Re: [Libguestfs] [PATCH] lib: Add COMPILE_REGEXP macro to hide regexp constructors/destructors.

Sounds okay, I guess it shouldn't introduce much overhead in the library loading? I also wonder whether we can delay the creation of those regexps (i.e. not just the ones mentioned in this patch) when just needed; something like the (untested): #define COMPILE_REGEXP(name,pattern,options) \ static void free_regexp_##name (void) __attribute__((destructor)); \ static pcre *_internal_##name; \ static void \ ##name (void) \ { \ if (_internal_##name == NULL) { \ const char *err; \ int offset; \ _internal_##name = pcre_compile ((pattern), (options), \ &err, &offset, NULL); \ if (_internal_##name == NULL) { \ ignore_value (write (2, err, strlen (err))); \ abort (); \ } \ } \ return _internal_##name; \ } \ static void \ free_regexp_##name (void) \ { \ if (_internal_##name) \ pcre_free (_internal_##name); \ } using it e.g.: match (re_major_minor (), ...) The only issue I could see is that the above is not thread-safe.