do not
apply. The return values are the same as for <b>pcre_exec()</b>.
</P>
<P>
When you call <b>pcre_exec()</b>, as well as testing for invalid options, a
number of other sanity checks are performed on the arguments. For example, if
the subject pointer is NULL, or its length is negative, an immediate error is
given. Also, unless PCRE_NO_UTF[8|16|32] is set, a UTF subject string is tested
for validity. In the interests of speed, these checks do not happen on the JIT
fast path, and if invalid data is passed