use strict;
my $str = '%May 11 10:03:51:122 2000 AB-CD-E SSH/6/SSH_LOGOUT: STEL user manager (IP: 172.0.0.0) logged out.
';
my $regex = qr`^%(\w{3})\s+(\d+)\s*([0-9]+\s?:\s?[0-9]+\s?:\s?[0-9]+):[0-9]+\s*(\d{4})?\s*\S*\s*(.*)/(\d+)/\S*:(?:(.*);)?(.*)`p;
if ( $str =~ /$regex/g ) {
print "Whole match is ${^MATCH} and its start/end positions can be obtained via \$-[0] and \$+[0]\n";
# print "Capture Group 1 is $1 and its start/end positions can be obtained via \$-[1] and \$+[1]\n";
# print "Capture Group 2 is $2 ... and so on\n";
}
# ${^POSTMATCH} and ${^PREMATCH} are also available with the use of '/p'
# Named capture groups can be called via $+{name}
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