Oniguruma syntax (operator) configuration

Documented for Oniguruma 6.9.10 (2024/12/21)

Overview

This document details how to configure Oniguruma's syntax, by describing the desired syntax operators and behaviors in an instance of the OnigSyntaxType struct, just like the built-in Oniguruma syntaxes do.

Configuration operators are bit flags, and are broken into multiple groups, somewhat arbitrarily, because Oniguruma takes its configuration as a trio of 32-bit unsigned int values, assigned as the first three fields in an OnigSyntaxType struct:

typedef struct {
  unsigned int   op;
  unsigned int   op2;
  unsigned int   behavior;
  OnigOptionType options;   /* default option */
  OnigMetaCharTableType meta_char_table;
} OnigSyntaxType;

The first group of configuration flags (op) roughly corresponds to the configuration for "basic regex." The second group (op2) roughly corresponds to the configuration for "advanced regex." And the third group (behavior) describes more-or-less what to do for broken input, bad input, or other corner-case regular expressions whose meaning is not well-defined. These three groups of flags are described in full below, and tables of their usages for various syntaxes follow.

The options field describes the default compile options to use if the caller does not specify any options when invoking onig_new().

The meta_char_table field is used exclusively by the ONIG_SYN_OP_VARIABLE_META_CHARACTERS option, which allows the various regex metacharacters, like * and ?, to be replaced with alternates (for example, SQL typically uses % instead of .* and _ instead of ?).

Group One Flags (op)

This group contains "basic regex" constructs, features common to most regex systems.

0. ONIG_SYN_OP_VARIABLE_META_CHARACTERS

Set in: none

Enables support for onig_set_meta_char(), which allows you to provide alternate characters that will be used instead of the six special characters that are normally these characters below:

ONIG_META_CHAR_ESCAPE: \
ONIG_META_CHAR_ANYCHAR: .
ONIG_META_CHAR_ANYTIME: *
ONIG_META_CHAR_ZERO_OR_ONE_TIME: ?
ONIG_META_CHAR_ONE_OR_MORE_TIME: +
ONIG_META_CHAR_ANYCHAR_ANYTIME: Equivalent in normal regex to .*, but supported explicitly so that Oniguruma can support matching SQL % wildcards or shell * wildcards.

If this flag is set, then the values defined using onig_set_meta_char() will be used; if this flag is clear, then the default regex characters will be used instead, and data set by onig_set_meta_char() will be ignored.

1. ONIG_SYN_OP_DOT_ANYCHAR (enable `.`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex, Grep, Emacs, PosixExtended, PosixBasic

Enables support for the standard . metacharacter, meaning "any one character." You usually want this flag on unless you have turned on ONIG_SYN_OP_VARIABLE_META_CHARACTERS so that you can use a metacharacter other than . instead.

2. ONIG_SYN_OP_ASTERISK_ZERO_INF (enable `r*`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex, Grep, Emacs, PosixExtended, PosixBasic

Enables support for the standard r* metacharacter, meaning "zero or more r's." You usually want this flag set unless you have turned on ONIG_SYN_OP_VARIABLE_META_CHARACTERS so that you can use a metacharacter other than * instead.

3. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_ASTERISK_ZERO_INF (enable `r\*`)

Set in: none

Enables support for an escaped r\* metacharacter, meaning "zero or more r's." This is useful if you have disabled support for the normal r* metacharacter because you want * to simply match a literal * character, but you still want some way of activating "zero or more" behavior.

4. ONIG_SYN_OP_PLUS_ONE_INF (enable `r+`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex, Emacs, PosixExtended

Enables support for the standard r+ metacharacter, meaning "one or more r's." You usually want this flag set unless you have turned on ONIG_SYN_OP_VARIABLE_META_CHARACTERS so that you can use a metacharacter other than + instead.

5. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_PLUS_ONE_INF (enable `r\+`)

Set in: Grep

Enables support for an escaped r\+ metacharacter, meaning "one or more r's." This is useful if you have disabled support for the normal r+ metacharacter because you want + to simply match a literal + character, but you still want some way of activating "one or more" behavior.

6. ONIG_SYN_OP_QMARK_ZERO_ONE (enable `r?`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex, Emacs, PosixExtended

Enables support for the standard r? metacharacter, meaning "zero or one r" or "an optional r." You usually want this flag set unless you have turned on ONIG_SYN_OP_VARIABLE_META_CHARACTERS so that you can use a metacharacter other than ? instead.

7. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_QMARK_ZERO_ONE (enable `r\?`)

Set in: Grep

Enables support for an escaped r\? metacharacter, meaning "zero or one r" or "an optional r." This is useful if you have disabled support for the normal r? metacharacter because you want ? to simply match a literal ? character, but you still want some way of activating "optional" behavior.

8. ONIG_SYN_OP_BRACE_INTERVAL (enable `r{l,u}`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex, PosixExtended

Enables support for the r{lower,upper} range form, common to more advanced regex engines, which lets you specify precisely a minimum and maximum range on how many r's must match (and not simply "zero or more").

This form also allows r{count} to specify a precise count of r's that must match.

This form also allows r{lower,} to be equivalent to r{lower,infinity}.

If and only if the ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_INTERVAL_LOW_ABBREV behavior flag is set, this form also allows r{,upper} to be equivalent to r{0,upper}; otherwise, r{,upper} will be treated as an error.

9. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_BRACE_INTERVAL (enable `\{` and `\}`)

Set in: Grep, Emacs, PosixBasic

Enables support for an escaped r\{lower,upper\} range form. This is useful if you have disabled support for the normal r{...} range form and want curly braces to simply match literal curly brace characters, but you still want some way of activating "range" behavior.

10. ONIG_SYN_OP_VBAR_ALT (enable `r|s`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex, PosixExtended

Enables support for the common r|s alternation operator. You usually want this flag set.

11. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_VBAR_ALT (enable `\|`)

Set in: Grep, Emacs

Enables support for an escaped r\|s alternation form. This is useful if you have disabled support for the normal r|s alternation form and want | to simply match a literal | character, but you still want some way of activating "alternate" behavior.

12. ONIG_SYN_OP_LPAREN_SUBEXP (enable `(r)`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex, PosixExtended

Enables support for the common (...) grouping-and-capturing operators. You usually want this flag set.

13. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_LPAREN_SUBEXP (enable `$` and `$`)

Set in: Grep, Emacs, PosixBasic

Enables support for escaped $...$ grouping-and-capturing operators. This is useful if you have disabled support for the normal (...) grouping-and-capturing operators and want parentheses to simply match literal parenthesis characters, but you still want some way of activating "grouping" or "capturing" behavior.

14. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_AZ_BUF_ANCHOR (enable `\A` and `\Z` and `\z`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex

Enables support for the anchors \A (start-of-string), \Z (end-of-string or newline-at-end-of-string), and \z (end-of-string) escapes.

(If the escape metacharacter has been changed from the default of \, this option will recognize that metacharacter instead.)

15. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_CAPITAL_G_BEGIN_ANCHOR (enable `\G`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex

Enables support for the special anchor \G (start-of-previous-match).

(If the escape metacharacter has been changed from the default of \, this option will recognize that metacharacter instead.)

Note that OnigRegex/regex_t are not stateful objects, and do not record the location of the previous match. The \G flag uses the start parameter explicitly passed to onig_search() (or onig_search_with_param() to determine the "start of the previous match," so if the caller always passes the start of the entire buffer as the function's start parameter, then \G will behave exactly the same as \A.

16. ONIG_SYN_OP_DECIMAL_BACKREF (enable `\num`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex, Grep, Emacs, PosixExtended, PosixBasic

Enables support for subsequent matches to back references to prior capture groups (...) using the common \num syntax (like \3).

If this flag is clear, then a numeric escape like \3 will either be treated as a literal 3, or, if ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_OCTAL3 is set, will be treated as an octal character code \3.

You usually want this enabled, and it is enabled by default in every built-in syntax.

17. ONIG_SYN_OP_BRACKET_CC (enable `[...]`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex, Grep, Emacs, PosixExtended, PosixBasic

Enables support for recognizing character classes, like [a-z]. If this flag is not set, [ and ] will be treated as ordinary literal characters instead of as metacharacters.

You usually want this enabled, and it is enabled by default in every built-in syntax.

18. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_W_WORD (enable `\w` and `\W`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex, Grep

Enables support for the common \w and \W shorthand forms. These match "word characters," whose meaning varies depending on the encoding being used.

In ASCII encoding, \w is equivalent to [A-Za-z0-9_].

In most other encodings, \w matches many more characters, including accented letters, Greek letters, Cyrillic letters, Braille letters and numbers, Runic letters, Hebrew letters, Arabic letters and numerals, Chinese Han ideographs, Japanese Katakana and Hiragana, Korean Hangul, and generally any symbol that could qualify as a phonetic "letter" or counting "number" in any language. (Note that emoji are not considered "word characters.")

\W always matches the opposite of whatever \w matches.

19. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_LTGT_WORD_BEGIN_END (enable `\<` and `\>`)

Set in: GnuRegex, Grep

Enables support for the GNU-specific \< and \> word-boundary metacharacters. These work like the \b word-boundary metacharacter, but only match at one end of the word or the other: \< only matches at a transition from a non-word character to a word character (i.e., at the start of a word), and \> only matches at a transition from a word character to a non-word character (i.e., at the end of a word).

Most regex syntaxes do not support these metacharacters.

20. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_B_WORD_BOUND (enable `\b` and `\B`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex, Grep

Enables support for the common \b and \B word-boundary metacharacters. The \b metacharacter matches a zero-width position at a transition from word-characters to non-word-characters, or vice versa. The \B metacharacter matches at all positions not matched by \b.

See details in ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_W_WORD above for an explanation as to which characters are considered "word characters."

21. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_S_WHITE_SPACE (enable `\s` and `\S`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex

Enables support for the common \s and \S whitespace-matching metacharacters.

The \s metacharacter in ASCII encoding is exactly equivalent to the character class [\t\n\v\f\r ], or characters codes 9 through 13 (inclusive), and 32.

The \s metacharacter in Unicode is exactly equivalent to the character class [\t\n\v\f\r \x85\xA0\x1680\x2000-\x200A\x2028-\x2029\x202F\x205F\x3000] — that is, it matches the same as ASCII, plus U+0085 (next line), U+00A0 (nonbreaking space), U+1680 (Ogham space mark), U+2000 (en quad) through U+200A (hair space) (this range includes several widths of Unicode spaces), U+2028 (line separator) through U+2029 (paragraph separator), U+202F (narrow no-break space), U+205F (medium mathematical space), and U+3000 (CJK ideographic space).

All non-Unicode encodings are handled by converting their code points to the appropriate Unicode-equivalent code points, and then matching according to Unicode rules.

\S always matches any one character that is not in the set matched by \s.

22. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_D_DIGIT (enable `\d` and `\D`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex

Enables support for the common \d and \D digit-matching metacharacters.

The \d metacharacter in ASCII encoding is exactly equivalent to the character class [0-9], or characters codes 48 through 57 (inclusive).

The \d metacharacter in Unicode matches [0-9], as well as digits in Arabic, Devanagari, Bengali, Laotian, Mongolian, CJK fullwidth numerals, and many more.

All non-Unicode encodings are handled by converting their code points to the appropriate Unicode-equivalent code points, and then matching according to Unicode rules.

\D always matches any one character that is not in the set matched by \d.

23. ONIG_SYN_OP_LINE_ANCHOR (enable `^r` and `r$`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex, Grep, Emacs, PosixExtended, PosixBasic

Enables support for the common ^ and $ line-anchor metacharacters.

In single-line mode, ^ matches the start of the input buffer, and $ matches the end of the input buffer. In multi-line mode, ^ matches if the preceding character is \n; and $ matches if the following character is \n.

(Note that Oniguruma does not recognize other newline types: It only matches ^ and $ against \n: not \r, not \r\n, not the U+2028 line separator, and not any other form.)

24. ONIG_SYN_OP_POSIX_BRACKET (enable POSIX `[:xxxx:]`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, GnuRegex, Grep, PosixExtended, PosixBasic

Enables support for the POSIX [:xxxx:] character classes, like [:alpha:] and [:digit:]. The supported POSIX character classes are alnum, alpha, blank, cntrl, digit, graph, lower, print, punct, space, upper, xdigit, ascii, word.

25. ONIG_SYN_OP_QMARK_NON_GREEDY (enable `r??`, `r*?`, `r+?`, and `r{n,m}?`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java

Enables support for lazy (non-greedy) quantifiers: That is, if you append a ? after another quantifier such as ?, *, +, or {n,m}, Oniguruma will try to match as little as possible instead of as much as possible.

26. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_CONTROL_CHARS (enable `\n`, `\r`, `\t`, etc.)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, Emacs, PosixExtended, PosixBasic

Enables support for C-style control-code escapes, like \n and \r. Specifically, this recognizes \a (7), \b (8), \t (9), \n (10), \f (12), \r (13), and \e (27). If ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_V_VTAB is enabled (see below), this also enables support for recognizing \v as code point 11.

27. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_C_CONTROL (enable `\cx` control codes)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java

Enables support for named control-code escapes, like \cm or \cM for code-point 13. In this shorthand form, control codes may be specified by \c (for "Control") followed by an alphabetic letter, a-z or A-Z, indicating which code point to represent (1 through 26). So \cA is code point 1, and \cZ is code point 26.

28. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_OCTAL3 (enable `\OOO` octal codes)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java

Enables support for octal-style escapes of up to three digits, like \1 for code point 1, and \177 for code point 127. Octal values greater than 255 will result in an error message.

29. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_X_HEX2 (enable `\xHH` hex codes)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java

Enables support for hexadecimal-style escapes of up to two digits, like \x1 for code point 1, and \x7F for code point 127.

30. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_X_BRACE_HEX8 (enable `\x{7HHHHHHH}` hex codes)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl

Enables support for brace-wrapped hexadecimal-style escapes of up to eight digits, like \x{1} for code point 1, and \x{FFFE} for code point 65534.

31. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_O_BRACE_OCTAL (enable `\o{1OOOOOOOOOO}` octal codes)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl

Enables support for brace-wrapped octal-style escapes of up to eleven digits, like \o{1} for code point 1, and \o{177776} for code point 65534.

(New feature as of Oniguruma 6.3.)

Group Two Flags (op2)

This group contains support for lesser-known regex syntax constructs.

0. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_Q_QUOTE (enable `\Q...\E`)

Set in: Perl_NG, Perl, Java

Enables support for "quoted" parts of a pattern: Between \Q and \E, all syntax parsing is turned off, so that metacharacters like * and + will no longer be treated as metacharacters, and instead will be matched as literal * and +, as if they had been escaped with \* and \+.

1. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_GROUP_EFFECT (enable `(?...)`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, Emacs

Enables support for the fairly-common (?...) grouping operator, which controls precedence but which does not capture its contents.

2. ONIG_SYN_OP2_OPTION_PERL (enable options `(?imsx)` and `(?-imsx)`)

Set in: Python, Perl_NG, Perl, Java

Enables support of regex options. (i,m,s,x) The supported toggle-able options for this flag are:

i - Case-insensitivity
m - Multi-line mode (^ and $ match at \n as well as start/end of buffer)
s - Single-line mode (. can match \n)
x - Extended pattern (free-formatting: whitespace will ignored)

3. ONIG_SYN_OP2_OPTION_RUBY (enable options `(?imx)` and `(?-imx)`)

Set in: Ruby

Enables support of regex options. (i,m,x) The supported toggle-able options for this flag are:

i - Case-insensitivity
m - Multi-line mode (. can match \n)
x - Extended pattern (free-formatting: whitespace will ignored)

4. ONIG_SYN_OP2_PLUS_POSSESSIVE_REPEAT (enable `r?+`, `r*+`, and `r++`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java

Enables support for the possessive quantifiers ?+, *+, and ++, which work similarly to ? and * and +, respectively, but which do not backtrack after matching: Like the normal greedy quantifiers, they match as much as possible, but they do not attempt to match less than their maximum possible extent if subsequent parts of the pattern fail to match.

5. ONIG_SYN_OP2_PLUS_POSSESSIVE_INTERVAL (enable `r{n,m}+`)

Set in: Perl_NG, Perl, Java

Enables support for the possessive quantifier {n,m}+, which works similarly to {n,m}, but which does not backtrack after matching: Like the normal greedy quantifier, it matches as much as possible, but it do not attempt to match less than its maximum possible extent if subsequent parts of the pattern fail to match.

6. ONIG_SYN_OP2_CCLASS_SET_OP (enable `&&` within `[...]`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby, Java

Enables support for character-class intersection. For example, with this feature enabled, you can write [a-z&&[^aeiou]] to produce a character class of only consonants, or [\0-\37&&[^\n\r]] to produce a character class of all control codes except newlines.

7. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_LT_NAMED_GROUP (enable named captures `(?<name>...)`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby, Perl_NG

Enables support for naming capture groups, so that instead of having to refer to captures by position (like \3 or $3), you can refer to them by names (like server and path). This supports the Perl/Ruby naming syntaxes (?<name>...) and (?'name'...), but not the Python (?P<name>...) syntax.

8. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_K_NAMED_BACKREF (enable named backreferences `\k<name>`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby, Perl_NG

Enables support for substituted backreferences by name, not just by position. This supports using \k'name' in addition to supporting \k<name>. This also supports an Oniguruma-specific extension that lets you specify the distance of the match, if the capture matched multiple times, by writing \k<name+n> or \k<name-n>.

9. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_G_SUBEXP_CALL (enable backreferences `\g<name>` and `\g<n>`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby, Perl_NG

Enables support for substituted backreferences by both name and position using the same syntax. This supports using \g'name' and \g'1' in addition to supporting \g<name> and \g<1>.

10. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ATMARK_CAPTURE_HISTORY (enable `(?@...)` and `(?@<name>...)`)

Set in: none

Enables support for capture history, which can answer via the onig_*capture*() functions exactly which captures were matched, how many times, and where in the input they were matched, by placing ?@ in front of the capture. Per Oniguruma's regex syntax documentation (appendix A-5):

/(?@a)*/.match("aaa") ==> [<0-1>, <1-2>, <2-3>]

This can require substantial memory, is primarily useful for debugging, and is not enabled by default in any syntax.

11. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_C_BAR_CONTROL (enable `\C-x`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby

Enables support for Ruby legacy control-code escapes, like \C-m or \C-M for code-point 13. In this shorthand form, control codes may be specified by \C- (for "Control") followed by a single character (or equivalent), indicating which code point to represent, based on that character's lowest five bits. So, like \c, you can represent code-point 10 with \C-j, but you can also represent it with \C-* as well.

See also ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_C_CONTROL, which enables the more-common \cx syntax.

12. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_M_BAR_META (enable `\M-x`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby

Enables support for Ruby legacy meta-code escapes. When you write \M-x, Oniguruma will match an x whose 8th bit is set (i.e., the character code of x will be or'ed with 0x80). So, for example, you can match \x81 using \x81, or you can write \M-\1. This is mostly useful when working with legacy 8-bit character encodings.

13. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_V_VTAB (enable `\v` as vertical tab)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Java

Enables support for a C-style \v escape code, meaning "vertical tab." If enabled, \v will be equivalent to ASCII code point 11.

14. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_U_HEX4 (enable `\uHHHH` for Unicode)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Java

Enables support for a Java-style \uHHHH escape code for representing Unicode code-points by number, using up to four hexadecimal digits (up to \uFFFF). So, for example, \u221E will match an infinity symbol, ∞.

For code points larger than four digits, like the emoji 🚡 (aerial tramway, or code point U+1F6A1), you must either represent the character directly using an encoding like UTF-8, or you must enable support for ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_X_BRACE_HEX8 or ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_O_BRACE_OCTAL, which support more than four digits.

(New feature as of Oniguruma 6.7.)

15. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_GNU_BUF_ANCHOR (enable \` and `\'` anchors)

Set in: Emacs

This flag makes the \` and \' escapes function identically to \A and \z, respectively (when ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_AZ_BUF_ANCHOR is enabled).

These anchor forms are very obscure, and rarely supported by other regex libraries.

16. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_P_BRACE_CHAR_PROPERTY (enable `\p{...}` and `\P{...}`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java

Enables support for an alternate syntax for POSIX character classes; instead of writing [:alpha:] when this is enabled, you can instead write \p{alpha}.

See also ONIG_SYN_OP_POSIX_BRACKET for the classic POSIX form.

17. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_P_BRACE_CIRCUMFLEX_NOT (enable `\p{^...}` and `\P{^...}`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl

Enables support for an alternate syntax for POSIX character classes; instead of writing [:^alpha:] when this is enabled, you can instead write \p{^alpha}.

See also ONIG_SYN_OP_POSIX_BRACKET for the classic POSIX form.

18. ONIG_SYN_OP2_CHAR_PROPERTY_PREFIX_IS

(not presently used)

19. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_H_XDIGIT (enable `\h` and `\H`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby

Enables support for the Ruby-specific shorthand \h and \H metacharacters. Somewhat like \d matches decimal digits, \h matches hexadecimal digits — that is, characters in [0-9a-fA-F].

\H matches the opposite of whatever \h matches.

20. ONIG_SYN_OP2_INEFFECTIVE_ESCAPE (disable `\`)

Set in: ASIS

If set, this disables all escape codes, shorthands, and metacharacters that start with \ (or whatever the configured escape character is), allowing \ to be treated as a literal \.

You usually do not want this flag to be enabled.

21. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_LPAREN_IF_ELSE (enable `(?(...)then|else)`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl

Enables support for conditional inclusion of subsequent regex patterns based on whether a prior named or numbered capture matched, or based on whether a pattern will match. This supports many different forms, including:

(?(<foo>)then|else) - condition based on a capture by name.
(?('foo')then|else) - condition based on a capture by name.
(?(3)then|else) - condition based on a capture by number.
(?(+3)then|else) - forward conditional to a future match, by relative position.
(?(-3)then|else) - backward conditional to a prior match, by relative position.
(?(foo)then|else) - this matches a pattern foo. (foo is any sub-expression)

(New feature as of Oniguruma 6.5.)

22. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_K_KEEP (enable `\K`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl

Enables support for \K, which excludes all content before it from the overall regex match (i.e., capture #0). So, for example, pattern foo\Kbar would match foobar, but capture #0 would only include bar.

(New feature as of Oniguruma 6.5.)

23. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_R_GENERAL_NEWLINE (enable `\R`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl

Enables support for \R, the "general newline" shorthand, which matches (\r\n|[\n\v\f\r\u0085\u2028\u2029]) (obviously, the Unicode values are cannot be matched in ASCII encodings).

(New feature as of Oniguruma 6.5.)

24. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_N_O_SUPER_DOT (enable `\N` and `\O`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Perl_NG, Perl

Enables support for \N and \O. \N is "not a line break," which is much like the standard . metacharacter, except that while . can be affected by the single-line setting, \N always matches exactly one character that is not one of the various line-break characters (like \n and \r).

\O matches exactly one character, regardless of whether single-line or multi-line mode are enabled or disabled.

(New feature as of Oniguruma 6.5.)

25. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_TILDE_ABSENT_GROUP (enable `(?~...)`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl

Enables support for the (?~r) "absent operator" syntax, which matches as much as possible as long as the result doesn't match pattern r. This is not the same as negative lookahead or negative lookbehind.

Among the most useful examples of this is \/\*(?~\*\/)\*\/, which matches C-style comments by simply saying "starts with /*, ends with */, and doesn't contain a */ in between."

A full explanation of this feature is complicated, but it is useful, and an excellent article about it is available on Medium.

(New feature as of Oniguruma 6.5.)

26. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_X_Y_TEXT_SEGMENT (enable `\X` and `\Y` and `\y`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl

\X is another variation on ., designed to support Unicode, in that it matches a full grapheme cluster. In Unicode, à can be encoded as one code point, U+00E0, or as two, U+0061 U+0300. If those are further escaped using UTF-8, the former becomes two bytes, and the latter becomes three. Unfortunately, . would naively match only one or two bytes, depending on the encoding, and would likely incorrectly match anything from just a to a broken half of a code point. \X is designed to fix this: It matches the full à, no matter how à is encoded or decomposed.

\y matches a cluster boundary, i.e., a zero-width position between graphemes, somewhat like \b matches boundaries between words. \Y matches the opposite of \y, that is, a zero-width position between code points in the middle of a grapheme.

(New feature as of Oniguruma 6.6.)

27. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_PERL_SUBEXP_CALL (enable `(?R)` and `(?&name)`)

Set in: Perl_NG

Enables support for substituted backreferences by both name and position using Perl-5-specific syntax. This supports using (?R3) and (?&name) to reference previous (and future) matches, similar to the more-common \g<3> and \g<name> backreferences.

(New feature as of Oniguruma 6.7.)

28. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_BRACE_CALLOUT_CONTENTS (enable `(?{...})`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Perl_NG, Perl

Enables support for Perl-style "callouts" — pattern substitutions that result from invoking a callback method. When (?{foo}) is reached in a pattern, the callback function set in onig_set_progress_callout() will be invoked, and be able to perform custom computation during the pattern match (and during backtracking).

Full documentation for this advanced feature can be found in the Oniguruma docs/CALLOUT.md file, with an example in samples/callout.c.

(New feature as of Oniguruma 6.8.)

29. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ASTERISK_CALLOUT_NAME (enable `(*name)`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Perl_NG, Perl

Enables support for Perl-style "callouts" — pattern substitutions that result from invoking a callback method. When (*foo) is reached in a pattern, the callback function set in onig_set_callout_of_name() will be invoked, passing the given name foo to it, and it can perform custom computation during the pattern match (and during backtracking).

Full documentation for this advanced feature can be found in the Oniguruma docs/CALLOUT.md file, with an example in samples/callout.c.

(New feature as of Oniguruma 6.8.)

30. ONIG_SYN_OP2_OPTION_ONIGURUMA (enable options `(?imxWSDPy)` and `(?-imxWDSP)`)

Set in: Oniguruma

Enables support of regex options. (i,m,x,W,S,D,P,y)

(New feature as of Oniguruma 6.9.2)

i - Case-insensitivity
m - Multi-line mode (. can match \n)
x - Extended pattern (free-formatting: whitespace will ignored)
W - ASCII only word.
D - ASCII only digit.
S - ASCII only space.
P - ASCII only POSIX properties. (includes W,D,S)

31. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_CAPITAL_P_NAME (enable `(?P<name>...)` and `(?P=name)`)

Set in: Python

(New feature as of Oniguruma 6.9.7)

Syntax Flags (syn)

This group contains rules to handle corner cases and constructs that are errors in some syntaxes but not in others.

0. ONIG_SYN_CONTEXT_INDEP_REPEAT_OPS (independent `?`, `*`, `+`, `{n,m}`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex, PosixExtended

This flag specifies how to handle operators like ? and * when they aren't directly attached to an operand, as in ^* or (*): Are they an error, are they discarded, or are they taken as literals? If this flag is clear, they are taken as literals; otherwise, the ONIG_SYN_CONTEXT_INVALID_REPEAT_OPS flag determines if they are errors or if they are discarded.

1. ONIG_SYN_CONTEXT_INVALID_REPEAT_OPS (error or ignore independent operators)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex, PosixExtended

If ONIG_SYN_CONTEXT_INDEP_REPEAT_OPS is set, this flag controls what happens when independent operators appear in a pattern: If this flag is set, then independent operators produce an error message; if this flag is clear, then independent operators are silently discarded.

2. ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_UNMATCHED_CLOSE_SUBEXP (allow `...)...`)

Set in: PosixExtended

This flag, if set, causes a ) character without a preceding ( to be treated as a literal ), equivalent to \). If this flag is clear, then an unmatched ) character will produce an error message.

3. ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_INVALID_INTERVAL (allow `{???`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex

This flag, if set, causes an invalid range, like foo{bar} or foo{}, to be silently discarded, as if foo had been written instead. If clear, an invalid range will produce an error message.

4. ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_INTERVAL_LOW_ABBREV (allow `{,n}` to mean `{0,n}`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby

If this flag is set, then r{,n} will be treated as equivalent to writing {0,n}. If this flag is clear, then r{,n} will produce an error message.

Note that regardless of whether this flag is set or clear, if ONIG_SYN_OP_BRACE_INTERVAL is enabled, then r{n,} will always be legal: This flag only controls the behavior of the opposite form, r{,n}.

5. ONIG_SYN_STRICT_CHECK_BACKREF (error on invalid backrefs)

Set in: none

If this flag is set, an invalid backref, like \1 in a pattern with no captures, will produce an error. If this flag is clear, then an invalid backref will be equivalent to the empty string.

No built-in syntax has this flag enabled.

6. ONIG_SYN_DIFFERENT_LEN_ALT_LOOK_BEHIND (allow `(?<=a|bc)`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby, Java

If this flag is set, lookbehind patterns with alternate options may have differing lengths among those options. If this flag is clear, lookbehind patterns with options must have each option have identical length to the other options.

Oniguruma can handle either form, but not all regex engines can, so for compatibility, Oniguruma allows you to cause regexes for other regex engines to fail if they might depend on this rule.

7. ONIG_SYN_CAPTURE_ONLY_NAMED_GROUP (prefer `\k<name>` over `\3`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby, Perl_NG

If this flag is set on the syntax and ONIG_OPTION_CAPTURE_GROUP is set when calling Oniguruma, then if a name is used on any capture, all captures must also use names: A single use of a named capture prohibits the use of numbered captures.

8. ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_MULTIPLEX_DEFINITION_NAME (allow `(?<x>)...(?<x>)`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby, Perl_NG

If this flag is set, multiple capture groups may use the same name. If this flag is clear, then reuse of a name will produce an error message.

9. ONIG_SYN_FIXED_INTERVAL_IS_GREEDY_ONLY (`a{n}?` is equivalent to `(?:a{n})?`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby

If this flag is set, then intervals of a fixed size will ignore a lazy (non-greedy) ? quantifier and treat it as an optional match (an ordinary r?), since "match as little as possible" is meaningless for a fixed-size interval. If this flag is clear, then r{n}? will mean the same as r{n}, and the useless ? will be discarded.

10. ONIG_SYN_ISOLATED_OPTION_CONTINUE_BRANCH (`..(?i)..`)

Set in: Python, Perl_NG, Perl, Java

If this flag is set, then an isolated option doesn't break the branch and affects until the end of the group (or end of the pattern). If this flag is not set, then an isolated option is interpreted as the starting point of a new branch. /a(?i)b|c/ ==> /a(?i:b|c)/

11. ONIG_SYN_VARIABLE_LEN_LOOK_BEHIND (`(?<=...a+...)`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Java

If this flag is set, then a variable length expressions are allowed in look-behind.

12. ONIG_SYN_PYTHON (enable `\UHHHHHHHH` for Unicode)

Set in: Python

(New feature as of Oniguruma 6.9.7)

13. ONIG_SYN_WHOLE_OPTIONS (enable options `(?CLI)`)

Set in: Oniguruma

(New feature as of Oniguruma 6.9.8)

14. ONIG_SYN_BRE_ANCHOR_AT_EDGE_OF_SUBEXP (enable `$^abc$$`)

Set in: Grep, PosixBasic

(New feature as of Oniguruma 6.9.9)

20. ONIG_SYN_NOT_NEWLINE_IN_NEGATIVE_CC (add `\n` to `[^...]`)

Set in: Grep

If this flag is set, all newline characters (like \n) will be excluded from a negative character class automatically, as if the pattern had been written as [^...\n]. If this flag is clear, negative character classes do not automatically exclude newlines, and only exclude those characters and ranges written in them.

21. ONIG_SYN_BACKSLASH_ESCAPE_IN_CC (allow `[...\w...]`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex

If this flag is set, shorthands like \w are allowed to describe characters in character classes. If this flag is clear, shorthands like \w are treated as a redundantly-escaped literal w.

22. ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_EMPTY_RANGE_IN_CC (silently discard `[z-a]`)

Set in: Grep, Emacs

If this flag is set, then character ranges like [z-a] that are broken or contain no characters will be silently ignored. If this flag is clear, then broken or empty character ranges will produce an error message.

23. ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_DOUBLE_RANGE_OP_IN_CC (treat `[0-9-a]` as `[0-9\-a]`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex, PosixExtended

If this flag is set, then a trailing - after a character range will be taken as a literal -, as if it had been escaped as \-. If this flag is clear, then a trailing - after a character range will produce an error message.

24. ONIG_SYN_WARN_CC_OP_NOT_ESCAPED (warn on `[[...]` and `[-x]`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby

If this flag is set, Oniguruma will be stricter about warning for bad forms in character classes: [[...] will produce a warning, but [\[...] will not; [-x] will produce a warning, but [\-x] will not; [x&&-y] will produce a warning, while [x&&\-y] will not; and so on. If this flag is clear, all of these warnings will be silently discarded.

25. ONIG_SYN_WARN_REDUNDANT_NESTED_REPEAT (warn on `(?:a*)+`)

Set in: Oniguruma, Ruby

If this flag is set, Oniguruma will warn about nested repeat operators those have no meaning, like (?:a*)+. If this flag is clear, Oniguruma will allow the nested repeat operators without warning about them.

26. ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_INVALID_CODE_END_OF_RANGE_IN_CC (allow `[a-\x{7fffffff}]`)

Set in: Oniguruma

If this flag is set, then invalid code points at the end of range in character class are allowed.

27. ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_CHAR_TYPE_FOLLOWED_BY_MINUS_IN_CC (allow `[\w-%]` to mean `[\w\-%]`)

Set in: Perl_NG, Perl, Java

(New feature as of Oniguruma 6.9.10)

31. ONIG_SYN_CONTEXT_INDEP_ANCHORS

Set in: Oniguruma, Python, Ruby, Perl_NG, Perl, Java, GnuRegex, PosixExtended

Not currently used, and does nothing. (But still set in several syntaxes for some reason.)

Usage tables

These tables show which of the built-in syntaxes use which flags and options, for easy comparison between them.

Group One Flags (op)

ID	Option	Onig	Pythn	Ruby	PeNG	Perl	Java	Gnu	Grep	Emacs	PosEx	PosB	ASIS
0	`ONIG_SYN_OP_VARIABLE_META_CHARACTERS`	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1	`ONIG_SYN_OP_DOT_ANYCHAR`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-
2	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ASTERISK_ZERO_INF`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-
3	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_ASTERISK_ZERO_INF`	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	`ONIG_SYN_OP_PLUS_ONE_INF`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	-	-
5	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_PLUS_ONE_INF`	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Yes	-	-	-	-
6	`ONIG_SYN_OP_QMARK_ZERO_ONE`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	-	-
7	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_QMARK_ZERO_ONE`	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Yes	-	-	-	-
8	`ONIG_SYN_OP_BRACE_INTERVAL`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	Yes	-	-
9	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_BRACE_INTERVAL`	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	-
10	`ONIG_SYN_OP_VBAR_ALT`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	Yes	-	-
11	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_VBAR_ALT`	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Yes	Yes	-	-	-
12	`ONIG_SYN_OP_LPAREN_SUBEXP`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	Yes	-	-
13	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_LPAREN_SUBEXP`	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	-
14	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_AZ_BUF_ANCHOR`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-
15	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_CAPITAL_G_BEGIN_ANCHOR`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-
16	`ONIG_SYN_OP_DECIMAL_BACKREF`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-
17	`ONIG_SYN_OP_BRACKET_CC`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-
18	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_W_WORD`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-
19	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_LTGT_WORD_BEGIN_END`	-	-	-	-	-	-	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-
20	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_B_WORD_BOUND`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-
21	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_S_WHITE_SPACE`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-
22	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_D_DIGIT`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-
23	`ONIG_SYN_OP_LINE_ANCHOR`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-
24	`ONIG_SYN_OP_POSIX_BRACKET`	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	-
25	`ONIG_SYN_OP_QMARK_NON_GREEDY`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-
26	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_CONTROL_CHARS`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-
27	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_C_CONTROL`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-
28	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_OCTAL3`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-
29	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_X_HEX2`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-
30	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_X_BRACE_HEX8`	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
31	`ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_O_BRACE_OCTAL`	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Group Two Flags (op2)

ID	Option	Onig	Pythn	Ruby	PeNG	Perl	Java	Gnu	Grep	Emacs	PosEx	PosB	ASIS
0	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_Q_QUOTE`	-	-	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-
1	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_GROUP_EFFECT`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	Yes	-	-	-
2	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_OPTION_PERL`	-	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-
3	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_OPTION_RUBY`	-	-	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_PLUS_POSSESSIVE_REPEAT`	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_PLUS_POSSESSIVE_INTERVAL`	-	-	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_CCLASS_SET_OP`	Yes	-	Yes	-	-	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_LT_NAMED_GROUP`	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
8	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_K_NAMED_BACKREF`	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_G_SUBEXP_CALL`	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_ATMARK_CAPTURE_HISTORY`	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
11	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_C_BAR_CONTROL`	Yes	-	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_M_BAR_META`	Yes	-	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
13	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_V_VTAB`	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-
14	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_U_HEX4`	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-
15	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_GNU_BUF_ANCHOR`	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Yes	-	-	-
16	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_P_BRACE_CHAR_PROPERTY`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-
17	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_P_BRACE_CIRCUMFLEX_NOT`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
19	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_H_XDIGIT`	Yes	-	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
20	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_INEFFECTIVE_ESCAPE`	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Yes
21	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_LPAREN_IF_ELSE`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
22	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_K_KEEP`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
23	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_R_GENERAL_NEWLINE`	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
24	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_N_O_SUPER_DOT`	Yes	-	-	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
25	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_TILDE_ABSENT_GROUP`	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
26	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_X_Y_TEXT_SEGMENT`	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
27	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_PERL_SUBEXP_CALL`	-	-	-	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
28	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_BRACE_CALLOUT_CONTENTS`	Yes	-	-	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
29	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_ASTERISK_CALLOUT_NAME`	Yes	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
30	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_OPTION_ONIGURUMA`	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
31	`ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_CAPITAL_P_NAME`	-	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Syntax Flags (syn)

ID	Option	Onig	Pythn	Ruby	PeNG	Perl	Java	Gnu	Grep	Emacs	PosEx	PosB	ASIS
0	`ONIG_SYN_CONTEXT_INDEP_REPEAT_OPS`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	Yes	-	-
1	`ONIG_SYN_CONTEXT_INVALID_REPEAT_OPS`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	Yes	-	-
2	`ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_UNMATCHED_CLOSE_SUBEXP`	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Yes	-	-
3	`ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_INVALID_INTERVAL`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-
4	`ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_INTERVAL_LOW_ABBREV`	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5	`ONIG_SYN_STRICT_CHECK_BACKREF`	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	`ONIG_SYN_DIFFERENT_LEN_ALT_LOOK_BEHIND`	Yes	-	Yes	-	-	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	`ONIG_SYN_CAPTURE_ONLY_NAMED_GROUP`	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
8	`ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_MULTIPLEX_DEFINITION_NAME`	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9	`ONIG_SYN_FIXED_INTERVAL_IS_GREEDY_ONLY`	Yes	-	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10	`ONIG_SYN_ISOLATED_OPTION_CONTINUE_BRANCH`	-	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-
11	`ONIG_SYN_VARIABLE_LEN_LOOK_BEHIND`	Yes	-	-	-	-	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	`ONIG_SYN_PYTHON`	-	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
13	`ONIG_SYN_WHOLE_OPTIONS`	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
14	`ONIG_SYN_BRE_ANCHOR_AT_EDGE_OF_SUBEXP`	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Yes	-	-	Yes	-
20	`ONIG_SYN_NOT_NEWLINE_IN_NEGATIVE_CC`	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Yes	-	-	-	-
21	`ONIG_SYN_BACKSLASH_ESCAPE_IN_CC`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-
22	`ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_EMPTY_RANGE_IN_CC`	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Yes	Yes	-	-	-
23	`ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_DOUBLE_RANGE_OP_IN_CC`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	Yes	-	-
24	`ONIG_SYN_WARN_CC_OP_NOT_ESCAPED`	Yes	-	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
25	`ONIG_SYN_WARN_REDUNDANT_NESTED_REPEAT`	Yes	-	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
26	`ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_INVALID_CODE_END_OF_RANGE_IN_CC`	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
27	`ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_CHAR_TYPE_FOLLOWED_BY_MINUS_IN_CC`	-	-	-	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	-	-	-	-
31	`ONIG_SYN_CONTEXT_INDEP_ANCHORS`	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-	-	Yes	-	-

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SYNTAX.md

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SYNTAX.md

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Oniguruma syntax (operator) configuration

Overview

Group One Flags (op)

0. ONIG_SYN_OP_VARIABLE_META_CHARACTERS

1. ONIG_SYN_OP_DOT_ANYCHAR (enable .)

2. ONIG_SYN_OP_ASTERISK_ZERO_INF (enable r*)

3. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_ASTERISK_ZERO_INF (enable r\*)

4. ONIG_SYN_OP_PLUS_ONE_INF (enable r+)

5. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_PLUS_ONE_INF (enable r\+)

6. ONIG_SYN_OP_QMARK_ZERO_ONE (enable r?)

7. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_QMARK_ZERO_ONE (enable r\?)

8. ONIG_SYN_OP_BRACE_INTERVAL (enable r{l,u})

9. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_BRACE_INTERVAL (enable \{ and \})

10. ONIG_SYN_OP_VBAR_ALT (enable r|s)

11. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_VBAR_ALT (enable \|)

12. ONIG_SYN_OP_LPAREN_SUBEXP (enable (r))

13. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_LPAREN_SUBEXP (enable \( and \))

14. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_AZ_BUF_ANCHOR (enable \A and \Z and \z)

15. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_CAPITAL_G_BEGIN_ANCHOR (enable \G)

16. ONIG_SYN_OP_DECIMAL_BACKREF (enable \num)

17. ONIG_SYN_OP_BRACKET_CC (enable [...])

18. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_W_WORD (enable \w and \W)

19. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_LTGT_WORD_BEGIN_END (enable \< and \>)

20. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_B_WORD_BOUND (enable \b and \B)

21. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_S_WHITE_SPACE (enable \s and \S)

22. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_D_DIGIT (enable \d and \D)

23. ONIG_SYN_OP_LINE_ANCHOR (enable ^r and r$)

24. ONIG_SYN_OP_POSIX_BRACKET (enable POSIX [:xxxx:])

25. ONIG_SYN_OP_QMARK_NON_GREEDY (enable r??, r*?, r+?, and r{n,m}?)

26. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_CONTROL_CHARS (enable \n, \r, \t, etc.)

27. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_C_CONTROL (enable \cx control codes)

28. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_OCTAL3 (enable \OOO octal codes)

29. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_X_HEX2 (enable \xHH hex codes)

30. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_X_BRACE_HEX8 (enable \x{7HHHHHHH} hex codes)

31. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_O_BRACE_OCTAL (enable \o{1OOOOOOOOOO} octal codes)

Group Two Flags (op2)

0. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_Q_QUOTE (enable \Q...\E)

1. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_GROUP_EFFECT (enable (?...))

2. ONIG_SYN_OP2_OPTION_PERL (enable options (?imsx) and (?-imsx))

3. ONIG_SYN_OP2_OPTION_RUBY (enable options (?imx) and (?-imx))

4. ONIG_SYN_OP2_PLUS_POSSESSIVE_REPEAT (enable r?+, r*+, and r++)

5. ONIG_SYN_OP2_PLUS_POSSESSIVE_INTERVAL (enable r{n,m}+)

6. ONIG_SYN_OP2_CCLASS_SET_OP (enable && within [...])

7. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_LT_NAMED_GROUP (enable named captures (?<name>...))

8. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_K_NAMED_BACKREF (enable named backreferences \k<name>)

9. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_G_SUBEXP_CALL (enable backreferences \g<name> and \g<n>)

10. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ATMARK_CAPTURE_HISTORY (enable (?@...) and (?@<name>...))

11. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_C_BAR_CONTROL (enable \C-x)

12. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_M_BAR_META (enable \M-x)

13. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_V_VTAB (enable \v as vertical tab)

14. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_U_HEX4 (enable \uHHHH for Unicode)

15. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_GNU_BUF_ANCHOR (enable \` and \' anchors)

16. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_P_BRACE_CHAR_PROPERTY (enable \p{...} and \P{...})

17. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_P_BRACE_CIRCUMFLEX_NOT (enable \p{^...} and \P{^...})

18. ONIG_SYN_OP2_CHAR_PROPERTY_PREFIX_IS

19. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_H_XDIGIT (enable \h and \H)

20. ONIG_SYN_OP2_INEFFECTIVE_ESCAPE (disable \)

21. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_LPAREN_IF_ELSE (enable (?(...)then|else))

22. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_K_KEEP (enable \K)

23. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_R_GENERAL_NEWLINE (enable \R)

24. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_N_O_SUPER_DOT (enable \N and \O)

25. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_TILDE_ABSENT_GROUP (enable (?~...))

26. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_X_Y_TEXT_SEGMENT (enable \X and \Y and \y)

27. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_PERL_SUBEXP_CALL (enable (?R) and (?&name))

28. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_BRACE_CALLOUT_CONTENTS (enable (?{...}))

29. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ASTERISK_CALLOUT_NAME (enable (*name))

30. ONIG_SYN_OP2_OPTION_ONIGURUMA (enable options (?imxWSDPy) and (?-imxWDSP))

31. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_CAPITAL_P_NAME (enable (?P<name>...) and (?P=name))

Syntax Flags (syn)

0. ONIG_SYN_CONTEXT_INDEP_REPEAT_OPS (independent ?, *, +, {n,m})

1. ONIG_SYN_CONTEXT_INVALID_REPEAT_OPS (error or ignore independent operators)

2. ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_UNMATCHED_CLOSE_SUBEXP (allow ...)...)

3. ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_INVALID_INTERVAL (allow {???)

4. ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_INTERVAL_LOW_ABBREV (allow {,n} to mean {0,n})

1. ONIG_SYN_OP_DOT_ANYCHAR (enable `.`)

2. ONIG_SYN_OP_ASTERISK_ZERO_INF (enable `r*`)

3. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_ASTERISK_ZERO_INF (enable `r\*`)

4. ONIG_SYN_OP_PLUS_ONE_INF (enable `r+`)

5. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_PLUS_ONE_INF (enable `r\+`)

6. ONIG_SYN_OP_QMARK_ZERO_ONE (enable `r?`)

7. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_QMARK_ZERO_ONE (enable `r\?`)

8. ONIG_SYN_OP_BRACE_INTERVAL (enable `r{l,u}`)

9. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_BRACE_INTERVAL (enable `\{` and `\}`)

10. ONIG_SYN_OP_VBAR_ALT (enable `r|s`)

11. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_VBAR_ALT (enable `\|`)

12. ONIG_SYN_OP_LPAREN_SUBEXP (enable `(r)`)

13. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_LPAREN_SUBEXP (enable `\(` and `\)`)

14. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_AZ_BUF_ANCHOR (enable `\A` and `\Z` and `\z`)

15. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_CAPITAL_G_BEGIN_ANCHOR (enable `\G`)

16. ONIG_SYN_OP_DECIMAL_BACKREF (enable `\num`)

17. ONIG_SYN_OP_BRACKET_CC (enable `[...]`)

18. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_W_WORD (enable `\w` and `\W`)

19. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_LTGT_WORD_BEGIN_END (enable `\<` and `\>`)

20. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_B_WORD_BOUND (enable `\b` and `\B`)

21. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_S_WHITE_SPACE (enable `\s` and `\S`)

22. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_D_DIGIT (enable `\d` and `\D`)

23. ONIG_SYN_OP_LINE_ANCHOR (enable `^r` and `r$`)

24. ONIG_SYN_OP_POSIX_BRACKET (enable POSIX `[:xxxx:]`)

25. ONIG_SYN_OP_QMARK_NON_GREEDY (enable `r??`, `r*?`, `r+?`, and `r{n,m}?`)

26. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_CONTROL_CHARS (enable `\n`, `\r`, `\t`, etc.)

27. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_C_CONTROL (enable `\cx` control codes)

28. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_OCTAL3 (enable `\OOO` octal codes)

29. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_X_HEX2 (enable `\xHH` hex codes)

30. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_X_BRACE_HEX8 (enable `\x{7HHHHHHH}` hex codes)

31. ONIG_SYN_OP_ESC_O_BRACE_OCTAL (enable `\o{1OOOOOOOOOO}` octal codes)

0. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_Q_QUOTE (enable `\Q...\E`)

1. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_GROUP_EFFECT (enable `(?...)`)

2. ONIG_SYN_OP2_OPTION_PERL (enable options `(?imsx)` and `(?-imsx)`)

3. ONIG_SYN_OP2_OPTION_RUBY (enable options `(?imx)` and `(?-imx)`)

4. ONIG_SYN_OP2_PLUS_POSSESSIVE_REPEAT (enable `r?+`, `r*+`, and `r++`)

5. ONIG_SYN_OP2_PLUS_POSSESSIVE_INTERVAL (enable `r{n,m}+`)

6. ONIG_SYN_OP2_CCLASS_SET_OP (enable `&&` within `[...]`)

7. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_LT_NAMED_GROUP (enable named captures `(?<name>...)`)

8. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_K_NAMED_BACKREF (enable named backreferences `\k<name>`)

9. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_G_SUBEXP_CALL (enable backreferences `\g<name>` and `\g<n>`)

10. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ATMARK_CAPTURE_HISTORY (enable `(?@...)` and `(?@<name>...)`)

11. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_C_BAR_CONTROL (enable `\C-x`)

12. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_M_BAR_META (enable `\M-x`)

13. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_V_VTAB (enable `\v` as vertical tab)

14. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_U_HEX4 (enable `\uHHHH` for Unicode)

15. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_GNU_BUF_ANCHOR (enable \` and `\'` anchors)

16. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_P_BRACE_CHAR_PROPERTY (enable `\p{...}` and `\P{...}`)

17. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_P_BRACE_CIRCUMFLEX_NOT (enable `\p{^...}` and `\P{^...}`)

19. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_H_XDIGIT (enable `\h` and `\H`)

20. ONIG_SYN_OP2_INEFFECTIVE_ESCAPE (disable `\`)

21. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_LPAREN_IF_ELSE (enable `(?(...)then|else)`)

22. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_K_KEEP (enable `\K`)

23. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_R_GENERAL_NEWLINE (enable `\R`)

24. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_CAPITAL_N_O_SUPER_DOT (enable `\N` and `\O`)

25. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_TILDE_ABSENT_GROUP (enable `(?~...)`)

26. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ESC_X_Y_TEXT_SEGMENT (enable `\X` and `\Y` and `\y`)

27. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_PERL_SUBEXP_CALL (enable `(?R)` and `(?&name)`)

28. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_BRACE_CALLOUT_CONTENTS (enable `(?{...})`)

29. ONIG_SYN_OP2_ASTERISK_CALLOUT_NAME (enable `(*name)`)

30. ONIG_SYN_OP2_OPTION_ONIGURUMA (enable options `(?imxWSDPy)` and `(?-imxWDSP)`)

31. ONIG_SYN_OP2_QMARK_CAPITAL_P_NAME (enable `(?P<name>...)` and `(?P=name)`)

0. ONIG_SYN_CONTEXT_INDEP_REPEAT_OPS (independent `?`, `*`, `+`, `{n,m}`)

2. ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_UNMATCHED_CLOSE_SUBEXP (allow `...)...`)

3. ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_INVALID_INTERVAL (allow `{???`)

4. ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_INTERVAL_LOW_ABBREV (allow `{,n}` to mean `{0,n}`)

6. ONIG_SYN_DIFFERENT_LEN_ALT_LOOK_BEHIND (allow `(?<=a|bc)`)

7. ONIG_SYN_CAPTURE_ONLY_NAMED_GROUP (prefer `\k<name>` over `\3`)

8. ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_MULTIPLEX_DEFINITION_NAME (allow `(?<x>)...(?<x>)`)

9. ONIG_SYN_FIXED_INTERVAL_IS_GREEDY_ONLY (`a{n}?` is equivalent to `(?:a{n})?`)

10. ONIG_SYN_ISOLATED_OPTION_CONTINUE_BRANCH (`..(?i)..`)

11. ONIG_SYN_VARIABLE_LEN_LOOK_BEHIND (`(?<=...a+...)`)

12. ONIG_SYN_PYTHON (enable `\UHHHHHHHH` for Unicode)

13. ONIG_SYN_WHOLE_OPTIONS (enable options `(?CLI)`)

14. ONIG_SYN_BRE_ANCHOR_AT_EDGE_OF_SUBEXP (enable `\(^abc$\)`)

20. ONIG_SYN_NOT_NEWLINE_IN_NEGATIVE_CC (add `\n` to `[^...]`)

21. ONIG_SYN_BACKSLASH_ESCAPE_IN_CC (allow `[...\w...]`)

22. ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_EMPTY_RANGE_IN_CC (silently discard `[z-a]`)

23. ONIG_SYN_ALLOW_DOUBLE_RANGE_OP_IN_CC (treat `[0-9-a]` as `[0-9\-a]`)

24. ONIG_SYN_WARN_CC_OP_NOT_ESCAPED (warn on `[[...]` and `[-x]`)