Mercurial > emacs
changeset 44062:32211007711c
Clarify non-greedy repetition in searching.
| author | Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org> |
|---|---|
| date | Thu, 21 Mar 2002 09:37:22 +0000 |
| parents | f816ded285dd |
| children | fd6c1f8ebd4e |
| files | man/search.texi |
| diffstat | 1 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) [+] |
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--- a/man/search.texi Thu Mar 21 09:35:35 2002 +0000 +++ b/man/search.texi Thu Mar 21 09:37:22 2002 +0000 @@ -463,6 +463,13 @@ 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