use strict;
my $str = '[{\'text\': \'This is my legit "test" \\\'message\\\' with "lots" of \\\'quotation marks\\\'\', \'type\': \'message\', \'user\': \'<userID>\', \'channel\': \'<channelID>, \'ts\': \'1450501889.000074\', \'team\': \'<teamID\'}]';
my $regex = qr/'text':\s*(['"])((?:\\\1|(?!\1).)*)\1/mp;
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