>>> import re
>>> len(re.search(r'a+', 'a' * 100000).group())
100000
>>>
>>> re.search(r'a{65536,}', 'a' * 100000)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/functools.py", line 176, in wrapper
    result = cache[key]
KeyError: (<class 'str'>, 'a{65536,}', 0)

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/re.py", line 158, in search
    return _compile(pattern, flags).search(string)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/re.py", line 255, in _compile
    return _compile_typed(type(pattern), pattern, flags)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/functools.py", line 180, in wrapper
    result = user_function(*args, **kwds)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/re.py", line 267, in _compile_typed
    return sre_compile.compile(pattern, flags)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/sre_compile.py", line 491, in compile
    p = sre_parse.parse(p, flags)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/sre_parse.py", line 692, in parse
    p = _parse_sub(source, pattern, 0)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/sre_parse.py", line 315, in _parse_sub
    itemsappend(_parse(source, state))
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/sre_parse.py", line 511, in _parse
    raise error("bad repeat interval")
sre_constants.error: bad repeat interval
>>>
>>>
>>> re.search(r'a{65536}', 'a' * 100000)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/functools.py", line 176, in wrapper
    result = cache[key]
KeyError: (<class 'str'>, 'a{65536}', 0)

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/re.py", line 158, in search
    return _compile(pattern, flags).search(string)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/re.py", line 255, in _compile
    return _compile_typed(type(pattern), pattern, flags)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/functools.py", line 180, in wrapper
    result = user_function(*args, **kwds)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/re.py", line 267, in _compile_typed
    return sre_compile.compile(pattern, flags)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.2/sre_compile.py", line 514, in compile
    groupindex, indexgroup
OverflowError: regular expression code size limit exceeded
>>>