$ perl -Mre=debug -le " $_=q{fakesite.com/f/files-url/blah.png}; if(m{fakesite.com.*}g){ warn 1; if(/files-url/g){ die 2 }} " Compiling REx "fakesite.com.*" Final program: 1: EXACT (4) 4: REG_ANY (5) 5: EXACT (7) 7: STAR (9) 8: REG_ANY (0) 9: END (0) anchored "fakesite" at 0 (checking anchored) minlen 12 Compiling REx "files-url" Final program: 1: EXACT (5) 5: END (0) anchored "files-url" at 0 (checking anchored isall) minlen 9 Guessing start of match in sv for REx "fakesite.com.*" against "fakesite.com/f/files-url/blah.png" Found anchored substr "fakesite" at offset 0... Guessed: match at offset 0 Matching REx "fakesite.com.*" against "fakesite.com/f/files-url/blah.png" 0 <> | 1:EXACT (4) 8 <.com/f/fil> | 4:REG_ANY(5) 9 | 5:EXACT (7) 12 | 7:STAR(9) REG_ANY can match 21 times out of 2147483647... 33 <> | 9: END(0) Match successful! 1 at -e line 1. Freeing REx: "fakesite.com.*" Freeing REx: "files-url" $ $ perl -Mre=debug -le " $_=q{fakesite.com/f/files-url/blah.png}; if(m{fakesite.com.*}){ warn 1; if(/files-url/){ die 2 } } " Compiling REx "fakesite.com.*" Final program: 1: EXACT (4) 4: REG_ANY (5) 5: EXACT (7) 7: STAR (9) 8: REG_ANY (0) 9: END (0) anchored "fakesite" at 0 (checking anchored) minlen 12 Compiling REx "files-url" Final program: 1: EXACT (5) 5: END (0) anchored "files-url" at 0 (checking anchored isall) minlen 9 Guessing start of match in sv for REx "fakesite.com.*" against "fakesite.com/f/files-url/blah.png" Found anchored substr "fakesite" at offset 0... Guessed: match at offset 0 Matching REx "fakesite.com.*" against "fakesite.com/f/files-url/blah.png" 0 <> | 1:EXACT (4) 8 <.com/f/fil> | 4:REG_ANY(5) 9 | 5:EXACT (7) 12 | 7:STAR(9) REG_ANY can match 21 times out of 2147483647... 33 <> | 9: END(0) Match successful! 1 at -e line 1. Guessing start of match in sv for REx "files-url" against "fakesite.com/f/files-url/blah.png" Found anchored substr "files-url" at offset 15... Starting position does not contradict /^/m... Guessed: match at offset 15 2 at -e line 1. Freeing REx: "fakesite.com.*" Freeing REx: "files-url" $