---
name: "pcre_refcount"
section: "3"
platform: "linux"
package: "pcre"
version: "8.45-5"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/pcre_refcount"
---

# pcre\_refcount(3)

Perl-compatible regular expressions

## NAME

PCRE - Perl-compatible regular expressions

## SYNOPSIS

**#include \<pcre.h\>**

**int pcre\_refcount(pcre \**code*, int *adjust*);**

**int pcre16\_refcount(pcre16 \**code*, int *adjust*);**

**int pcre32\_refcount(pcre32 \**code*, int *adjust*);**

## DESCRIPTION

This function is used to maintain a reference count inside a data block that contains a compiled pattern. Its arguments are:

  *code*                      Compiled regular expression\
   *adjust*                    Adjustment to reference value

The yield of the function is the adjusted reference value, which is constrained to lie between 0 and 65535.

There is a complete description of the PCRE native API in the **pcreapi** page and a description of the POSIX API in the **pcreposix** page.