| Meta-Character | Matches |
| \\ | A single backslash |
| \0n | An octal value describing a character, where n is a number such that 0 <= n <= 7 |
| \0mnn | The character with octal value 0mnn (0 <= m <= 3, 0 <= n <= 7) |
| \0nn | The character with octal value 0nn (0 <= n <= 7) |
| \0xhh | The character with hexadecimal value hh (where 0 <= h <= F) |
| \uhhhh | The character with hexadecimal value hhhh (where 0 <= h <= F) |
| \t | A tab (character '\u0009') |
| \n | A newline (linefeed) ('\u000A') |
| \r | A carriage-return ('\u000D') |
| \f | A form-feed ('\u000C') |
| \a | A bell/beep character ('\u0007') |
| \e | An escape character ('\u001B') |
| \cx | The control character corresponding to x, such as \cc is control-c |
| . | Any single character |