use strict;
my $str = 'auto vmbr9
iface vmbr9 inet static
address 10.109.0.2
netmask 255.255.0.0
bridge_ports none
bridge_stp off
bridge_fd 0
bridge_maxwait 0
auto vmbr10
iface vmbr10 inet static
up echo 1 > /sys/devices/virtual/net/vmbr10/bridge/multicast_snooping
up echo 0 > /sys/class/net/vmbr10/bridge/multicast_querier
address 10.111.0.2
netmask 255.255.0.0
bridge_ports none
bridge_stp off
bridge_fd 0
bridge_maxwait 0
post-up ip addr add 10.111.0.254/16 dev vmbr10';
my $regex = qr/[\r\n](# DO NOT TOUCH BEGIN[\n\r])?auto[ \t]+vmbr10[ \t]*[\n\r](?:[ \t]*.*[\n\r])*?[ \t]*bridge_maxwait[ \t]+0[ \t]*([\n\r]# DO NOT TOUCH END[\n\r])?/p;
if ( $str =~ /$regex/ ) {
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