Coyote Point Systems Equalizer Installation And Administration Manual page 117

Match lengths are measured in characters, not collating elements. A null string is
considered longer than no match at all. For example, `bb*' matches the three middle
characters of `abbbc', `(wee|week)(knights|nights)' matches all ten characters of
`weeknights', when `(.*).*' is matched against `abc' the parenthesized subexpression
matches all three characters, and when `(a*)*' is matched against `bc' both the whole RE
and the parenthesized subexpression match the null string.
Equalizer Installation and Administration Guide 107