grep feature request - libgrep and api docs

[r l]

Maybe this is already working but I'm hoping to accomplish the  
following:

in perl/php/python writing a grep-like facsimile is pretty easy  
HOWEVER it's always slower and more cumbersome than -the real thing-
similarly, using pipes to get to grep is always slow and introduces  
synchronization problems.

what I'd like is a libgrep that exposes the internals of grep's  
functions to other c programs as a library so that these could be  
wrapped natively for perl/python/php so that these languages could use  
a native grep function with full awesome grep functionality rather  
than an external one.

I've looked at libgrep.h from gnu/gettext project and this appears to  
be a kind of stubby attempt to do this - but maybe I'm wrong.

If this is "done" and libgrep from gnu/gettext IS THE PLACE and aught  
to be THE PLACE to look, I'm sorry for the interruption (but could use  
some advice about how to integrate it!).

If this is not done, it sure would be nifty if the grep codebase  
itself came with an api doc and would build its own libgrep and  
install it by default or with an optional compile parameter.

Robbie Lindauer