Boost C++ Libraries

Read data into a streambuf until some part of the data it contains matches a regular expression.

template<
    typename SyncReadStream,
    typename Allocator>
std::size_t read_until(
    SyncReadStream & s,
    boost::asio::basic_streambuf< Allocator > & b,
    const boost::regex & expr);

This function is used to read data into the specified streambuf until the streambuf's get area contains some data that matches a regular expression. The call will block until one of the following conditions is true:

This operation is implemented in terms of zero or more calls to the stream's read_some function. If the streambuf's get area already contains data that matches the regular expression, the function returns immediately.

Parameters

Return Value

The number of bytes in the streambuf's get area up to and including the substring that matches the regular expression.

Exceptions

Remarks

After a successful read_until operation, the streambuf may contain additional data beyond that which matched the regular expression. An application will typically leave that data in the streambuf for a subsequent read_until operation to examine.

Example

To read data into a streambuf until a CR-LF sequence is encountered:

boost::asio::streambuf b;
boost::asio::read_until(s, b, boost::regex("\r\n"));
std::istream is(&b);
std::string line;
std::getline(is, line);

After the read_until operation completes successfully, the buffer b contains the data which matched the regular expression:

{ 'a', 'b', ..., 'c', '\r', '\n', 'd', 'e', ... }

The call to std::getline then extracts the data up to and including the newline (which is discarded), so that the string line contains:

{ 'a', 'b', ..., 'c', '\r' }

The remaining data is left in the buffer b as follows:

{ 'd', 'e', ... }

This data may be the start of a new line, to be extracted by a subsequent read_until operation.