use strict;
my $str = '127.0.0.1 - - [07/Dec/2014:06:43:43 -0800] \\"OPTIONS * HTTP/1.0\\" 200 - \\"-\\" \\"Apache/2.2.14 (Ubuntu) PHP/5.3.2-1ubuntu4.24 with Suhosin-Patch mod_ssl/2.2.14 OpenSSL/0.9.8k mod_apreq2-20090110/2.7.1 mod_perl/2.0.4 Perl/v5.10.1 (internal dummy connection)\\';
my $regex = qr/(?<=\[)([\w:\/]+\s[+\-]\d{4})(?=\])/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