Splunk Search

Rex and this perl regex generator

tb5821
Communicator

I'm trying to use this niffty regex generator using the perl option.
http://txt2re.com/index-java.php3?s=%3CTAG\b[^%3E]*%3E%28.*?%29%3C/TAG%3E&-24

I get the code from that page in perl format and then try to use it in splunk as REX:

... | rex 
("$re1='(file)';    # Word 1
$re2='(:)'; # Any Single Character 1
$re3='(\\/)';   # Any Single Character 2
$re4='((?:\\/[\\w\\.\\-]+)+)';  # Unix Path 1
$re5='( )'; # White Space 1
$re6='(does)';  # Word 2
$re7='( )'; # White Space 2
$re8='(not)';   # Word 3
$re9='( )'; # White Space 3
$re10='(exist)';    # Word 4

$re=$re1.$re2.$re3.$re4.$re5.$re6.$re7.$re8.$re9.$re10;
if ($txt =~ m/$re/is)
{
    $word1=$1;
    $c1=$2;
    $c2=$3;
    $unixpath1=$4;
    $ws1=$5;
    $word2=$6;
    $ws2=$7;
    $word3=$8;
    $ws3=$9;
    $word4=$10;
}")

here's the error I get:

Error in 'rex' command: The regex '$re1='(file)'; # Word 1 $re2='(:)'; # Any Single Character 1 $re3='(\/)'; # Any Single Character 2 $re4='((?:\/[\w\.\-]+)+)'; # Unix Path 1 $re5='( )'; # White Space 1 $re6='(does)'; # Word 2 $re7='( )'; # White Space 2 $re8='(not)'; # Word 3 $re9='( )'; # White Space 3 $re10='(exist)'; # Word 4 $re=$re1.$re2.$re3.$re4.$re5.$re6.$re7.$re8.$re9.$re10; if ($txt =~ m/$re/is) { $word1=$1; $c1=$2; $c2=$3; $unixpath1=$4; $ws1=$5; $word2=$6; $ws2=$7; $word3=$8; $ws3=$9; $word4=$10; }' does not extract anything. It should specify at least one named group. Format: (?<name>...).
Tags (2)
0 Karma

Ayn
Legend

Well that's Perl CODE, not a regular expression. While that tool seems nifty enough, I think you'll have more headaches trying to grab a raw regex from it than it's worth. Splunk's own field extractor has this kind of functionality, why not use that?

jbsplunk
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee
0 Karma

tb5821
Communicator

I find the field extractor hard to work with... when you go into extract fields if the data your looking to extract isn't part of the sample then you kinda have a hard time.

0 Karma
Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

Congratulations to the 2025-2026 SplunkTrust!

Hello, Splunk Community! We are beyond thrilled to announce our newest group of SplunkTrust members!  The ...

Community Feedback

We Want to Hear from You! Share Your Feedback on the Splunk Community   The Splunk Community is built for you ...

Manual Instrumentation with Splunk Observability Cloud: Implementing the ...

In our observability journey so far, we've built comprehensive instrumentation for our Worms in Space ...