEADER
    Generate a HEADER file that contains enum with condition names. Requires -c option.

-u --unicode
    Generate a lexer that reads UTF32-encoded input. Re2c assumes that character range is 0 -- 0x10FFFF and character size is 4 bytes. This option implies -s.

-V --vernum
    Show version information in MMmmpp format (major, minor, patch).

--verbose
    Output a short message in case of success.

-v --version
    Show version information.

-w --wide-chars
    Generate a lexer that reads UCS2-encoded input. Re2c assumes that character range is 0 -- 0xFFFF and character size is 2 bytes. This option implies -s.

-x --utf-16
    Generate a lexer that reads UTF16-encoded input. Re2c assumes that character range is 0 -- 0x10FFFF and character size is 2 bytes. This option implies -s.

WARNINGS

-W  Turn on all warnings.

-Werror
    Turn warnings into errors. Note that this option alone doesn't turn on any warnings; it only affects those warnings that have been turned on so far or will be turned on later.

-W<warning>
    Turn on warning.

-Wno-<warning>
    Turn off warning.

-Werror-<warning>
    Turn on warning and treat it as an error (this implies -W<warning>).

-Wno-error-<warning>
    Don't treat this particular warning as an error. This doesn't turn off the warning itself.

-Wcondition-order
    Warn if the generated program makes implicit assumptions about condition numbering. One should use either the -t, --type-header option or the /*!types:re2c*/ directive to generate a mapping of condition names to numbers and then use the autogenerated condition names.

-Wempty-character-class
    Warn if a regular expression contains an empty character class. Trying to match an empty character class makes no sense: it should always fail. However, for backwards compatibility reasons re2c allows empty character classes and treats them as empty strings. Use the --empty-class option to change the default behavior.

-Wmatch-empty-string
    Warn if a rule is nullable (matches an empty string). If the lexer runs in a loop and the empty match is unintentional, the lexer may unexpectedly hang in an infinite loop.

-Wswapped-range
    Warn if the lower bound of a range is greater than its upper bound. The default behavior is to silently swap the range bounds.

-Wundefined-control-flow
    Warn if some input strings cause undefined control flow in the lexer (the faulty patterns are reported). This is the most dangerous and most common mistake. It can be easily fixed by adding the default rule * which has the lowest priority, matches any code unit, and consumes exactly one code unit.

-Wunreachable-rules
    Warn about rules that are shadowed by other rules and will never match.

-Wuseless-escape
    Warn if a symbol is escaped when it shouldn't be. By default, re2c silently ignores such escapes, but this may as well indicate a typo or an error in the escape sequence.

-Wnondeterministic-tags
    Warn if a tag has n-th degree of nondeterminism, where n is greater than 1.

SYNTAX

A re2c program consists of a number of re2c blocks and directives intermixed with normal C/C++ code. Each re2c block consists of a sequence of named definitions, configurations and rules that contain regular expressions. The generated lexer communicates with the outer world by the means of user interface. Rules consist of a regular expression followed by a user-defined action (semantic action): a block of C/C++ code that is executed in case of sucessful match. Semantic action can be either an arbitrary block of code enclosed in curly braces { and }, or a block of code without curly braces preceded with := and ended with a newline that is not followed by a whitespace. If multiple rules match, longest match takes precedence. If multiple rules match the same string, the earlier rule takes priority. If -c --conditions option is used, then rules have more complex form described in the section about conditions. There are two special kinds of rules:

•   Default rule * which has the lowest priority reagrdless of its place in the source code, matches any code unit and consumes exactly one code unit. This rule should always be defined.

•   EOF rule $ which matches the end of input. This rule should be defined if the simplified EOF handling method is used.

    Named definitions are of the form name = regexp ; where name is an identifier that consists of letters, digits and underscores, and regexp is a regular expression. With -F --flex-syntax option named definitions are also of the form name regexp. Each name should be defined before it is used.

REGULAR EXPRESSIONS

re2c uses the following syntax for regular expressions:

•   "foo" case-sensitive string literal

•   'foo' case-insensitive string literal

•   [a-xyz], [^a-xyz] character class (possibly negated)

•   . any character except newline

•   R \ S difference of character classes R and S

•   R* zero or more occurrences of R

•   R+ one or more occurrences of R

•   R? optional R

•   R{n} repetition of R exactly n times

•   R{n,} repetition of R at least n times

•   R{n,m} repetition of R from n to m times

•   (R) just R; parentheses are used to override precedence or for POSIX-style submatch

•   R S concatenation: R followed by S

•   R | S alternative: R or S

•   R / S lookahead: R followed by S, but S is not consumed

•   name the regular expression defined as name (or literal string "name" in Flex compatibility mode)

•   {name} the regular expression defined as name in Flex compatibility mode

•   @stag an s-tag: saves the last input position at which @stag matches in a variable named stag

•   #mtag an m-tag: saves all input positions at which #mtag matches in a variable named mtag

    Character classes and string literals may contain the following escape sequences: \a, \b, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v, \\, octal escapes \ooo and hexadecimal escapes \xhh, \uhhhh and \Uhhhhhhhh.

INTERFACE CODE

Below is the list of all symbols which may be used by the lexer in order to interact with the outer world. These symbols should be defined by the user, either in the form of inplace configurations, or as C/C++ variables, functions, macros and other language constructs. Which primitives are necessary depends on the particular use case.

yyaccept
    L-value of unsigned integral type that is used to hold the number of the last matched rule. Explicit definition by the user is necessary only with -f --storable-state option.

YYBACKUP ()
    Backup current input position (used only with --input custom option).

YYBACKUPCTX ()
    Backup current input position for trailing context (used only with --input custom option).

yych
    L-value of type YYCTYPE that is used to hold current input character. Explicit definition by the user is necessary only with -f --storable-state option.

YYCONDTYPE
    The type of condition identifiers (used only with -c --conditions option). Should be generated either with /*!types:re2c*/ directive, or with -t --type-header option.

YYCTXMARKER
    L-value of type YYCTYPE * that is used to backup input position of trailing context. It is needed only if regular expressions use the lookahead operator /.

YYCTYPE
    The type of the input characters (code units). Usually it should be unsigned char for ASCII, EBCDIC and UTF-8 encodings, unsigned short for UTF-16 or UCS-2 encodings, and unsigned int for UTF-32 encoding.

YYCURSOR
    L-value of type YYCTYPE * that is used as a pointer to the current input symbol. Initially YYCURSOR points to the first character and is advanced by the lexer during matching. When a rule matches, YYCURSOR points past the last character of the matched string.

YYDEBUG (state, symbol)
    A function-like primitive that is used to dump debug information (only used with -d --debug-output option). YYDEBUG should return no value and accept two arguments: state (either lexer state or -1) and symbol (current input symbol).

YYFILL (n)
    A function-like primitive that is called by the lexer when there is not enough input. YYFILL should return no value and supply at least n additional characters. Maximal value of n equals YYMAXFILL, which can be obtained with the /*!max:re2c*/ directive.

YYGETCONDITION ()
    R-value of type YYCONDTYPE that represents current condition identifier (used only with -c --conditions option).

YYGETSTATE ()
    R-value of signed integral type that represents current lexer state (used only with -f --storable-state option). Initial value of lexer state should be -1.

YYLESSTHAN (n)
    R-value of boolean type that is true if and only if there is less than n input characters left (used only with --input custom option).

YYLIMIT
    R-value of type YYCTYPE * that marks the end of input (YYLIMIT[-1] should be the last input character). Lexer compares YYCURSOR and YYLIMIT in order to determine if there is enough input characters left.

YYMARKER
    L-value of type YYCTYPE * used to backup input position of successful match. This might be necessary if there is an overlapping longer rule that might also match.

YYMTAGP (t)
    Append current input position to the history of m-tag t (used only with -T --tags option).

YYMTAGN (t)
    Append default value to the history of m-tag t (used only with -T --tags option).

YYMAXFILL
    Integral constant that denotes maximal value of YYFILL argument and is autogenerated by /*!max:re2c*/ directive.

YYMAXNMATCH
    Integral constant that denotes maximal number of capturing groups in a rule and is autogenerated by /*!maxnmatch:re2c*/ directive (used only with --posix-captures option).

yynmatch
    L-value of unsigned integral type that is used to hold the number of capturing groups in the matching rule. Used only with -P --posix-captures option.

YYPEEK ()
    R-value of type YYCTYPE that denotes current input character (used only with --input custom option).

yypmatch
    An array of l-values that are used to hold the values of s-tags corresponding to the capturing parentheses in the matching rule. The length of array must be at least yynmatch * 2 (ideally YYMAXNMATCH * 2). Used only with -P --posix-captures option.

YYRESTORE ()
    Restore input position (used only with --input custom option).

YYRESTORECTX ()
    Restore input position from the value of trailing context (used only with --input custom option).

YYRESTORETAG (t)
    Restore input position from the value of s-tag t (used only with --input custom option).

YYSETCONDITION (condition)
    Set current condition identifier to condition (used only with -c --conditions option).

YYSETSTATE (state)
    Set current lexer state to state (used only with -f --storable-state option). Parameter state is of signed integral type.

YYSKIP ()
    Advance input position to the next character (used only with generic API).

YYSTAGP (t)
    Save current input position to s-tag t (used only with -T --tags and --input custom option).

YYSTAGN (t)
    Save default value to s-tag t (used only with -T --tags and --input custom options).

  Default API

By default re2c operates on input using pointer-like primitives YYCURSOR, YYMARKER, YYCTXMARKER, and YYLIMIT. Normally pointer-like primitives are defined as variables of type YYCTYPE*, but it is possible to use STL iterators or any other abstraction as long as it syntactically fits into the following use cases:

•   ++YYCURSOR;

•   yych = *YYCURSOR;

•   yych = *++YYCURSOR;

•   yych = *(YYMARKER = YYCURSOR);

•   yych = *(YYMARKER = ++YCURSOR);

•   YYMARKER = YYCURSOR;

•   YYMARKER = ++YYCURSOR;

•   YYCURSOR = YYMARKER;

•   YYCTXMARKER = YYCURSOR + 1;

•   YYCURSOR = YYCTXMARKER;

•   if (YYLIMIT <= YYCURSOR) ...

•   if ((YYLIMIT - YYCURSOR) < n) ...

•   YYDEBUG (label, *YYCURSOR);

  Generic API

If the default input model is too restrictive, then it is possible to use generic input API enabled with --input custom option. In this mode all input operations are expressed in terms of the primitives below. These primitives can be defined in any suitable way; one doesn't have to stick to the pointer semantics. For example, it is possible to read input directly from file without any buffering, or to disable YYFILL mechanism and perform end-of-input checking on each input character from inside of YYPEEK or YYSKIP.

•   YYPEEK ()

•   YYSKIP ()

•   YYBACKUP ()

•   YYBACKUPCTX ()

•   YYSTAGP (t)

•   YYSTAGN (t)

•   YYMTAGP (t)

•   YYMTAGN (t)

•   YYRESTORE ()

•   YYRESTORECTX ()

•   YYRESTORETAG (t)

•   YYLESSTHAN (n)

    Default input model can be expressed in terms of generic API as follows (except for YMTAGP and YYMTAGN, which have no default implementation):

    #define  YYPEEK ()         *YYCURSOR
    #define  YYSKIP ()         ++YYCURSOR
    #define  YYBACKUP ()       YYMARKER = YYCURSOR
    #define  YYBACKUPCTX ()    YYCTXMARKER = YYCURSOR
    #define  YYRESTORE ()      YYCURSOR = YYMARKER
    #define  YYRESTORECTX ()   YYCURSOR = YYCTXMARKER
    #define  YYRESTORERAG (t)  YYCURSOR = t
    #define  YYLESSTHAN (n)    YYLIMIT - YYCURSOR < n
    #define  YYSTAGP (t)       t = YYCURSOR
    #define  YYSTAGN (t)       t = NULL

DIRECTIVES

Below is the list of all directives provided by re2c (in no particular order). More information on each directive can be found in the related sections.

/*!re2c ... */
    A standard re2c block.

%{ ... %}
    A standard re2c block in -F --flex-support mode.

/*!rules:re2c ... */
    A reusable re2c block (requires -r --reuse option).

/*!use:re2c ... */
    A block that reuses previous rules-block specified with /*!rules:re2c ... */ (requires -r --reuse option).

/*!ignore:re2c ... */
    A block which contents are ignored and cut off from the output file.

/*!max:re2c*/
    This directive is substituted with the macro-definition of YYMAXFILL.

/*!maxnmatch:re2c*/
    This directive is substituted with the macro-definition of YYMAXNMATCH (requires -P --posix-captures option).

/*!getstate:re2c*/
    This directive is substituted with conditional dispatch on lexer state (requires -f --storable-state option).

/*!types:re2c ... */
    This directive is substituted with the definition of condition enum (requires -c --conditions option).

/*!stags:re2c ... */, /*!mtags:re2c ... */
    These directives allow to specify a template piece of code that is expanded for each s-tag/m-tag variable generated by re2c. This block has two optional configurations: format = "@@"; (specifies the template where @@ is substituted with the name of each tag variable), and separator = ""; (specifies the piece of code used to join the generated pieces for different tag variables).

/*!include:re2c FILE */
    This directive allows to include FILE (in the same sense as #include directive in C/C++).

/*!header:re2c:on*/
    This directive marks the start of header file. Everything after it and up to the following /*!header:re2c:off*/ directive is processed by re2c and written to the header file specified with -t --type-header option.

/*!header:re2c:off*/
    This directive marks the end of header file started with /*!header:re2c:on*/.

CONFIGURATIONS

re2c:cgoto:threshold = 9;
    With -g --computed-gotos option this value specifies the complexity threshold that triggers the generation of jump tables rather than nested if statements and bit masks.

re2c:cond:divider = '/* *********************************** */';
    Allows to customize the divider for condition blocks. One can use @@ to insert condition name.

re2c:cond:divider@cond = @@;
    Specifies the placeholder that will be replaced with condition name in re2c:cond:divider.

re2c:condenumprefix = yyc;
    Specifies the prefix used for condition identifiers.

re2c:cond:goto@cond = @@;
    Specifies the placeholder that will be replaced with condition label in re2c:cond:goto.

re2c:cond:goto = 'goto @@;';
    Allows to customize goto statements used with :=> style rules. One can use @@ to insert the condition name.

re2c:condprefix = yyc;
    Specifies the prefix used for condition labels.

re2c:define:YYBACKUPCTX = 'YYBACKUPCTX';
    Replaces YYBACKUPCTX identifier with the specified string.

re2c:define:YYBACKUP = 'YYBACKUP';
    Replaces YYBACKUP identifier with the specified string.

re2c:define:YYCONDTYPE = 'YYCONDTYPE';
    Enumeration type used for condition identifiers.

re2c:define:YYCTXMARKER = 'YYCTXMARKER';
    Replaces the YYCTXMARKER placeholder with the specified identifier.

re2c:define:YYCTYPE = 'YYCTYPE';
    Replaces the YYCTYPE placeholder with the specified type.

re2c:define:YYCURSOR = 'YYCURSOR';
    Replaces the YYCURSOR placeholder with the specified identifier.

re2c:define:YYDEBUG = 'YYDEBUG';
    Replaces the YYDEBUG placeholder with the specified identifier.

re2c:define:YYFILL@len = '@@';
    Any occurrence of this text inside of a YYFILL will be replaced with the actual argument.

re2c:define:YYFILL:naked = 0;
    Controls the argument in the parentheses after YYFILL and the following semicolon. If zero, both the argument and the semicolon are omitted. If non-zero, the argument is generated unless re2c:yyfill:parameter is set to zero; the semicolon is generated unconditionally.

re2c:define:YYFILL = 'YYFILL';
    Define a substitution for YYFILL. By default re2c generates an argument in parentheses and a semicolon after YYFILL. If you need to make YYFILL an arbitrary statement rather than a call, set re2c:define:YYFILL:naked to a non-zero value.

re2c:define:YYGETCONDITION:naked = 0;
    Controls the parentheses after YYGETCONDITION. If zero, the parentheses are omitted. If non-zero, the parentheses are generated.

re2c:define:YYGETCONDITION = 'YYGETCONDITION';
    Substitution for YYGETCONDITION. By default re2c generates parentheses after YYGETCONDITION. Set re2c:define:YYGETCONDITION:naked to non-zero in order to omit the parentheses.

re2c:define:YYGETSTATE:naked = 0;
    Controls the parentheses that follow YYGETSTATE. If zero, the parentheses are omitted. If non-zero, they are generated.

re2c:define:YYGETSTATE = 'YYGETSTATE';
    Substitution for YYGETSTATE. By default re2c generates parentheses after YYGETSTATE. Set re2c:define:YYGETSTATE:naked to non-zero to omit the parentheses.

re2c:define:YYLESSTHAN = 'YYLESSTHAN';
    Replaces YYLESSTHAN identifier with the specified string.

re2c:define:YYLIMIT = 'YYLIMIT';
    Replaces the YYLIMIT placeholder with the specified identifier.

re2c:define:YYMARKER = 'YYMARKER';
    Replaces the YYMARKER placeholder with the specified identifier.

re2c:define:YYMTAGN = 'YYMTAGN';
    Replaces YYMTAGN identifier with the specified string.

re2c:define:YYMTAGP = 'YYMTAGP';
    Replaces YYMTAGP identifier with the specified string.

re2c:define:YYPEEK = 'YYPEEK';
    Replaces YYPEEK identifier with the specified string.

re2c:define:YYRESTORECTX = 'YYRESTORECTX';
    Replaces YYRESTORECTX identifier with the specified string.

re2c:define:YYRESTORE = 'YYRESTORE';
    Replaces YYRESTORE identifier with the specified string.

re2c:define:YYRESTORETAG = 'YYRESTORETAG';
    Replaces YYRESTORETAG identifier with the specified string.

re2c:define:YYSETCONDITION@cond = '@@';
    Any occurrence of this text inside of YYSETCONDITION will be replaced with the actual argument.

re2c:define:YYSETCONDITION:naked = 0;
    Controls the argument in parentheses and the semicolon after YYSETCONDITION. If zero, both the argument and the semicolon are omitted. If non-zero, both the argument and the semicolon are generated.

re2c:define:YYSETCONDITION = 'YYSETCONDITION';
    Substitution for YYSETCONDITION. By default re2c generates an argument in parentheses followed by semicolon after YYSETCONDITION. If you need to make YYSETCONDITION an arbitrary statement rather than a call, set re2c:define:YYSETCONDITION:naked to non-zero.

re2c:define:YYSETSTATE:naked = 0;
    Controls the argument in parentheses and the semicolon after YYSETSTATE. If zero, both argument and the semicolon are omitted. If non-zero, both the argument and the semicolon are generated.

re2c:define:YYSETSTATE@state = '@@';
    Any occurrence of this text inside of YYSETSTATE will be replaced with the actual argument.

re2c:define:YYSETSTATE = 'YYSETSTATE';
    Substitution for YYSETSTATE. By default re2c generates an argument in parentheses followed by a semicolon after YYSETSTATE. If you need to make YYSETSTATE an arbitrary statement rather than a call, set re2c:define:YYSETSTATE:naked to non-zero.

re2c:define:YYSKIP = 'YYSKIP';
    Replaces YYSKIP identifier with the specified string.

re2c:define:YYSTAGN = 'YYSTAGN';
    Replaces YYSTAGN identifier with the specified string.

re2c:define:YYSTAGP = 'YYSTAGP';
    Replaces YYSTAGP identifier with the specified string.

re2c:eof = -1;
    Specifies the sentinel symbol used with EOF rule $ to check for the end of input in the generated lexer. Default value is -1 (EOF rule is not used). Other possible values include all valid code points. Only decimal numbers are recognized.

re2c:flags:8 or re2c:flags:utf-8
    Same as -8 --utf-8 command-line option.

re2c:flags:b or re2c:flags:bit-vectors
    Same as -b --bit-vectors command-line option.

re2c:flags:case-insensitive = 0;
    Same as --case-insensitive command-line option.

re2c:flags:case-inverted = 0;
    Same as --case-inverted command-line option.

re2c:flags:d or re2c:flags:debug-output
    Same as -d --debug-output command-line option.

re2c:flags:dfa-minimization = 'moore';
    Same as --dfa-minimization command-line option.

re2c:flags:eager-skip = 0;
    Same as --eager-skip command-line option.

re2c:flags:e or re2c:flags:ecb
    Same as -e --ecb command-line option.

re2c:flags:empty-class = 'match-empty';
    Same as --empty-class command-line option.

re2c:flags:encoding-policy = 'ignore';
    Same as --encoding-policy command-line option.

re2c:flags:g or re2c:flags:computed-gotos
    Same as -g --computed-gotos command-line option.

re2c:flags:i or re2c:flags:no-debug-info
    Same as -i --no-debug-info command-line option.

re2c:flags:input = 'default';
    Same as --input command-line option.

re2c:flags:lookahead = 1;
    Same as inverted --no-lookahead command-line option.

re2c:flags:optimize-tags = 1;
    Same as inverted --no-optimize-tags command-line option.

re2c:flags:P or re2c:flags:posix-captures
    Same as -P --posix-captures command-line option.

re2c:flags:s or re2c:flags:nested-ifs
    Same as -s --nested-ifs command-line option.

re2c:flags:T or re2c:flags:tags
    Same as -T --tags command-line option.

re2c:flags:u or re2c:flags:unicode
    Same as -u --unicode command-line option.

re2c:flags:w or re2c:flags:wide-chars
    Same as -w --wide-chars command-line option.

re2c:flags:x or re2c:flags:utf-16
    Same as -x --utf-16 command-line option.

re2c:indent:string = '\t';
    Specifies the string to use for indentation. Requires a string that contains only whitespace (unless you need something else for external tools). The easiest way to specify spaces is to enclose them in single or double quotes. If you do not want any indentation at all, you can set this to ''.

re2c:indent:top = 0;
    Specifies the minimum amount of indentation to use. Requires a numeric value greater than or equal to zero.

re2c:labelprefix = 'yy';
    Allows to change the prefix of numbered labels. The default is yy. Can be set any string that is valid in a label name.

re2c:label:yyFillLabel = 'yyFillLabel';
    Overrides the name of the yyFillLabel label.

re2c:label:yyNext = 'yyNext';
    Overrides the name of the yyNext label.

re2c:startlabel = 0;
    If set to a non zero integer, then the start label of the next scanner block will be generated even if it isn't used by the scanner itself. Otherwise, the normal yy0-like start label is only generated if needed. If set to a text value, then a label with that text will be generated regardless of whether the normal start label is used or not. This setting is reset to 0 after a start label has been generated.

re2c:state:abort = 0;
    When not zero and the -f --storable-state switch is active, then the YYGETSTATE block will contain a default case that aborts and a -1 case will be used for initialization.

re2c:state:nextlabel = 0;
    Used when -f --storable-state is active to control whether the YYGETSTATE block is followed by a yyNext: label line. Instead of using yyNext, you can usually also use configuration startlabel to force a specific start label or default to yy0 as a start label. Instead of using a dedicated label, it is often better to separate the YYGETSTATE code from the actual scanner code by placing a /*!getstate:re2c*/ comment.

re2c:tags:expression = '@@';
    Allows to customize the way re2c addresses tag variables: by default it emits expressions of the form yyt<N>, but this might be inconvenient if tag variables are defined as fields in a struct, or for any other reason require special accessors. For example, setting re2c:tags:expression = p->@@ will result in p->yyt<N>.

re2c:tags:prefix = 'yyt';
    Allows to override prefix of tag variables.

re2c:variable:yyaccept = yyaccept;
    Overrides the name of the yyaccept variable.

re2c:variable:yybm = 'yybm';
    Overrides the name of the yybm variable.

re2c:variable:yych = 'yych';
    Overrides the name of the yych variable.

re2c:variable:yyctable = 'yyctable';
    When both -c --conditions and -g --computed-gotos are active, re2c will use this variable to generate a static jump table for YYGETCONDITION.

re2c:variable:yystable = 'yystable';
    Deprecated.

re2c:variable:yytarget = 'yytarget';
    Overrides the name of the yytarget variable.

re2c:yybm:hex = 0;
    If set to zero, a decimal table will be used. Otherwise, a hexadecimal table will be generated.

re2c:yych:conversion = 0;
    When this setting is non zero, re2c automatically generates conversion code whenever yych gets read. In this case, the type must be defined using re2c:define:YYCTYPE.

re2c:yych:emit = 1;
    Set this to zero to suppress the generation of yych.

re2c:yyfill:check = 1;
    This can be set to 0 to suppress the generations of YYCURSOR and YYLIMIT based precondition checks. This option is useful when YYLIMIT + YYMAXFILL is always accessible.

re2c:yyfill:enable = 1;
    Set this to zero to suppress the generation of YYFILL (n). When using this, be sure to verify that the generated scanner does not read beyond the available input, as allowing such behavior might introduce severe security issues to your programs.

re2c:yyfill:parameter = 1;
    Controls the argument in the parentheses that follow YYFILL. If zero, the argument is omitted. If non-zero, the argument is generated unless re2c:define:YYFILL:naked is set to non-zero.

EOF HANDLING

Re2c provides a number of ways to handle end-of-input situation. Which way to use depends on the complexity of regular expressions, performance considerations, the need for input buffering and various other factors. EOF handling is probably the most complex part of re2c user interface --- it definitely requires a bit of understanding of how the generated lexer works. But in return is allows the user to customize lexer for a particular environment and avoid the unnecessary overhead of generic methods when a simpler method is sufficient. Roughly speaking, there are four main methods:

•   using sentinel symbol (simple and efficient, but limited)

•   bounds checking with padding (generic, but complex)

•   EOF rule: a combination of sentinel symbol and bounds checking (generic and simple, can be more or less efficient than bounds checking with padding depending on the grammar)

•   using generic API (user-defined, so may be incorrect ;])

  Using sentinel symbol

This is the simplest and the most efficient method. It is applicable in cases when the input is small enough to fit into a continuous memory buffer and there is a natural "sentinel" symbol --- a code unit that is not allowed by any of the regular expressions in grammar (except possibly as a terminating character). Sentinel symbol never appears in well-formed input, therefore it can be appended at the end of input and used as a stop signal by the lexer. A good example of such input is a null-terminated C-string, provided that the grammar does not allow NULL in the middle of lexemes. Sentinel method is very efficient, because the lexer does not need to perform any additional checks for the end of input --- it comes naturally as a part of processing the next character.

Below is an example of using sentinel method. Configuration re2c:yyfill:enable = 0; suppresses generation of end-of-input checks and YYFILL calls.

#include <assert.h>
static int lex(const char *YYCURSOR)
{
    int count = 0;
loop:
    /*!re2c
    re2c:define:YYCTYPE = char;
    re2c:yyfill:enable = 0;
    *      { return -1; }
    [\x00] { return count; }
    [a-z]+ { ++count; goto loop; }
    [ ]+   { goto loop; }
    */
}
int main()
{
    assert(lex("") == 0);
    assert(lex("one two three") == 3);
    assert(lex("one two 123?") == -1);
    return 0;
}

  Bounds checking with padding

Bounds checking is a generic method: it can be used with any input grammar. The basic idea is simple: we need to check for the end of input before reading the next input character. However, if implemented in a straightforward way, this would be quite inefficient: checking on each input character would cause a major slowdown. Re2c avoids slowdown by generating checks only in certain key states of the lexer, and letting it run without checks in-between the key states. More precisely, re2c computes strongly connected components (SCCs) of the underlying DFA (which roughly correspond to loops), and generates only a few checks per each SCC (usually just one, but in general enough to make the SCC acyclic). The check is of the form (YYLIMIT - YYCURSOR) < n, where n is the maximal length of a simple path in the corresponding SCC. If this condiiton is true, the lexer calls YYFILL(n), which must either supply at least n input characters, or do not return. When the lexer continues after the check, it is certain that the next n characters can be read safely without checks.

This approach reduces the number of checks significantly (and makes the lexer much faster as a result), but it has a downside. Since the lexer checks for multiple characters at once, it may end up in a situation when there are a few remaining input characters (less than n) corresponding to a short path in the SCC, but the lexer cannot proceed because of the check, and YYFILL cannot supply more character because it is the end of input. To solve this problem, re2c requires that additional padding consisting of fake characters is appended at the end of input. The length of padding should be YYMAXFILL, which equals to the maximum n parameter to YYFILL and must be generated by re2c using /*!max:re2c*/ directive. The fake characters should not form a valid lexeme suffix, otherwise the lexer may be fooled into matching a fake lexeme. Usually it's a good idea to use NULL characters for padding.

Below is an example of using bounds checking with padding. Note that the grammar rule for single-quoted strings allows arbitrary symbols in the middle of lexeme, so there is no natural sentinel in the grammar. Strings like "aha\0ha" are perfectly valid, but ill-formed strings like "aha\0 are also possible and shouldn’t crash the lexer. In this example we do not use buffer refilling, therefore YYFILL definition simply returns an error. Note that YYFILL will only be called after the lexer reaches padding, because only then will the check condition be satisfied.

#include <assert.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
/*!max:re2c*/
static int lex(const char *str)
{
    const size_t len = strlen(str);
    char *buf = malloc(len + YYMAXFILL);
    memcpy(buf, str, len);
    memset(buf + len, 0, YYMAXFILL);
    const char *YYCURSOR = buf;
    const char *YYLIMIT = buf + len + YYMAXFILL;
    int count = 0;
loop:
    /*!re2c
    re2c:define:YYCTYPE = char;
    re2c:define:YYFILL:naked = 1;
    re2c:define:YYFILL = "goto error;";
    *                         { goto error; }
    [\x00]                    { if (YYCURSOR == YYLIMIT) goto end; else goto error; }
    [a-z]+                    { ++count; goto loop; }
    ['] ([^'] | [\\]['])* ['] { ++count; goto loop; }
    [ ]+                      { goto loop; }
    */
error:
    count = -1;
end:
    free(buf);
    return count;
}
int main()
{
    assert(lex("") == 0);
    assert(lex("one two three") == 3);
    assert(lex("one two 123?") == -1);
    assert(lex("one 'two' 'th\\'ree' '123?' ''") == 5);
    assert(lex("one 'two' 'three") == -1);
    return 0;
}

  EOF rule

EOF rule $ was introduced in version 1.2. It is a hybrid approach that tries to take the best of both worlds: simplicity and efficiency of the sentinel method combined with the generality of bounds-checking method. The idea is to appoint an arbitrary symbol to be the sentinel, and only perform further bounds checking if the sentinel symbol matches (more precisely, if the symbol class that contains it matches). The check is of the form YYLIMIT <= YYCURSOR. If this condition is not satisfied, then the sentinel is just an ordinary input character and the lexer continues. Otherwise this is a real sentinel, and the lexer calls YYFILL(). If YYFILL returns zero, the lexer assumes that it has more input and tries to re-match. Otherwise YYFILL returns non-zero and the lexer knows that it has reached the end of input. At this point there are three possibilities. First, it might have already matched a shorter lexeme --- in this case it just rolls back to the last accepting state. Second, it might have consumed some characters, but failed to match --- in this case it falls back to default rule *. Finally, it might be in the initial state --- in this (and only this!) case it matches EOF rule $.

Below is an example of using EOF rule. Configuration re2c:yyfill:enable = 0; suppresses generation of YYFILL calls (but not the bounds checks).

#include <assert.h>
#include <string.h>
static int lex(const char *str)
{
    const char *YYCURSOR = str;
    const char *YYLIMIT = str + strlen(str);
    int count = 0;
loop:
    /*!re2c
    re2c:define:YYCTYPE = char;
    re2c:yyfill:enable = 0;
    re2c:eof = 0;
    *                         { return -1; }
    $                         { return count; }
    [a-z]+                    { ++count; goto loop; }
    ['] ([^'] | [\\]['])* ['] { ++count; goto loop; }
    [ ]+                      { goto loop; }
    */
}
int main()
{
    assert(lex("") == 0);
    assert(lex("one two three") == 3);
    assert(lex("one two 123?") == -1);
    assert(lex("one 'two' 'th\\'ree' '123?' ''") == 5);
    assert(lex("one 'two' 'three") == -1);
    return 0;
}

  Using generic API

Generic API can be used with any of the above methods. It also allows to use a user-defined method by placing EOF checks in one of the basic primitives. Usually this is either YYSKIP (the check is performed when advancing to the next input character), or YYPEEK (the check is performed when reading the next input character). The resulting methods are inefficient, as they check on each input character. However, they can be useful in cases when the input cannot be buffered or padded and does not contain a sentinel character at the end. One should be cautious when using such ad-hoc methods, as it is easy to overlook some corner cases and come up with a method that only partially works. Also it should be noted that not everything can be expressed via generic API: for example, it is impossible to reimplement the way EOF rule works (in particular, it is impossible to re-match the character after successfull YYFILL).

Below is an example of using YYSKIP to perform bounds checking without padding. YYFILL generation is suppressed using re2c:yyfill:enable = 0; configuration. Note that if the grammar was more complex, this method might not work in case when two rules overlap and EOF check fails after a shorter lexeme has already been matched (as it happens in our example, there are no overlapping rules).

#include <assert.h>
#include <string.h>
#define YYPEEK() *cur
#define YYSKIP() if (++cur > lim) return -1
static int lex(const char *str)
{
    const char *cur = str;
    const char *lim = str + strlen(str) + 1;
    int count = 0;
loop:
    /*!re2c
    re2c:define:YYCTYPE = char;
    re2c:yyfill:enable = 0;
    re2c:flags:input = custom;
    *                         { return -1; }
    [\x00]                    { return cur == lim ? count : -1; }
    [a-z]+                    { ++count; goto loop; }
    ['] ([^'] | [\\]['])* ['] { ++count; goto loop; }
    [ ]+                      { goto loop; }
    */
}
int main()
{
    assert(lex("") == 0);
    assert(lex("one two three") == 3);
    assert(lex("one two 123?") == -1);
    assert(lex("one 'two' 'th\\'ree' '123?' ''") == 5);
    assert(lex("one 'two' 'three") == -1);
    return 0;
}

BUFFER REFILLING

The need for buffering arises when the input cannot be mapped in memory all at once: either it is too large, or it comes in a streaming fashion (like reading from a socket). The usual technique in such cases is to allocate a fixed-sized memory buffer and process input in chunks that fit into the buffer. When the current chunk is processed, it is moved out and new data is moved in. In practice it is somewhat more complex, because lexer state consists not of a single input position, but a set of interrelated posiitons:

•   cursor: the next input character to be read (YYCURSOR in default API or YYSKIP/YYPEEK in generic API)

•   limit: the position after the last available input character (YYLIMIT in default API, implicitly handled by YYLESSTHAN in generic API)

•   marker: the position of the most recent match, if any (YYMARKER in default API or YYBACKUP/YYRESTORE in generic API)

•   token: the start of the current lexeme (implicit in re2c API, as it is not needed for the normal lexer operation and can be defined and updated by the user)

•   context marker: the position of the trailing context (YYCTXMARKER in default API or YYBACKUPCTX/YYRESTORECTX in generic API)

•   tag variables: submatch positions (defined with /*!stags:re2c*/ and /*!mtags:re2c*/ directives and YYSTAGP/YYSTAGN/YYMTAGP/YYMTAGN in generic API)

    Not all these are used in every case, but if used, they must be updated by YYFILL. All active positions are contained in the segment between token and cursor, therefore everything between buffer start and token can be discarded, the segment from token and up to limit should be moved to the beginning of buffer, and the free space at the end of buffer should be filled with new data. In order to avoid frequent YYFILL calls it is best to fill in as many input characters as possible (even though fewer characters might suffice to resume the lexer). The details of YYFILL implementation are slightly different depending on which EOF handling method is used: the case of EOF rule is somewhat simpler than the case of bounds-checking with padding. Also note that if -f --storable-state option is used, YYFILL has slightly different semantics (desrbed in the section about storable state).

  YYFILL with EOF rule

If EOF rule is used, YYFILL is a function-like primitive that accepts no arguments and returns a value which is checked against zero. YYFILL invocation is triggered by condition YYLIMIT <= YYCURSOR in default API and YYLESSTHAN() in generic API. A non-zero return value means that YYFILL has failed. A successful YYFILL call must supply at least one character and adjust input positions accordingly. Limit must always be set to one after the last input position in buffer, and the character at the limit position must be the sentinel symbol specified by re2c:eof configuration. The pictures below show the relative locations of input positions in buffer before and after YYFILL call (sentinel symbol is marked with #, and the second picture shows the case when there is not enough input to fill the whole buffer).

               <-- shift -->
             >-A------------B---------C-------------D#-----------E->
             buffer       token    marker         limit,
                                                  cursor
>-A------------B---------C-------------D------------E#->
             buffer,  marker        cursor        limit
             token
               <-- shift -->
             >-A------------B---------C-------------D#--E (EOF)
             buffer       token    marker         limit,
                                                  cursor
>-A------------B---------C-------------D---E#........
             buffer,  marker       cursor limit
             token

Here is an example of a program that reads input file input.txt in chunks of 4096 bytes and uses EOF rule.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#define SIZE 4096
typedef struct {
    FILE *file;
    char buf[SIZE + 1], *lim, *cur, *tok;
    int eof;
} Input;
static int fill(Input *in)
{
    if (in->eof) {
        return 1;
    }
    const size_t free = in->tok - in->buf;
    if (free < 1) {
        return 2;
    }
    memmove(in->buf, in->tok, in->lim - in->tok);
    in->lim -= free;
    in->cur -= free;
    in->tok -= free;
    in->lim += fread(in->lim, 1, free, in->file);
    in->lim[0] = 0;
    in->eof |= in->lim < in->buf + SIZE;
    return 0;
}
static void init(Input *in, FILE *file)
{
    in->file = file;
    in->cur = in->tok = in->lim = in->buf + SIZE;
    in->eof = 0;
    fill(in);
}
#define YYFILL() fill(in)
static int lex(Input *in)
{
    int count = 0;
loop:
    in->tok = in->cur;
    /*!re2c
    re2c:define:YYCTYPE = char;
    re2c:define:YYCURSOR = in->cur;
    re2c:define:YYLIMIT = in->lim;
    re2c:eof = 0;
    *                         { return -1; }
    $                         { return count; }
    [a-z]+                    { ++count; goto loop; }
    ['] ([^'] | [\\]['])* ['] { ++count; goto loop; }
    [ ]+                      { goto loop; }
    */
}
int main()
{
    FILE *f = fopen("input.txt", "rb");
    if (!f) return 1;
    Input in;
    init(&in, f);
    printf("count: %d\n", lex(&in));
    fclose(f);
    return 0;
}

  YYFILL with padding

In the default case (when EOF rule is not used) YYFILL is a function-like primitive that accepts a single argument and does not return any value. YYFILL invocation is triggered by condition (YYLIMIT - YYCURSOR) < n in default API and YYLESSTHAN(n) in generic API. The argument passed to YYFILL is the minimal number of characters that must be supplied. If it fails to do so, YYFILL must not return to the lexer (for that reason it is best implemented as a macro that returns from the calling function on failure). In case of a successfull YYFILL invocation the limit position must be set either to one after the last input position in buffer, or to the end of YYMAXFILL padding (in case YYFILL has successfully read at least n characters, but not enough to fill the entire buffer). The pictures below show the relative locations of input positions in buffer before and after YYFILL invocation (YYMAXFILL padding on the second picture is marked with # symbols).

               <-- shift -->                 <-- need -->
             >-A------------B---------C-----D-------E---F--------G->
             buffer       token    marker cursor  limit
>-A------------B---------C-----D-------E---F--------G->
             buffer,  marker cursor               limit
             token
               <-- shift -->                 <-- need -->
             >-A------------B---------C-----D-------E-F        (EOF)
             buffer       token    marker cursor  limit
>-A------------B---------C-----D-------E-F###############
             buffer,  marker cursor                   limit
             token                        <- YYMAXFILL ->

Here is an example of a program that reads input file input.txt in chunks of 4096 bytes and uses bounds-checking with padding.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
/*!max:re2c*/
#define SIZE 4096
typedef struct {
    FILE *file;
    char buf[SIZE + YYMAXFILL], *lim, *cur, *tok;
    int eof;
} Input;
static int fill(Input *in, size_t need)
{
    if (in->eof) {
        return 1;
    }
    const size_t free = in->tok - in->buf;
    if (free < need) {
        return 2;
    }
    memmove(in->buf, in->tok, in->lim - in->tok);
    in->lim -= free;
    in->cur -= free;
    in->tok -= free;
    in->lim += fread(in->lim, 1, free, in->file);
    if (in->lim < in->buf + SIZE) {
        in->eof = 1;
        memset(in->lim, 0, YYMAXFILL);
        in->lim += YYMAXFILL;
    }
    return 0;
}
static void init(Input *in, FILE *file)
{
    in->file = file;
    in->cur = in->tok = in->lim = in->buf + SIZE;
    in->eof = 0;
    fill(in, 1);
}
#define YYFILL(n) if (fill(in, n) != 0) return -1
static int lex(Input *in)
{
    int count = 0;
loop:
    in->tok = in->cur;
    /*!re2c
    re2c:define:YYCTYPE = char;
    re2c:define:YYCURSOR = in->cur;
    re2c:define:YYLIMIT = in->lim;
    *                         { return -1; }
    [\x00]                    { return (YYMAXFILL == in->lim - in->tok) ? count : -1; }
    [a-z]+                    { ++count; goto loop; }
    ['] ([^'] | [\\]['])* ['] { ++count; goto loop; }
    [ ]+                      { goto loop; }
    */
}
int main()
{
    FILE *f = fopen("input.txt", "rb");
    if (!f) return 1;
    Input in;
    init(&in, f);
    printf("count: %d\n", lex(&in));
    fclose(f);
    return 0;
}

INCLUDE FILES

Re2c allows to include other files using directive /*!include:re2c FILE */, where FILE is the name of file to be included. Re2c looks for included files in the directory of the including file and in include locations, which can be specified with -I option. Re2c include directive works in the same way as C/C++ #include: the contents of FILE are copy-pasted verbatim in place of the directive. Include files may have further includes of their own. Re2c provides some predefined include files that can be found in the include/ subdirectory of the project. These files contain definitions that can be useful to other projects (such as Unicode categories) and form something like a standard library for re2c.

Here is an example of using include files:

// definitions.re
/*!re2c
    alpha = [a-zA-Z];
    digit = [0-9];
*/
// main.re
/*!include:re2c "definitions.re" */
int lex(const char *YYCURSOR)
{
    const char *YYMARKER;
    /*!re2c
        alpha { return 1; }
        digit { return 2; }
        *     { return 0; }
    */
}

HEADER FILES

Re2c allows to generate header file from the input .re file using option -t --type-header (or the corresponding configurations) and directives /*!header:re2c:on*/ and /*!header:re2c:off*/. The first directive marks the beginning of header file, and the second directive marks the end of it. Everything between these directives is processed by re2c, and the generated code is written to the file specified by the -t --type-header option (or stdout if this option was not used). Autogenerated header file may be needed in cases when re2c is used to generate definitions of constants, variables and structs that must be visible from other translation units.

Here is an example of generating a header that contains definitions of YYMAXFILL and lexer state with tag variables. Note that YYMAXFILL and tag variables depend on the grammar in the .re file and cannot be hard-coded.

/*!header:re2c:on*/
/*!max:re2c*/
struct State {
    char buffer[4096 + YYMAXFILL], *cursor, *marker, *limit;
    /*!stags:re2c format = "char *@@; "; */
};
/*!header:re2c:off*/
#include "lex.h"
#define YYCTYPE   char
#define YYCURSOR  state->cursor
#define YYMARKER  state->marker
#define YYLIMIT   state->limit
#define YYFILL(n) return 2
int lex(State *state)
{
    char *x, *y;
    /*!re2c
        re2c:tags:expression = state->@@;
        re2c:flags:t         = lex.h;
        "a"* @x "b"* @y "c"* { return 0; }
        *                    { return 1; }
    */
}

The generated header looks like this:

#define YYMAXFILL 1
struct State {
    char buffer[4096 + YYMAXFILL], *cursor, *marker, *limit;
    char *yyt1; char *yyt2;
};

SUBMATCH EXTRACTION

Re2c has two options for submatch extraction.

The first option is -T --tags. With this option one can use standalone tags of the form @stag and #mtag, where stag and mtag are arbitrary used-defined names. Tags can be used anywhere inside of a regular expression; semantically they are just position markers. Tags of the form @stag are called s-tags: they denote a single submatch value (the last input position where this tag matched). Tags of the form #mtag are called m-tags: they denote multiple submatch values (the whole history of repetitions of this tag). All tags should be defined by the user as variables with the corresponding names. With standalone tags re2c uses leftmost greedy disambiguation: submatch positions correspond to the leftmost matching path through the regular expression.

The second option is -P --posix-captures: it enables POSIX-compliant capturing groups. In this mode parentheses in regular expressions denote the beginning and the end of capturing groups; the whole regular expression is group number zero. The number of groups for the matching rule is stored in a variable yynmatch, and submatch results are stored in yypmatch array. Both yynmatch and yypmatch should be defined by the user, and yypmatch size must be at least [yynmatch * 2]. Re2c provides a directive /*!maxnmatch:re2c*/ that defines YYMAXNMATCH: a constant equal to the maximal value of yynmatch among all rules. Note that re2c implements POSIX-compliant disambiguation: each subexpression matches as long as possible, and subexpressions that start earlier in regular expression have priority over those starting later. Capturing groups are translated into s-tags under the hood, therefore we use the word "tag" to describe them as well.

With both -P --posix-captures and T --tags options re2c uses efficient submatch extraction algorithm described in the Tagged Deterministic Finite Automata with Lookahead paper. The overhead on submatch extraction in the generated lexer grows with the number of tags --- if this number is moderate, the overhead is barely noticeable. In the lexer tags are implemented using a number of tag variables generated by re2c. There is no one-to-one correspondence between tag variables and tags: a single variable may be reused for different tags, and one tag may require multiple variables to hold all its ambiguous values. Eventually ambiguity is resolved, and only one final variable per tag survives. When a rule matches, all its tags are set to the values of the corresponding tag variables. The exact number of tag variables is unknown to the user; this number is determined by re2c. However, tag variables should be defined by the user as a part of the lexer state and updated by YYFILL, therefore re2c provides directives /*!stags:re2c*/ and /*!mtags:re2c*/ that can be used to declare, initialize and manipulate tag variables. These directives have two optional configurations: format = "@@"; (specifies the template where @@ is substituted with the name of each tag variable), and separator = ""; (specifies the piece of code used to join the generated pieces for different tag variables).

S-tags support the following operations:

•   save input position to an s-tag: t = YYCURSOR with default API or a user-defined operation YYSTAGP(t) with generic API

•   save default value to an s-tag: t = NULL with default API or a user-defined operation YYSTAGN(t) with generic API

•   copy one s-tag to another: t1 = t2

    M-tags support the following operations:

•   append input position to an m-tag: a user-defined operation YYMTAGP(t) with both default and generic API

•   append default value to an m-tag: a user-defined operation YYMTAGN(t) with both default and generic API

•   copy one m-tag to another: t1 = t2

    S-tags can be implemented as scalar values (pointers or offsets). M-tags need a more complex representation, as they need to store a sequence of tag values. The most naive and inefficient representation of an m-tag is a list (array, vector) of tag values; a more efficient representation is to store all m-tags in a prefix-tree represented as array of nodes (v, p), where v is tag value and p is a pointer to parent node.

    Here is an example of using s-tags to parse an IPv4 address.

    #include <assert.h>
    #include <stdint.h>
    static uint32_t num(const char *s, const char *e)
    {
        uint32_t n = 0;
        for (; s < e; ++s) n = n * 10 + (*s - '0');
        return n;
    }
    static uint32_t lex(const char *YYCURSOR)
    {
        const char *YYMARKER, *o1, *o2, *o3, *o4;
        /*!stags:re2c format = 'const char *@@;'; */
        /*!re2c
        re2c:define:YYCTYPE = char;
        re2c:yyfill:enable = 0;
        re2c:flags:tags = 1;
        oct = [0-9]{1,3};
        dot = [.];
        @o1 oct dot @o2 oct dot @o3 oct dot @o4 oct {
            return num(o4, YYCURSOR)
                + (num(o3, o4 - 1) << 8)
                + (num(o2, o3 - 1) << 16)
                + (num(o1, o2 - 1) << 24);
        }
        * { return 0; }
        */
    }
    int main()
    {
        assert(lex("1.2.3.4") == 0x01020304);
        assert(lex("127.0.0.1") == 0x7f000001);
        assert(lex("255.255.255.255") == 0xffffffff);
        return 0;
    }

    Here is an example of using POSIX capturing groups to parse an IPv4 address.

    #include <assert.h>
    #include <stdint.h>
    static uint32_t num(const char *s, const char *e)
    {
        uint32_t n = 0;
        for (; s < e; ++s) n = n * 10 + (*s - '0');
        return n;
    }
    /*!maxnmatch:re2c*/
    static uint32_t lex(const char *YYCURSOR)
    {
        const char *YYMARKER;
        const char *yypmatch[YYMAXNMATCH];
        uint32_t yynmatch;
        /*!stags:re2c format = 'const char *@@;'; */
        /*!re2c
        re2c:define:YYCTYPE = char;
        re2c:yyfill:enable = 0;
        re2c:flags:posix-captures = 1;
        oct = [0-9]{1,3};
        dot = [.];
        (oct) dot (oct) dot (oct) dot (oct) {
            return num(yypmatch[8], yypmatch[9])
                + (num(yypmatch[6], yypmatch[7]) << 8)
                + (num(yypmatch[4], yypmatch[5]) << 16)
                + (num(yypmatch[2], yypmatch[3]) << 24);
        }
        * { return 0; }
        */
    }
    int main()
    {
        assert(lex("1.2.3.4") == 0x01020304);
        assert(lex("127.0.0.1") == 0x7f000001);
        assert(lex("255.255.255.255") == 0xffffffff);
        return 0;
    }

    Here is an example of using m-tags to parse a semicolon-separated sequence of words (C++). Tag variables are stored in a tree that is packed in a vector.

    #include <assert.h>
    #include <vector>
    #include <string>
    static const int ROOT = -1;
    struct Mtag {
        int pred;
        const char *tag;
    };
    typedef std::vector<Mtag> MtagTree;
    typedef std::vector<std::string> Words;
    static void mtag(int *pt, const char *t, MtagTree *tree)
    {
        Mtag m = {*pt, t};
        *pt = (int)tree->size();
        tree->push_back(m);
    }
    static void unfold(const MtagTree &tree, int x, int y, Words &words)
    {
        if (x == ROOT) return;
        unfold(tree, tree[x].pred, tree[y].pred, words);
        const char *px = tree[x].tag, *py = tree[y].tag;
        words.push_back(std::string(px, py - px));
    }
    #define YYMTAGP(t) mtag(&t, YYCURSOR, &tree)
    #define YYMTAGN(t) mtag(&t, NULL,     &tree)
    static bool lex(const char *YYCURSOR, Words &words)
    {
        const char *YYMARKER;
        /*!mtags:re2c format = "int @@ = ROOT;"; */
        MtagTree tree;
        int x, y;
        /*!re2c
        re2c:define:YYCTYPE = char;
        re2c:yyfill:enable = 0;
        re2c:flags:tags = 1;
        (#x [a-zA-Z0-9_]+ #y [;])+ {
            words.clear();
            unfold(tree, x, y, words);
            return true;
        }
        * { return false; }
        */
    }
    int main()
    {
        Words w;
        assert(lex("one;tw0;three;", w) && w == Words({"one", "tw0", "three"}));
        return 0;
    }

STORABLE STATE

With -f --storable-state option re2c generates a lexer that can store its current state, return to the caller, and later resume operations exactly where it left off. The default mode of operation in re2c is a "pull" model, in which the lexer "pulls" more input whenever it needs it. This may be unacceptable in cases when the input becomes available piece by piece (for example, if the lexer is invoked by the parser, or if the lexer program communicates via a socket protocol with some other program that must wait for a reply from the lexer before it transmits the next message). Storable state feature is intended exactly for such cases: it allows to generate lexers that work in a "push" model. When the lexer needs more input, it stores its state and returns to the caller. Later, when more input becomes available, the caller resumes the lexer exactly where it stopped. There are a few changes necessary compared to the "pull" model:

•   Define YYSETSTATE() and YYGETSTATE(state) promitives.

•   Define yych, yyaccept and state variables as a part of persistent lexer state. The state variable should be initialized to -1.

•   YYFILL should return to the outer program instead of trying to supply more input. Return code should indicate that lexer needs more input.

•   The outer program should recognize situations when lexer needs more input and respond appropriately.

•   Use /*!getstate:re2c*/ directive if it is necessary to execute any code before entering the lexer.

•   Use configurations state:abort and state:nextlabel to further tweak the generated code.

    Here is an example of a "push"-model lexer that reads input from stdin and expects a sequence of words separated by spaces and newlines. The lexer loops forever, waiting for more input. It can be terminated by sending a special EOF token --- a word "stop", in which case the lexer terminates successfully and prints the number of words it has seen. Abnormal termination happens in case of a syntax error, premature end of input (without the "stop" word) or in case the buffer is too small to hold a lexeme (for example, if one of the words exceeds buffer size). Premature end of input happens in case the lexer fails to read any input while being in the initial state --- this is the only case when EOF rule matches. Note that the lexer may call YYFILL twice before terminating (and thus require hitting Ctrl+D a few times). First time YYFILL is called when the lexer expects continuation of the current greedy lexeme (either a word or a whitespace sequence). If YYFILL fails, the lexer knows that it has reached the end of the current lexeme and executes the corresponding semantic action. The action jumps to the beginning of the loop, the lexer enters the initial state and calls YYFILL once more. If it fails, the lexer matches EOF rule. (Alternatively EOF rule can be used for termination instead of a special EOF lexeme.)

    #include <assert.h>
    #include <stdio.h>
    #include <string.h>
    #define SIZE 4096
    typedef struct {
        char buf[SIZE + 1], *lim, *cur, *tok, yych;
        unsigned yyaccept;
        int state;
    } Input;
    static void init(Input *in)
    {
        in->cur = in->tok = in->lim = in->buf + SIZE;
        in->lim[0] = 0; // append sentinel symbol
        in->yych = 0;
        in->yyaccept = 0;
        in->state = -1;
    }
    static int fill(Input *in)
    {
        const size_t shift = in->tok - in->buf;
        const size_t free = SIZE - (in->lim - in->tok);
        if (free < 1) return 1; // not enough space in buffer
        memmove(in->buf, in->tok, SIZE - shift);
        in->lim -= shift;
        in->cur -= shift;
        in->tok -= shift;
        const size_t read = fread(in->lim, 1, free, stdin);
        in->lim += read;
        in->lim[0] = 0; // append sentinel symbol
        return 0;
    }
    typedef enum {OK, SYNTAX_ERROR, UNEXPECTED_EOF, NEED_MORE_INPUT} Status;
    #define YYGETSTATE()  in->state
    #define YYSETSTATE(s) in->state = s
    #define YYFILL()      return NEED_MORE_INPUT
    static Status lex(Input *in, unsigned *words)
    {
        /*!getstate:re2c*/
    loop:
        in->tok = in->cur;
        /*!re2c
            re2c:define:YYCTYPE = char;
            re2c:define:YYCURSOR = in->cur;
            re2c:define:YYLIMIT = in->lim;
            re2c:variable:yych = in->yych;
            re2c:eof = 0;
            *         { return SYNTAX_ERROR; }
            $         { return UNEXPECTED_EOF; }
            "stop"    { return OK; }
            [\n ]+    { goto loop; }
            [a-zA-Z]+ { *words = *words + 1; goto loop; }
        */
    }
    int main()
    {
        unsigned words = 0;
        Input in;
        init(&in);
        for (;;) {
            const Status st = lex(&in, &words);
            if (st == OK) {
                printf("word count: %u\n", words);
                break;
            }
            else if (st == SYNTAX_ERROR) {
                printf("error: unexpected symbol\n");
                return 1;
            }
            else if (st == UNEXPECTED_EOF) {
                printf("error: unexpected end of input\n");
                return 2;
            }
            else if (fill(&in) != 0) {
                printf("error: not enough space in buffer\n");
                return 3;
            }
        }
        return 0;
    }

REUSABLE BLOCKS

Reuse mode is enabled with the -r --reusable option. In this mode re2c allows to reuse definitions, configurations and rules specified by a /*!rules:re2c*/ block in subsequent /*!use:re2c*/ blocks. As of re2c-1.2 it is possible to mix such blocks with normal /*!re2c*/ blocks; prior to that re2c expects a single rules-block followed by use-blocks (normal blocks are disallowed). Use-blocks can have additional definitions, configurations and rules: they are merged to those specified by the rules-block. A very common use case for -r --reusable option is a lexer that supports multiple input encodings: lexer rules are defined once and reused multiple times with encoding-specific configurations, such as re2c:flags:utf-8.

Below is an example of a multi-encoding lexer: it reads a phrase with Unicode math symbols and accepts input either in UTF8 or in UT32. Note that the --input-encoding utf8 option allows us to write UTF8-encoded symbols in the regular expressions; without this option re2c would parse them as a plain ASCII byte sequnce (and we would have to use hexadecimal escape sequences).

#include <assert.h>
#include <stdint.h>
/*!rules:re2c
    re2c:yyfill:enable = 0;
    "∀x ∃y: p(x, y)" { return 0; }
    *                { return 1; }
*/
static int lex_utf8(const uint8_t *YYCURSOR)
{
    const uint8_t *YYMARKER;
    /*!use:re2c
    re2c:define:YYCTYPE = uint8_t;
    re2c:flags:8 = 1;
    */
}
static int lex_utf32(const uint32_t *YYCURSOR)
{
    const uint32_t *YYMARKER;
    /*!use:re2c
    re2c:define:YYCTYPE = uint32_t;
    re2c:flags:8 = 0;
    re2c:flags:u = 1;
    */
}
int main()
{
    static const uint8_t s8[] = // UTF-8
        { 0xe2, 0x88, 0x80, 0x78, 0x20, 0xe2, 0x88, 0x83, 0x79
        , 0x3a, 0x20, 0x70, 0x28, 0x78, 0x2c, 0x20, 0x79, 0x29 };
    static const uint32_t s32[] = // UTF32
        { 0x00002200, 0x00000078, 0x00000020, 0x00002203
        , 0x00000079, 0x0000003a, 0x00000020, 0x00000070
        , 0x00000028, 0x00000078, 0x0000002c, 0x00000020
        , 0x00000079, 0x00000029 };
    assert(lex_utf8(s8) == 0);
    assert(lex_utf32(s32) == 0);
    return 0;
}

ENCODING SUPPORT

re2c supports the following encodings: ASCII (default), EBCDIC (-e), UCS-2 (-w), UTF-16 (-x), UTF-32 (-u) and UTF-8 (-8). See also inplace configuration re2c:flags.

The following concepts should be clarified when talking about encodings. A code point is an abstract number that represents a single symbol. A code unit is the smallest unit of memory, which is used in the encoded text (it corresponds to one character in the input stream). One or more code units may be needed to represent a single code point, depending on the encoding. In a fixed-length encoding, each code point is represented with an equal number of code units. In variable-length encodings, different code points can be represented with different number of code units.

•   ASCII is a fixed-length encoding. Its code space includes 0x100 code points, from 0 to 0xFF. A code point is represented with exactly one 1-byte code unit, which has the same value as the code point. The size of YYCTYPE must be 1 byte.

•   EBCDIC is a fixed-length encoding. Its code space includes 0x100 code points, from 0 to 0xFF. A code point is represented with exactly one 1-byte code unit, which has the same value as the code point. The size of YYCTYPE must be 1 byte.

•   UCS-2 is a fixed-length encoding. Its code space includes 0x10000 code points, from 0 to 0xFFFF. One code point is represented with exactly one 2-byte code unit, which has the same value as the code point. The size of YYCTYPE must be 2 bytes.

•   UTF-16 is a variable-length encoding. Its code space includes all Unicode code points, from 0 to 0xD7FF and from 0xE000 to 0x10FFFF. One code point is represented with one or two 2-byte code units. The size of YYCTYPE must be 2 bytes.

•   UTF-32 is a fixed-length encoding. Its code space includes all Unicode code points, from 0 to 0xD7FF and from 0xE000 to 0x10FFFF. One code point is represented with exactly one 4-byte code unit. The size of YYCTYPE must be 4 bytes.

•   UTF-8 is a variable-length encoding. Its code space includes all Unicode code points, from 0 to 0xD7FF and from 0xE000 to 0x10FFFF. One code point is represented with a sequence of one, two, three, or four 1-byte code units. The size of YYCTYPE must be 1 byte.

    In Unicode, values from range 0xD800 to 0xDFFF (surrogates) are not valid Unicode code points. Any encoded sequence of code units that would map to Unicode code points in the range 0xD800-0xDFFF, is ill-formed. The user can control how re2c treats such ill-formed sequences with the --encoding-policy <policy> switch.

    For some encodings, there are code units that never occur in a valid encoded stream (e.g., 0xFF byte in UTF-8). If the generated scanner must check for invalid input, the only correct way to do so is to use the default rule (*). Note that the full range rule ([^]) won't catch invalid code units when a variable-length encoding is used ([^] means "any valid code point", whereas the default rule (*) means "any possible code unit").

START CONDITIONS

Conditions are enabled with -c --conditions. This option allows to encode multiple interrelated lexers within the same re2c block.

Each lexer corresponds to a single condition. It starts with a label of the form yyc_name, where name is condition name and yyc prefix can be adjusted with configuration re2c:condprefix. Different lexers are separated with a comment /* *********************************** */ which can be adjusted with configuration re2c:cond:divider.

Furthermore, each condition has a unique identifier of the form yycname, where name is condition name and yyc prefix can be adjusted with configuration re2c:condenumprefix. Identifiers have the type YYCONDTYPE and should be generated with /*!types:re2c*/ directive or -t --type-header option. Users shouldn't define these identifiers manually, as the order of conditions is not specified.

Before all conditions re2c generates entry code that checks the current condition identifier and transfers control flow to the start label of the active condition. After matching some rule of this condition, lexer may either transfer control flow back to the entry code (after executing the associated action and optionally setting another condition with =>), or use :=> shortcut and transition directly to the start label of another condition (skipping the action and the entry code). Configuration re2c:cond:goto allows to change the default behavior.

Syntactically each rule must be preceded with a list of comma-separated condition names or a wildcard * enclosed in angle brackets < and >. Wildcard means "any condition" and is semantically equivalent to listing all condition names. Here regexp is a regular expression, default refers to the default rule *, and action is a block of C/C++ code.

•   <conditions-or-wildcard> regexp-or-default action

•   <conditions-or-wildcard> regexp-or-default => condition action

•   <conditions-or-wildcard> regexp-or-default :=> condition

    Rules with an exclamation mark ! in front of condition list have a special meaning: they have no regular expression, and the associated action is merged as an entry code to actions of normal rules. This might be a convenient place to peform a routine task that is common to all rules.

•   <!conditions-or-wildcard> action

    Another special form of rules with an empty condition list <> and no regular expression allows to specify an "entry condition" that can be used to execute code before entering the lexer. It is semantically equivalent to a condition with number zero, name 0 and an empty regular expression.

•   <> action

•   <> => condition action

•   <> :=> condition

SKELETON PROGRAMS

With the -S, --skeleton option, re2c ignores all non-re2c code and generates a self-contained C program that can be further compiled and executed. The program consists of lexer code and input data. For each constructed DFA (block or condition) re2c generates a standalone lexer and two files: an .input file with strings derived from the DFA and a .keys file with expected match results. The program runs each lexer on the corresponding .input file and compares results with the expectations. Skeleton programs are very useful for a number of reasons:

•   They can check correctness of various re2c optimizations (the data is generated early in the process, before any DFA transformations have taken place).

•   Generating a set of input data with good coverage may be useful for both testing and benchmarking.

•   Generating self-contained executable programs allows to get minimized test cases (the original code may be large or have a lot of dependencies).

    The difficulty with generating input data is that for all but the most trivial cases the number of possible input strings is too large (even if the string length is limited). Re2c solves this difficulty by generating sufficiently many strings to cover almost all DFA transitions. It uses the following algorithm. First, it constructs a skeleton of the DFA. For encodings with 1-byte code unit size (such as ASCII, UTF-8 and EBCDIC) skeleton is just an exact copy of the original DFA. For encodings with multibyte code units skeleton is a copy of DFA with certain transitions omitted: namely, re2c takes at most 256 code units for each disjoint continuous range that corresponds to a DFA transition. The chosen values are evenly distributed and include range bounds. Instead of trying to cover all possible paths in the skeleton (which is infeasible) re2c generates sufficiently many paths to cover all skeleton transitions, and thus trigger the corresponding conditional jumps in the lexer. The algorithm implementation is limited by ~1Gb of transitions and consumes constant amount of memory (re2c writes data to file as soon as it is generated).

VISUALIZATION AND DEBUG

With the -D, --emit-dot option, re2c does not generate C/C++ code. Instead, it dumps the generated DFA in the DOT format. One can convert this dump to an image of the DFA using graphviz or another library. Note that this option shows the final DFA after it has gone through a number of optimizations and transformations. Earlier stages can be dumped with various debug options, such as --dump-nfa, --dump-dfa-raw etc. (see the full list of options).

SEE ALSO

You can find more information about re2c at the official website: http://re2c.org. Similar programs are flex(1), lex(1), quex(http://quex.sourceforge.net).

AUTHORS

Re2c was originaly written by Peter Bumbulis in 1993. Since then it has been developed and maintained by mutiple volunteers; mots notably, Brain Young, Marcus Boerger, Dan Nuffer and Ulya Trofimovich.

VERSION INFORMATION

This manpage describes re2c version 1.2.1, package date 11 Aug 2019.