$s =~ s/^[ \t]+//mg;    # remove leading  whitespace from each line
   $s =~ s/^\s+//;         # remove leading  whitespace

##</code><code>##

$s =~ s/^;.*\Z//m; chomp $s;
$s =~ s/^;.*\Z//m; chomp $s;
$s =~ s/^;.*\Z//m; chomp $s;