diff --git a/proxmox-tools/Cargo.toml b/proxmox-tools/Cargo.toml
index e3275928..0651308e 100644
--- a/proxmox-tools/Cargo.toml
+++ b/proxmox-tools/Cargo.toml
@@ -8,13 +8,15 @@ authors = [
 ]
 
 [dependencies]
-endian_trait = { version = "0.6", features = ["arrays"] }
-libc = "0.2"
-valgrind_request = { version = "1.1.0", optional = true }
-failure = "0.1"
-serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"] }
 base64 = "0.10"
 chrono = "0.4"
+endian_trait = { version = "0.6", features = ["arrays"] }
+failure = "0.1"
+lazy_static = "1.3"
+libc = "0.2"
+regex = "1.0"
+serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"] }
+valgrind_request = { version = "1.1.0", optional = true }
 
 [features]
 default = []
diff --git a/proxmox-tools/src/common_regex.rs b/proxmox-tools/src/common_regex.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e1fa46ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/proxmox-tools/src/common_regex.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+//! Predefined Regular Expressions
+//!
+//! This is a collection of useful regular expressions
+
+use lazy_static::lazy_static;
+use regex::Regex;
+
+#[macro_export]
+macro_rules! IPV4OCTET { () => (r"(?:25[0-5]|(?:2[0-4]|1[0-9]|[1-9])?[0-9])") }
+#[macro_export]
+macro_rules! IPV6H16 { () => (r"(?:[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4})") }
+#[macro_export]
+macro_rules! IPV6LS32 { () => (concat!(r"(?:(?:", IPV4RE!(), "|", IPV6H16!(), ":", IPV6H16!(), "))" )) }
+
+/// Returns the regular expression string to match IPv4 addresses
+#[macro_export]
+macro_rules! IPV4RE { () => (concat!(r"(?:(?:", IPV4OCTET!(), r"\.){3}", IPV4OCTET!(), ")")) }
+
+/// Returns the regular expression string to match IPv6 addresses
+#[macro_export]
+macro_rules! IPV6RE { () => (concat!(r"(?:",
+    r"(?:(?:",                                               r"(?:", IPV6H16!(), r":){6})", IPV6LS32!(), r")|",
+    r"(?:(?:",                                             r"::(?:", IPV6H16!(), r":){5})", IPV6LS32!(), r")|",
+    r"(?:(?:(?:",                            IPV6H16!(), r")?::(?:", IPV6H16!(), r":){4})", IPV6LS32!(), r")|",
+    r"(?:(?:(?:(?:", IPV6H16!(), r":){0,1}", IPV6H16!(), r")?::(?:", IPV6H16!(), r":){3})", IPV6LS32!(), r")|",
+    r"(?:(?:(?:(?:", IPV6H16!(), r":){0,2}", IPV6H16!(), r")?::(?:", IPV6H16!(), r":){2})", IPV6LS32!(), r")|",
+    r"(?:(?:(?:(?:", IPV6H16!(), r":){0,3}", IPV6H16!(), r")?::(?:", IPV6H16!(), r":){1})", IPV6LS32!(), r")|",
+    r"(?:(?:(?:(?:", IPV6H16!(), r":){0,4}", IPV6H16!(), r")?::",                      ")", IPV6LS32!(), r")|",
+    r"(?:(?:(?:(?:", IPV6H16!(), r":){0,5}", IPV6H16!(), r")?::",                      ")", IPV6H16!(),  r")|",
+    r"(?:(?:(?:(?:", IPV6H16!(), r":){0,6}", IPV6H16!(), r")?::",                                        ")))"))
+}
+
+/// Returns the regular expression string to match IP addresses (v4 or v6)
+#[macro_export]
+macro_rules! IPRE { () => (concat!(r"(?:", IPV4RE!(), "|", IPV6RE!(), ")")) }
+
+lazy_static! {
+    pub static ref IP_REGEX: Regex = Regex::new(IPRE!()).unwrap();
+}
diff --git a/proxmox-tools/src/lib.rs b/proxmox-tools/src/lib.rs
index 8c1b0efc..d1eb64f0 100644
--- a/proxmox-tools/src/lib.rs
+++ b/proxmox-tools/src/lib.rs
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 use failure::*;
 
+pub mod common_regex;
 pub mod io;
 pub mod raw;
 pub mod serde;