c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"my $s =
   '<1e12 chars, none of which is a left or right angle bracket>';
 ;;
 print qq{match, captured '$1'} if $s =~ m{ < ([^<>]*) > }xms;
"
match, captured '1e12 chars, none of which is a left or right angle bracket'