You aren't testing to see if the match succeeded.

The values of $1 and $2 are meaningless unless the match succeeded.

Is it possible you had an earlier successful match that set $1 and $2?

Provide the actual code. What you posted won't result in a match at all (it will, however, produce a syntax error. ;) If we're going to look for a bug in Perl 5.10 we need to make sure that the example code (1) runs, and (2) stands alone as an example that will replicate the problem.

An example of the point made by davido and SuicideJunkie. Note that in the first print statement, which is not preceded by any successful match, the output is as you expect.

>perl -wMstrict -lE
"my $email = 'someuser@example.com';
 $email =~ /(.*) (<.*>)/;
 say qq{A: 1='$1' 2='$2'};
 ;;
 $email =~ /([^@]+\z)/;
 say qq{B: 1='$1' 2='$2'};
 ;;
 $email =~ /(.*) (<.*>)/;
 say qq{C: 1='$1' 2='$2'};
"
Use of uninitialized value $1 in concatenation (.) or string at -e lin
+e 1.
Use of uninitialized value $2 in concatenation (.) or string at -e lin
+e 1.
A: 1='' 2=''
Use of uninitialized value $2 in concatenation (.) or string at -e lin
+e 1.
B: 1='example.com' 2=''
Use of uninitialized value $2 in concatenation (.) or string at -e lin
+e 1.
C: 1='example.com' 2=''
[download]

Regexen can, of course, be "greedy" without dot-star. Greedy means the regex element -- in this case, using a star/asterisk quantifier -- will match as much data as possible until a new line (or other construct not present in your regex) shuts them down.

Super Search this site (or use big G) for "greed" and/or "greedy" for examples.

"so the second match would never occur, even if the code compiled because the first match would have swallowed everying in your (then-current) line of data."

Not so!

use v5.10;

my $email = 'foo <bar>';
$email =~ /(.*) (<.*>)/;
say "1='$1' 2='$2'";
[download]

Greedy matches don't automatically swallow everything. A quote from perlre, my emphasis:

"By default, a quantified subpattern is "greedy", that is, it will match as many times as possible (given a particular starting location) while still allowing the rest of the pattern to match."

package Cow { use Moo; has name => (is => 'lazy', default => sub { 'Mooington' }) } say Cow->new->name

True... (and probably I should give myself a downvote for lack of precision)... BUT , there are no GT or LT symbols in OP's sample

my $email = 'someuser@example.com'

hence, dot star swallows all, in the relevant example.

If I've misconstrued your question or the logic needed to answer it, I offer my apologies to all those electrons which were inconvenienced by the creation of this post.