$MULTILINE_MATCHING $*

Set to 1 to do multi-line matching within a string, 0 to tell Perl that it can assume that strings contain a single line, for the purpose of optimizing pattern matches. Pattern matches on strings containing multiple newlines can produce confusing results when ``$*'' is 0. Default is 0. (Mnemonic: * matches multiple things.) Note that this variable influences the interpretation of only ``^'' and ``$''. A literal newline can be searched for even when $* == 0.

$.

The current input line number for the last file handle from which you read (or performed a seek or tell on). An explicit close on a filehandle resets the line number. Because ``<>'' never does an explicit close, line numbers increase across ARGV files (but see examples under eof()). Localizing $. has the effect of also localizing Perl's notion of ``the last read filehandle''. (Mnemonic: many programs use ``.'' to mean the current line number.)

 ______________________________________________
|_____¸.·ooO--(> cRaZy is co01. <)--Ooo·.¸_____|
 ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ