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-=head1 NAME
-
-perlreapi - perl regular expression plugin interface
-
-=head1 DESCRIPTION
-
-As of Perl 5.9.5 there is a new interface for plugging and using other
-regular expression engines than the default one.
-
-Each engine is supposed to provide access to a constant structure of the
-following format:
-
- typedef struct regexp_engine {
- REGEXP* (*comp) (pTHX_ const SV * const pattern, const U32 flags);
- I32 (*exec) (pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx, char* stringarg, char* strend,
- char* strbeg, I32 minend, SV* screamer,
- void* data, U32 flags);
- char* (*intuit) (pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx, SV *sv, char *strpos,
- char *strend, U32 flags,
- struct re_scream_pos_data_s *data);
- SV* (*checkstr) (pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx);
- void (*free) (pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx);
- void (*numbered_buff_FETCH) (pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx, const I32 paren,
- SV * const sv);
- void (*numbered_buff_STORE) (pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx, const I32 paren,
- SV const * const value);
- I32 (*numbered_buff_LENGTH) (pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx, const SV * const sv,
- const I32 paren);
- SV* (*named_buff) (pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx, SV * const key,
- SV * const value, U32 flags);
- SV* (*named_buff_iter) (pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx, const SV * const lastkey,
- const U32 flags);
- SV* (*qr_package)(pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx);
- #ifdef USE_ITHREADS
- void* (*dupe) (pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx, CLONE_PARAMS *param);
- #endif
-
-When a regexp is compiled, its C<engine> field is then set to point at
-the appropriate structure, so that when it needs to be used Perl can find
-the right routines to do so.
-
-In order to install a new regexp handler, C<$^H{regcomp}> is set
-to an integer which (when casted appropriately) resolves to one of these
-structures. When compiling, the C<comp> method is executed, and the
-resulting regexp structure's engine field is expected to point back at
-the same structure.
-
-The pTHX_ symbol in the definition is a macro used by perl under threading
-to provide an extra argument to the routine holding a pointer back to
-the interpreter that is executing the regexp. So under threading all
-routines get an extra argument.
-
-=head1 Callbacks
-
-=head2 comp
-
- REGEXP* comp(pTHX_ const SV * const pattern, const U32 flags);
-
-Compile the pattern stored in C<pattern> using the given C<flags> and
-return a pointer to a prepared C<REGEXP> structure that can perform
-the match. See L</The REGEXP structure> below for an explanation of
-the individual fields in the REGEXP struct.
-
-The C<pattern> parameter is the scalar that was used as the
-pattern. previous versions of perl would pass two C<char*> indicating
-the start and end of the stringified pattern, the following snippet can
-be used to get the old parameters:
-
- STRLEN plen;
- char* exp = SvPV(pattern, plen);
- char* xend = exp + plen;
-
-Since any scalar can be passed as a pattern it's possible to implement
-an engine that does something with an array (C<< "ook" =~ [ qw/ eek
-hlagh / ] >>) or with the non-stringified form of a compiled regular
-expression (C<< "ook" =~ qr/eek/ >>). perl's own engine will always
-stringify everything using the snippet above but that doesn't mean
-other engines have to.
-
-The C<flags> parameter is a bitfield which indicates which of the
-C<msixp> flags the regex was compiled with. It also contains
-additional info such as whether C<use locale> is in effect.
-
-The C<eogc> flags are stripped out before being passed to the comp
-routine. The regex engine does not need to know whether any of these
-are set as those flags should only affect what perl does with the
-pattern and its match variables, not how it gets compiled and
-executed.
-
-By the time the comp callback is called, some of these flags have
-already had effect (noted below where applicable). However most of
-their effect occurs after the comp callback has run in routines that
-read the C<< rx->extflags >> field which it populates.
-
-In general the flags should be preserved in C<< rx->extflags >> after
-compilation, although the regex engine might want to add or delete
-some of them to invoke or disable some special behavior in perl. The
-flags along with any special behavior they cause are documented below:
-
-The pattern modifiers:
-
-=over 4
-
-=item C</m> - RXf_PMf_MULTILINE
-
-If this is in C<< rx->extflags >> it will be passed to
-C<Perl_fbm_instr> by C<pp_split> which will treat the subject string
-as a multi-line string.
-
-=item C</s> - RXf_PMf_SINGLELINE
-
-=item C</i> - RXf_PMf_FOLD
-
-=item C</x> - RXf_PMf_EXTENDED
-
-If present on a regex C<#> comments will be handled differently by the
-tokenizer in some cases.
-
-TODO: Document those cases.
-
-=item C</p> - RXf_PMf_KEEPCOPY
-
-TODO: Document this
-
-=item Character set
-
-The character set semantics are determined by an enum that is contained
-in this field. This is still experimental and subject to change, but
-the current interface returns the rules by use of the in-line function
-C<get_regex_charset(const U32 flags)>. The only currently documented
-value returned from it is REGEX_LOCALE_CHARSET, which is set if
-C<use locale> is in effect. If present in C<< rx->extflags >>,
-C<split> will use the locale dependent definition of whitespace
-when RXf_SKIPWHITE or RXf_WHITE is in effect. ASCII whitespace
-is defined as per L<isSPACE|perlapi/isSPACE>, and by the internal
-macros C<is_utf8_space> under UTF-8, and C<isSPACE_LC> under C<use
-locale>.
-
-=back
-
-Additional flags:
-
-=over 4
-
-=item RXf_UTF8
-
-Set if the pattern is L<SvUTF8()|perlapi/SvUTF8>, set by Perl_pmruntime.
-
-A regex engine may want to set or disable this flag during
-compilation. The perl engine for instance may upgrade non-UTF-8
-strings to UTF-8 if the pattern includes constructs such as C<\x{...}>
-that can only match Unicode values.
-
-=item RXf_SPLIT
-
-If C<split> is invoked as C<split ' '> or with no arguments (which
-really means C<split(' ', $_)>, see L<split|perlfunc/split>), perl will
-set this flag. The regex engine can then check for it and set the
-SKIPWHITE and WHITE extflags. To do this the perl engine does:
-
- if (flags & RXf_SPLIT && r->prelen == 1 && r->precomp[0] == ' ')
- r->extflags |= (RXf_SKIPWHITE|RXf_WHITE);
-
-=back
-
-These flags can be set during compilation to enable optimizations in
-the C<split> operator.
-
-=over 4
-
-=item RXf_SKIPWHITE
-
-If the flag is present in C<< rx->extflags >> C<split> will delete
-whitespace from the start of the subject string before it's operated
-on. What is considered whitespace depends on whether the subject is a
-UTF-8 string and whether the C<RXf_PMf_LOCALE> flag is set.
-
-If RXf_WHITE is set in addition to this flag C<split> will behave like
-C<split " "> under the perl engine.
-
-=item RXf_START_ONLY
-
-Tells the split operator to split the target string on newlines
-(C<\n>) without invoking the regex engine.
-
-Perl's engine sets this if the pattern is C</^/> (C<plen == 1 && *exp
-== '^'>), even under C</^/s>, see L<split|perlfunc>. Of course a
-different regex engine might want to use the same optimizations
-with a different syntax.
-
-=item RXf_WHITE
-
-Tells the split operator to split the target string on whitespace
-without invoking the regex engine. The definition of whitespace varies
-depending on whether the target string is a UTF-8 string and on
-whether RXf_PMf_LOCALE is set.
-
-Perl's engine sets this flag if the pattern is C<\s+>.
-
-=item RXf_NULL
-
-Tells the split operator to split the target string on
-characters. The definition of character varies depending on whether
-the target string is a UTF-8 string.
-
-Perl's engine sets this flag on empty patterns, this optimization
-makes C<split //> much faster than it would otherwise be. It's even
-faster than C<unpack>.
-
-=back
-
-=head2 exec
-
- I32 exec(pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx,
- char *stringarg, char* strend, char* strbeg,
- I32 minend, SV* screamer,
- void* data, U32 flags);
-
-Execute a regexp.
-
-=head2 intuit
-
- char* intuit(pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx,
- SV *sv, char *strpos, char *strend,
- const U32 flags, struct re_scream_pos_data_s *data);
-
-Find the start position where a regex match should be attempted,
-or possibly whether the regex engine should not be run because the
-pattern can't match. This is called as appropriate by the core
-depending on the values of the extflags member of the regexp
-structure.
-
-=head2 checkstr
-
- SV* checkstr(pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx);
-
-Return a SV containing a string that must appear in the pattern. Used
-by C<split> for optimising matches.
-
-=head2 free
-
- void free(pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx);
-
-Called by perl when it is freeing a regexp pattern so that the engine
-can release any resources pointed to by the C<pprivate> member of the
-regexp structure. This is only responsible for freeing private data;
-perl will handle releasing anything else contained in the regexp structure.
-
-=head2 Numbered capture callbacks
-
-Called to get/set the value of C<$`>, C<$'>, C<$&> and their named
-equivalents, ${^PREMATCH}, ${^POSTMATCH} and $^{MATCH}, as well as the
-numbered capture groups (C<$1>, C<$2>, ...).
-
-The C<paren> parameter will be C<-2> for C<$`>, C<-1> for C<$'>, C<0>
-for C<$&>, C<1> for C<$1> and so forth.
-
-The names have been chosen by analogy with L<Tie::Scalar> methods
-names with an additional B<LENGTH> callback for efficiency. However
-named capture variables are currently not tied internally but
-implemented via magic.
-
-=head3 numbered_buff_FETCH
-
- void numbered_buff_FETCH(pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx, const I32 paren,
- SV * const sv);
-
-Fetch a specified numbered capture. C<sv> should be set to the scalar
-to return, the scalar is passed as an argument rather than being
-returned from the function because when it's called perl already has a
-scalar to store the value, creating another one would be
-redundant. The scalar can be set with C<sv_setsv>, C<sv_setpvn> and
-friends, see L<perlapi>.
-
-This callback is where perl untaints its own capture variables under
-taint mode (see L<perlsec>). See the C<Perl_reg_numbered_buff_fetch>
-function in F<regcomp.c> for how to untaint capture variables if
-that's something you'd like your engine to do as well.
-
-=head3 numbered_buff_STORE
-
- void (*numbered_buff_STORE) (pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx, const I32 paren,
- SV const * const value);
-
-Set the value of a numbered capture variable. C<value> is the scalar
-that is to be used as the new value. It's up to the engine to make
-sure this is used as the new value (or reject it).
-
-Example:
-
- if ("ook" =~ /(o*)/) {
- # 'paren' will be '1' and 'value' will be 'ee'
- $1 =~ tr/o/e/;
- }
-
-Perl's own engine will croak on any attempt to modify the capture
-variables, to do this in another engine use the following callback
-(copied from C<Perl_reg_numbered_buff_store>):
-
- void
- Example_reg_numbered_buff_store(pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx, const I32 paren,
- SV const * const value)
- {
- PERL_UNUSED_ARG(rx);
- PERL_UNUSED_ARG(paren);
- PERL_UNUSED_ARG(value);
-
- if (!PL_localizing)
- Perl_croak(aTHX_ PL_no_modify);
- }
-
-Actually perl will not I<always> croak in a statement that looks
-like it would modify a numbered capture variable. This is because the
-STORE callback will not be called if perl can determine that it
-doesn't have to modify the value. This is exactly how tied variables
-behave in the same situation:
-
- package CaptureVar;
- use base 'Tie::Scalar';
-
- sub TIESCALAR { bless [] }
- sub FETCH { undef }
- sub STORE { die "This doesn't get called" }
-
- package main;
-
- tie my $sv => "CaptureVar";
- $sv =~ y/a/b/;
-
-Because C<$sv> is C<undef> when the C<y///> operator is applied to it
-the transliteration won't actually execute and the program won't
-C<die>. This is different to how 5.8 and earlier versions behaved
-since the capture variables were READONLY variables then, now they'll
-just die when assigned to in the default engine.
-
-=head3 numbered_buff_LENGTH
-
- I32 numbered_buff_LENGTH (pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx, const SV * const sv,
- const I32 paren);
-
-Get the C<length> of a capture variable. There's a special callback
-for this so that perl doesn't have to do a FETCH and run C<length> on
-the result, since the length is (in perl's case) known from an offset
-stored in C<< rx->offs >> this is much more efficient:
-
- I32 s1 = rx->offs[paren].start;
- I32 s2 = rx->offs[paren].end;
- I32 len = t1 - s1;
-
-This is a little bit more complex in the case of UTF-8, see what
-C<Perl_reg_numbered_buff_length> does with
-L<is_utf8_string_loclen|perlapi/is_utf8_string_loclen>.
-
-=head2 Named capture callbacks
-
-Called to get/set the value of C<%+> and C<%-> as well as by some
-utility functions in L<re>.
-
-There are two callbacks, C<named_buff> is called in all the cases the
-FETCH, STORE, DELETE, CLEAR, EXISTS and SCALAR L<Tie::Hash> callbacks
-would be on changes to C<%+> and C<%-> and C<named_buff_iter> in the
-same cases as FIRSTKEY and NEXTKEY.
-
-The C<flags> parameter can be used to determine which of these
-operations the callbacks should respond to, the following flags are
-currently defined:
-
-Which L<Tie::Hash> operation is being performed from the Perl level on
-C<%+> or C<%+>, if any:
-
- RXapif_FETCH
- RXapif_STORE
- RXapif_DELETE
- RXapif_CLEAR
- RXapif_EXISTS
- RXapif_SCALAR
- RXapif_FIRSTKEY
- RXapif_NEXTKEY
-
-Whether C<%+> or C<%-> is being operated on, if any.
-
- RXapif_ONE /* %+ */
- RXapif_ALL /* %- */
-
-Whether this is being called as C<re::regname>, C<re::regnames> or
-C<re::regnames_count>, if any. The first two will be combined with
-C<RXapif_ONE> or C<RXapif_ALL>.
-
- RXapif_REGNAME
- RXapif_REGNAMES
- RXapif_REGNAMES_COUNT
-
-Internally C<%+> and C<%-> are implemented with a real tied interface
-via L<Tie::Hash::NamedCapture>. The methods in that package will call
-back into these functions. However the usage of
-L<Tie::Hash::NamedCapture> for this purpose might change in future
-releases. For instance this might be implemented by magic instead
-(would need an extension to mgvtbl).
-
-=head3 named_buff
-
- SV* (*named_buff) (pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx, SV * const key,
- SV * const value, U32 flags);
-
-=head3 named_buff_iter
-
- SV* (*named_buff_iter) (pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx, const SV * const lastkey,
- const U32 flags);
-
-=head2 qr_package
-
- SV* qr_package(pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx);
-
-The package the qr// magic object is blessed into (as seen by C<ref
-qr//>). It is recommended that engines change this to their package
-name for identification regardless of whether they implement methods
-on the object.
-
-The package this method returns should also have the internal
-C<Regexp> package in its C<@ISA>. C<< qr//->isa("Regexp") >> should always
-be true regardless of what engine is being used.
-
-Example implementation might be:
-
- SV*
- Example_qr_package(pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx)
- {
- PERL_UNUSED_ARG(rx);
- return newSVpvs("re::engine::Example");
- }
-
-Any method calls on an object created with C<qr//> will be dispatched to the
-package as a normal object.
-
- use re::engine::Example;
- my $re = qr//;
- $re->meth; # dispatched to re::engine::Example::meth()
-
-To retrieve the C<REGEXP> object from the scalar in an XS function use
-the C<SvRX> macro, see L<"REGEXP Functions" in perlapi|perlapi/REGEXP
-Functions>.
-
- void meth(SV * rv)
- PPCODE:
- REGEXP * re = SvRX(sv);
-
-=head2 dupe
-
- void* dupe(pTHX_ REGEXP * const rx, CLONE_PARAMS *param);
-
-On threaded builds a regexp may need to be duplicated so that the pattern
-can be used by multiple threads. This routine is expected to handle the
-duplication of any private data pointed to by the C<pprivate> member of
-the regexp structure. It will be called with the preconstructed new
-regexp structure as an argument, the C<pprivate> member will point at
-the B<old> private structure, and it is this routine's responsibility to
-construct a copy and return a pointer to it (which perl will then use to
-overwrite the field as passed to this routine.)
-
-This allows the engine to dupe its private data but also if necessary
-modify the final structure if it really must.
-
-On unthreaded builds this field doesn't exist.
-
-=head1 The REGEXP structure
-
-The REGEXP struct is defined in F<regexp.h>. All regex engines must be able to
-correctly build such a structure in their L</comp> routine.
-
-The REGEXP structure contains all the data that perl needs to be aware of
-to properly work with the regular expression. It includes data about
-optimisations that perl can use to determine if the regex engine should
-really be used, and various other control info that is needed to properly
-execute patterns in various contexts such as is the pattern anchored in
-some way, or what flags were used during the compile, or whether the
-program contains special constructs that perl needs to be aware of.
-
-In addition it contains two fields that are intended for the private
-use of the regex engine that compiled the pattern. These are the
-C<intflags> and C<pprivate> members. C<pprivate> is a void pointer to
-an arbitrary structure whose use and management is the responsibility
-of the compiling engine. perl will never modify either of these
-values.
-
- typedef struct regexp {
- /* what engine created this regexp? */
- const struct regexp_engine* engine;
-
- /* what re is this a lightweight copy of? */
- struct regexp* mother_re;
-
- /* Information about the match that the perl core uses to manage things */
- U32 extflags; /* Flags used both externally and internally */
- I32 minlen; /* mininum possible length of string to match */
- I32 minlenret; /* mininum possible length of $& */
- U32 gofs; /* chars left of pos that we search from */
-
- /* substring data about strings that must appear
- in the final match, used for optimisations */
- struct reg_substr_data *substrs;
-
- U32 nparens; /* number of capture groups */
-
- /* private engine specific data */
- U32 intflags; /* Engine Specific Internal flags */
- void *pprivate; /* Data private to the regex engine which
- created this object. */
-
- /* Data about the last/current match. These are modified during matching*/
- U32 lastparen; /* last open paren matched */
- U32 lastcloseparen; /* last close paren matched */
- regexp_paren_pair *swap; /* Swap copy of *offs */
- regexp_paren_pair *offs; /* Array of offsets for (@-) and (@+) */
-
- char *subbeg; /* saved or original string so \digit works forever. */
- SV_SAVED_COPY /* If non-NULL, SV which is COW from original */
- I32 sublen; /* Length of string pointed by subbeg */
-
- /* Information about the match that isn't often used */
- I32 prelen; /* length of precomp */
- const char *precomp; /* pre-compilation regular expression */
-
- char *wrapped; /* wrapped version of the pattern */
- I32 wraplen; /* length of wrapped */
-
- I32 seen_evals; /* number of eval groups in the pattern - for security checks */
- HV *paren_names; /* Optional hash of paren names */
-
- /* Refcount of this regexp */
- I32 refcnt; /* Refcount of this regexp */
- } regexp;
-
-The fields are discussed in more detail below:
-
-=head2 C<engine>
-
-This field points at a regexp_engine structure which contains pointers
-to the subroutines that are to be used for performing a match. It
-is the compiling routine's responsibility to populate this field before
-returning the regexp object.
-
-Internally this is set to C<NULL> unless a custom engine is specified in
-C<$^H{regcomp}>, perl's own set of callbacks can be accessed in the struct
-pointed to by C<RE_ENGINE_PTR>.
-
-=head2 C<mother_re>
-
-TODO, see L<http://www.mail-archive.com/perl5-changes@perl.org/msg17328.html>
-
-=head2 C<extflags>
-
-This will be used by perl to see what flags the regexp was compiled
-with, this will normally be set to the value of the flags parameter by
-the L<comp|/comp> callback. See the L<comp|/comp> documentation for
-valid flags.
-
-=head2 C<minlen> C<minlenret>
-
-The minimum string length required for the pattern to match. This is used to
-prune the search space by not bothering to match any closer to the end of a
-string than would allow a match. For instance there is no point in even
-starting the regex engine if the minlen is 10 but the string is only 5
-characters long. There is no way that the pattern can match.
-
-C<minlenret> is the minimum length of the string that would be found
-in $& after a match.
-
-The difference between C<minlen> and C<minlenret> can be seen in the
-following pattern:
-
- /ns(?=\d)/
-
-where the C<minlen> would be 3 but C<minlenret> would only be 2 as the \d is
-required to match but is not actually included in the matched content. This
-distinction is particularly important as the substitution logic uses the
-C<minlenret> to tell whether it can do in-place substitution which can result in
-considerable speedup.
-
-=head2 C<gofs>
-
-Left offset from pos() to start match at.
-
-=head2 C<substrs>
-
-Substring data about strings that must appear in the final match. This
-is currently only used internally by perl's engine for but might be
-used in the future for all engines for optimisations.
-
-=head2 C<nparens>, C<lastparen>, and C<lastcloseparen>
-
-These fields are used to keep track of how many paren groups could be matched
-in the pattern, which was the last open paren to be entered, and which was
-the last close paren to be entered.
-
-=head2 C<intflags>
-
-The engine's private copy of the flags the pattern was compiled with. Usually
-this is the same as C<extflags> unless the engine chose to modify one of them.
-
-=head2 C<pprivate>
-
-A void* pointing to an engine-defined data structure. The perl engine uses the
-C<regexp_internal> structure (see L<perlreguts/Base Structures>) but a custom
-engine should use something else.
-
-=head2 C<swap>
-
-Unused. Left in for compatibility with perl 5.10.0.
-
-=head2 C<offs>
-
-A C<regexp_paren_pair> structure which defines offsets into the string being
-matched which correspond to the C<$&> and C<$1>, C<$2> etc. captures, the
-C<regexp_paren_pair> struct is defined as follows:
-
- typedef struct regexp_paren_pair {
- I32 start;
- I32 end;
- } regexp_paren_pair;
-
-If C<< ->offs[num].start >> or C<< ->offs[num].end >> is C<-1> then that
-capture group did not match. C<< ->offs[0].start/end >> represents C<$&> (or
-C<${^MATCH> under C<//p>) and C<< ->offs[paren].end >> matches C<$$paren> where
-C<$paren >= 1>.
-
-=head2 C<precomp> C<prelen>
-
-Used for optimisations. C<precomp> holds a copy of the pattern that
-was compiled and C<prelen> its length. When a new pattern is to be
-compiled (such as inside a loop) the internal C<regcomp> operator
-checks whether the last compiled C<REGEXP>'s C<precomp> and C<prelen>
-are equivalent to the new one, and if so uses the old pattern instead
-of compiling a new one.
-
-The relevant snippet from C<Perl_pp_regcomp>:
-
- if (!re || !re->precomp || re->prelen != (I32)len ||
- memNE(re->precomp, t, len))
- /* Compile a new pattern */
-
-=head2 C<paren_names>
-
-This is a hash used internally to track named capture groups and their
-offsets. The keys are the names of the buffers the values are dualvars,
-with the IV slot holding the number of buffers with the given name and the
-pv being an embedded array of I32. The values may also be contained
-independently in the data array in cases where named backreferences are
-used.
-
-=head2 C<substrs>
-
-Holds information on the longest string that must occur at a fixed
-offset from the start of the pattern, and the longest string that must
-occur at a floating offset from the start of the pattern. Used to do
-Fast-Boyer-Moore searches on the string to find out if its worth using
-the regex engine at all, and if so where in the string to search.
-
-=head2 C<subbeg> C<sublen> C<saved_copy>
-
-Used during execution phase for managing search and replace patterns.
-
-=head2 C<wrapped> C<wraplen>
-
-Stores the string C<qr//> stringifies to. The perl engine for example
-stores C<(?^:eek)> in the case of C<qr/eek/>.
-
-When using a custom engine that doesn't support the C<(?:)> construct
-for inline modifiers, it's probably best to have C<qr//> stringify to
-the supplied pattern, note that this will create undesired patterns in
-cases such as:
-
- my $x = qr/a|b/; # "a|b"
- my $y = qr/c/i; # "c"
- my $z = qr/$x$y/; # "a|bc"
-
-There's no solution for this problem other than making the custom
-engine understand a construct like C<(?:)>.
-
-=head2 C<seen_evals>
-
-This stores the number of eval groups in the pattern. This is used for security
-purposes when embedding compiled regexes into larger patterns with C<qr//>.
-
-=head2 C<refcnt>
-
-The number of times the structure is referenced. When this falls to 0 the
-regexp is automatically freed by a call to pregfree. This should be set to 1 in
-each engine's L</comp> routine.
-
-=head1 HISTORY
-
-Originally part of L<perlreguts>.
-
-=head1 AUTHORS
-
-Originally written by Yves Orton, expanded by E<AElig>var ArnfjE<ouml>rE<eth>
-Bjarmason.
-
-=head1 LICENSE
-
-Copyright 2006 Yves Orton and 2007 E<AElig>var ArnfjE<ouml>rE<eth> Bjarmason.
-
-This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
-the same terms as Perl itself.
-
-=cut