I assume you mean:

 $a="export/home/test/great/great";
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you can do:

  $a =~ s#/great\z##;
  print $a; # prints "/export/home/test/great"
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(that \z means 'the end of the string')

-- 
Joost       downtime n. The period during which a system
            is error-free and immune from user input.
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