Storing PCRE compiled regexes in C/C++

Question

Is there an efficient way to store the compiled regexes (compiled via regcomp(), PCRE) in a binary file, so that later I can just read from the file and call regexec()?

Or is it just a matter of dumping the compiled regex_t structs to the file and reading them back when needed?

Answer 1

Unless you have a super-complex regex, I hardly see an advantage of serializing the compiled regex, the compilation time shouldn't be that big. Unless you are on a super-tight embed system?

In any case, indeed dumping the structure might be a solution, at least you can try...
[EDIT] I just looked at the source I have (6.7) and as I feared, it is not so simple, the structure starts with a void *... You can't serialize pointers, they have to be recomputed.