[Tutor] sneaky re.compile --is this a bug??

[Albert-Jan Roskam]

Hi,
 
Is it intended behavior that regular expression flags are ignored when compiled regexes are used? In the code below, I intend to match path names case-independently, but once the flags (in this case: no flags at all) have been set in re.compile, subsequent flags in re.search are ignored (no pun intended). This is sneaky! Is this because of the old Python version I am using?
 
Python 2.5.1 (r251:54863, Apr 18 2007, 08:51:08) [MSC v.1310 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
>>> import re
>>> s = r"""DATA LIST         FILE = '\\besh1f\inkomen3\iis1\iistaak\produktie\dividend\base\j2010\bestand\D1305_01' /"""
>>> regex = "(file|name) ?= ?['\"]([^'\"]+)['\"]"
>>> m1 = re.search(regex, s, re.I)
>>> m1.group(2)
'\\\\besh1f\\inkomen3\\iis1\\iistaak\\produktie\\dividend\\base\\j2010\\bestand\\D1305_01'
>>> compiledRegex = re.compile(regex, s)    ## no ignorecase here
>>> m2 = re.search(compiledRegex, s, re.I)  ## re.I (ignorecase) is SILENTLY IGNORED
>>> m2 is None
True

Thanks in advance for your replies!

Regards,
Albert-Jan


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