use strict;
my $str = 'msqlsum81pv 0 0 25 25 25 2 -sn D:\\\\workdir\\\\PV 81\\\\config\\\\sum81pv.pwf -C 5000';
my $regex = qr/.*\s-s?n\s*(.+?)(?:\s-.*|$)/p;
my $subst = '$1';
my $result = $str =~ s/$regex/$subst/r;
print "The result of the substitution is' $result\n";
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