pcregexp is a drop‑in replacement for Go's standard regexp package that uses the full capabilities of PCRE2 by loading the shared library dynamically at runtime, which enables cross‑compilation without the need for a C compiler (no Cgo required!). The API closely mirrors that of the standard library's regexp package while supporting advanced regex features like lookarounds and backreferences that PCRE2 provides.

• go1.20 or later.
• PCRE2 10.x shared library must be installed on your system.
• Supported platforms:
  • PCRE2
  • purego

go install -v github.com/dwisiswant0/pcregexp@latest

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    
    "github.com/dwisiswant0/pcregexp"
)

func main() {
    // Compile a pattern. (Panics on error)
    re := pcregexp.MustCompile("p([a-z]+)ch")
    defer re.Close()

    // Check if the string matches the pattern.
    fmt.Println("MatchString(\"peach\"):", re.MatchString("peach"))

    // Find the leftmost match.
    fmt.Println("FindString(\"peach punch\"):", re.FindString("peach punch"))

    // Get the start and end indexes of the match.
    fmt.Println("FindStringIndex(\"peach punch\"):", re.FindStringIndex("peach punch"))

    // Retrieve the match along with its captured submatch.
    fmt.Println("FindStringSubmatch(\"peach punch\"):", re.FindStringSubmatch("peach punch"))

    // Perform global replacement (naively replaces all non-overlapping matches).
    src := "peach punch pinch"
    repl := "<fruit>"
    fmt.Println("ReplaceAllString:", re.ReplaceAllString(src, repl))
}

You may want to use the regexp package provided here, which wraps both Go's standard regexp package and a PCRE2-based implementation, pcregexp. This unified interface automatically selects the appropriate engine based on the regex features used, offering the best of both worlds.

Execute the performance benchmark by running:

make bench

See TODO.md.

There are no guarantees of stability for the APIs in this library, and while they are not expected to change dramatically. API tweaks and bug fixes may occur.

pcregexp is released by @dwisiswant0 under the Apache 2.0 license. See LICENSE.