diff --git a/include/proto/pattern.h b/include/proto/pattern.h
index 163f36b..b9947b5 100644
--- a/include/proto/pattern.h
+++ b/include/proto/pattern.h
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@
  * The function returns 1 if the processing is ok, return 0
  * if the parser fails, with <err> message filled.
  */
-int pattern_register(struct pattern_expr *expr, const char *arg, struct sample_storage *smp, struct pattern_list **pattern, int patflags, char **err);
+int pattern_register(struct pattern_expr *expr, const char *arg, struct sample_storage *smp, int patflags, char **err);
 
 /* return the PAT_MATCH_* index for match name "name", or < 0 if not found */
 static inline int pat_find_match_name(const char *name)
@@ -62,6 +62,18 @@
 
 /*
  *
+ * The following function gets "pattern", duplicate it and index it in "expr"
+ *
+ */
+int pat_idx_list_val(struct pattern_expr *expr, struct pattern *pat, char **err);
+int pat_idx_list_ptr(struct pattern_expr *expr, struct pattern *pat, char **err);
+int pat_idx_list_str(struct pattern_expr *expr, struct pattern *pat, char **err);
+int pat_idx_list_reg(struct pattern_expr *expr, struct pattern *pat, char **err);
+int pat_idx_tree_ip(struct pattern_expr *expr, struct pattern *pat, char **err);
+int pat_idx_tree_str(struct pattern_expr *expr, struct pattern *pat, char **err);
+
+/*
+ *
  * The following functions are general purpose pattern matching functions.
  *
  */
diff --git a/include/types/acl.h b/include/types/acl.h
index 74db67b..0b6524b 100644
--- a/include/types/acl.h
+++ b/include/types/acl.h
@@ -93,6 +93,7 @@
 	const char *kw;
 	char *fetch_kw;
 	int (*parse)(const char *text, struct pattern *pattern, enum pat_usage usage, char **err);
+	int (*index)(struct pattern_expr *expr, struct pattern *pattern, char **err);
 	enum pat_match_res (*match)(struct sample *smp, struct pattern *pattern);
 	/* must be after the config params */
 	struct sample_fetch *smp; /* the sample fetch we depend on */
diff --git a/include/types/pattern.h b/include/types/pattern.h
index 935dd1d..c4f235f 100644
--- a/include/types/pattern.h
+++ b/include/types/pattern.h
@@ -165,6 +165,7 @@
  */
 struct pattern_expr {
 	int (*parse)(const char *text, struct pattern *pattern, enum pat_usage usage, char **err);
+	int (*index)(struct pattern_expr *, struct pattern *, char **);
 	enum pat_match_res (*match)(struct sample *smp, struct pattern *pattern);
 	struct list patterns;         /* list of acl_patterns */
 	struct eb_root pattern_tree;  /* may be used for lookup in large datasets */
@@ -172,6 +173,7 @@
 
 extern char *pat_match_names[PAT_MATCH_NUM];
 extern int (*pat_parse_fcts[PAT_MATCH_NUM])(const char *, struct pattern *, enum pat_usage, char **);
+extern int (*pat_index_fcts[PAT_MATCH_NUM])(struct pattern_expr *, struct pattern *, char **);
 extern enum pat_match_res (*pat_match_fcts[PAT_MATCH_NUM])(struct sample *, struct pattern *);
 extern int pat_match_types[PAT_MATCH_NUM];