in reply to Runtime Regexp Generation

Combine them:

while (chomp($_ = <TOPARSE>)) { next unless /\d+\s+(\d+)\s+(1\.2\.3\.4)\s+->\s+(4\.3\.2\.1)\s+(?!TC +P)([^\s]+)\s+(3456)\s+>\s+(113)/; print; }

That way, you get the best of both worlds. You just do a negative lookahead (?!) AND a protocol gulper (like ([^\s]+), and you can still search for all your other strings that you want to search for.

This will match on source 1.2.3.4 and destination of 4.3.2.1, but will make sure it is not a TCP packet. Best of both worlds...

Update: Per chromatic's and tye's recommendations, my proposed code would look like this:

while (<TOPARSE>) { next unless /^\d+\s+(\d+)\s+(1\.2\.3\.4)\s+->\s+(4\.3\.2\.1)\s+(?!T +CP\s)([^\s]+)\s+(3456)\s+>\s+(113)/; print; }

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Re: Re: Runtime Regexp Generation
by chromatic (Archbishop) on Apr 14, 2003 at 16:51 UTC

    Careful! That construct will not process the last line of certain files. chomp can return a false value.

Re^2: Runtime Regexp Generation (anchor)
by tye (Sage) on Apr 14, 2003 at 17:49 UTC

    Now just add a ^ anchor at the front of the regex and you've got a nice solution for the regex (otherwise backtracking will be attempted, wasting time). Note that (?!TCP) only prevents matching against fields that start with "TCP". So you might want (?!TCP\s) instead (and don't chomp).

                    - tye