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# Python 2.7.3
# Ubuntu 12.04
import re
pattern = r"( ?P<phrase>.*)"
regex = re.compile(pattern, re.VERBOSE)
The above raises an exception in re.compile():
Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "./try.py", line 6, in <module>
 regex = re.compile(pattern, re.VERBOSE)
 File "/home/roy/env/python/lib/python2.7/re.py", line 190, in compile
 return _compile(pattern, flags)
 File "/home/roy/env/python/lib/python2.7/re.py", line 242, in _compile
 raise error, v # invalid expression
sre_constants.error: nothing to repeat
The problem appears to be that re.VERBOSE isn't ignoring the space after the "(".
Maybe this is a duplicate of issue15606 ?