c:\@Work\Perl\monks\Veltro>perl -wMstrict -le "use Regexp::Common qw(delimited); ;; for my $s (qw( a/b/c a\b\c /a/ \a\ a//b a\\\\b // \\\\ a/b a\b a/b\c a\b/c a/ /a a\ \a / \ )) { print qq{'$s' }, $s =~ m{$RE{delimited}{ -delim => '\/' }} ? '' : 'NO ', ' match'; } " 'a/b/c' match 'a\b\c' match '/a/' match '\a\' match 'a//b' match 'a\\b' match '//' match '\\' match 'a/b' NO match 'a\b' NO match 'a/b\c' NO match 'a\b/c' NO match 'a/' NO match '/a' NO match 'a\' NO match '\a' NO match '/' NO match '\' NO match