use Regexp::Common qw[ delimited ]; my $P1 = '../matrix-ops/matopmul.mk'; my $P2 = 'C:\matrix-ops\matopmul.mk'; print "P1 has path\n" if ($P1 =~ /$RE{delimited}{-delim => '\/'}/ ); print "P2 has path\n" if ($P2 =~ /$RE{delimited}{-delim => '\/'}/ );