DB<1> $x = '???\E???' DB<2> p "\Q$x" \?\?\?\\E\?\?\? DB<3> #### ~> perl -MO=Deparse,-q -e '$x = q{?\E?}; $y = "a\Q$x\Eb"; print "$y\n"' $x = '?\\E?'; $y = quotemeta $x; print $y . "\n"; -e syntax OK