Bug #3014: octal character versus regex backreferences

From: cmiller@surfsouth.com Operating system: any PHP version: 3.0 Latest CVS (20/12/1999) PHP Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Bug description: octal character versus regex backreferences ereg("fla(r[gpm]) wobba\1", $foo) Note the ``\1'' -- is that an octal 1 in my charset, or a backreference? The backslash-x-number notation is great for hexidecimal, but the backslash-number notation conflicts with the notation for backreferences (in ereg(), e.g.) Are there backreferences? The manual refers us to the regex(7) manpage, which does describe them. Even if there's not, I recommend backslash-zero-octal, as historically, octals are represented with preceding zeros. Backreferences are positive integers (which mortals usually describe with no leading zero), so there's no conflict.