test-pcre

name	test-pcre
description	Use when testing or benchmarking PCRE2 regular expressions with the local `test_pcre` / `pcre2test` executable.
disable-model-invocation	true
user-invocable	true

test-pcre

PCRE2 test harness installed here as test_pcre. It is the standard pcre2test-style CLI for trying patterns against subjects, checking compile-time options, and timing compilation or matching.

Quick Start

• Command: test_pcre [options] [input [output]]
• Local executable: /home/vimalinx/miniforge3/envs/bio/bin/test_pcre
• Reported tool identity: pcre2test

When To Use This Tool

• Trying a PCRE2 pattern against sample subjects before embedding it elsewhere
• Checking PCRE2 build capabilities such as JIT, Unicode, newline type, or enabled library widths
• Timing regex compilation or execution with -t, -tm, -T, or -TM
• Debugging pattern behavior with -d, -i, or other pcre2test modifiers

Common Patterns

# Show usage
test_pcre -help

# Show version
test_pcre -version

# Minimal pattern/subject test via stdin
printf '/abc/\nabc\n\n' | test_pcre

Recommended Workflow

1. Start with test_pcre -help or test_pcre -C to confirm available PCRE2 features.
2. Feed pattern/subject pairs through stdin or an input file in pcre2test format.
3. Add debug/info/timing flags only after the base match works.
4. Use the exact local command name test_pcre, not the skill folder name.

Guardrails

• The real executable here is test_pcre with an underscore, not test-pcre.
• test_pcre -help works and prints standard pcre2test usage; -version reports PCRE2 version 10.44 2024-06-07.
• In live testing, printf '/abc/\nabc\n\n' | test_pcre produced a successful match with capture line 0: abc.
• -v|--version is documented by the tool, so GNU-style --version should be treated as valid for the real executable even though the old skill text assumed otherwise.