/a{1,5}/;  # match 1-5 'a's prefer the longest.
/a{1,5}?/; # match 1-5 'a's prefer the shortest.

##</code><code>##

#!/usr/bin/perl -wT
use strict;

$_ = 'aaaab';

# greedily match upto 5 'a's followed by a word char 
print "Greedy:    ";
print /(a{1,5})\w/, "\n";

# non-greedily match upto 5 'a's followed by a word char
print "NonGreedy: ";
print /(a{1,5}?)\w/, "\n";

__END__
Greedy:    aaaa
NonGreedy: a