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# @(#)WHATSNEW 8.3 (Berkeley) 3/18/94 |
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|
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New in alpha3.4: The complex bug alluded to below has been fixed (in a |
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slightly kludgey temporary way that may hurt efficiency a bit; this is |
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another "get it out the door for 4.4" release). The tests at the end of |
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the tests file have accordingly been uncommented. The primary sign of |
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the bug was that something like a?b matching ab matched b rather than ab. |
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(The bug was essentially specific to this exact situation, else it would |
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have shown up earlier.) |
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|
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New in alpha3.3: The definition of word boundaries has been altered |
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slightly, to more closely match the usual programming notion that "_" |
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is an alphabetic. Stuff used for pre-ANSI systems is now in a subdir, |
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and the makefile no longer alludes to it in mysterious ways. The |
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makefile has generally been cleaned up some. Fixes have been made |
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(again!) so that the regression test will run without -DREDEBUG, at |
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the cost of weaker checking. A workaround for a bug in some folks' |
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<assert.h> has been added. And some more things have been added to |
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tests, including a couple right at the end which are commented out |
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because the code currently flunks them (complex bug; fix coming). |
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Plus the usual minor cleanup. |
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|
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New in alpha3.2: Assorted bits of cleanup and portability improvement |
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(the development base is now a BSDI system using GCC instead of an ancient |
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Sun system, and the newer compiler exposed some glitches). Fix for a |
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serious bug that affected REs using many [] (including REG_ICASE REs |
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because of the way they are implemented), *sometimes*, depending on |
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memory-allocation patterns. The header-file prototypes no longer name |
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the parameters, avoiding possible name conflicts. The possibility that |
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some clot has defined CHAR_MIN as (say) `-128' instead of `(-128)' is |
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now handled gracefully. "uchar" is no longer used as an internal type |
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name (too many people have the same idea). Still the same old lousy |
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performance, alas. |
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|
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New in alpha3.1: Basically nothing, this release is just a bookkeeping |
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convenience. Stay tuned. |
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|
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New in alpha3.0: Performance is no better, alas, but some fixes have been |
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made and some functionality has been added. (This is basically the "get |
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it out the door in time for 4.4" release.) One bug fix: regfree() didn't |
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free the main internal structure (how embarrassing). It is now possible |
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to put NULs in either the RE or the target string, using (resp.) a new |
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REG_PEND flag and the old REG_STARTEND flag. The REG_NOSPEC flag to |
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regcomp() makes all characters ordinary, so you can match a literal |
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string easily (this will become more useful when performance improves!). |
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There are now primitives to match beginnings and ends of words, although |
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the syntax is disgusting and so is the implementation. The REG_ATOI |
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debugging interface has changed a bit. And there has been considerable |
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internal cleanup of various kinds. |
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|
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New in alpha2.3: Split change list out of README, and moved flags notes |
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into Makefile. Macro-ized the name of regex(7) in regex(3), since it has |
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to change for 4.4BSD. Cleanup work in engine.c, and some new regression |
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tests to catch tricky cases thereof. |
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|
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New in alpha2.2: Out-of-date manpages updated. Regerror() acquires two |
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small extensions -- REG_ITOA and REG_ATOI -- which avoid debugging kludges |
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in my own test program and might be useful to others for similar purposes. |
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The regression test will now compile (and run) without REDEBUG. The |
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BRE \$ bug is fixed. Most uses of "uchar" are gone; it's all chars now. |
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Char/uchar parameters are now written int/unsigned, to avoid possible |
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portability problems with unpromoted parameters. Some unsigned casts have |
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been introduced to minimize portability problems with shifting into sign |
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bits. |
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|
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New in alpha2.1: Lots of little stuff, cleanup and fixes. The one big |
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thing is that regex.h is now generated, using mkh, rather than being |
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supplied in the distribution; due to circularities in dependencies, |
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you have to build regex.h explicitly by "make h". The two known bugs |
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have been fixed (and the regression test now checks for them), as has a |
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problem with assertions not being suppressed in the absence of REDEBUG. |
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No performance work yet. |
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|
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New in alpha2: Backslash-anything is an ordinary character, not an |
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error (except, of course, for the handful of backslashed metacharacters |
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in BREs), which should reduce script breakage. The regression test |
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checks *where* null strings are supposed to match, and has generally |
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been tightened up somewhat. Small bug fixes in parameter passing (not |
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harmful, but technically errors) and some other areas. Debugging |
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invoked by defining REDEBUG rather than not defining NDEBUG. |
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|
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New in alpha+3: full prototyping for internal routines, using a little |
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helper program, mkh, which extracts prototypes given in stylized comments. |
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More minor cleanup. Buglet fix: it's CHAR_BIT, not CHAR_BITS. Simple |
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pre-screening of input when a literal string is known to be part of the |
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RE; this does wonders for performance. |
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|
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New in alpha+2: minor bits of cleanup. Notably, the number "32" for the |
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word width isn't hardwired into regexec.c any more, the public header |
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file prototypes the functions if __STDC__ is defined, and some small typos |
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in the manpages have been fixed. |
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|
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New in alpha+1: improvements to the manual pages, and an important |
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extension, the REG_STARTEND option to regexec(). |