>perl -wE "'a'=~/(a)/; 'a'=~/b/; say $1" a >perl -wE "'a'=~/(a)/; 'a'=~/a/; say $1" Use of uninitialized value $1 in say at -e line 1. >perl -wE "'a'=~/(a)/; END { say $1 }" Use of uninitialized value $1 in say at -e line 1. #### >perl -ne "/^(.*) INFO.+Successfully sent(?{$1})/ }{ print $^R" file