c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dump -le "my %globize = ('=' => '={', ':' => '}:{', '' => '}'); ;; my $globule = 'Prefix2=A:b,c:1,2'; $globule =~ s{ ([=:] | \z) }{$globize{$1}}xmsg; print qq{'$globule'}; ;; my @globs = glob $globule; dd \@globs; " 'Prefix2={A}:{b,c}:{1,2}' [ "Prefix2=A:b:1", "Prefix2=A:b:2", "Prefix2=A:c:1", "Prefix2=A:c:2", ]