use strict;
my $str = 'http://www.opera.com/docs/changelogs/unified/1215/
http://www.whatever.com/docs/changelogs/anythingelse/anything/1215/
http://www.blabblah/security/advisory/1047
http://booger/security/advisory/1048/
ftp://msn.global.whatever/somethingelse/1245
whatever/it/doesnt/matter/could/be/anything/i/still/want/this/number/1049/';
my $regex = qr/^(?!.*\/changelogs(?:\/|$)).*\/(\d+)/mip;
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