# Regexp

# Regular Expression Backends

Unfortunately, there is a bit of confusion about the regular expression backend used by Ocamlnet. Traditionally, this was always PCRE, and not the Str library coming with the OCaml distribution. The reason was that Str did not have a thread-safe API, but it was required to make Ocamlnet thread-safe.

However, recent OCaml releases ship with a version of Str that can be easily made thread-safe. Because of this, the default regexp backend is now Str, with an option to use PCRE instead.

## Current Solution

So we have now by default:

- Library `netstring`, module `Netstring_str`: This is a thread-safe API around Str. All uses of regular expressions inside the OCamlnet code base call functions of this module only.

You can enable PCRE in the configure script with `-enable-pcre` or `-enable-full-pcre`. The effects are as follows:

- Library `netstring`, module `Netstring_str`: If only `-enable-pcre` is configured, this is still an API around Str. If, however, `-enable-full-pcre` is configured, the module maps the functions to PCRE calls. Note that the regular expressions still use Str-compatible syntax, so this switch of the backend is normally invisible to the caller.
- Library `netstring-pcre`, module `Netstring_pcre`: This module is now available for both configure options. `Netstring_pcre` provides the same API, but uses PCRE-style regular expression syntax. We provide this module solely for backward compatibility with older versions of Ocamlnet. Note that previous versions of Ocamlnet added this module to the `netstring` library, but it is now in the new `netstring-pcre` library.

The meanings of the configuration options are thus:

- `-enable-pcre`: The default regexp engine is still Str, and `Netstring_pcre` is available in the separate library `netstring-pcre`
- `-enable-full-pcre`: The regexp engine is changed to PCRE, and `Netstring_pcre` is also available in the separate library `netstring-pcre`

## Previous Solutions

Actually, Ocamlnet stepped away from PCRE in several phases.

- Before release 3.3: Ocamlnet always used PCRE as backend. `Netstring_str` used Str syntax, but mapped this to PCRE syntax.
- Release 3.3.1: Optionally, `Netstring_str` can now use Str as backend. There are still thread-safety issues, so this was not made the default, and only active after `-disable-pcre`.
- Release 3.6: This version fixed the thread-safety problems, and Str was now the default backend. The option `-enable-pcre` reverted to the previous behavior: PCRE backed `Netstring_str`, and `Netstring_pcre` was built. The latter module was moved to its own library `netstring-pcre`.
- Release 3.6.4 (current): Adding `-enable-full-pcre` with the meaning that PCRE becomes the backend, and `-enable-pcre` has now the weaker meaning that `netstring-pcre` is built.

## Recommendations

For packagers of Ocamlnet, the recommendation is to build Ocamlnet with Str as default engine, and to offer PCRE as option (i.e. `-enable-pcre`). The latter allows it to easily port other software to the new Ocamlnet style.

It is discouraged to switch completely to PCRE (`-enable-full-pcre`).

For users of Ocamlnet, the recommendations are:

- Use Str as regular expression engine, and if thread-safety is an issue, prefer `Netstring_str` over the default Str API.
- If there are still good reasons to use PCRE, you have either the choice to use PCRE directly, or via `Netstring_pcre`. This module will not go away (it is not deprecated).