Preface

Overview

Hyperscan is a regular expression engine designed to offer high performance, the ability to match multiple expressions simultaneously and flexibility in scanning operation.

Patterns are provided to a compilation interface which generates an immutable pattern database. The scan interface then can be used to scan a target data buffer for the given patterns, returning any matching results from that data buffer. Hyperscan also provides a streaming mode, in which matches that span several blocks in a stream are detected.

This document is designed to facilitate code-level integration of the Hyperscan library with existing or new applications.

Introduction is a short overview of the Hyperscan library, with more detail on the Hyperscan API provided in the subsequent sections: Compiling Patterns and Scanning for Patterns.

Performance Considerations provides details on various factors which may impact the performance of a Hyperscan integration.

API Reference: Constants and API Reference: Files provides a detailed summary of the Hyperscan Application Programming Interface (API).

Audience

This guide is aimed at developers interested in integrating Hyperscan into an application. For information on building the Hyperscan library, see the Quick Start Guide.

Conventions

• Text in a fixed-width font refers to a code element, e.g. type name; function or method name.

• Text in a coloured fixed-width font refers to a regular expression or a part of a regular expression.