my $test = qq|asdfas dfas dfas df asfd[[bad tag]] [[table]] asdfa sf as [[asdf as f\|sfds]] as dfa sdf [[test new line]] foo|; $test =~ s{\[\[(.+)[^\]\]]}{ print "FOO: $1 \n"; }ge; #### bad tag table asdf as f\|sfds test new line #### C:\Users\Andy\Documents>perl test.pl FOO: bad tag]] [[table]] asdfa sf as [[asdf as f|sfds]] as dfa FOO: test new line]] fo