Lua has its own native pattern syntax in the string library, but sometimes a real regex engine is more useful. Wireshark comes with GLib’s Regex implementation, which itself is based on Perl Compatible Regular Expressions (PCRE). This engine is exposed into Wireshark’s Lua engine through the well-known Lrexlib library, following the same syntax and semantics as the Lrexlib PCRE implementation, with a few differences as follows:
Since: 1.11.3
This page is based on the full documentation for Lrexlib at https://rrthomas.github.io/lrexlib/manual.html
The GLib Regular expression syntax (which is essentially PCRE syntax) can be found at https://developer.gnome.org/glib/2.38/glib-regex-syntax.html
GLib Regular Expressions based on PCRE.
Since: 1.11.3
All functions that take a regular expression pattern as an argument will generate an error if that pattern is found invalid by the regex library.
All functions that take a string-type regex argument accept a compiled regex too. In this case, the compile flags argument is ignored (should be either supplied as nils or omitted).
The capture flag argument cf may also be supplied as a string, whose characters stand for compilation flags. Combinations of the following characters (case sensitive) are supported:
Compiles regular expression pattern into a regular expression object whose internal representation is corresponding to the library used. The returned result then can be used by the methods, e.g. match, exec, etc. Regular expression objects are automatically garbage collected.
Since: 1.11.3
The compiled regular expression (a userdata object)
Returns a table containing the numeric values of the constants defined by the regex library, with the keys being the (string) names of the constants. If the table argument is supplied then it is used as the output table, otherwise a new table is created. The constants contained in the returned table can then be used in most functions and methods where compilation flags or execution flags can be specified. They can also be used for comparing with return codes of some functions and methods for determining the reason of failure.
Since: 1.11.3
A table filled with the results.
Returns a table containing the numeric values of the constants defined by the regex library for compile flags, with the keys being the (string) names of the constants. If the table argument is supplied then it is used as the output table, otherwise a new table is created.
Since: 1.11.3
A table filled with the results.
Returns a table containing the numeric values of the constants defined by the regex library for match flags, with the keys being the (string) names of the constants. If the table argument is supplied then it is used as the output table, otherwise a new table is created.
Since: 1.11.3
A table filled with the results.
Searches for the first match of the regexp pattern in the string subject, starting from offset init, subject to flags cf and ef. The pattern is compiled each time this is called, unlike the class method match function.
Since: 1.11.3
On success, returns all substring matches ("captures"), in the order they appear in the pattern. false is returned for sub-patterns that did not participate in the match. If the pattern specified no captures then the whole matched substring is returned. On failure, returns nil.
Searches for the first match of the regexp pattern in the string subject, starting from offset init, subject to flags ef. The pattern is compiled each time this is called, unlike the class method find function.
Since: 1.11.3
On success, returns the start point of the match (a number), the end point of the match (a number), and all substring matches ("captures"), in the order they appear in the pattern. false is returned for sub-patterns that did not participate in the match. On failure, returns nil.
Returns an iterator for repeated matching of the pattern patt in the string subj, subject to flags cf and ef. The function is intended for use in the generic for Lua construct. The pattern can be a string or a GRegex object previously compiled with GRegex.new().
Since: 1.11.3
The iterator function is called by Lua. On every iteration (that is, on every match), it returns all captures in the order they appear in the pattern (or the entire match if the pattern specified no captures). The iteration will continue till the subject fails to match.
Searches for all matches of the pattern in the string subject and replaces them according to the parameters repl and max. The pattern can be a string or a GRegex object previously compiled with GRegex.new().
Since: 1.11.3
For details see: https://rrthomas.github.io/lrexlib/manual.html#gsub
On success, returns the subject string with the substitutions made, the number of matches found, and the number of substitutions made.
Splits a subject string subj into parts (sections). The sep parameter is a regular expression pattern representing separators between the sections. The function is intended for use in the generic for Lua construct. The function returns an iterator for repeated matching of the pattern sep in the string subj, subject to flags cf and ef. The sep pattern can be a string or a GRegex object previously compiled with GRegex.new(). Unlike gmatch, there will always be at least one iteration pass, even if there are no matches in the subject.
Since: 1.11.3
The iterator function is called by Lua. On every iteration, it returns a subject section (can be an empty string), followed by all captures in the order they appear in the sep pattern (or the entire match if the sep pattern specified no captures). If there is no match (this can occur only in the last iteration), then nothing is returned after the subject section. The iteration will continue till the end of the subject.
Returns a returns a string containing the version of the used library.
Since: 1.11.3
The version string
Searches for the first match of the regexp pattern in the string subject, starting from offset init, subject to flags ef.
Since: 1.11.3
On success, returns all substring matches (“captures”), in the order they appear in the pattern. false is returned for sub-patterns that did not participate in the match. If the pattern specified no captures then the whole matched substring is returned. nil is returned if the pattern did not match.
Searches for the first match of the regexp pattern in the string subject, starting from offset init, subject to flags ef.
Since: 1.11.3
On success, returns the start point of the match (a number), the end point of the match (a number), and all substring matches ("captures"), in the order they appear in the pattern. false is returned for sub-patterns that did not participate in the match. On failure, returns nil.
Searches for the first match of the compiled GRegex object in the string subject, starting from offset init, subject to the execution match flags ef.
Since: 1.11.3
On success, returns the start point of the first match (a number), the end point of the first match (a number), and the offsets of substring matches (“captures” in Lua terminology) are returned as a third result, in a table. This table contains false in the positions where the corresponding sub-pattern did not participate in the match. On failure, returns nil. Example: If the whole match is at offsets 10,20 and substring matches are at offsets 12,14 and 16,19 then the function returns the following: 10, 20, { 12,14,16,19 }.
Matches a compiled regular expression GRegex object against a given subject string subj, using a DFA matching algorithm.
Since: 1.11.3
On success, returns the start point of the matches found (a number), a table containing the end points of the matches found, the longer matches first, and the number of matches found as the third return value. On failure, returns nil. Example: If there are 3 matches found starting at offset 10 and ending at offsets 15, 20 and 25 then the function returns the following: 10, { 25,20,15 }, 3