>perl -wMstrict -le
"$_ =
 'no a START no b START yes c END maybe d END no e START yes f END';
 my $S     = qr{ START     }xms;
 my $E     = qr{ END       }xms;
 my $not_S = qr{ (?! $S) . }xms;
 my $Lazy  = qr{ $S $not_S*? $E }xms;
 print qq{'$_'};
 print 'greedy:   ', map qq{'$_' }, m{ $S $not_S*  $E }xmsg;
 print 'lazy:     ', map qq{'$_' }, m{ $S $not_S*? $E }xmsg;
 print 'compound: ', map qq{'$_' }, m{ $Lazy }xmsg;
"
'no a START no b START yes c END maybe d END no e START yes f END'
greedy:   'START yes c END maybe d END' 'START yes f END'
lazy:     'START yes c END' 'START yes f END'
compound: 'START yes c END' 'START yes f END'