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

my $tmp = "<tr bgcolor=#CCFFFF><td><a href=\"/Tracking/SmcRel30Story\">SmcRel30Story</a></td>";

my ($path) = $tmp =~ m{<a        # literal <a
                       \s+       # definite whitespace
                       href      # literal href
                       \s*       # possible whitespace
                       =         # literal =
                       \s*       # possible whitespace
                       "         # literal double quote
                       (         # capture the following
                         [^"]+   # greedy string that does not contain a quote
                       )         # end capture
                       "         # literal double quote
                      }imsx;     # case-insensitive
print $path, "\n";