c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dump -le
"my $str = 'foo--bar';
 dd $1, $2;
 ;;
 $str =~ m{ (foo) .* (bar) }xms;
 print qq{A:  \$1 '$1'  \$2 '$2'};
 ;;
 $str =~ m{ (x) .* (y) }xms;
 print qq{B:  \$1 '$1'  \$2 '$2'};
"
(undef, undef)

A:  $1 'foo'  $2 'bar'
B:  $1 'foo'  $2 'bar'