PCREJIT(3)                OpenBSD Programmer's Manual               PCREJIT(3)



NAME
       PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions

PCRE JUST-IN-TIME COMPILER SUPPORT

       Just-in-time compiling is a heavyweight optimization that can greatly
       speed up pattern matching. However, it comes at the cost of extra
       processing before the match is performed. Therefore, it is of most
       benefit when the same pattern is going to be matched many times. This
       does not necessarily mean many calls of a matching function; if the
       pattern is not anchored, matching attempts may take place many times at
       various positions in the subject, even for a single call.  Therefore,
       if the subject string is very long, it may still pay to use JIT for
       one-off matches.

       JIT support applies only to the traditional Perl-compatible matching
       function.  It does not apply when the DFA matching function is being
       used. The code for this support was written by Zoltan Herczeg.

8-BIT, 16-BIT AND 32-BIT SUPPORT

       JIT support is available for all of the 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit PCRE
       libraries. To keep this documentation simple, only the 8-bit interface
       is described in what follows. If you are using the 16-bit library,
       substitute the 16-bit functions and 16-bit structures (for example,
       pcre16_jit_stack instead of pcre_jit_stack). If you are using the
       32-bit library, substitute the 32-bit functions and 32-bit structures
       (for example, pcre32_jit_stack instead of pcre_jit_stack).

AVAILABILITY OF JIT SUPPORT

       JIT support is an optional feature of PCRE. The "configure" option
       --enable-jit (or equivalent CMake option) must be set when PCRE is
       built if you want to use JIT. The support is limited to the following
       hardware platforms:

         ARM v5, v7, and Thumb2
         Intel x86 32-bit and 64-bit
         MIPS 32-bit
         Power PC 32-bit and 64-bit
         SPARC 32-bit (experimental)

       If --enable-jit is set on an unsupported platform, compilation fails.

       A program that is linked with PCRE 8.20 or later can tell if JIT
       support is available by calling pcre_config() with the PCRE_CONFIG_JIT
       option. The result is 1 when JIT is available, and 0 otherwise.
       However, a simple program does not need to check this in order to use
       JIT. The normal API is implemented in a way that falls back to the
       interpretive code if JIT is not available. For programs that need the
       best possible performance, there is also a "fast path" API that is JIT-
       specific.

       If your program may sometimes be linked with versions of PCRE that are
       older than 8.20, but you want to use JIT when it is available, you can
       test the values of PCRE_MAJOR and PCRE_MINOR, or the existence of a JIT
       macro such as PCRE_CONFIG_JIT, for compile-time control of your code.

SIMPLE USE OF JIT

       You have to do two things to make use of the JIT support in the
       simplest way:

         (1) Call pcre_study() with the PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE option for
             each compiled pattern, and pass the resulting pcre_extra block to
             pcre_exec().

         (2) Use pcre_free_study() to free the pcre_extra block when it is
             no longer needed, instead of just freeing it yourself. This
       ensures that
             any JIT data is also freed.

       For a program that may be linked with pre-8.20 versions of PCRE, you
       can insert

         #ifndef PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE
         #define PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE 0
         #endif

       so that no option is passed to pcre_study(), and then use something
       like this to free the study data:

         #ifdef PCRE_CONFIG_JIT
             pcre_free_study(study_ptr);
         #else
             pcre_free(study_ptr);
         #endif

       PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE requests the JIT compiler to generate code for
       complete matches. If you want to run partial matches using the
       PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD or PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT options of pcre_exec(), you
       should set one or both of the following options in addition to, or
       instead of, PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE when you call pcre_study():

         PCRE_STUDY_JIT_PARTIAL_HARD_COMPILE
         PCRE_STUDY_JIT_PARTIAL_SOFT_COMPILE

       The JIT compiler generates different optimized code for each of the
       three modes (normal, soft partial, hard partial). When pcre_exec() is
       called, the appropriate code is run if it is available. Otherwise, the
       pattern is matched using interpretive code.

       In some circumstances you may need to call additional functions. These
       are described in the section entitled "Controlling the JIT stack"
       below.

       If JIT support is not available, PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE etc. are
       ignored, and no JIT data is created. Otherwise, the compiled pattern is
       passed to the JIT compiler, which turns it into machine code that
       executes much faster than the normal interpretive code. When
       pcre_exec() is passed a pcre_extra block containing a pointer to JIT
       code of the appropriate mode (normal or hard/soft partial), it obeys
       that code instead of running the interpreter. The result is identical,
       but the compiled JIT code runs much faster.

       There are some pcre_exec() options that are not supported for JIT
       execution. There are also some pattern items that JIT cannot handle.
       Details are given below. In both cases, execution automatically falls
       back to the interpretive code. If you want to know whether JIT was
       actually used for a particular match, you should arrange for a JIT
       callback function to be set up as described in the section entitled
       "Controlling the JIT stack" below, even if you do not need to supply a
       non-default JIT stack. Such a callback function is called whenever JIT
       code is about to be obeyed. If the execution options are not right for
       JIT execution, the callback function is not obeyed.

       If the JIT compiler finds an unsupported item, no JIT data is
       generated. You can find out if JIT execution is available after
       studying a pattern by calling pcre_fullinfo() with the PCRE_INFO_JIT
       option. A result of 1 means that JIT compilation was successful. A
       result of 0 means that JIT support is not available, or the pattern was
       not studied with PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE etc., or the JIT compiler was
       not able to handle the pattern.

       Once a pattern has been studied, with or without JIT, it can be used as
       many times as you like for matching different subject strings.

UNSUPPORTED OPTIONS AND PATTERN ITEMS

       The only pcre_exec() options that are supported for JIT execution are
       PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK, PCRE_NO_UTF16_CHECK, PCRE_NO_UTF32_CHECK,
       PCRE_NOTBOL, PCRE_NOTEOL, PCRE_NOTEMPTY, PCRE_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART,
       PCRE_PARTIAL_HARD, and PCRE_PARTIAL_SOFT.

       The only unsupported pattern items are \C (match a single data unit)
       when running in a UTF mode, and a callout immediately before an
       assertion condition in a conditional group.

RETURN VALUES FROM JIT EXECUTION

       When a pattern is matched using JIT execution, the return values are
       the same as those given by the interpretive pcre_exec() code, with the
       addition of one new error code: PCRE_ERROR_JIT_STACKLIMIT. This means
       that the memory used for the JIT stack was insufficient. See
       "Controlling the JIT stack" below for a discussion of JIT stack usage.
       For compatibility with the interpretive pcre_exec() code, no more than
       two-thirds of the ovector argument is used for passing back captured
       substrings.

       The error code PCRE_ERROR_MATCHLIMIT is returned by the JIT code if
       searching a very large pattern tree goes on for too long, as it is in
       the same circumstance when JIT is not used, but the details of exactly
       what is counted are not the same. The PCRE_ERROR_RECURSIONLIMIT error
       code is never returned by JIT execution.

SAVING AND RESTORING COMPILED PATTERNS

       The code that is generated by the JIT compiler is architecture-
       specific, and is also position dependent. For those reasons it cannot
       be saved (in a file or database) and restored later like the bytecode
       and other data of a compiled pattern. Saving and restoring compiled
       patterns is not something many people do. More detail about this
       facility is given in the pcreprecompile documentation. It should be
       possible to run pcre_study() on a saved and restored pattern, and
       thereby recreate the JIT data, but because JIT compilation uses
       significant resources, it is probably not worth doing this; you might
       as well recompile the original pattern.

CONTROLLING THE JIT STACK

       When the compiled JIT code runs, it needs a block of memory to use as a
       stack.  By default, it uses 32K on the machine stack. However, some
       large or complicated patterns need more than this. The error
       PCRE_ERROR_JIT_STACKLIMIT is given when there is not enough stack.
       Three functions are provided for managing blocks of memory for use as
       JIT stacks. There is further discussion about the use of JIT stacks in
       the section entitled "JIT stack FAQ" below.

       The pcre_jit_stack_alloc() function creates a JIT stack. Its arguments
       are a starting size and a maximum size, and it returns a pointer to an
       opaque structure of type pcre_jit_stack, or NULL if there is an error.
       The pcre_jit_stack_free() function can be used to free a stack that is
       no longer needed. (For the technically minded: the address space is
       allocated by mmap or VirtualAlloc.)

       JIT uses far less memory for recursion than the interpretive code, and
       a maximum stack size of 512K to 1M should be more than enough for any
       pattern.

       The pcre_assign_jit_stack() function specifies which stack JIT code
       should use. Its arguments are as follows:

         pcre_extra         *extra
         pcre_jit_callback  callback
         void               *data

       The extra argument must be the result of studying a pattern with
       PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE etc. There are three cases for the values of the
       other two options:

         (1) If callback is NULL and data is NULL, an internal 32K block
             on the machine stack is used.

         (2) If callback is NULL and data is not NULL, data must be
             a valid JIT stack, the result of calling pcre_jit_stack_alloc().

         (3) If callback is not NULL, it must point to a function that is
             called with data as an argument at the start of matching, in
             order to set up a JIT stack. If the return from the callback
             function is NULL, the internal 32K stack is used; otherwise the
             return value must be a valid JIT stack, the result of calling
             pcre_jit_stack_alloc().

       A callback function is obeyed whenever JIT code is about to be run; it
       is not obeyed when pcre_exec() is called with options that are
       incompatible for JIT execution. A callback function can therefore be
       used to determine whether a match operation was executed by JIT or by
       the interpreter.

       You may safely use the same JIT stack for more than one pattern (either
       by assigning directly or by callback), as long as the patterns are all
       matched sequentially in the same thread. In a multithread application,
       if you do not specify a JIT stack, or if you assign or pass back NULL
       from a callback, that is thread-safe, because each thread has its own
       machine stack. However, if you assign or pass back a non-NULL JIT
       stack, this must be a different stack for each thread so that the
       application is thread-safe.

       Strictly speaking, even more is allowed. You can assign the same non-
       NULL stack to any number of patterns as long as they are not used for
       matching by multiple threads at the same time. For example, you can
       assign the same stack to all compiled patterns, and use a global mutex
       in the callback to wait until the stack is available for use. However,
       this is an inefficient solution, and not recommended.

       This is a suggestion for how a multithreaded program that needs to set
       up non-default JIT stacks might operate:

         During thread initalization
           thread_local_var = pcre_jit_stack_alloc(...)

         During thread exit
           pcre_jit_stack_free(thread_local_var)

         Use a one-line callback function
           return thread_local_var

       All the functions described in this section do nothing if JIT is not
       available, and pcre_assign_jit_stack() does nothing unless the extra
       argument is non-NULL and points to a pcre_extra block that is the
       result of a successful study with PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE etc.

JIT STACK FAQ

       (1) Why do we need JIT stacks?

       PCRE (and JIT) is a recursive, depth-first engine, so it needs a stack
       where the local data of the current node is pushed before checking its
       child nodes.  Allocating real machine stack on some platforms is
       difficult. For example, the stack chain needs to be updated every time
       if we extend the stack on PowerPC.  Although it is possible, its
       updating time overhead decreases performance. So we do the recursion in
       memory.

       (2) Why don't we simply allocate blocks of memory with malloc()?

       Modern operating systems have a nice feature: they can reserve an
       address space instead of allocating memory. We can safely allocate
       memory pages inside this address space, so the stack could grow without
       moving memory data (this is important because of pointers). Thus we can
       allocate 1M address space, and use only a single memory page (usually
       4K) if that is enough. However, we can still grow up to 1M anytime if
       needed.

       (3) Who "owns" a JIT stack?

       The owner of the stack is the user program, not the JIT studied pattern
       or anything else. The user program must ensure that if a stack is used
       by pcre_exec(), (that is, it is assigned to the pattern currently
       running), that stack must not be used by any other threads (to avoid
       overwriting the same memory area). The best practice for multithreaded
       programs is to allocate a stack for each thread, and return this stack
       through the JIT callback function.

       (4) When should a JIT stack be freed?

       You can free a JIT stack at any time, as long as it will not be used by
       pcre_exec() again. When you assign the stack to a pattern, only a
       pointer is set. There is no reference counting or any other magic. You
       can free the patterns and stacks in any order, anytime. Just do not
       call pcre_exec() with a pattern pointing to an already freed stack, as
       that will cause SEGFAULT. (Also, do not free a stack currently used by
       pcre_exec() in another thread). You can also replace the stack for a
       pattern at any time. You can even free the previous stack before
       assigning a replacement.

       (5) Should I allocate/free a stack every time before/after calling
       pcre_exec()?

       No, because this is too costly in terms of resources. However, you
       could implement some clever idea which release the stack if it is not
       used in let's say two minutes. The JIT callback can help to achieve
       this without keeping a list of the currently JIT studied patterns.

       (6) OK, the stack is for long term memory allocation. But what happens
       if a pattern causes stack overflow with a stack of 1M? Is that 1M kept
       until the stack is freed?

       Especially on embedded sytems, it might be a good idea to release
       memory sometimes without freeing the stack. There is no API for this at
       the moment.  Probably a function call which returns with the currently
       allocated memory for any stack and another which allows releasing
       memory (shrinking the stack) would be a good idea if someone needs
       this.

       (7) This is too much of a headache. Isn't there any better solution for
       JIT stack handling?

       No, thanks to Windows. If POSIX threads were used everywhere, we could
       throw out this complicated API.

EXAMPLE CODE

       This is a single-threaded example that specifies a JIT stack without
       using a callback.

         int rc;
         int ovector[30];
         pcre *re;
         pcre_extra *extra;
         pcre_jit_stack *jit_stack;

         re = pcre_compile(pattern, 0, &error, &erroffset, NULL);
         /* Check for errors */
         extra = pcre_study(re, PCRE_STUDY_JIT_COMPILE, &error);
         jit_stack = pcre_jit_stack_alloc(32*1024, 512*1024);
         /* Check for error (NULL) */
         pcre_assign_jit_stack(extra, NULL, jit_stack);
         rc = pcre_exec(re, extra, subject, length, 0, 0, ovector, 30);
         /* Check results */
         pcre_free(re);
         pcre_free_study(extra);
         pcre_jit_stack_free(jit_stack);


JIT FAST PATH API

       Because the API described above falls back to interpreted execution
       when JIT is not available, it is convenient for programs that are
       written for general use in many environments. However, calling JIT via
       pcre_exec() does have a performance impact. Programs that are written
       for use where JIT is known to be available, and which need the best
       possible performance, can instead use a "fast path" API to call JIT
       execution directly instead of calling pcre_exec() (obviously only for
       patterns that have been successfully studied by JIT).

       The fast path function is called pcre_jit_exec(), and it takes exactly
       the same arguments as pcre_exec(), plus one additional argument that
       must point to a JIT stack. The JIT stack arrangements described above
       do not apply. The return values are the same as for pcre_exec().

       When you call pcre_exec(), as well as testing for invalid options, a
       number of other sanity checks are performed on the arguments. For
       example, if the subject pointer is NULL, or its length is negative, an
       immediate error is given. Also, unless PCRE_NO_UTF[8|16|32] is set, a
       UTF subject string is tested for validity. In the interests of speed,
       these checks do not happen on the JIT fast path, and if invalid data is
       passed, the result is undefined.

       Bypassing the sanity checks and the pcre_exec() wrapping can give
       speedups of more than 10%.

SEE ALSO

       pcreapi(3)

AUTHOR

       Philip Hazel (FAQ by Zoltan Herczeg)
       University Computing Service
       Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.

REVISION

       Last updated: 17 March 2013
       Copyright (c) 1997-2013 University of Cambridge.



PCRE 8.33                        17 March 2013                      PCREJIT(3)
