# pcre2_serialize_encode man page

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## SYNOPSIS

#include <pcre2.h>

int32_t pcre2_serialize_encode(const pcre2_code **codes, int32_t number_of_codes, uint8_t **serialized_bytes, PCRE2_SIZE *serialized_size, pcre2_general_context *gcontext);

## DESCRIPTION

This function encodes a list of compiled patterns into a byte stream that can be saved on disc or elsewhere. Note that this is not an abstract format like Java or .NET. Conversion of the byte stream back into usable compiled patterns can only happen on a host that is running the same version of PCRE2, with the same code unit width, and the host must also have the same endianness, pointer width and PCRE2_SIZE type. The arguments for pcre2_serialize_encode() are:

      codes             pointer to a vector containing the list
      number_of_codes   number of slots in the vector
      serialized_bytes  set to point to the serialized byte stream
      serialized_size   set to the number of bytes in the byte stream
      gcontext          pointer to a general context or NULL

The context argument is used to obtain memory for the byte stream. When the serialized data is no longer needed, it must be freed by calling pcre2_serialize_free(). The yield of the function is the number of serialized patterns, or one of the following negative error codes:

      PCRE2_ERROR_BADDATA      number_of_codes is zero or less
      PCRE2_ERROR_BADMAGIC     mismatch of id bytes in one of the patterns
      PCRE2_ERROR_MEMORY       memory allocation failed
      PCRE2_ERROR_MIXEDTABLES  the patterns do not all use the same tables
      PCRE2_ERROR_NULL         an argument other than gcontext is NULL

PCRE2_ERROR_BADMAGIC means either that a pattern's code has been corrupted, or that a slot in the vector does not point to a compiled pattern.

There is a complete description of the PCRE2 native API in the pcre2api page and a description of the serialization functions in the pcre2serialize page.

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