Can I safely use PCRE in wiretap file reader?

[Hadriel Kaplan <HKaplan () acmepacket com>]

Howdy,
I'm writing a wiretap file reader for a format which uses ascii encoding for metadata, and I'd like to use regex/PCRE 
for it. (it would be a lot cleaner/simpler than sscanf)
I'd like to be able to contribute this file reader back into mainline someday.  
Since PCRE is "optional" in the dev docs, does that mean I can't safely assume it's available in wireshark builds?
Thanks!

-hadriel 
___________________________________________________________________________
Sent via:    Wireshark-dev mailing list <wireshark-dev () wireshark org>
Archives:    http://www.wireshark.org/lists/wireshark-dev
Unsubscribe: https://wireshark.org/mailman/options/wireshark-dev
             mailto:wireshark-dev-request () wireshark org?subject=unsubscribe