I would recommend File::Basename:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use File::Basename;

my $dir = "/usr/bin/mighty/long/path/perl";
my $end = basename($dir);

while ($dir ne "/" and $dir ne "") {
    print "$dir $end\n";
    $dir = dirname($dir);
    $end = basename($dir);
}
[download]

grep

grep> chown linux:users /world