regex_escape(9)

💅 regex_escape(9) — Kernel API Manual 🌸

okay so bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual page for regex_escape(9) — manual name folded in near the top, no boring header copy-paste, we're cute like that 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

regex_escape — escapes BRE metacharacters in a string. that's it, that's the whole assignment 💅

🌟 SYNOPSIS 🌟

char * regex_escape (const char *const src , char *dst , size_t dst_size );

🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• src — the source string you want to escape, bestie.
• dst — destination buffer for the escaped string.
• dst_size — size of the destination buffer. yes, the buffer's size. important.

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so this function escapes the characters that have special meaning in POSIX Basic Regular Expressions. the little squad is $, *, ., [, ], and ^ — those are the ones getting the escape treatment ✨

it returns a pointer to the NUL terminator in dst — cursor-style API for chaining, iykyk — or (char *)-ENOMEM if the buffer is too small. not a slay: too-small buffer gets you that -ENOMEM-cast situation, so watch dst_size, okay? 🫶

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• Kernel file ./tools/testing/selftests/landlock/common.h

xoxo, your favorite kernel bestie 💖 — source/version: ./tools/testing/selftests/land... · date: October 2026 · regex_escape(9) out 🌸