use strict;
my $str = '^(([^<>()[\\]\\\\.,;:\\s@\\"]+(\\.[^<>()[\\]\\\\.,;:\\s@\\"]+)*)|(\\".+\\"))@((\\[[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}\\.[0-9]{1,3}])|(([a-zA-Z\\-0-9]+\\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,}))$';
my $regex = qr/((?<!\\)(?:\\\\)*\[(?:\\.|[^\]\[])*)\[/p;
my $subst = '$1\\\\[';
my $result = $str =~ s/$regex/$subst/rg;
print "The result of the substitution is' $result\n";
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html