c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "my $s = qq{aa \n bb \n cc}; ;; print qq{A: match, \$1 '$1' @ $-[1] \$2 '$2' @ $-[2] \$3 '$3' @ $-[3]} if $s =~ m{ \A (?-s) (.+) (?s) .+ (?-s) (.+) (?s) .+ (?-s) (.+) \z }xms; " A: match, $1 'aa ' @ 0 $2 ' ' @ 9 $3 'c' @ 11