Re: BUG #16814: Invalid memory access on regexp_match with .* and BRE

PG Bug reporting form <noreply@postgresql.org> writes:
> When executing the following regexp call:
> select regexp_match('abc', '.*', 'b');
> valgrind detects an error:

Hah, nice one.  It gives the wrong answer too, at least it does most of
the time for me:

# select regexp_match('abc', '.*', 'b');
 regexp_match 
--------------
 {""}
(1 row)

That's because it's acting like the pattern is '.*?' (prefer shortest
match) rather than '.*'.

This bug is well over the age of consent, btw.  Tcl's got it too,
so it surely is aboriginal in Henry Spencer's code.

Thanks for the report!

            regards, tom lane