Wireshark · Wireshark-dev: [Wireshark-dev] Can I safely use PCRE in wiretap file reader?

[Hadriel Kaplan <HKaplan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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