real-regex

A drop-in replacement for Python's re, backed by a linear-time, ReDoS-safe C++20 engine — with bounded lookarounds that the other linear-time engines (RE2, Rust) don't have.

pip install real-regex

Drop-in for re

Import it as re and use the API you already know — compile, search, match, fullmatch, findall, finditer, sub, subn, split, and Match.group / groups / groupdict / span / start / end:

import real as re

m = re.match(r"(\w+)@(\w+)\.(\w+)", "user@example.com")
m.group(1), m.group(2), m.group(3)          # ('user', 'example', 'com')

re.findall(r"\d+", "a1 b22 c333")            # ['1', '22', '333']
re.sub(r"\s+", "_", "a  b   c")              # 'a_b_c'

Flags work the same: re.I, re.M, re.S, re.X, re.A. Unicode \w \d \s \b and IGNORECASE case-folding follow re in text mode.

Why replace re

  • No ReDoS. re (like every backtracking engine) blows up on patterns like (a+)+b against a hostile input — seconds, then minutes. real-regex is a Thompson NFA simulation: linear time, always, no catastrophic backtracking, ever.
  • Bounded lookarounds, still linear. (?=…) (?!…) (?<=…) (?<!…) — including variable-width lookbehind — match without backtracking. RE2 and Rust drop lookarounds to stay safe; real-regex keeps them.
  • Faster than re on most work — geometric mean 2.06× across a broad corpus (CI [1.37, 3.12]). One-pass extraction and a lazy DFA make sparse findall 9.6×, multiline anchors 30×, and capture-dense group extraction (emails: 1.07×, up from a 0.32× loss before the one-pass work) beat re; a couple of high-volume split/tiny-anchored cases stay slower (CPython's C engine wins there). It is not the fastest engine at raw throughput — it is the safe one that is also quick.

Not re, on purpose

Strict by default — every accepted pattern is guaranteed linear. The unsupported constructs (backreferences, conditionals, non-binary Unicode properties like \p{Bidi_Class=L}) raise real.error rather than silently falling back to a backtracking engine, so a compiled pattern is a ReDoS-safety guarantee, not a maybe. (\p{L} / \p{sc=Greek} / \p{scx=Grek} / \p{Alphabetic} — General_Category, Script, Script_Extensions and the standard binary properties — are supported, a superset of stdlib re.) Opt into delegating those to the standard library re per call with real.compile(pat, fallback=True) (or module-wide with real.fallback = True) — it may accept them, at the cost of the linear-time guarantee for that pattern; Pattern.engine ("real" or "re") always tells you which backend you got. A few semantics differ deliberately (e.g. a nullable loop's final empty capture). Full list: COMPATIBILITY.md.

The wheel also ships the header-only C++ library — real.get_include() returns its path, so the same engine is available to C++ via #include <real/real.hpp>. Source, benchmarks and the C++ API: https://github.com/RECHE23/real-regex.

Project links

Data verified by PyPI on Jul 16, 2026
Data provided by the project maintainers, verified at the time the release was uploaded to PyPI.

Key dates

PyPI data
Data sourced directly from PyPI's database.
  • Released:
Newer release available (2026.8.17)

1 maintainer

PyPI data
Data sourced directly from PyPI's database.
Avatar for scientificlanguage from gravatar.com scientificlanguage

Credits

Author: René Chenard

GitHub Statistics

Data verified by PyPI on Jul 16, 2026
The GitHub source repository was provided by the project maintainers and verified by PyPI at the time of upload. Stars, forks, and open issues/PRs are derived from that repository and have not been independently verified.

License expression

MIT
View SPDX License List

Requires

Python >=3.10

Tags

regex regular-expression redos linear-time re

Classifiers

Report project as malware

Download files

Download the file for your platform. If you're not sure which to choose, learn more about installing packages.

Source Distribution

real_regex-2026.7.47.tar.gz (462.3 kB view details)

Uploaded Source

Built Distributions

If you're not sure about the file name format, learn more about wheel file names.

real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-win_amd64.whl (840.0 kB view details)

Uploaded CPython 3.10+Windows x86-64

real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-win32.whl (808.7 kB view details)

Uploaded CPython 3.10+Windows x86

real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl (3.7 MB view details)

Uploaded CPython 3.10+musllinux: musl 1.2+ x86-64

real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl (3.6 MB view details)

Uploaded CPython 3.10+musllinux: musl 1.2+ ARM64

real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-manylinux_2_24_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl (2.6 MB view details)

Uploaded CPython 3.10+manylinux: glibc 2.24+ x86-64manylinux: glibc 2.28+ x86-64

real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-manylinux_2_24_aarch64.manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl (2.6 MB view details)

Uploaded CPython 3.10+manylinux: glibc 2.24+ ARM64manylinux: glibc 2.28+ ARM64

real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl (649.6 kB view details)

Uploaded CPython 3.10+macOS 11.0+ ARM64

real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl (662.0 kB view details)

Uploaded CPython 3.10+macOS 10.9+ x86-64

File details

Details for the file real_regex-2026.7.47.tar.gz.

File metadata

  • Download URL: real_regex-2026.7.47.tar.gz
  • Upload date:
  • Size: 462.3 kB
  • Tags: Source
  • Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? Yes
  • Uploaded via: twine/6.1.0 CPython/3.13.13

File hashes

Hashes for real_regex-2026.7.47.tar.gz
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 185a36216dca07ef518b8083ef554d279a859061c71d7130801704835c067f86
MD5 54ef40c4c93563d346a54e38dabbaced
BLAKE2b-256 c2316ce959f6975c0a79852ddc3a6be563e5a1259e89bf8b6f7b622be4279302

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for real_regex-2026.7.47.tar.gz:

Publisher: release.yml on RECHE23/real-regex

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-win_amd64.whl.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-win_amd64.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 bbfff2c20a37fd544613a7656ff217324a5a7ab244046572152979b3906a98ff
MD5 a52b2b16af81e6c67ec7d37538b152ca
BLAKE2b-256 15d810446de1608025b1b7bf662de61a047635a8c446b74b0e9a2f6c8bf12b7d

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-win_amd64.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on RECHE23/real-regex

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-win32.whl.

File metadata

  • Download URL: real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-win32.whl
  • Upload date:
  • Size: 808.7 kB
  • Tags: CPython 3.10+, Windows x86
  • Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? Yes
  • Uploaded via: twine/6.1.0 CPython/3.13.13

File hashes

Hashes for real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-win32.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 a85efc2df2a2cf25442a85f6234ead5b754ea9082d74bc8807c53076c04e6abc
MD5 dd1cb237cf4693b93aab2006cc473a59
BLAKE2b-256 f3688a7b22b8fee706f68859331b0fcffd66f24ca5b0fb3f0779356aa32ea6aa

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-win32.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on RECHE23/real-regex

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 48134d8341c96cb848d5ad2f50ac1d925abcd562791a475722eea3b0f8155392
MD5 cfca7527215644e3a33ba85608bbf0b1
BLAKE2b-256 9b5ef018fa93d490bd76d5bee97ed2c82c749a6ae6d5bf82efbe0e726fceb8ab

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-musllinux_1_2_x86_64.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on RECHE23/real-regex

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 35a1b2267381b93746fa77320acf6a35f30fdf143d6c0746b364d6ea0fee8bc5
MD5 c89795ffe3f21ebc0fd459ba925634bd
BLAKE2b-256 82ab6dc5d4bba6cd015baee3addd237279872bc15b401f66dcb817a05a9bb65e

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-musllinux_1_2_aarch64.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on RECHE23/real-regex

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-manylinux_2_24_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-manylinux_2_24_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 dc983cf32d03164745f527e09378d561d5164632c1e5765518ecb6630eb44959
MD5 558cfb9ae2088c663a76ad29d8fc8742
BLAKE2b-256 89a2216f8cbedd97e86dba4a30d99316a0eaa0f972f2a48a843e08f99e97b6ac

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-manylinux_2_24_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on RECHE23/real-regex

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-manylinux_2_24_aarch64.manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-manylinux_2_24_aarch64.manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 447620f169652351ea0be6554d6f597b326516ead2590f47dd5f53f4f0645945
MD5 0acab095e2977e9e00d0afb9715f4ba2
BLAKE2b-256 41b6120486bc628fad17b26f424dd9c65f00537946c9205e15e864f78856ff6e

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-manylinux_2_24_aarch64.manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on RECHE23/real-regex

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 7cfb26dc877d182f3d1cebae5c45f5be26151b533fbc37c3b349c24ac0bc7aca
MD5 adde6a976a4fc2ec28411df68c2a6312
BLAKE2b-256 54113eeba78098f22ed1c1b7b6bd1b733d036ef81e348e3c3856243d77fc45ae

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on RECHE23/real-regex

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

File details

Details for the file real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl.

File metadata

File hashes

Hashes for real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl
Algorithm Hash digest
SHA256 95cc0f95ad51e0c42d71ab047da3607312ab22324cee6fe80729a5a4ddb844a1
MD5 4ccc3e8c989a70f5262534ec1bbe941d
BLAKE2b-256 1f7cf1ad1401506951a9daf338fb34dd066ab395d78ca798cddccad6d513b647

See more details on using hashes here.

Provenance

The following attestation bundles were made for real_regex-2026.7.47-cp310-abi3-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl:

Publisher: release.yml on RECHE23/real-regex

Attestations: Values shown here reflect the state when the release was signed and may no longer be current.

Release history Release notifications | RSS feed

2026.8.17

9 files

2026.8.16

9 files

2026.8.15

9 files

2026.8.14

9 files

2026.8.13

9 files

2026.8.12

9 files

2026.8.11

9 files

2026.8.10

9 files

2026.8.9

9 files

2026.8.8

9 files

2026.8.7

9 files

2026.8.6

9 files

2026.8.5

9 files

2026.8.4

9 files

2026.8.3

9 files

2026.8.2

9 files

2026.8.1

9 files

2026.8.0

9 files

2026.7.63

9 files

2026.7.62

9 files

2026.7.61

9 files

2026.7.60

9 files

2026.7.59

9 files

2026.7.58

9 files

2026.7.57

9 files

2026.7.56

9 files

2026.7.55

9 files

2026.7.54

9 files

2026.7.53

9 files

2026.7.52

9 files

2026.7.51

9 files

2026.7.50

9 files

2026.7.49

9 files

2026.7.48

9 files

This release

2026.7.47 This release

9 files

2026.7.46

9 files

2026.7.45

9 files

2026.7.44

9 files

2026.7.43

9 files

2026.7.42

9 files

2026.7.41

9 files

2026.7.40

9 files

2026.7.39

9 files

2026.7.38

9 files

2026.7.37

9 files

2026.7.36

9 files

2026.7.35

9 files

2026.7.34

9 files

2026.7.33

9 files

2026.7.32

9 files

2026.7.31

9 files

2026.7.30

9 files

2026.7.29

9 files

2026.7.28

9 files

2026.7.27

9 files

2026.7.26

9 files

2026.7.25

9 files

2026.7.24

9 files

2026.7.23

9 files

2026.7.22

9 files

2026.7.21

9 files

2026.7.20

9 files

2026.7.19

9 files

2026.7.18

9 files

2026.7.17

9 files

2026.7.16

9 files

2026.7.15

9 files

2026.7.14

9 files

2026.7.13

9 files

2026.7.12

9 files

2026.7.11

9 files

2026.7.10

9 files

2026.7.9

9 files

2026.7.8

9 files

2026.7.7

9 files

2026.7.6

9 files

2026.7.5

9 files

2026.7.4

9 files

2026.7.3

9 files

2026.7.2

9 files

2026.7.1

9 files

2026.7.0

9 files

2026.6.21

9 files

2026.6.20

9 files

2026.6.19

9 files

2026.6.18

9 files

2026.6.17

9 files

2026.6.16

9 files

2026.6.15

9 files

2026.6.14

9 files

2026.6.13

9 files

2026.6.12

9 files

2026.6.11

9 files

2026.6.10

9 files

2026.6.9

9 files

2026.6.8

9 files

2026.6.7

9 files

2026.6.6

9 files

2026.6.5

9 files

2026.6.4

9 files

2026.6.3

9 files

2026.6.2

9 files

2026.6.1

9 files

2026.6.0

9 files

Supported by

AWS Cloud computing and Security Sponsor Datadog Monitoring Depot Continuous Integration Fastly CDN Google Download Analytics Sentry Error logging StatusPage Status page