perl -MYAPE::Regex::Explain -e " print YAPE::Regex::Explain->new(qr/$ARGV[0]/)->explain();" "[^\s\*=]" .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [^\s\*=] any character except: whitespace (\n, \r, \t, \f, and " "), '\*', '=' ---------------------------------------------------------------------- perl -MYAPE::Regex::Explain -e " print YAPE::Regex::Explain->new(qr/$ARGV[0]/)->explain();" "\w" .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- \w word characters (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, _) ----------------------------------------------------------------------