$ perl -e 'my $s="-]"; print "a\n" if $s =~ /[___]]/' $ perl -e 'my $s="-]"; print "a\n" if $s =~ /[]___]/' a $ perl -e 'my $s="-]"; print "a\n" if $s =~ /[___-]/' a $ perl -e 'my $s="-]"; print "a\n" if $s =~ /[-___]/' a