c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"for my $str (qw(aXbXc  a.b.c)) {
   printf qq{for '$str' };
   print $str =~ m{ a.b.c }xms ? 'match' : 'NO match';
   }
"
for 'aXbXc' match
for 'a.b.c' match

##</code><code>##

c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"for my $str (qw(aXbXc  a.b.c)) {
   printf qq{for '$str' };
   print $str =~ m{ \Qa.b.c\E }xms ? 'match' : 'NO match';
   }
"
for 'aXbXc' NO match
for 'a.b.c' match