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Clarify non-greedy repetition in searching.

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Richard M. Stallman 2002-03-21 09:37:22 +00:00
parent 54f035751f
commit bed0fc913c
1 changed files with 7 additions and 0 deletions
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7
man/search.texi
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@ -463,6 +463,13 @@ the text @samp{abbb}, @samp{ab*} will match it all (the longest valid
match), while @samp{ab*?} will match just @samp{a} (the shortest
valid match).
Non-greedy operators match the shortest possible string starting at a
given starting point; in a forward search, though, the earliest
possible starting point for match is always the one chosen. Thus, if
you search for @samp{a.*?$} against the text @samp{abbab} followed by
a newline, it matches the whole string. Since it @emph{can} match
starting at the first @samp{a}, it does.
@item \@{@var{n}\@}
is a postfix operator that specifies repetition @var{n} times---that
is, the preceding regular expression must match exactly @var{n} times