# HG changeset patch
# User Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
# Date 799386449 0
# Node ID f43818d3bbd810ca0603adb3459cc9830f408bcb
# Parent  38f3ac2845f7f10b860a1b7a77a488b892315707
Warn about nested repetition.

diff -r 38f3ac2845f7 -r f43818d3bbd8 lispref/searching.texi
--- a/lispref/searching.texi	Tue May 02 02:18:34 1995 +0000
+++ b/lispref/searching.texi	Tue May 02 03:47:29 1995 +0000
@@ -225,6 +225,14 @@
 The next alternative is for @samp{a*} to match only two @samp{a}s.
 With this choice, the rest of the regexp matches successfully.@refill
 
+Nested repetition operators can be extremely slow if they specify
+backtracking loops.  For example, @samp{\(x+y*\)*a} could take hours to
+match the sequence @samp{xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxz}.  The
+slowness is because Emacs must try each imaginable way of grouping the
+35 @samp{x}'s before concluding that none of them can work.  To make
+sure your regular expressions run fast, check nested repetitions
+carefully.
+
 @item +
 @cindex @samp{+} in regexp
 is a suffix operator similar to @samp{*} except that the preceding