diff --git a/lib/libalpm/db.c b/lib/libalpm/db.c
index e6b3f4df..1cc603be 100644
--- a/lib/libalpm/db.c
+++ b/lib/libalpm/db.c
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@
 #include <sys/stat.h>
 #include <dirent.h>
 #include <libintl.h>
+#include <regex.h>
 #ifdef CYGWIN
 #include <limits.h> /* PATH_MAX */
 #endif
@@ -101,68 +102,46 @@ pmlist_t *_alpm_db_search(pmdb_t *db, pmlist_t *needles)
 
 	for(i = needles; i; i = i->next) {
 		char *targ;
-		int retval;
 
 		if(i->data == NULL) {
 			continue;
 		}
-		targ = strdup(i->data);
+		targ = i->data;
 		_alpm_log(PM_LOG_DEBUG, "searching for target '%s'", targ);
 
 		for(j = _alpm_db_get_pkgcache(db, INFRQ_DESC|INFRQ_DEPENDS); j; j = j->next) {
 			pmpkg_t *pkg = j->data;
-			char *haystack;
-			int match = 0;
+			char *matched = NULL;
+			regex_t reg;
+
+			if(regcomp(&reg, targ, REG_EXTENDED | REG_NOSUB | REG_ICASE) != 0) {
+				RET_ERR(PM_ERR_INVALID_REGEX, NULL);
+			}
 
 			/* check name */
-			haystack = strdup(pkg->name);
-			retval = _alpm_reg_match(haystack, targ);
-			if(retval < 0) {
-				/* bad regexp */
-				FREE(haystack);
-				return(NULL);
-			} else if(retval) {
-				_alpm_log(PM_LOG_DEBUG, "    search target '%s' matched '%s'", targ, haystack);
-				match = 1;
+			if (regexec(&reg, pkg->name, 0, 0, 0) == 0) {
+				matched = pkg->name;
 			}
-			FREE(haystack);
-
-			/* check description */
-			if(!match) {
-				haystack = strdup(pkg->desc);
-				retval = _alpm_reg_match(haystack, targ);
-				if(retval < 0) {
-					/* bad regexp */
-					FREE(haystack);
-					return(NULL);
-				} else if(retval) {
-					match = 1;
-				}
-				FREE(haystack);
+			/* check desc */
+			else if (regexec(&reg, pkg->desc, 0, 0, 0) == 0) {
+				matched = pkg->desc;
 			}
-
 			/* check provides */
-			if(!match) {
+			else {
 				for(k = pkg->provides; k; k = k->next) {
-					haystack = strdup(k->data);
-					retval = _alpm_reg_match(haystack, targ);
-					if(retval < 0) {
-						/* bad regexp */
-						FREE(haystack);
-						return(NULL);
-					} else if(retval) {
-						match = 1;
+					if (regexec(&reg, k->data, 0, 0, 0) == 0) {
+						matched = k->data;
+						break;
 					}
-					FREE(haystack);
 				}
 			}
+			regfree(&reg);
 
-			if(match) {
+			if(matched != NULL) {
+				_alpm_log(PM_LOG_DEBUG, "    search target '%s' matched '%s'", targ, matched);
 				ret = _alpm_list_add(ret, pkg);
 			}
 		}
-
-		FREE(targ);
 	}
 
 	return(ret);
diff --git a/lib/libalpm/util.c b/lib/libalpm/util.c
index 1610c43f..ec4b7eef 100644
--- a/lib/libalpm/util.c
+++ b/lib/libalpm/util.c
@@ -54,7 +54,6 @@
 #ifndef __sun__
 #include <mntent.h>
 #endif
-#include <regex.h>
 
 /* pacman */
 #include "log.h"
@@ -619,20 +618,6 @@ int _alpm_check_freespace(pmtrans_t *trans, pmlist_t **data)
 }
 #endif
 
-/* match a string against a regular expression */
-int _alpm_reg_match(char *string, char *pattern)
-{
-	int result;
-	regex_t reg;
-
-	if(regcomp(&reg, pattern, REG_EXTENDED | REG_NOSUB | REG_ICASE) != 0) {
-		RET_ERR(PM_ERR_INVALID_REGEX, -1);
-	}
-	result = regexec(&reg, string, 0, 0, 0);
-	regfree(&reg);
-	return(!(result));
-}
-
 /* convert a time_t to a string - buffer MUST be large enough for
  * YYYYMMDDHHMMSS - 15 chars */
 void _alpm_time2string(time_t t, char *buffer)
diff --git a/lib/libalpm/util.h b/lib/libalpm/util.h
index 978de9e7..cda65a3a 100644
--- a/lib/libalpm/util.h
+++ b/lib/libalpm/util.h
@@ -70,7 +70,6 @@ int _alpm_runscriptlet(char *util, char *installfn, char *script, char *ver, cha
 int _alpm_check_freespace(pmtrans_t *trans, pmlist_t **data);
 #endif
 #endif
-int _alpm_reg_match(char *string, char *pattern);
 void _alpm_time2string(time_t t, char *buffer);
 #ifdef __sun__
 char* strsep(char** str, const char* delims);