-# common components of line-matching regexes
-timestamp_pat = r'[\d-]+ [\d:\.]+' # output of tai64nlocal
+## Regular expressions for matching tinydns/dnscache log lines. We
+## compile these once here rather than within the corresponding
+## matching functions, because the latter get executed repeatedly.
+
+# This first pattern is used to match the timestamp format that the
+# tai64nlocal program produces. It appears in both dnscache and
+# tinydns lines, after they've been piped through tai64nlocal, of
+# course.
+timestamp_pat = r'[\d-]+ [\d:\.]+'
+
+# The regex to match dnscache log lines.
+dnscache_log_re = re.compile(fr'({timestamp_pat}) (\w+)(.*)')
+
+# The "hex4" pattern matches a string of four hexadecimal digits. This
+# is used, for example, by tinydns to encode the query type
+# identifier.