--- a
+++ b/src/common/cstr.h
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+/* Copyright (C) 2011 J.F.Dockes
+ * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ * the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+ * (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
+ * GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ * along with this program; if not, write to the
+ * Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
+ * 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
+ */
+
+#ifndef _CSTR_H_INCLUDED_
+#define _CSTR_H_INCLUDED_
+
+// recoll mostly uses STL strings. In many places we had automatic
+// conversion from a C string to an STL one. This costs, and can
+// become significant if used often.
+//
+// This file and the associated .cpp file declares/defines constant
+// strings used in the program. Strings are candidates for a move here
+// when they are used in a fast loop or are shared.
+
+#include <string>
+using std::string;
+
+// The following slightly hacky preprocessing directives and the
+// companion code in the cpp file looks complicated, but it just
+// ensures that we only have to write the strings once to get the
+// extern declaration and the definition.
+#ifdef RCLIN_CSTR_CPPFILE
+#undef DEF_CSTR
+#define DEF_CSTR(NM, STR) const string cstr_##NM(STR)
+#else
+#define DEF_CSTR(NM, STR) extern const string cstr_##NM
+#endif
+
+DEF_CSTR(author, "author");
+DEF_CSTR(caption, "caption");
+DEF_CSTR(charset, "charset");
+DEF_CSTR(content, "content");
+DEF_CSTR(dmtime, "dmtime");
+DEF_CSTR(dquote, "\"");
+DEF_CSTR(fbytes, "fbytes");
+DEF_CSTR(fileu, "file://");
+DEF_CSTR(fmtime, "fmtime");
+DEF_CSTR(ipath, "ipath");
+DEF_CSTR(iso_8859_1, "ISO-8859-1");
+DEF_CSTR(mimetype, "mimetype");
+DEF_CSTR(minwilds, "*?[");
+DEF_CSTR(newline, "\n");
+DEF_CSTR(null, "");
+DEF_CSTR(plus, "+");
+DEF_CSTR(textplain, "text/plain");
+DEF_CSTR(url, "url");
+
+#endif /* _CSTR_H_INCLUDED_ */